1801

Would it qualify as irony if, just one week after hitting his own inside-the-park home run, Ellsbury drops the ball on what would prove to be an inside-the-park home run for Robert Andino? Or just karma?

Also, holy carp, Red Sox, way to return to the days of old and blow the Wild Card lead.

1802

How crazy was that play? I can’t remember the last time I saw something like that.

And how about the Cards pulling the double steal with Albert, and Berkman driving in the tying runs in Houston? (going to extras now)

1803

Ozzie Guillen has been released from his contract by the White Sox and is expected to become the new manager of the Marlins, where Jack McKeon announced his is not coming back as manager. Apparently the White Sox and Marlins have already agreed that Chicago will get two minor league players in compensation since technically Guillen still had a year left on his contract. Guillen didn’t want to come back to the White Sox unless he got an extension, which Reinsdorf was apparently unwilling to give him.

The move makes sense for the Marlins, trying to get people excited enough in south Florida to sort of fill up their new smaller stadium that will open next season. But I do wonder how Guillen’s mouth will be received after the initial interest wears off - I suspect he would have been gone from Chicago a few years back if it weren’t for the WS title in '05.

1804

I don’t have a lot of respect for Guillen frankly. He’s a loudmouth, arrogant, egotistical asshat.

— Alan

1805

What’s weird is that I keep reading that Loria, the Marlins owner, has loved Guillen for a long time. But I don’t get how Guillen’s approach fits in an organization that sent a good productive young player down to the minors this year because they didn’t like what he was tweeting.

However, the Marlins do have some talent and if Guillen can get Ramirez to play like a professional then maybe they will get better fast. I just don’t see how the guy will last long if he acts like he did in Chicago but doesn’t win right away.

1806

I don’t have any love for the Cardinals, but I hate them less than the Braves, so let me say, fucking birds let one slip away.

Guillen is totally nuts. I can’t imagine what Florida is thinking. Actually, I think Florida is kinda batshit insane too, so maybe it’ll work out. If not the fireworks should be good.

1807

The Marlins are batshit insane too

1808

That’s pretty tough. How can you say that?

Oh wait:

Guillen:

“You know what I saw a couple days ago?’’ he said. “I saw a 62-foot boat. That’s what I want, and that’s what I’m going to get. People have to pay me for that. White Sox? I don’t know. Marlins? I don’t know. But somebody will pay. I want to buy my [bleeping] boat. That’s my inspiration. My inspiration is money. That’s everybody’s inspiration.’’

1809

what is this i don’t even

1810

The White Sox sure look dysfunctional right now. There are two games left and they had named Joey Cora to manage the last two now that Guillen is officially gone. Today they told Cora not to bother, apparently because word surfaced that Cora, who is close to Guillen, will probably continue to serve as a coach in Miami unless he gets a fulltime managerial gig of his own.

With two games left, what’s the point of being petty?

Edit: And now the White Sox have signed their pitching coach (who is also the new interim manager) and first base coach to contracts ensuring that will be part of the next staff one way or the other. Now the pitching coach is supposedly considered one of the better ones in MLB and the first base coach is White Sox legend Harold Baines, but anytime organizations start making those decisions prior to hiring their next manager, it makes me wonder. Not that it was ever going to happen, but the Tony LaRussa rumors go right out the window now that he’d have a pitching coach imposed on him.

1811

I’m speechless, utterly speechless. That isn’t going to be it, is it? They’ll change it by next year if not sooner when they do the official unveiling.

1812

The wildcard races are both tied with one day to go. I’m kind of hoping we end up tied after tomorrow and get two one game playoffs.

1813

Well, I’m sure Bud Selig would be happy. “See, I told you the fans would love it”

1814

The Cardinals and Rays would host the one game playoffs, by the way.

One thing I saw today had me laughing, though. Buster Olney reported that at least some owners are opposed to Selig’s plan to go two 15 team leagues (with the Astros joining the AL West) because it would mean interleague all year long and that would probably reduce the interest in that further. So now Olney says they are talking about maybe expanding in a few years. Which is just crazy talk given the unstable franchises and the lack of any real place to go other then to add teams to the LA and NY markets (which would actually make sense but will never happen because the existing teams don’t want to give up their advantage.)

1815

Lack of real places to go? I beg to differ. There’s still plenty of decent markets… Portland, Las Vegas, Memphis, OKC, Omaha, New Orleans, Vancouver, etc. Okay they are maybe not gigantic, but I think there are some really good places to tap a whole new area of fans.

Rangers are cruising into the playoffs, and the hitters are staying red-hot; it doesn’t look like Young will get the batting title unfortunately (how’s that for someone you could “easily replace”, paraphrased), but Beltre is on fire (12 HRs last 24 games, ok so I admit it’s been awesome to have him), Cruz looks like he’s getting back into the groove finally, and Kinsler has had one of best all-around years a second basemen could ever have. I think the bullpen is still a little shakey, and they’ve given up a bit more runs then I like. Starting pitching has been pretty decent, and I think generally unless some major disaster happens tomorrow I think the Rangers will have given up the fewest number of runs in nearly 30 years.

— Alan

1816

Most of those cities are far too small to support baseball, and that also ignores the question of who is willing to pay for the stadium. They would all instantly be in the bottom five in terms of population among MLB cities, and that doesn’t even factor in other pro sports franchises in some of them sucking up what money and interest there theoretically could be. And the ongoing question of the futures of the A’s and Rays could very well take the best of that lot anyway.

1817

You could probably put a team in Mexico and another in the Dominican Republic and do quite well.

Ok, I really have no idea, but I know those places are hotbeds of baseball interest.

Per Alan’s comment, isn’t Las Vegas something of a pariah city for major league sports due to the proximity to gambling? Imagine a Las Vegas baseball team in the playoff hunt near the end of the season and their star hitter strikes out three times in a game or a player commits an error in a key situation. The fix must be in, right?

1818

Vegas remains a possibiltity because baseball is such a minor generator of sports wagering that it is thought the casinos would be willing to drop baseball wagering in return for the perceived benefits having a pro sports team would bring the city. Vegas gets mentioned as a possible relocation option for the A’s in the stuff I’ve read, but as it stands its would still be something like fourth or fifth smallest MLB city (based on metro population rankings). It does have the advantage of a lot of corporate money.

Portland and Charlotte are probably the other best alternates but both have existing pro sports teams they are already supporting so whether there is enough money and interest to bring baseball to town is a legitimate question. And they would also be bottom five population teams.

The three biggest markets in the US and Canada that don’t have baseball right now are Montreal (failed already), Sacramento (pretty close to the bay area and is having a hard time keeping its NBA team) and Orlando (equally close to Tampa and the Rays can’t sellout the games they play in Orlando each year in a tiny stadium.) There are no “slam dunk” markets left for MLB, at least at the moment. Which is why when Selig appointed a commission way back when to look at what to do with the Expos their top suggestions other then Washington DC were to put more teams in the New York and LA markets, which are both arguably capable of supporting another healthy franchise, at least from a population/team standpoint.

1819

I say reincarnate the St. Louis Browns!

Could Boston support another team? I’m always up for another team to hate.

We need those hypersonic planes that can fly to Japan in two hours. Then we put a couple of MLB teams in Japan.

1820

This article from a few years ago is an interesting attempt to realistically look at what cities can support teams and which can’t, basically by looking at the potential purchasing power of a market compared to the costs of supporting teams. It makes some assumptions that may not be valid and comes to some conclusions that I don’t think are legit (Rochester could support the NFL!? Really?), but the basic approach is sound. Most of the good data is accessible in the interactive located here. Choose the sport at the bottom of the map and it changes to show current and potential markets that could support a team in that sport. And if you click on the “Click to download all data” text just to the right of Hawaii, you actually get a specific money per market breakdown that shows how much they calculated was available and which markets they think already have more sports franchises then they can probably handle long-term. All that data points to the conclusion that MLB has the fewest options.