SSS, Baseball, and Peter Angelos

Thank God for Peter Angelos. Between keeping the O's down and baseball out of DC, he's becoming my favorite owner in the Big 4 pro sports. I hope he has a long prosperous reign over the Os.

Anyone who thinks having a baseball team come to RFK will help in our efforts to build an SSS is sadly deluded. Once a baseball teams shows up, all of United phone calls to the DCSC will never be returned. United (along with the Freedom) will be forced into a third class existence at FedEx Field.

Sachin

 

Sad, but true Sachin. As much as I hate this (I would love to have a baseball team), it does make an SSS more likely.

How's this for a dream scenario -- and before people jump all over me, I know that there are a million and one reasons why this would never ever happen in anyone's lifetime -- a DC United baseball club, with similar unis, adjoining stadia, joint marketing, promotional and back-office efforts.

You could have Saturday double-headers with baseball game in the afternoon, dinner and a few drinks at the clubhouse in between the two parks, then a soccer game at night.

And then for fun, we could beat up Peter Angelos, the anti-St. Phil.

 

They're gonna have to build a new baseball stadium for a SSS because RFK is a crap hole. Sorry to say but even if D.C. got a baseball team their attendance would be crap because they'd be playin in a stadium that is way more suitable for soccer than baseball. Seats are missin everywhere and there's not really any nice thing about RFK...except it's great for soccer.

 

If you talk Uncle Phil into outbidding the three other groups for a baseball team, he can probably name it (nearly) anything he likes.

Hmm.. a baseball team in all black with three white stripes across the jersey. That'd make some waves.

But seriously, if anyone was going to do that (similar to Real Madrid having both soccer and basketball clubs using the same name), you'd think it would have been someone like Hunt, who could have tagged the Wizards as the Chiefs, or Kraft, who could have named his soccer club Patriots FC or some such.

 

Atouk, in Germany at least, most soccer teams are part of a larger club that has other types of teams and other interests. That's why they have all those strange letters like SV (Sport Club), VfL (Club for "Track and Field"), etc... So it is not strange that Real Madrid has different sports within the same club.

Doesn't the Tampa baseball team wear black and blue uniforms?

 

Thanks, Rev, although I didn't think it was strange, it's just that the Spanish basketball league is somewhat decent, so I used it as a reference to basketball team that someone might have known about.

It's not just Europe, either, right? Vasco da Gama's full name (Clube de Regatas Vasco da Gama) is to do with its original creation as a rowing club. I noticed they've got "Basquete Masc" (appears to be men's basketball) as well as "Futebol" on their website. Looks like they have women's hoops too.

Actually, on a similar note, the NFL-Europe team in Barcelona changed their name from "Barcelona Dragons" to "F.C. Barcelona Dragons" after they came to some kind of joint-marketing agreement (or something -- I don't recall the details) with F.C. Barcelona, although the American-football team didn't change their colors, logos, etc., to match FC Barcelona for some reason.

 

Well, except that RFK is a baseball stadium. All the sightlines are set up for baseball, that's why the sections 'bow' around midfield.

Soccer/football is the secondary configuration for the stadium.

 

Actually, RFK was perhaps the first "multi-purpose" stadium. It was designed for both football and baseball. As MLB eventually discovered, however, multi-purpose stadia make lousy ballparks. So yeah, you can play baseball there, and yeah, it was designed so that you can play baseball there, but to call it a "baseball stadium" is a bit of a stretch - like calling the Vet a baseball stadium.

Regardless, it's been so long since baseball was played there that some serious reconfiguration would need to be done before before you could throw out a pitch. Part of that reconfiguration would entail the removal of the bouncy seat sections that house the Screaming Eagles and La Barra Brava, to make room for left field. That would be a sad, sad day.

 

Don't tempt CSC!

 

Actually, we sit in the third base seats......RFK was designed as a baseball stadium that could fit football. Ever notice the big wheels and tracks under the seats? That's because the entire section is movable. The seats behind the goal are collapsable (by intention, not strain)....and the entire section that bounces (steel is lighter than concrete) moves over to the third base side.

 

You're right, it was designed to accomodate baseball - but by arranging things so the stadium could also fit football (making it multi-purpose), the architects ended up with a second-rate (at best) baseball stadium. What was a second-rate ballpark in '61 is, by today's MLB luxury-box standards, a barely acceptable hell-hole in which to stash a team for a season at most while a new "retro" ballpark is built. It's great for soccer, though - even if that was more by accident than design - although it would be nice if they put bleachers in the south endzone more often.

 

wow... baseball in rfk... my thought process considers this about as stupid as when i heard they were gonna make another DC soccer team.... If they decide to put baseball there, my wonderful pitch, which every night i pray that the next season we wont have to play on it, will be ruined by the lines and seat changing and.... oh man it hurts my brain.

 

BIG stripes

 

In case anyone is interested, here's the standard for future SSS's

http://lariotsquad.net/riotreport/ntc_images/concernedlafan/

-Tron