[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

[bryant]

We have a new contender for goofiest team relocation move ever. ESPN reports that the Montreal Expos may move to Boston for a year. This would be great for the owners of the Red Sox, since they'd get rent from the Expos. The Expos are currently owned by Major League Baseball itself, which would love to see attendance drop so that there'd be more of an excuse to contract the Expos out of existence. The fans are not deeply important in this equation.

This would be the second time in recent history that Major League Baseball has arranged for the Expos to benefit Boston. The first was the Cliff Floyd trade, which was ludicrous from Montreal's point of view but a big win for Boston.

I can't imagine that Boston would suddenly take to the Expos. Not that it wouldn't be flattering to have two baseball teams, but it would also clearly be only temporary. So who'd care? I guess I might get a lot of cheap tickets to meaningless games...

Comments

[bryant]

I don't believe for one second that Selig isn't trying to figure out some way to reopen that. And I honestly wouldn't expect the Expos to draw any numbers of significance, even in Boston. They'd do better in DC... which makes you wonder why the DC idea isn't taken more seriously. Hell, they'd do better in Puerto Rico. Anywhere people won't look on them as an interim thing.

[carneggy.livejournal.com]

They'd do better in DC... which makes you wonder why the DC idea isn't taken more seriously.

Simple. Selig is good friends with Peter Angelos. Angelos being the Orioles owner, who is absurdly zealous about not letting a team into the DC area because it would interfere with the Orioles' fan base, or so he claims - Angelos has threatened in the past to sue MLB if needed to keep them from putting a team (moved or expansion) into DC/NoVa.

[bryant]

Exactly. These decisions are driven by Selig's friendships rather than what's best for the game. Grr!