In the neverending attempt to save/keep a team in Tampa (Anyone know why this is such an importance?), proposal has been made to move Detroit to AL East and then TB to the Al Central.

could have 5 of the bottom 10 teams in spending in the East. That would make it the clearance section.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

My guess is that the players' union will shit a brick if 25+ jobs are eliminated, even low-paying Rays jobs. There's also the fact that St. Petersburg built a baseball facility -- I hesitate to call that thing a park -- in advance of receiving a team and it might look bad for baseball to bail on them. Also, there's nowhere else to put a team: Las Vegas is a bad fit for pro sports, Montreal is permanently ruined as a baseball town, and any other sports towns you have in mind are too small or too close to regional powers to sustain teams of their own (toss out Charlotte and Nashville with the Braves, Sacramento with the Giants and A's, Indianapolis with the Reds/Cubs/Cardinals/Tigers), Tampa-St. Pete itself being an imposition on Yankee transplants and Braves-loving Central FL crackers.

As for flipping Detroit and Tampa, I'm sure they'll try to sell it as returning Detroit to its rightful place in the AL East, but it makes travel a bitch, it takes away valuable Yankees/Red Sox road games from the Rays, and it just plain smells funny. Could be Selig's last act of fucking around with alignment.

EDIT: You know what? Call me crazy, but I'd nuke both Central divisions.

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Tropicana FIeld is in a horrible location. It's over in difficult-to-get-to St Pete, when it should be on the East side of Tampa, along the I-4/I-75/275 corridor.

I'd think placing it close to the historical-now-hipster Ybor City entertainment/dining district makes a lot of sense. You can get to East Tampa in about 45 minutes from the Orlando area, 20 minutes from Lakeland/Plant City. Plus the freeways along East Tampa are supplemented by surface streets, such as US-41. Whereas you currently have no choice but to take one of 3 or 4 bridges/causeways to get to Trop Field if you're not from the immediate St Pete area.


Also, Tampa's median age is about 10 years younger than St Pete's--and that's an improvement over a decade or so ago, when St Pete's average age pushed 60.




http://tbo.com/sports/rays//If-Rays-wou ... 2454269Z.1

The Juicebox was built for all the wrong reasons and TB was given a team to compensate them for the costs of building the place.

Of course, some will question that and say it didnt happen that way, but if it didnt, it should be a no brainer for MLB to give TB their investment $130 Mill + Interest back and move them, but they haven't.

This is an alternative solution to shutting them down or relocating them.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

The other proposal, submitted by TB themselves, was that they want the draft to be based on teams payrolls. LOL

Lowest payrolls pick first and so on.

Heard it has been submitted a few times. And rejected a few times.

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I didnt state that, CH did

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

The logical place to move a team is New York, but of course the Yankees and Mets are never going to allow that. Getting Detroit out of the Central sounds like something Uncle Jerry can get behind.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

yeah think so. lol

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Move back to montreal

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Tigers will collapse and become a non-factor as soon as old-as-fuck Pizza-Pizza man dies, same way the Pistons went to shirt after Bill Davidson passed away.

Nope, that's what happened. St. Pete also had a crack at the Giants and I believe even the Mariners after the White Sox decided not to move. Vince Naimoli was always involved in bringing a team in, never got it, so they finally gave him an expansion team. Building a venue for a team that isn't there yet is a dicey proposition, especially with something as big as a baseball facility. They ended up having to use it for hockey until the Rays moved in.

I agree that the market can be somewhat salvaged by moving them to Tampa itself, but no one has the money to build a new park, and St. Pete is adamant that the Rays play out their enormous lease at the warehouse.

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