Makes sense. Growing and wealthy market in a region underrepresented in MLB currently, and could easily be slotted into an Eastern or Central division.
All a matter of if they get a stadium plan financed. I'm convinced that there are probably a solid dozen locations that MLB would be interested in expanding (or relocating) to if they get an MLB caliber ballpark.
And I hope that proposal KevFu mentioned gets killed with fire.
Manfred Discusses MLB Expansion; Is Nashville a Contender?Couple of questions here...
Is First Horizon Park built with MLB expansion (of the stadium) in mind or would a new park completely have to be built from scratch?
At 1.9 million and with NFL, NHL, and now MLS and not to mention SEC Football (Yeah I know it's Vanderbilt but still), can Nashville even support an additional 82 home games?
How is the Baseball scene in Nashville?
Would the MLB bank more on locals supporting a Nashville based team or do they think the abundance of tourists visiting the city would help?
Doug Scopel, vice president of operations for the Sounds, said the team has “one of the top, if not the top, minor league ballparks” in the country — one that cannot be expanded for MLB, he said.
If Montreal and Tennessee are indeed #31 and #32, we should do a radical reorganization of MLB based on the history of baseball, as follows:
American League: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, NY Yankees, Washington
National League: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Miami, Milwaukee, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis
Continental League: Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Texas, Toronto (we could also go with Buffalo in place of Tennessee to be even closer to the imagined lineup for the CL in 1960)
Pacific Coast League: Arizona, Colorado, LA Angels, LA Dodgers, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle
The CL is primarily in markets planned for its 60s incarnation. The PCL is basically a revival of the major-league dreams the minor league PCL had in the 1950s, but with Denver and Phoenix replacing the heyday markets of Portland and Sacramento (Phoenix joined the minor league PCL the same year the Dodgers and Giants moved to California).
You are my soul brother. I've posted something similar to that for years now. Although, your CBL omits the Founders of the CBL!
I actually made the plan for a PCL and three ETZ/CTZ leagues built on the CBL, and that "Southern model" I posted in this thread was merely a modification of it, because every time I posted the CBL version, people lost their minds.
I would say the CBL would be: Montreal, Toronto, Miami, Tampa, Houston, Texas, NY Mets, Washington.
At the time the Dodgers/Giants left New York, the PCL was trying to become a third Major League. So revisionist history: 4 Major Leagues, Dodgers/Giants join PCL.
The original CBL idea was: NY Mets, Minnesota, Atlanta, Toronto, Dallas, Houston, Denver, Buffalo.
- But the Senators moved to Minnesota and the Braves moved to Atlanta.
- So Washington would replace MIN in CBL (but that team became Texas).
- And Montreal would be an expansion team for the CBL (and that team became Washington).
So you're left with two holes: Denver and Buffalo, with TB/MIA substituting nicely: four rival pairs, TEX-HOU, MON-TOR, TB-MIA, WAS-NYM.
Peter Andgelos’s kids where rumored to want to move the orioles to Nashville. If they can’t find a local owner.
The All-Star Game format would have to change with a 4-league structure.
One idea I had was having one team consist of players from the Original 16 teams from 1901 (of which 5 would now be in the CL and PCL), and players from the 16 expansion teams.
Memphis has a strong argument to land Tennessee's possible MLB team too. They only have the NBA right now, while Nashville has the NFL and the NHL. Putting MLB in Memphis gives each Tennessee city one major indoor sport and one major outdoor sport in the Big 4 leagues. And pro teams in Tennessee tend to be supported by the entire state, no matter which city they are located in.
If Montreal and Tennessee are indeed #31 and #32, we should do a radical reorganization of MLB based on the history of baseball, as follows:
American League:
Baltimore, Boston, Chicago Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Kansas City, NY Yankees, Washington
National League:
Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Miami, Milwaukee, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis
Continental League:
Atlanta, Houston, Minnesota, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Tennessee, Texas, Toronto
(we could also go with Buffalo in place of Tennessee to be even closer to the imagined lineup for the CL in 1960)
Pacific Coast League:
Arizona, Colorado, LA Angels, LA Dodgers, Oakland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle
Here the AL and NL comprise primarily of pre-expansion era markets along with a couple markets in the Midwest and Northeast that entered MLB in the 1950s (before the expansion of MLB into the West, South and even Canada); the only outlier is Miami, which did not enter MLB until 1993. The CL is primarily in markets planned for its 60s incarnation. The PCL is basically a revival of the major-league dreams the minor league PCL had in the 1950s, but with Denver and Phoenix replacing the heyday markets of Portland and Sacramento (Phoenix joined the minor league PCL the same year the Dodgers and Giants moved to California).
No way MLB does it like that. It'll be AL and NL with 4 division of 4 teams each.
Maybe the rays can take the orioles name history and colors and move into Camden. If the current team moves to Nashville.Right now you have two easy local options to keep the team in Baltimore, and MLB probably got on the wrong side of one of those two (Kevin Plank) when they tossed Under Armour overboard for Nike for the new uniform deal that took effect this year. Outside of Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, I can't think of who else local to Baltimore could pull it off.
That said, any move would be a horrible look. Even considering the damage Angelos has done. you'd be looking at a team leaving their city after 70+ years and leaving behind a stadium that changed the game of stadiums. Considering how there is still resentment over the Colts leaving even with the NFL long back, I'd hate to see the fallout over ditching Baltimore and expecting everyone to become Nats fans.
Also, there's an RSN in play. A horribly flawed RSN which treats its minority owner like garbage and has tossed aside a fast growing state under the bus, but one nonetheless. What would happen to MASN without any Orioles? Would no Angelos fix the situation with Spectrum in North Carolina? Wouldn't Charlotte or Raleigh be a better market than Nashville given all three and Baltimore are in the same Nielsen ballpark?
Fresno more than likely played their last Game as an aaa team last season they seem destined for the CA League.OK, the addition of teams in Montreal and Tennessee to MLB should result in a reorganization of the AAA level.
The teams of the American Conference of the Pacific Coast League (with a new team in New Orleans replacing whatever Tennessee market is lost to MLB) and the West Division of the International League form a new league, the Heartland League, organized as follows:
North:
Columbus (Cleveland)
Indianapolis (Chicago Sox)
Iowa (Chicago Cubs)
Omaha (Kansas City)
Toledo (Detroit)
Wichita (Minnesota)
South:
Louisville (Cincinnati)
New Orleans (Milwaukee)
Oklahoma City (St. Louis)
Round Rock (Houston)
San Antonio (Texas)
Tennessee (Tennessee)
The International League would add two teams to its South Division, by promoting Bowie from the AA Eastern League and Winston-Salem from the High-A Carolina League:
North:
Buffalo (Toronto)
Lehigh Valley (Philadelphia)
Rochester (Montreal)
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (Pittsburgh)
Syracuse (NY Mets)
Worcester (Boston)
South:
Bowie (Washington)
Charlotte (NY Yankees)
Durham (Tampa Bay)
Gwinnett (Atlanta)
Norfolk (Baltimore)
Winston-Salem (Miami)
The AAA PCL would have to choose a new name after yielding to MLB who uses the PCL name for its Western teams. Three teams in the league would change MLB affiliations. Fresno becomes the top farm team of the LA Dodgers. while the Nevada teams swap affiliates based on proximity: Las Vegas affiliates with Arizona and Reno with Oakland. Divisional play is also abandoned.
The new look AAA level would have its affiliations more closely reflect the geography of MLB and AAA teams relative to each other.
Fresno more than likely played their last Game as an aaa team last season they seem destined for the CA League.
I've also proposed a schedule where PCL teams only play 18 interleague games (due to their locations relative to the teams in the ET/CT leagues) - a 6-game home-and-home against one team each from the AL, CL, NL, rotating every year. PCL teams play each other 20 or 21 times to make up the 144-game intraleague schedule.
Teams in the ET/CT leagues play 126 intraleague games - 18 games against each opponent in their league - and 36 interleague games. Some teams will have a protected regional interleague opponent, which they play in a 6-game home-and-home, with the remaining interleague schedule consisting of 6-game home-and-homes against one PCL team and 2 teams from each of the other ET/CT leagues. Those that don't have protected interleague rivals will have 6-game home-and-homes against one PCL team and at least 2 teams from each of the other ET/CT leagues (playing a third opponent from one of the leagues).
OK, the addition of teams in Montreal and Tennessee to MLB should result in a reorganization of the AAA level.
I've been to Bowie's park. While decent, it would need a bunch of work to keep pace with the newer crop of AAA parks and its closeness to Washington would be unprecedented at the AAA level. The distance between Bowie and Nationals Park is just over half that of that between Gwinnett and now-Truist Park.
If any Eastern League city that is ready - sorry, Richmond - is AAA ready, it's Hartford. Their park was built with AAA in mind and it would give Worcester a geographic rival. If the Eastern League wants to make up for it, Pawtucket (age aside) is wide open and to be honest Tri-City (Troy) and Binghamton might be well off swapping teams/leagues.