And then there’s MLB commissioner Rob Manfred asserting that the Texas Rangers, who currently have the second-best record in baseball, are at a “competitive disadvantage” because their stadium lacks air conditioning. Now I’m really done.
20 comments on “Manfred says first-place Rangers can’t win without new stadium, pants fail to catch fire”
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The field was built INTENTIONALLY upside down, against major league rules, so the fans WOULD BE in the sun.
This coincidentally is also the same way the Atlanta Braves have oriented their new stadium.
Plus, the grass would be on the underside of the dirt then too wouldn’t it?
Oldest park in baseball: Fenway Park. Red Sox first in AL East
Second oldest park in baseball: Wrigley Field. Cubs first in NL Central
Third oldest park in baseball: Dodger Stadium. Dodgers first in NL West.
None of the three parks has air conditioning either.
Manfred has a point. It’s been 16 long losing years since the Rangers were competitive enough to sign a free agent to the most expensive contract in baseball. Soon our long national nightmare will be over.
And Josh Hamilton, Prince Fielder and Alex Rodriguez are all free agents and available!
That is too much to be a coincidence, right?
“Time to fix the World Series so the Rangers lose to the Cubs.” -Rob Manfred
What a bunch of bullshit. Not to mention the Rangers were in the World Series in 2010 & 2011.
Unfortunately I think the ballpark vote will pass because it’s the fans who have to sit out in that heat.
Yeah, if only the Rangers had A/C there’s no way Nelson Cruz drops that ball in St. Louis with 2 out in bottom of the 9th. Totally gonna need a new stadium to fix that.
Yeah, if the Rangers want to win the World Series, they should build the Cardinals a new stadium.
Look man that was FIVE whole years ago!!!!! If a team goes 5+ years without playing for a title it’s clearly because their stadium is outdated and they’re at a competitive disadvantage.
Adapt or perish!!!!!!
Don’t discount global warming which has accelerated in the last 5 years. Between the heat and the holes in ozone above oil-loving Texas, who can blame a player for heat exhaustion and missed ptiches and errors from the blinding light of a hell-in-my-eyes Sun.
Could they build a retractable Mr. Burns sun blockin Machine? http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/simpsons-mr-burns-blocks-out-the-sun1-640×353.jpg
If the Rangers need air conditioning, MBL has plenty of funds to pay for it. They could take the $6 million per year they are paying to Bud STEALig and redirect it to the Rangers. Manfred could work for $10 million per year instead of $20 million per year. Part of the $1 billion MLB just received for selling 1/3 of its ownership of MLBAM to Disney could be used. And of course, the Rangers could stop doing stupid $100 million + long term contracts.
So there is no need for Manfred to publicly comment on this because no public funds are needed – if the A/C needs to be done, just do it Rob!
Well, on-field win-loss record obviously isn’t what they’re talking about when commissioners talk about “competitiveness”. It’s about grabbing a larger slice of the discretionary income pie.
40 years ago Bowie Kuhn and his disciples warned about how free agents would flock to sun belt states like Texas.
Just curious..why was the current stadium not built as a dome like the Astrodome (the other Texas ball park at the time) was?
A few reasons:
When the Rangers current stadium was built the “Retro ballpark” craze was in full swing with Camden Yards having only opened a few years before and almost every team, including Texas, was chomping at the bit to have a new similar new toy of their own with all the little bells and whistles that made their ballpark more “unique” than the others.
A permanently domed stadium wouldn’t have allowed Texas to capture that “Old-timey” ballpark feel that was considered absolutely vital for a new stadium being built back then and retractable domes were still pretty new and extremely expensive which probably would have cut into the budget for Texas to add in many of the retro elements that exist in The Ballpark in Arlington.
So they went with a fancy pants outdoor one to follow the crowd, instead of a less fancy indoor or retractable stadium and now, 20 years later, they’re saying that it’s just to damn hot to play outdoors anymore……….
Of course I’m sure if they had built the indoor or retractable one they’d be saying that it’s outdated compared to the technology that has been developed since and too expensive to maintain so that’s why they need a new one. Kind of like Phoenix is strongly hinting at.
Sure, but MLB scheduling could be adjusted to accommodate brutally hot months in Texas (play relatively few games, and play those with late local starts… it’s still stinkin’ hot, but not as hot as it was at 2pm…), just as it could be to accommodate nasty weather months in northern markets…
That is one of the few sound reasons for having a large geographic footprint for any given league that plays it’s games outdoors… you can manage the weather a little – at least the part that is predictable anyway.
Spring training sites in Vermont and Quebec were excluded for this very reason, I’d have to think…
There is precedent for this. The poor Celtics played in the un air-conditioned Boston Garden for 50 years and they only won NBA titles in 16 of those seasons.
If they’d had an air-conditioned arena during that time they probably would have at least won 25.
I could look this up, but how many have the Celtics won in the new stadium? I don’t remember them winning a title in the last 10 years or so.
They have won exactly once since moving (2008). But the Boston Bruins actually have won a Stanley Cup in an air conditioned facility!
I think having an air conditioned or domed stadium (retractable or otherwise) is just putting lipstick on a pig, and doing so to the detriment of team owner’s revenues.
We know fans like the outdoor baseball experience. The problem is that they don’t like the outdoors. Also, having a domed stadium is far too restrictive (even when the dome, as at Marlins Park, can be rolled off like a giant telescope enclosure roof, or like SkyDome more or less disappears for over 90% of the fans in the stadium when open).
The real answer, it seems to me, is for the taxpayers to pay for entire downtown stadium districts to be domed. When the edges of the dome are a good 15 blocks away in any direction, fans can really feel like they are outdoors. Isn’t that the most important thing? But the weather will be nice inside the dome, assuming it has big enough HVAC systems to keep the temperature where fans want it.
While the cost of air conditioning a 300 block area in Texas in August might be considerable, you have to look at the big picture… the buildings inside the dome can shut their HVAC units off, so they will be able to pay a much higher BRZ/CRL rate than non-weather controlled buildings could. Plus, beach wear sales will remain brisk in Milwaukee in November if a 250 block area around their new(ish… start thinking about replacement costs now, Wisconsites…) facility were kept at a nice 82 degrees. Ok, so refinery cities like Houston present other problems, but trust me, those are nothing that a large enough bundle of taxpayer funds can’t solve.
Don’t sell yourself short team owners… demand outdoor climate control for yourselves and your neighbours. In places like Cincinnati, Glendale and many others, you will probably get it. The only reason no-one has is because they haven’t thought to ask.