Baseball 2016

[MadBurgerMaker]

The Rangers and Arlington are looking at this for the new ballpark:



They want to split $900m to do it.  The biggest thing is, of course, the retractable roof.  Since, you know, it gets really fucking hot without one.

[CountDeMoney]

Pretty obnoxious ambitious for a franchise that didn't win a pennant for 40 years.  Because Texas.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Pretty obnoxious ambitious for a franchise that didn't win a pennant for 40 years.  Because Texas.

It didn't seem to get any cooler in July and August when they won those two AL pennants, so they don't appear to be related.   Did something weather related happen 33 years ago to give you this impression?

E:  Also, aside from "it's fucking hot and there needs to be some shade," Arlington is getting the jump on Dallas, which apparently started getting the idea that the team should be located there.

[CountDeMoney]

They don't deserve the investment.  Shitty ass Senators.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Somehow Arlington manages to pay everything off early.  The current ballpark was paid off in, IIRC, 2001, which was I think 10 years early, and Jerry's Death Star across the street will be paid off in 2021, right around when this new thing will come online.  They're talking about just keeping the current sales tax that they've been using for that and rolling it over to the Ranger's park.  Some shit like that. 

E: Rough location overlay from Shaggy: 
It's also going to be a little smaller, in case you can't tell.  Maybe Marlins park sized?  Maybe a little bigger.  Whatever.

[CountDeMoney]

Guess that makes up for all the money they pissed away on pitchers over the years.

[MadBurgerMaker]

That's another of the problems they want to address with the roof.  Pitchers have a really hard time when its 115 on the field.

[CountDeMoney]

  Nice try, Science Guy.  CHAN HOT PARK 

Kinda reminds me of those arguments people use to attribute Shaq's shitty free throw percentage to his height, and how it actually reduced the elliptical exposure of the hoop's rim or something. 

As they say down there, bless your heart. 

[MadBurgerMaker]

   You seriously don't think extreme heat affects players in general and especially pitchers?

"No clue why you would ever want to pitch for the Rangers," he tweeted on Wednesday. "The climate is beyond awful."

They also apparently get pissy and are more apt to retaliate when it's hot lolz: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/12/141233588/pain-at-the-plate-heat-increases-pitcher-retaliation

[CountDeMoney]

Never seemed to bother Nolan Ryan. 

Stop blaming systemic front office failures the last 15 years when it comes to signing pitching talent on the heat.  It's unseemly.

[MadBurgerMaker]

No one is doing that.  And Nolan Ryan is from Refugio, dude.  He's familiar with the weather in Houston and DFW.  If your suggestion is to have only clones of Nolan Ryan pitching, I agree that would be a solid rotation, and they should really get that set up. Otherwise, you're going to end up with dudes who aren't used to it and are sweating all over the ball and talking about having trouble gripping it.  And it fucking sucks to sitting there frying in the stands too.

E:  Since you don't know what or where Refugio is and especially the climate, just think  "hotter than Dallas," and you'll have an idea.  It's inland from the Corpus Christi area.

[CountDeMoney]

OK, I concede:  you're right.  After all, look at how successful the Astros have been indoors.  Advantage: YUO

[MadBurgerMaker]

Thanks for reminding me:  Nolan Ryan played in a dome for damn near 10 years.  California and NY before that.  For the autists, it's a quality of life improvement (for both fans and players) that they're also hoping will make it easier to convince pitchers to play for them..  It doesn't mean they're going to instantly throw only perfect games with the occasional bummer no hitter. 

E:  But I'm still interested in your Nolan Ryan cloning experiment.

[AnchorClanker]

Looking forward to heading to San Fran at some point this summer, and I very much want to see the Giants at their new stadium.

[jimmy olsen]

Red Sox are just killing the baseball lately. Best hitting I've seen from this team in a long time.

I don't get why David Ortiz seems so beloved in other parks. I mean, I get why we love him, but the dude's obviously been on HGH since 2010 and I thought that was something only home town fans ignored.