Yesterday was a big day in Hartford as well, where the owners of the newly anointed Hartford Yard Goats Double-A baseball team announced that they’re going to play the first month of their first season entirely on the road, since their new $56 million stadium won’t be ready in time for opening day, and maybe not ready for a while after that unless someone comes up with more than $56 million.
My favorite part of all this:
The Hartford Yard Goats first game will be on April 7 at The Diamond in Richmond, Virginia against the San Francisco Giants affiliate, the Flying Squirrels, and Yard Goats season ticket holders will be able to attend these road games, compliments of the Yard Goats, a statement from the team says.
How kind of the rest of the Eastern League! Now any early-adopter Yard Goats fans can go to games just by making the eight-hour drive to Virginia, whereas if the team had stayed in its old home of New Britain they’d be looking at a three-hour haul — and that’s if they went on foot.
As for when the Yard Goats will be able to stop emulating the Ruppert Mundys, that’s anyone’s guess: The team’s owner is still fuming at the city for what he says is incompetence, the city is blaming the developer who was supposed to build the stadium, and the developer is complaining that the city wouldn’t allow it to make cost-cutting design changes. Now somebody has to find about $10 million to get the stadium ready, or else the Yard Goats’ road unis are going to get all worn out by July. It’s almost like this was a pretty terrible idea to begin with.
How about complimentary gas money and hotel lodging, too?
I hope someone is ready to compensate the PSL holders of the Flying Squirrels who may have to give up their seats!
No one is “making” anyone do anything. They are simply providing transportation and tickets to those who are willing to make the trip. How cruel, I know.
I don’t think they’ve offered to pay transportation, have they?
But anyway, yes, add in “if they want” to the headline. (I would have put it in there in the first place, but Twitter is a harsh word-count editor.)
I posted this in your comment section on January 7, 2016 regarding your first article on the proposed road trip:
Charles H. on January 7, 2016 at 3:07 pm said:
I think the Port Ruppert Mundys played their entire season on the road in Philip Roth’s
The Great American Novel, one of the funniest and smartest sports books ever written.
I love the site and read it religiously, but how about a little credit and love?
Full props to Charles H for making the Ruppert Mundys connection! (It’s one of my favorite books as well.)
The count is now up to the first 29 games played on the road. And no, transportation is not included. Oh, I almost forgot: the yearly nut the city has to cover just leaped from $4.2 million per year to $4.8 million per year. $600,000 more per year–a mere “bag of shells”, as Ralph Kramden would say.