Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Why is there no baseball in Albany?

The trip to Syracuse yesterday to see minor league baseball brought me back on my tirade about why the city of Albany is without a decent minor league team. Sure, we have a team in the Troy area (which is a good 45 minutes from my house) but it is an affiliate of the Houston Astros in a league that doesn't even start until June 20th.

I just don't get it. I really want to go back to Syracuse to catch another game this week but I can't see putting another 300 miles on my car to travel down there. Going to Yankee Stadium is just as far and 10 times expensive. The options for families to see baseball in this area are far too limited.

I could go on a tirade about this for hours but I will spare you all that. Enough people have heard me go on about it in person and it is quite draining to hear I am sure. Simply stated, I just wish we still had the Albany-Colonie Yankees here, or some sort of minor league baseball. For those of you who do not know, the AA affiliate of the Yankees were in the area of Albany from 1985 to 1994. Here is a prior blog entry I wrote about some of the notable alumni who were part of this squad before making it to the major leagues.

I am sure some of you guys from around here visited Heritage Park back in the day. Any memories from the old park that is worth sharing? If I had money I would build a park or something but I am a poor person trying to work my way up to educate the youth of america. I have no pull, but someone out there must.

3 comments:

Kyle said...

Great post. Albany should have a minor league team. Even if it's not a Yankee affiliate.

Lots of great Yankees have came from the Albany Yankees. Maybe they'll get another team eventually.

Bruno Van rottweiler said...

The Jays should still be in Upstate NY with their AAA affiliate. There's no doubt that they should have a presence there. Down here in Long Island we have the Long Island Ducks and it is very successful. Yeah, it's independent league BUT still some former bright lights in the industry are having fun/toiling for the Ducks.

The Commish! said...

Hey Bruno, I'm on Long Island too. I try to get to a few Ducks games a year. What I love is the fact that it's inexpensive and since it's independent, the Ducks always have a lot of former major leaguers on the team trying to get back or some just playing because they love the game. Although I could have done without Carl Everett and John Rocker on the Ducks.

Also in the post about Syracuse, Christina mentioned how guys were being jerks. I've never seen someone even curse at a Ducks game.

Christina, if you ever come to Long Island, I'll take you to a Ducks game.

When I have kids, I will take them to Ducks and other minor league games partly because tickets are so expensive for Yankees and Mets but also because I won't have to worry about some drunken idiot cursing.

Christina, when I become rich, I'll put a team in Albany, LOL.