Yesterday, Major League Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, announced that San Francisco will host the 2007 All-Star Game. That seems like ages from now, but I'm still excited. If I had a list of things to do before leaving the planet, attending an All-Star Game would be on it, ranking somewhere below attending a World Series game or an Olympic event. I wonder how difficult or expensive it would be to obtain tickets.
Also yesterday, San Jose's mayor announced that he would bring a professional baseball team to downtown. While exciting news, it isn't the first time the South Bay has pursued a Major League franchise. Although nobody said it explicitly, everybody knows that San Jose hopes to lure the Athletics away from Oakland.
How much will it cost? Where would a stadium go? How would it affect the environment and traffic? How real is this latest attempt? Can the city make it happen this time? There are so many questions. Now it's a matter of waiting to see if the mayor addresses these concerns with his first pass at a serious proposal.
I hope my hometown gets a big league baseball team someday. At the same time, I just don't want to be too optimistic, only to see my hopes dashed again.
Of the ballparks in MLB, I think SBC Park and PNC Park are the nicest (though I've only seen the latter on television). Though I am a die-hard Dodgers fan, I have to give you Bay Area-ites kudos for building such a nice ballpark.
I haven't visited PNC Park yet, but I've heard it's extremely nice. I think we're extremely lucky to have such a cool park. I don't know about the condition of the current Dodger Stadium, but perhaps a new ballpark will soon be on the horizon for Los Angeles.
It's actually not a bad ballpark and I read recently that they'll be decreasing the size of the foul territory along first and third base lines. Fans will be closer to the action. That said, Chavez Ravine is just outside of downtown Los Angeles and it's kind of hard to get to. A beachfront ballpark in SM was tossed around for a while but I don't think that idea went anywhere.