and where would the cubs have stayed and who would have been around to run said hotel, RM95? downtown was deemed unsafe, and thus closed, until today. so asking a handful of houstonians to leave their families, jeopardize their safety so they could come tend to a baseball team is your plan?... really? actually, if you've read the reports, that's exactly the implication being leveled at mclane. he SHOULD have moved his players and their familes to RR friday a.m. and waited to see what happened. that would have made a friday-sunday series at a neutral, unoccupied stadium completely viable. but by every account, even (if you read between the lines) selig's, mclane held out hope past the point of delusion that the games could be played in houston. and thus put everyone's backs against the wall.
Riiiiight. I do not buy that. They could have postponed the games by a day and played a DH on Sunday in Milwaukee. That would have at least been a little better. That is, of course, assuming that one buys the argument that postponing the games was not viable. I do not buy that. Schedule changes can be made. What about all the games that get rained out and rescheduled at the end of the season if needed?
Fair point. So it's on McLane's shoulders to make sure that all Astros employees have situated their houses and families in that short period of time? Anything McLane did to agree to the game being held in Milwaukee is on his shoulders, but you can't blame him for not getting the players/staff out of Houston in a timely manner. None of this changes the fact that they easily could've played in Tampa and only inconvenienced the Rays a tiny little bit, if at all and made the whole thing seem a little bit fairer. Instead, two home games for the Astros turned into two home games for the Cubs.
what?... i don't understand your point... they did delay the games - until sunday and monday with another one scheduled for the end of the year. but how is playing a DH on sunday - in milwaukee, no less - better?.... they don't wait until the end of the year to play those games; they reschedule then on common off-days or, like the brewers/phillies this weekend, an impromptu DH.
Bud Selig has been dirty ever since he and some of his buddy owners squeezed Faye Vincent out of the Commish job, and lo and behold he becomes the new Commish. He's still trying to dodge the steroid scandal and throwing the players into the bus so his rep stays clean. All-Star outcome decides the WS home field advantage - STUPID. The guy is your typical corporate slimeball that looks out for himself and his only saving grace is that baseball has become more profitable under his regime. 2012 when he steps down can't come soon enough.
I still think Tampa should have been more seriously considered. In fact I sent a message to the ESPN writer Amy K. Nelson, who answered questions in a chat yesterday. I asked if Tampa was ever considered when she talked with MLB officials: "I don't believe so, especially when there were other alternatives, albeit not great ones." Of course if it were to occur, Tampa would just complain about their "inconvenience"...and still lose those games over the weekend. Here's another thing...Tampa played REGULAR SEASON games at Disney THIS YEAR...those Expos played in San Juan in 2003 & 2004. The Dell Diamond should have been choice #1 if: -It was available (it was...the management offered its use) -Weather was not an issue (apparently it wasn't) Again Milwaukee should NOT have been considered. All choosing Miller Park did was prove two things: -It's the "official" neutral-site/back-up ballpark (See: 2007 Angels v. Indians ) because: -Allan Huber Selig still has direct ties to the team/stadium (it was likely a condition of selling the team to Mark L. Attanasio) If MLB just came out and said Miller Park is THE neutral stadium for unforeseen weather or other catastrophes, it would make slightly more sense. PS: How the hell are the Brewers allowed to use their throwback uni's as an official alternate (yes, it's listed as alternate 2)?
yes, i can. if mclane's top priority is minimzing his team's - for lack of a better word - inconvenience, he should have been making concessions well in advance. it's not like we didn't know the hurricane was coming. by all accounts, he refused. for instance, he could have asked MLB and the pirates to move up the start time of thursday's game to 1pm (a no-brainer; nearly every business in houston closed their offices at noon that day, and MLB/the pirates would have universally agreed to do, no problem), giving his players a chance to secure their homes and families that evening. and then he should have gotten the team out of harm's way friday morning - easy to do, especially when you own a baseball facility - out of the storm's path - just a couple hundred miles away. that sure as hell beats asking them to come to the stadium sunday morning and flying out then, doesn't it? but he did NONE of that: he wanted the games at MMP and hand-cuffed the process (reportedly). and look, what if the astros were in the middle of a long road trip? do you think they would postponed games? no way. so their families would have been on their own in the situation. everyone keeps mentioning "home games for the cubs" - who cares? the astros were 5-4 at wrigley this year and it's not like we have a chance to catch 'em, anyway. the part that sucks is that they had to play ANYWHERE in that situation, and worse, in such haste. asking the rays, preparing for the playoffs themselves, to compromise any capacity of their game is simply not fair.
Who cares? We're not trying to catch the Cubs. We're trying to win the wild card. Just because they were 5-4 at Wrigley doesn't mean that the Cubs aren't an overall better team at home and the Astros overall a worse team on the road. How would Tampa's game been "compromised" if the Cubs/Astros played there Monday with a start time of 12:05? Unless the game went a ridiculous amount of extra innings, they could've easily started the Rays game on-time, or even a delay of 30 minutes to an hour is hardly something that would compromise the Rays chances in that game considering their opponent would be under the same delay. Criticize McLane all you want, but an extra three hours on Thursday would not have made a huge difference in the preparations (and using your own logic, a change in game-time is apparently "compromising" a game). And it's not like we knew a week ahead of time that Ike was going to hit Houston dead-on. The Astros as an entire team are feeling the effects of this natural disaster and the MLB did nothing to help them out. Playing the games in Tampa would not have caused anything other than minor inconviences for the Rays franchise. Hell, even if you had to, the Rays could've played a doubleheader today. It's not like those never happen...hell, they're sometimes scheduled that way! Tampa was the rigth choice and Milwaukee was the worst. You can't spin it any other way.
To be fair, if this quote can be trusted: then it sounds like Selig at least was aware and attempted to do something better. I'm with RM95 and others, however--all the attempts to explain away Tampa have yet to satisfy me. At any rate, this discussion and the further digging have brought me to the conclusion that while I *still* disagree, the amount of vitriol I had for it was a bit unwarranted. I'm still not a Bud Selig fan, however. The word "invertebrate" comes to mind.
This is just silly. In fact, it may be one of the silliest things I have ever read. You can't let the human element become part of this? You do realize that baseball is played by human beings, right? If we lose our humanity in order to not delay baseball games, then you and Selig can take the game and shove it...I really will have little use for it then.
Didn't you get Ric's memo...you can't let the human element enter into the decisions made by an entertainment business played by humans and attended by humans. How dare you allow humanity into this. Silly mortal.
I was thinking the same thing. how can we not let human element be apart of this. "hey Astros players, I know ya'll are really concerned about your family, friends, houses, community etc......just try to put that out of your mind for a few days so we can go and play a bullsh!t series setup for you to fail" I have never seen the Astros so disinterested in a game.
Why? According to the article posted above, it was in many ways Drayton's fault (and thus the Astros' fault): According to Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle, Astros owner Drayton McLane so wanted this series to be played in Houston -- in spite of warnings from the National Weather Service -- that his judgment clouded all common sense. That left MLB with few alternatives, and Miller Park was named the "neutral" site. ... Even with a last-minute decision, why couldn't the games be held elsewhere -- anywhere -- but Milwaukee? "There was just no other choice," McLane told the Houston Chronicle. "We wanted Phoenix, Tampa Bay, Arlington, Atlanta, you name it. There was nothing else." It's clear they went through and eliminated the other options for various reasons.
Well, it's a good thing MLB has never made a mistake under Selig! Color me surprised that his daughter's team would get to host a "neutral-site" game when they're in the thick of a playoff race and those games would directly affect the outcome of her team's chances. A mere 30 minutes from the nothern suburbs of the team we were facing to boot! I'd really love to hear their reasoning for not choosing Tampa. Of course, we have two sources in this thread saying opposite things. Richard Justice (the Writer of Wrongs) saying Tampa was considered, but an MLB writer said that Tampa never was considered. Just because McLane had a part in this horrible decision doesn't make it any less of a travesty. **** MLB. It depends on the various reasons. According to a writer for MLB.com, Tampa was not even considered.
They should have just waited til later to play the game. Selig is a idiot for no making caring about these players .
