There is no way that was the only option. DH in Minnesota yesterday? The Tampa option. There was a whopping 20% chance of rain in Atlanta yesterday. People are acting like what happened in Houston this weekend was a tiny little rainstorm that caused some minimal flooding. They should've taken the players interests and put it at the top of any list. If it means sitting down and figuring out a way to delay the start of the playoffs by a couple days, then all means. It was handled in a piss-poor fashion all the way around (including by McLane). About par for the course for MLB.
McLane himself said they wanted Tampa and that it wasn't an option. I agree that it would be nice to know the reasoning, but it's appears that they did consider it and rule it out.
What I don't get is why does the site have to be neutral? It was supposed to be a HOME GAME. We deserve to play somewhere as close to home as possible. This is just one more straw on the already broken back of the camel. Bud Selig is a deplorable, dispicable commisioner, and deserves to be fired.
of course. It was a piss poor decision that benefited Major Leauge Baseball, and Drayton will light his own dick on fire if Bud Selig told him too.
I assume the folks in Minnesota didn't want to deal with converting the stadium back from football. It is one of those rare September instances where the stadium was in football mode over the past weekend and the Twins don't return until after next weekend and both the Gophers and Vikings play next weekend. Minnesota would have also seen a lot of Cubs fans (but there would have been at least 2 Astros fans there. )
How long could that possibly take? Didn't they do that in the Astrodome all the time? What a sad excuse if that's the reason.
Did anyone see John Kruk go off on MLB on Baseball Tonight? If so where can I find the footage? It sounded like it was pretty good.
That part is pretty telling. I'm right there with the Astros, Whitmire, Berkman, RM95, the ESPN article quoted earlier, and what appears to be a majority of folks beyond Selig, Cubs fans, and a few folks here--but I have to point this out, in all fairness: ...said the guy with a multimillion dollar contract to play a game.
It could certainly have been done in time for a Monday DH. I assume that, for whatever reason, they were looking for a site available both Sunday and Monday. It would be nice to ask MLB why a Monday DH was not an option.
I would like Selig to give me a reason why every single other ballpark in the NL and AL was unsuitable to play except for Milwaukee..every single one...and then we'll see if that explanation really holds. And the more I think about it, the more I believe the best option for this team was to move the whole series to the end of the season. Push the start of the playoffs back a day or two and give the players on this team time to get their families settled and their affairs in order (as best they can). These guys had to leave early Sunday for Milwaukee and they won't even be back home until next week. Forget baseball, that's not even fair to them as human beings. At the very least, they should have held a DH in Houston on Monday...so what if not many fans show up, the players are at least close to their families and their homes.
read the entire thread, please. we're discussing this from a baseball perspective only. of course there's a human element, of course it's tragic. no one, including me, thinks otherwise. BUT... MLB is NOT going to suspend its schedule for one team. that's just not going to happen; it's not a reality. so with this paticular discussion, that's your foundation - everything starts from there.
RM95, players and the stadium personnel don't show up at 6:55pm for a 7:05pm first pitch. you have a new team coming to town - they need time to get to the stadium, get situated in the locker room, make sure uniforms, etc., are ready to go. they then have batting and fielding practice - both teams. at separate times. and this all starts 3-4 hours before game time. come on: it's not like we're peeling back some unseen element of MLB. this is pretty common sense stuff. you don't inconvience two other teams when a viable stadium that meets your requirements is available. what?! they would have been home before the regularly-scheduled game even began if they had moved it up, RM95. and they change game times a lot - to accomodate TV, etc.; but that's different: you're not potentially compromising other teams' and their timeframe to properly prepare for a game. i'm sorry, but B.S. i'm on my company's hurricane leadership team and we started twice daily meetings on ike on september 4. you can't sit with a thumb strategically inserted in a certain hole with a hurricane like that bearing down, especially given the tracking data they had. houston was very much almost always a possibility as soon as it entered the GoM. heck, we had our eye on it BEFORE gustav. so rather than minimizing the disruption, your solution would have been to spread as much disruption as needed to avoid an unfair situation for one team? i'm guessing your astros blinders were on when you posted that? no one is trying to, RM95. milwaukee was an awful, unfair solution. but it was also the most viable. unfortunately. tampa wasn't viable; it just wasn't. and, btw - what is everyone's excuse for last night? you all b****ed and moaned how unfair milwaukee was, how it impacted those games and it was unfair. and i countered repeatedly that playing ANYWHERE would have been unfair... and sure enough, in front of about 12 apathetic people, they gave the same performance in florida last night. milwaukee was a temporary inconvience; it's the freaking hurricane that's done the most damage, literally and figuratively. people seem to be forgetting that. NO SITUATION WOULD HAVE BEEN ANYTHING BUT DIFFICULT.
I agree, Milwaukee certainly didn't help their cause...and honestly I think the biggest mistake was forcing the team to play right away. MLB should have given them at least Sunday off and perhaps Monday too. Push the series to the end of the season or let them play a DH at MMP at HOME where their families are close by and give players a chance to give get their homes and lives back in order. Hardly think it's fair to force them to board a plane not 24 hours after a major hurricane hits and expect them to stay out on the road for a week while their lives are in disarray. At the same time...the players need to show some resolve and play hard and try (as best they can) to focus on baseball during the game. I won't hold against them if they can't though.
Ric, Really, players don't get to the stadium 10 minutes before gametime? I had no idea?!?! Thanks for that heads-up. That way, the 7 hour Astros game that most definitely would've occured had they played in Tampa at 12:00 on Monday afternoon totally would've messed everything up! It's so clear now. Signed, Not a ****ing idiot so don't talk to me like one.
They should've absolutely taken more time to figure out a solution especially after seeing the devastation Saturday morning. This is, from what I can tell, an unprecedented event in MLB and they should've looked at all options including delaying the start of the playoffs which were still nearly three weeks away when the storm hit. And no amount of sarcastic bull**** will ever lead me to believe that the Astros a game in Tampa at 12:05 Monday afternoon would have dramatically impacted the Rays game that night unless you're planning on the .00001% chance they're going to play the longest game in MLB history. And at that point, you suspend the game (that's been done many times before).
did anybody else read the latest classless story about the Cubs? apparently after the Zambrano no-no, they completeley trashed the Brewers clubhouse....nice.
