Minor League Moves: The Orioles Affiliated with The Norfolk Tides in 2007
Minor League Baseball teams move around for many reasons with a fair amount of regularity. At the end of every season there are almost always a number of teams that either changes their major league affiliation or moves to another city. A few years ago my team here in Norfolk told the New York Mets and the Minaya – Bernazard Axis of Idiocy to “get out of town and don’t let the door hit you.” The Mets had treated their AAA affiliate badly for years and these guys gutted the Mets farm system. I talked with various Mets scouts this year who although not saying anything on record nodded in agreement about my observations of the Mets. So the Mets went to New Orleans and this year to Buffalo and managed to continue their mangled management of their minor league system.
However teams change affiliations for a number of reasons. One reason that Baltimore relocated to Norfolk was the entrance into the Hampton Roads TV market. Other reasons include facilities, distance from the home club, fan base issues, tradition or local government policies.
When I was a kid I lived in Stockton California where I got my first taste of Minor League ball watching the Stockton Ports of the California League in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time the team was affiliated with the Baltimore Orioles. A few years back I had opportunity to talk with Orioles great Paul Blair who remembered his days playing in Stockton at Billy Hebert Field. The Ports have since been with the Brewers, the Rangers, the Reds and the Athletics and maybe a couple of others over the years. This is not unusual as teams try to move their teams closer to the major league club or local owners negotiate deals with major league franchises to move teams to their markets.
Last year there were several moves in the International League and the Pacific Coast League. In the PCL the biggest news was the relocation of the Dodgers AAA affiliate from Las Vegas to Albuquerque, a move that returned the Dodgers to one of their tradition minor league cities. The Ottawa Lynx franchise left that city for Allentown Pennsylvania to become the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. This left that city without any baseball. A Canadian league that was supposed to move a team there folded. This is actually sad for Canada as both Ottawa and Montreal which had a long baseball heritage with the Major and Minor leagues no longer have teams. This is in large part due to the Canadian government’s tax policies that ensured that minor league players would be taxed by both the US and Canadian governments. This made the situation difficult if not impossible for many minor league players from the states and as a result the major leagues moved all of their teams out of Canada except the Vancouver Canadians in the Northwest League. Since the Northwest League is a short season single “A” league and most of the players are college players there is a different dynamic at work than the rest of the minors.
In 2009 the New York Mets brought the team once known as the Norfolk Tides from their home in post-Katrina New Orleans to Buffalo. In Buffalo the Mets replaced Cleveland who had moved their team to Columbus. This ensured that the city of Buffalo and especially Bison’s fans would bask in the misery inflicted on both Norfolk and New Orleans fans for the foreseeable future. The Bisons under Mets management finished the season with the worst record in Triple “A” ball. I saw them several times in Norfolk and there wasn’t a young prospect of any caliber on the team. There was an ass-load of older “has been” players who are deep into the tail end of their careers and I looked like I was in better shape than some of them, some of the guts and butts were simply huge. The Mets under the current Oscar Minaya management are pathetic. They have no prospects, their minor league system is broken and if the Bison’s plight was not enough their AA affiliate the Binghamton Mets were the worst team in AA Ball. If Ross Perot was talking to Larry King about them he would say “That’s just sad Larry.”
Cleveland moved its affiliation to Columbus to be closer to the major league team while the Washington Nationals who had been in Columbus moved to Syracuse when Toronto moved its Triple “A” affiliation to Las Vegas in the Pacific Coast League. In the mean time Atlanta which had been embroiled in a decade long contest with Richmond’s clueless city council led by Doug “I have no plan or clue” Wilder for a decent stadium to replace the cesspool called “The Diamond” gave up. Since they and not a local owner controlled the franchise, they moved the Braves to the Atlanta suburbs of Gwinnett County. Richmond has one of the worst if not the worst ball park in the International League and maybe the minors. Having been to the Diamond many times I have to say that it was the worst venue that I have ever seen a ball game, decrepit and uncomfortable seating, poor amenities, and a field that flooded if so much as a thimble full of rain fell made it a horrible venue for fans as well as players. Thus the city which refused to work cooperatively with the Braves lost its team and AAA franchise, a franchise that has been for many years one of the best in the minor leagues. Richmond lost their hockey team as well to this bunch’s inept leadership. These people have to be one of the most clueless city government s in the entire United States and certainly the worst managed state capital.
All of this leads to the first move of the 2009-2010 off season. On the 23rd of September the Eastern League announced that the Connecticut Defenders franchise would move to Richmond in time for the 2010 season. The city has agreed to make improvements on the Diamond to keep it viable until a new stadium can be build by 2012, a plan that should be doable unless the city has decided to make their plans for the new stadium on the Mayan calendar which assumes that the Cubs will win the World’s series, that Jesus will come back and the world as we know it will end.
The team is an affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, which means that if the Tides are not in town that I may make a number of trips to Richmond in 2010. The Giants will stay with the team through the end of 2010 and hopefully for me will remain in Richmond for many years. Richmond is allowing fans to suggest new names for the team. A link to that site is here: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/sports/baseball/name-the-team/
There will be more team moves announced in the coming month or so as cities and major league teams alike assess what they need. Cities with a long minor league heritage may lose teams, some cities are building stadiums to get teams and some cities may end up with teams in the independent leagues. Regardless Minor League Baseball will continue to do well and fans will come.
Peace,
Padre Steve+
The Inglorius Padre Steve's World 