How close were the Sox from moving to Tampa?

[WilliamTell]

I've never heard of this until this day.

[kevin57]

The whole "the Sox are moving to Florida" was brewing for some time, but I always thought a deal would get done.  Then I saw that a stadium was being built in Florida, then as the deadline was getting closer, I started to think that the Sox might end up moving.  You have to remember that in 1984 the Colts moved to Indy in the middle of the night, so why wouldn't that happen to the Sox.  So the deadline was set and when I went to bed that night I thought the Sox were goners.  I woke up the next day and my dad told me the good news that the Sox were staying.  I was upset with Reinsdorf and  the team for being taken hostage, but I got over it when the Sox got off to a great start in 1990.  The 1990 team saved me from doing something really stupid and got me back on the right track.  Now that I'm older I relize that you have to set deadlines to get deals set.  The SF Giants did the same thing in the late '90's and it got them a stadium also.  It was a dark time as a Sox fan, but if you can believe it, it was not the lowest.  In my opinion the 1994 strike was the lowest.  Of all the years to go on strike!!!

 

I believe there is a significant differnce, though. Baseball is protected by the anti-trust exemption which means that teams cannot move without MLB's approval, whereas in Football, the NFL is basically powerless to do anything that an individual owner might decide.

 

Am I right on this?

[Hatchetman]

i went to bed thinking they were gone (at like 10:00 PM). The media was pretty pessimistic about something getting done. I had already picked the indians as my "new" team. f*** if i would ever root for the cubs. I could get cleveland WWWE AM 1100 at night so i could follow the tribe. they had some stars like cory snider and joe carter, brook jacoby....

 

anyway thank you big jim thompson.