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OT: MLB Thread

WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
BTW when was the last time the Leafs actually won a playoff series? 2004?
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yes it was. Only made playoffs once since and that was the choke in Boston. Raptors haven't done much either other than use silly We the North slogans and claim they are Canada's Team.

Argos might have won the semi pro title but not sure.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
at least you are realistic re the Exrays returning. Others grasp onto anything. Unless or until you can find someone to fund a stadium, you aren't getting a team, pure and simple. The Blue Jays could win 10 straight WS and it will have no impact. Hell, they won in 92 and 93, next year the Expos themselves voted for the strike and the Blue Jays ultimately voted to contract the team less than ten years later.
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Filling the Big O for those pre-season games is about the only discernable "impact" that the Jays can have on the fortunes of Montreal's MLB bid, and it's not nearly as big an impact as the wishful thinkers would have you believe. The F-1 race packs them into Ile Notre Dame every year too...for one weekend. Would they draw as well if they ran an F-1 race in Montreal 81 times a season? It's easy to get Montrealers (or anyone else, really) to show up for a stand-alone "event". But to be viable over the long haul fans have to watch baseball on a daily basis until it becomes a habit. As many of us learned after the 94 work-stoppage, even long-established habits can be broken. In fact, they can be broken a lot easier than they can be cultivated. As habits go, watching sports is the opposite of smoking: difficult to become additcted to and easy to wean yourself off of.

In the end it won't matter how many Jos. Publique's want baseball. Someone is going to have to build a stadium with their own money, which is not the way most MLB owners do things.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
yes it was. Only made playoffs once since and that was the choke in Boston. Raptors haven't done much either other than use silly We the North slogans and claim they are Canada's Team.

Argos might have won the semi pro title but not sure.
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The Argos and the Rock of the National Lacrosse League have won some championships. Not sure about TFC but nobody but immigrants care about soccer anyway.
 
wiseguy1 said:
I believe so , and 2001 for the Raptors. It's bee a long time I've seen this city celebrate anything besides a Olympic goal medal in men's hockey.
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The Raptors made the playoffs last season, did they not? I know they've never actually won a playoff series (or even a playoff game perhaps) but they did qualify.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
The Raptors made the playoffs last season, did they not? I know they've never actually won a playoff series (or even a playoff game perhaps) but they did qualify.
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Clinching a playoff birth is something I guess. But winning a plyoff series is the bigger party, with the fans gathering in large crowds in bars, outside of stadiums etc. Last three times, toronto fans went home crying.
 
TheCountofMonteCristo said:
at least you are realistic re the Exrays returning. Others grasp onto anything. Unless or until you can find someone to fund a stadium, you aren't getting a team, pure and simple. The Blue Jays could win 10 straight WS and it will have no impact. Hell, they won in 92 and 93, next year the Expos themselves voted for the strike and the Blue Jays ultimately voted to contract the team less than ten years later.
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A team back in Montreal isn't a grasp at anything anymore... I think it is a fait accompli... just when is the question... and believe me I have been as realistically pessimistic about their chances as anyone.

I even gather from the little clues that have surfaced from time to time that an ownership group is being put together as we speak but that there is no rush as the likely target is the Tampa franchise which is still too expensive at this time to buy out of their ridiculous stadium lease. My guess lawyers are being tasked with figuring out what the full penalty would be if a relocation bid came in.

Bell Media has to be sick with all the Rogers attention these days with the Jays in the baseball playoffs and another hockey season returning to Sportsnet. I am someone who doesn't comprehend how people get lured into buying a product based on advertising like commercials or a celeb flocking it but I would not be surprised if Rogers is selling a whole bunch more of its phones and TV plans due to all the publicity in the Rogers name across the country these days. They are steamrolling the industry right now.
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
Well of course it is. It happened in Toronto so it must be important to the entire country, right?
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There was a great disturbance in the force this afternoon... you could feel it even if you didn't know what it was. I turned on the game to see that the umpire had awarded Texas its 3rd run to take the lead in the game. Of course in the end good over powered evil... or some crap like that.

All I know is I am avoiding all the sports center shows right now because they spend half of it talking about the Jays.
 
Lotusland said:
A team back in Montreal isn't a grasp at anything anymore... I think it is a fait accompli... just when is the question... and believe me I have been as realistically pessimistic about their chances as anyone.

I even gather from the little clues that have surfaced from time to time that an ownership group is being put together as we speak but that there is no rush as the likely target is the Tampa franchise which is still too expensive at this time to buy out of their ridiculous stadium lease. My guess lawyers are being tasked with figuring out what the full penalty would be if a relocation bid came in.

Bell Media has to be sick with all the Rogers attention these days with the Jays in the baseball playoffs and another hockey season returning to Sportsnet. I am someone who doesn't comprehend how people get lured into buying a product based on advertising like commercials or a celeb flocking it but I would not be surprised if Rogers is selling a whole bunch more of its phones and TV plans due to all the publicity in the Rogers name across the country these days. They are steamrolling the industry right now.
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I agree except for the one stumbling block that will prevent any and/or all of this from coming to pass: the absence of a new baseball-only downtown stadium. MLB owners never pay for their own ballparks. It's always the taxpayers who get stuck with the bill. But in Canada that model doesn't fly. If the Habs couldn't get taxpayers to build them a rink, or even catch a break on their property taxes, how would a baseball team be able to sweet talk their way into a publicly financed venue? So any potential ownership group will not only have to pay for the franchise, either through relocation or expansion, but they'll also be on the hook to build a stadium. Even a bare bones basic 35,000 seat venue is going to cost, after exchange rates, taxes, and the inevitable construction industry corruption are taken into account, north of $750 million. So who's got the scratch to pay for that plus what it costs to own and operate a team with a viable MLB payroll? Does Bell want to attempt to cut into Rogers' profits that badly? Can they even make a dent considering that Montreal is a lesser market than Toronto? They had a chance to buy the Habs regional english TV rights and weren't interested. If they don't think they can make a buck off the Habs what will the Expos do for them aside from hemorrhage money?
 
WeHaveMoreCupsThanYou said:
Its' not a comeback, it's a massive choke job by the Rangers for the umpteenth time in the post-season. The Rangers have choked more often in the past decade than the Red Sox choked over the course of their 86 year World Series drought. Committing three consecutive errors in the same inning of a series-deciding post-season game is the very definition of choking.
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The San Diego Chargers are the current masters of the choke, with the Washington Capitals hot on their heels.
 
DenisCoderre ‏
Way the Go @BlueJays Montréal is totally behind you!!! Bravo pour cette magnifique victoire :)) #Yesssss #AlltheWay
 
XPOFAN said:
DenisCoderre ‏
Way the Go @BlueJays Montréal is totally behind you!!! Bravo pour cette magnifique victoire :)) #Yesssss #AlltheWay
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If only all that raw sewage could flow upriver toward Toronto instead of into the Atlantic.


I also hope that all of these newly minted Blue Jays fans realize that if the shoe were on the other foot and it was the Expos in the playoffs that Montreal would be on it's own. In fact, Toronto fan would probably be rooting for the other team.
 
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