You know they say that life often imitates art and that can be a wonderful thing. In the case of it being a book about the French Revolution though, eh, not so much. Ah Dickens, you crafty old codger! I hope you're rolling in your grave right now!
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..."
I didn't get much sleep last night so I sort of disregarded the notification on my phone but it said something about the Tampa Bay Rays and Montreal. I've done some funny things on sleep deprivation so I chalked that up to that and grazed about my day. Then I saw it on something else. And again. Then it had my attention.
Apparently the Rays have permission to explore some sort of deal where they would play the first half of their home games in St.Petersburg and the other half in Montreal.
Oh, because that's a thing?!
I just wrote that and I still don't even know what it means! I'm literally at a loss. I don't want to do it, you can't make me!
Sigh.
Fine.
Let's take a trek down the damn rabbit hole.
So here's the problem in a nutshell:
Despite the fact that a team with one of the lowest salaries in baseball constantly overachieves and shits on teams with three times their payroll, and is currently leading the AL wild card, they still can't seem to get people to come out and watch them. They signed a 30 year lease at Tropicana Field, which back in 1998 when this whole thing began seemed like a 100 year lease, it's really only just eight years away now. People blame the Trop as part of the reason why nobody goes to games and I'm one of them. While it's nice to sit in air conditioning and watch a baseball game, well, I can do that at my house. Because of the dome there's an intricate catwalk system that has a very confusing set of rules on what happens if a baseball were to hit this catwalk instead of this catwalk. Added on top of that, it almost has a warehousey feel to it, especially since nobody goes there. The Rays have tried multiple options on new stadiums, including modern waterfront ones in Ybor and actual Tampa, and have been shot down each and every time.
Then there's also the fact that St.Pete is nothing but geriatrics and transplanted northerners. If you are a Rays fan and you go to a Yankee game, you're outnumbered, in your own damn house. I mentioned the geriatrics because you have to get on I-275 to get to the stadium and the ol' blue hairs remember when they built the damn thing and they're not driving on it.
So, in recap, terrible stadium, terrible location, and terrible fan base.
And now the solution today is to split custody with Montreal. Montreal? Let me see, where have I heard that name before...
It's right on the tip of my tongue...oh yeah...the Montreal Expos, the MLB team that is now the Washington Nationals because, wait for it, NOBODY WENT TO THEIR GAMES EITHER! They didn't split them in half and let them play the last part of their season in Boca Raton, no, they just straight up said, "You're done, pack your shit!"
That was at least fifteen years ago, so now you're telling me that Montrealians are now suddenly salivating over the possibility of getting a team for half the time they used to get and it's roughly the exact same team that they used to have and didn't bother to show up for in the first place? Oh, and I should mention that part of the deal they're exploring is to have two new stadiums, one in each city. Because what do you do when you keep losing at poker? You fucking double down and really go out with a bang!
I'm not even going to bother with semantics on this one because it's just so ridiculous to me that I don't even want to ponder whether they'll wear different uniforms, play in different leagues, or who holds claim to the title if god forbid, they win something. That's all stuff for other people to deal with. I'd rather just kick this in the nuts.
The only positive I could see coming from this is that we could probably have a pretty sweet national rivalry with the Toronto Blue Jays and that's meant entirely as a joke and I would probably eat a bullet if I ever saw the Clash of the Canadians and one of them was my favorite baseball team.
What's the real solution here?
"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."
End it. You have, hopefully, eight years left, go for goddamn broke and stop with the sustainability bullshit. Win a title, drop the mic, and literally blow up the Trop. I'll miss them terribly, I was there Day One back in '98 and they've pulled on my heart strings ever since. But what a fantastic epic ending that would be if they went all in, took home the World Series, gave the middle finger to everyone that stopped us from being, and that was just it.
My solution is definitely not for the faint of heart but it's one I could at least live with.
To the bitter end, boys.
