MLB has rejected a proposal for the Tampa Devil Rays to split their summers with the good people of Montreal - creating Tampontreal - a fantastical, Brigadoon-like city that would periodically appear in the crevice between a soul-devouring hangover and the wrong time of the month.
Tampontreal... rolls off the tongue, no?
In case you missed it, MLB yesterday nixed the Tampa ownership's "sister city" plan, which would move half of the Rays' home games to Canada, theoretically shoring up attendance figures that have lagged for decades in the Lightning Capital of the World - home to Tom Brady - located at the western edge of the Tamiami Trail.
Naturally, there is a subplot, which involves new stadiums.
It begins with Tropicana Field - John & Suzyn's least favorite stopover, due to the relentless, reverberating sound effects. The place is now 15 years old - ancient, by modern standards. For the last few of those years, the team's Brooklyn-born owner, Stuart Sternberg - a Wall Street, Goldman Sachs gasbag who secretly wanted to own the Mets - has been rattling the cup for a new ballpark. His split-cities plan would conveniently push both tax bases to cough up for new stadiums - a breakthrough concept for billionaires in a time when the Children's Tax Credit cannot pass Congress.
I cannot help but think baseball just dodged a bullet, or at least kicked it down the road. While Montreal might have embraced the arrival of a team that constantly humiliates the Yankees, it's hard to imagine this going over in Tampa, where home attendance practiced social distancing since long before Covid. Drop crowds by - say - 20 percent, and the Trop would pose a philosophical question: If a hockey horn blares in an empty stadium, does anybody hear it? (Aside from John & Suzyn; it would still flummox them.)
Basically, this would kill baseball in Tampa and encourage other owners to roam for the best half-season deals. The Rochester Royals, anyone?
Still, the Tampontreal Exprays! I cannot help but feel the loss.
And speaking of losses... RIP, Meatloaf. (A Yankee fan, by the way.) Nobody summed it up more cogently:
"It was long ago, and it was far away, and it was so much better than it is today..."
According to the Post, Mr. Loaf was a rabid anti-vaxxer and had to cancel an engagement near the end because his Covid symptoms were so terrible.
ReplyDeleteWhich doesn't change the fact that he got the Scooter a gold record by putting him on his "Dashboard" song. That and his appearance in "Rocky Horror" make him notable, especially when midnight screening audiences yelled out "Meat loaf, again?!?!?" during the dinner scene.
Other than that, he had a bombastic voice and was really fat. Still, it's hard to die of stupid, and he did.
Didn't know about the anti-vaxxer thing. Sad.
ReplyDeleteAt least he gets a rock'n'roll death.
Just move the team completely to Montreal, that Tampa bay joke of a stadium is the worst in the league.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger question here is how MLB cannot make a go of it with two franchises in the state with the largest Cuban-American population, and other legions of baseball-mad Hispanics.
ReplyDeleteThe answer? Underfunded owners who devote most of their time and energy trying to bully cities into pricey new parks, at taxpayer expense. And who then, whether they get said new parks or not, promptly flip the teams for more millions.
Yeah, Mr. Loaf seems to have been about as bright as his namesake.
ReplyDeleteStill, he did make this trivia question possible: Who is the only man to make the baseball Hall of Fame, cut a gold record, and inspire a book of poetry?
I think we all know the answer.
Do not denigrate Meat Loaf, a truly unique and exceptional talent.
ReplyDeleteI don't know his vac status and it is immaterial to his music. He was not stupid, he was 74 and went out on his terms.
.
Springsteen is The Boss, but MeatLoaf was real.
Jim Steadman wrote masterful songs with Meat.
I tried to sum it up over the years as this.
Sprinsteen observed things, Meat Loaf songs lived them.
Springsteen watched bar fights Meat Loaf fought in them
Bat Out of Hell got me through Law School. Mt. Rushmore of '70s albums.
"Like a sinner before the gates of Heaven, I'll come crawling on back to you"
His soul is now flying away, like a bat....
PS JM, he spent many years of his life as not "really fat."
ReplyDeleteAmen, Archangel.
ReplyDeleteMr. Aday, may you rest in peace.
Since it is a balmy 20 F here and I am all revved up and nowhere to go, I resisted this site and noticed that my autocorrect had butchered Jim Steinman's name and I apologized,
ReplyDeleteWell two out of three (posts) ain't bad.