World Series thread

[tmwiese55]

8 minutes ago, owbc said:

Yeah when you add in Canada and Japan these were the highest watched World Series games since game 7 in 2016. 

It's nice to see the Blue Jays' popularity finally getting some credit. Many Americans don't realize how popular they are in Canada. They are #1 in MLB in regular season TV viewership -- higher than the Yankees. Yes, all their games are broadcast nationally, but you still need to have people interested in baseball to get those eyes on the screen. Manfred even mentioned the possibility of another Canadian team in the future. 

I recently watched the Expos documentary thing on Netflix and things like that started going through my head since it seems likely two teams get added at some point.  Of course the obvious is to go back to Montreal as its the second biggest city and has the history, but IDK if the problems that plagued it before are really any different now.   After that I thought Vancouver to kind of have a western and eastern team.

For quick info: Montreal metro pop is 4.3 mil, Vancouver is 2.7. For comp MKE is about 1.5

[SeaBass]

4 minutes ago, owbc said:

Yeah when you add in Canada and Japan these were the highest watched World Series games since game 7 in 2016. 

It's nice to see the Blue Jays' popularity finally getting some credit. Many Americans don't realize how popular they are in Canada. They are #1 in MLB in regular season TV viewership -- higher than the Yankees. Yes, all their games are broadcast nationally, but you still need to have people interested in baseball to get those eyes on the screen. Manfred even mentioned the possibility of another Canadian team in the future. 

If Canada were a US state (I apologize to any Canadians that may be reading this for the generalization) it would be the most populated state in the country. That said, California and Texas aren't that far behind with Florida settling in at a little over half Canada's population.

The Blue Jays obviously benefit from being the only Canadian based team. If they had one or two more teams things would, also obviously, fracture. If Montreal had a team and Calgary (3rd largest city by population) had a team, it's not as likely the entire country would be backing the Blue Jays with quite the same fervor as they are now.

I'd venture to say that the Blue Jays organization probably secretly hopes they keep their monopoly of the Canadian market.

[Team Canada]

I believe it was on one of the broadcasts where they noted that 25% of Canada was watching the game before or something like that.

[AKCheesehead]

17 minutes ago, SeaBass said:

If Canada were a US state (I apologize to any Canadians that may be reading this for the generalization) it would be the most populated state in the country. That said, California and Texas aren't that far behind with Florida settling in at a little over half Canada's population.

The Blue Jays obviously benefit from being the only Canadian based team. If they had one or two more teams things would, also obviously, fracture. If Montreal had a team and Calgary (3rd largest city by population) had a team, it's not as likely the entire country would be backing the Blue Jays with quite the same fervor as they are now.

I'd venture to say that the Blue Jays organization probably secretly hopes they keep their monopoly of the Canadian market.

Anecdotally I'd say you're spot on.  I've spent a good chunk of time in Canada driving between Wisconsin and Alaska over the years.  Talked baseball with Canadians and of course Toronto is their team, everywhere.  Heck, even people near Edmonton were over the moon when the Raptors won the championship a few years ago.  Which all makes perfect sense to me.  

I've wondered before if Calgary could be a possibility.  Edmonton isn't terribly far away so they might draw fans from there.  Although Calgary and Edmonton don't exactly like one another...

[tmwiese55]

I thought of Calgary too when I posted too as it checks the western box. I just felt like it being more in the central not on the coast wouldn't be as appealing. And then I looked up that Calgary counts as bigger "city", but metro populations google says Vancouver is like a million more people.     For metro populations I believe Vancouver is 3rd

[SeaBass]

9 minutes ago, AKCheesehead said:

Anecdotally I'd say you're spot on.  I've spent a good chunk of time in Canada driving between Wisconsin and Alaska over the years.  Talked baseball with Canadians and of course Toronto is their team, everywhere.  Heck, even people near Edmonton were over the moon when the Raptors won the championship a few years ago.  Which all makes perfect sense to me.  

I've wondered before if Calgary could be a possibility.  Edmonton isn't terribly far away so they might draw fans from there.  Although Calgary and Edmonton don't exactly like one another...

Yeah I saw that Calgary and Edmonton are the 3rd and 5th most populous cities in Canada and they're about 180ish miles apart. I'm sure there's a big hockey rivalry there but different sports can spur different feelings, I'd think the relative closeness would mitigate the hockey rivalry.

Ah, looks like there's CFL teams in both cities as well.

[SeaBass]

3 minutes ago, tmwiese55 said:

I thought of Calgary too when I posted too as it checks the western box. I just felt like it being more in the central not on the coast wouldn't be as appealing. And then I looked up that Calgary counts as bigger "city", but metro populations google says Vancouver is like a million more people. 

I wonder if Surrey is included in that since it has a population of nearly the same size as Vancouver and is only a 45 minute drive away. I'd think Calgary (3rd)/Edmonton (5th) would trump Vancouver (8th)/Surrey (11th) though.

[owbc]

1 hour ago, tmwiese55 said:

I recently watched the Expos documentary thing on Netflix and things like that started going through my head since it seems likely two teams get added at some point.  Of course the obvious is to go back to Montreal as its the second biggest city and has the history, but IDK if the problems that plagued it before are really any different now.   After that I thought Vancouver to kind of have a western and eastern team.

For quick info: Montreal metro pop is 4.3 mil, Vancouver is 2.7. For comp MKE is about 1.5

Personally I think Vancouver BC is the best Canadian spot because of the significant Asian population and international influence, as well as not directly encroaching on Toronto's core fanbase in Quebec/Ontario. When comparing to the western US expansions candidates, Salt Lake would be like Denver on steroids and Portland is too small and too close to Seattle. The nostalgic side of me would really love the Expos to come back though.  

Having seen some Canadians discuss this, the two primary issues are not surprisingly (1) ownership and (2) stadium. The Blue Jays are owned by the albatross that is Rodgers and there are only a couple other potential players with big enough pockets in all of Canada. Montreal would be starting from scratch on a stadium but at least in theory they could play at the big O in the interim. Vancouver is interesting because the Whitecaps (MLS) are trying to leave the downtown stadium (BC Place) which would potentially open it up for a renovation into a baseball stadium. That would still be costly but would be an excellent location. 

There's no way in a million years that they expand to Alberta. SLC has stronger ownership interest with deeper pockets. 

[SeaBass]

16 minutes ago, owbc said:

Personally I think Vancouver BC is the best Canadian spot because of the significant Asian population and international influence, as well as not directly encroaching on Toronto's core fanbase in Quebec/Ontario. When comparing to the western US expansions candidates, Salt Lake would be like Denver on steroids and Portland is too small and too close to Seattle. The nostalgic side of me would really love the Expos to come back though.  

Having seen some Canadians discuss this, the two primary issues are not surprisingly (1) ownership and (2) stadium. The Blue Jays are owned by the albatross that is Rodgers and there are only a couple other potential players with big enough pockets in all of Canada. Montreal would be starting from scratch on a stadium but at least in theory they could play at the big O in the interim. Vancouver is interesting because the Whitecaps (MLS) are trying to leave the downtown stadium (BC Place) which would potentially open it up for a renovation into a baseball stadium. That would still be costly but would be an excellent location. 

There's no way in a million years that they expand to Alberta. SLC has stronger ownership interest with deeper pockets. 

Love the insight here. I also thought of Vancouver first thinking it would be a good spot but was a little surprised that the non-metro population was around the size of Milwaukee.

ETA: For reference, the Vancouver metro is around 2.7 to 2.8 million while Calgary/Edmonton comes in around 3.27 million.

[owbc]

47 minutes ago, SeaBass said:

Love the insight here. I also thought of Vancouver first thinking it would be a good spot but was a little surprised that the non-metro population was around the size of Milwaukee.

ETA: For reference, the Vancouver metro is around 2.7 to 2.8 million while Calgary/Edmonton comes in around 3.27 million.

Calgary and Edmonton are separate markets are far as I'm concerned. They are 3 hours apart from each other. If they are the same, then the Brewers are Chicago's third baseball team. 

[SeaBass]

24 minutes ago, owbc said:

Calgary and Edmonton are separate markets are far as I'm concerned. They are 3 hours apart from each other. If they are the same, then the Brewers are Chicago's third baseball team. 

Same province is equal to same state. It's like saying you wouldn't be a Brewers fan if you lived in Rhinelander.

[TURBO]

I'd rather not see another MLB team in Canada.

They had their chance in Montreal, it didn't work.  Why would it be any different now?  I'm sure the travel for MLB teams out of the country is a big hassle. 

Let them keep their Blue Jays, but if other teams are added, I'd rather see them here in the US.

[owbc]

1 hour ago, SeaBass said:

Same province is equal to same state. It's like saying you wouldn't be a Brewers fan if you lived in Rhinelander.

I don't think Oilers/Flames fans would agree. Maybe I'm wrong and they would all embrace an "Alberta" baseball team, but they would have to pick one city to put the team in so half the fans will associate that team with the "enemy" city in the hockey world.  

[RobertCrawley]

My only contribution to the board about the game last night is that I loved Gimenez' 7th inning AB. He fouled off a few, waited for a good pitch, shortened his swing, and put the ball in play for a base hit. Ortiz could have had so much more success doing that instead of swinging for the fences every time.

[Brian]

Go Blue Jays, LA has the plague tonight. 😁

[OldSchoolSnapper]

It would have been so easy to write off our series if they had also mopped the floor with Toronto. 

I never had any assumptions that we'd beat the AL team, but this has pretty much wiped out the notion that everyone should just bow before LA and they can't possibly be stopped. 

I think the Dodgers are better than us. I think the Phillies were too. But it's very clear to me that we just played a God-awful series. 

[jw5511986]

11 hours ago, Brewluver said:

So it was pretty good huh? 😉

From what my wife said, yeah. Her favorite still remains so I still get two hours of freedom on Tuesdays.

[yourout]

16 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

It would have been so easy to write off our series if they had also mopped the floor with Toronto. 

I never had any assumptions that we'd beat the AL team, but this has pretty much wiped out the notion that everyone should just bow before LA and they can't possibly be stopped. 

I think the Dodgers are better than us. I think the Phillies were too. But it's very clear to me that we just played a God-awful series. 

Sure would be nice if we could actually get into the playoffs with a functioning offense.

[adambr2]

13 minutes ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

It would have been so easy to write off our series if they had also mopped the floor with Toronto. 

I never had any assumptions that we'd beat the AL team, but this has pretty much wiped out the notion that everyone should just bow before LA and they can't possibly be stopped. 

I think the Dodgers are better than us. I think the Phillies were too. But it's very clear to me that we just played a God-awful series. 

Yeah, it’s really disappointing. Nitpicking on Murphy here, because he’s obviously a good manager, but I could have done without the whole “us average Joes against Goliath” mentality. It’s not productive to say that the Dodgers probably barely know anyone on our roster. Did we just miracle our way to 97 wins?

The Dodgers are obviously superbly talented but not infallible. Learn from it and be ready to play next year. It was obviously still a far better outcome than losing to the Cubs.

[bucks2281]

Nearly every single Toronto at bat is quality and competitive. 

[homer]

I think the Brewers just picked a bad time to go into a slump.

[Brewluver]

Ohtani is gonna hit a 6 run homer to take the lead !!

[yourout]

1 minute ago, Brewluver said:

Ohtani is gonna hit a 6 run homer to take the lead !!

Holding a runner at first with him up can't be a very comfortable feeling as a first baseman.

[RobertCrawley]

Robots.

[ReverendBrewmeister]

Dominant performance by the Blue Jays rookie pitcher on the road in Game 5.

Didn’t expect Toronto to win two games in Los Angeles, while nearly winning a third, only losing in 18 innings.

Rogers Centre will be a madhouse for Game 6, especially if the Blue Jays can put up early runs and take a lead in the first few innings.

The graphic Fox put up about the poor World Series record of teams that sweep their league championship series was surprising to see. Strange how baseball works.