Before I get started, I’d like to briefly introduce myself to you all. The name’s Brandon. As you’ve probably noticed, I’m brand spankin’ new here at BuffaloWins.com and I’m excited to be apart of the Buffalo Wins staff that does such a great job already. Joe has been gracious enough (or dumb enough) to allow me to voice my often unique opinions about Buffalo sports here on his blog so I hope you all will enjoy reading my stuff just as much as I do writing it. This post will likely be the first of many, so brace yourselves! You’ll learn to love me.
A few weeks ago I found myself kicking back in my seat outside suite No. 9 at Coca-Cola Field enjoying a delicious roast beef sandwich on a perfect evening for some baseball, witnessing the Bisons get pounded yet again by the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees.
Following yet another Jesus Montero bomb that traveled well over the highway that lies beyond the ballpark’s left field, the Bisons play that day had officially failed to captivate my attention. As a result, my mind began to wander. It just so happened to wander into a very interesting conversation between two gentlemen seated directly behind me.
As it turned out, my ears had stumbled upon a very intriguing proposition.
“Hey, would you trade the Bills, Sabres or both for a baseball franchise?” the one guy asked the other.
“Now there’s an idea. I wouldn’t mind seeing Buffalo change it up a bit,” replied the second guy.
That’s all it took to get my mind racing.
What if Buffalo ever had the opportunity to obtain an MLB franchise, but in order to do so, had to give up the beloved Bills or Sabres?
My inital reaction was the same one you’re likely experiencing right now. ‘Nah, no way. That’s just crazy. Shut the hell up’. But then I continued thinking, wouldn’t it be cool to be able to call an MLB team our own, instead of having to feed off adjacent markets to get our baseball fix?
What if we obtained a successful franchise that was ready to step in and be competitive right away? Could watching that team be better than going through another ten years of watching the Bills’ abysmal rebuilding efforts? What if I said the baseball franchise Buffalo would acquire would win a World Series within the next five years?
I know, I know, now you think I’m out of my mind, but just sit back and ponder the idea for a second.
Right away, I think that given the recent popularity around the rink, we’d immediately have to eliminate the Sabres from the discussion. No one in their right mind would want to trade what looks to be an unprecedented and exciting immediate future of hockey in Buffalo for such uncertainty that comes with obtaining an MLB team.
But as for the Bills, well, the Bills have been terrible for upwards of ten years now. How can you not think about giving up the poorly-run, disappointing Bills if promised a successful, winning baseball franchise?
I suppose it depends on the generation you belong to. If you’re a bit older, you might say to hell with the Sabres, keep the Bills. But, if you’re of a younger generation, like myself, and have witnessed the Bills losing throughout your lifetime coupled with ‘Pegulamania’, I think you’d lean towards kicking the Bills out in favor of a baseball team.
Okay, puck-heads and football enthusiasts, before you start knocking me here, know that I consider myself a fan of both the Sabres and Bills well ahead of baseball. If you’re not a fan of all sports and possess some sort of bias towards baseball, you won’t possibly be able to grasp this entire argument, so you might want save yourself some time and quit reading now. Hey, I’ve already got your click anyways.
But if you truly consider yourself a fan of every sport, like myself (minus soccer.. yawn), then you should be able to see why a rational argument can be made that baseball could flourish in Buffalo even more so than football or even hockey.
Aside from growing up loving both the Bills and Sabres, I am also a huge baseball fan. I’ve played the game ever since I was old enough to swing a bat. Somehow, having just the Bisons here in Buffalo doesn’t cut it for me. Could that be because I’ve been a big fan of the Yankees my entire life and have just grown accustomed to watching such a successful, prominent franchise and minor league baseball simply doesn’t entertain me like the major-league product? I feel many baseball fans in Buffalo probably feel the same way.
For those Colin Cowherd wannabees out there who say the MLB could never take off in Buffalo given its cold weather climate and small-market capacity, I say think again.
Buffalo happens to be a very good baseball market, littered with fans of the Yankees, Indians, Blue Jays, Pirates or Red Sox (I feel genuinely sorry for those of you who routinely are forced to associate with those damn Sox fans).
Outside of the NFL and NHL, I’d say the MLB is definitely the most prominent sport in the Buffalo market (sorry basketball), and we don’t even have our own MLB team.
If Buffalo obtained an MLB franchise, would that team somehow be able to leap-frog over the Bills and Sabres as the most popular team in town? If they were successful right out of the gate, I say why not?
So, for fun’s sake, let’s play around with this idea a bit.
Let me throw out a few different scenarios, and you tell me if you think you’d give up either the Bills, Sabres or both for an MLB franchise here in Buffalo.
The first and most likely to occur should Buffalo ever get a shot at an MLB franchise would be the MLB awarding the city an expansion team.
We’ve tried to do this before. Back in 1988 when Coca-Cola Field (then referred to as Pilot Field) was built, the 18,150-seat stadium was designed to be a state-of-the-art downtown ballpark with the ability to expand its capacity to 45,000, enough to fulfill the attendance demands an MLB franchise would bring, in hopes to lure a major league team to the city.
We all know Buffalo’s efforts weren’t enough as the MLB decided to take its expansion teams elsewhere (Denver and Miami were instead awarded franchises in 1993), but what if the MLB was to revisit the proposition of bringing a team to the Queen City?
It would be tough to expand the current Coca-Cola Field seeing as it lies right in the heart of downtown, but if it could be done in 1988, why not now?
If not, maybe the city could (somehow) get a stadium built elsewhere, big enough to accommodate the big-league team. I for one would love to see a beautiful new ballpark built right along the city’s developing waterfront, resembling something of Pittsburgh’s PNC Park that overlooks the Allegheny River or San Francisco’s AT&T Park where the San Francisco Bay awaits any homer hit over the right field bleachers. (I would also love to see a football stadium built around the same concept, if, and it’s a big if, the county ever grants the Bills the new stadium required to keep the team in town.)
However, with the addition of an expansion team in any sport often follows a few crappy seasons where the franchise dwells in the league’s basement before ever being able to establish any sort of relevance.
It is this reason that I’m not sure many fans would be willing to give up everything they already know and love with the Bills and Sabres for a baseball team. For what? So we can sit through the same rebuilding process in baseball as we are currently in with the Bills or have witnessed in the past with the Sabres.
That seems to get us nowhere.
Us sports fans here in Buffalo want to win already, dammit.
Something you all may be a little more open to is if Buffalo were to be able to lure an existing franchise to the city, which comes with two variations.
What would you say if the franchise coming to Buffalo was that of the Toronto Blue Jays?
Surely the team would be exciting. Not only do we rip them away from our annoying Canadian neighbors who can barely support the Jays anyways, but a ton of young prospects litter the Blue Jays’ current roster along with super-star Jose Bautista.
I think that could be enough to establish a respectable fan-base here in Buffalo. But would that be enough to persuade you to give up the Bills or Sabres in favor of that team? I don’t think so. I don’t think I would want that over football either.
What if though, somehow, we were able to acquire a heavy-weight team, much in the mold of the New York Yankees, with an owner willing to spend big bucks on keeping the team competitive year after year. Now would you make the trade?
It is this scenario where I would have to begin to consider it. And why not?
How many more years are we willing to sit and watch the Bills maintain their laughable status in the NFL under the ownership of Ralph all-I-care-about-is-money Wilson?
What happens when Wilson passes? What if some big-money businessman from Los Angeles offers an obscene amount of cash to lure the Bills out of Buffalo for good? Then we’re left with nothing. No baseball, no football. Just the Sabres.
I think that many of you would agree with me here that if we all knew the Bills were leaving within the next ten years (which I still consider very unlikely), we would happily give up the next few seasons of watching the Bills’ dismal efforts to acquire an MLB franchise that is ready to compete and win upon its arrival.
If it means another pro team is guaranteed to grace Buffalo with its presence and WIN, sign me up. That’s really a no-brainer.
But, like I said, there’s really no reason as of now to be scared of losing the Bills after Wilson’s passing. So as it stands, I still think I’d take the Bills uncertain, but can’t-get-much-worse-than-it-already-is future over bringing in an MLB franchise.
Hell, I’m sure we’d all love it if Buffalo could somehow bring a third pro franchise into the mix. But I’m uncertain the city could support three major league teams.
Whether you agree with me or not, you have to admit, it’s a pretty tasty proposition to inquire about.
With that said, I’m done preaching. Let’s take this debate to the comment box!
Or, if you’re more the Twitter type, feel free to follow me and voice your opinion (or illogical non-sense) @THWGoldSchlager.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
