Goodbye Modesto. Minor League Baseball Continues Its Greedy Squeeze Play

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Modesto Minor League History: www.historicmo...
Modesto's World Series Appearance: www.historicmo...
Legendary Baseball Players in Modesto: www.historicmo...
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Sometimes, you feel like a nut. Sometimes you don’t. Unless you happened to live in Modesto, California. Then every day in the summer was a nut day thanks to its minor league baseball team, the Modesto Nuts.
It was a silly name and mascot that worked really well-just not well enough for it to stick around. Also, some folks still pine for the ol’ Modesto A’s. Regardless, the city has welcomed MLB All-Stars, Award Winners, Hall of Famers, and guys playing in the Bigs right now.
The tradition will be ending after the Nuts became the latest victim of minor league baseball’s greed-driven cull after hastily announcing to fans this will be their last season in Modesto.
This is a sad story for a franchise that has been playing in the California League since 1946 when the league resumed after World War II. In fact, their first affiliate after becoming independent was the St. Louis Browns.
Funny story: The team was actually called the Modesto Reds even though they were a Browns affiliate. That has to do with Modesto’s baseball team actually having been around since the early 1990s, with the name Red Caps and then Reds.
Long story short, Modesto has a long, rich history with baseball. And all of that has now been discarded like a used tissue because minor league baseball is slowly devolving into a monopoly where towns across America are held up by Diamond Baseball Holdings.
Like all sports team relocations, this is all about a stadium. In this case, John Thurman Field is a fairly unremarkable place to play baseball. Built in 1955, the stadium has undergone renovations and upgrades over the years-nothing too grandiose, but enough to keep it in good working order.
These days, though, good working order isn’t enough. According to the Modesto Bee, the City Council was told that Major League Baseball required an estimated $32 million in improvements to John Thurman Field, with the city expected to foot most of the bill. That figure makes no sense.
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22 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 151

@whalesequence 2 месяца назад

Modesto is holding its ground here thankfully. I'll take a fiscally responsible city over forever debt and a baseball team. Obviously I'm devastated that we'll be losing the Nuts, but that's the price of doing the right thing sometimes😔

@NinnaFrank 2 месяца назад

You understand modo has absolutely nothing to offer right?? Besides the 120 temp out there today!! You might want to save your history because it doesn't have much of a future 😉😉

@ThatC1official 2 месяца назад

The stadium is bad thou

@anthony20998 2 месяца назад

@@ThatC1officialhave you gone to San Jose giants stadium? Modesto stadium isn’t that bad. I would like to see what they are asking to be done for 32 million dollars.

@noeonoohno4219 2 месяца назад

It’s true, it’s right the city doesn’t sell out and have taxpayers foot the bill for profits for investors. It’s a waste of taxpayer money and probably corrupt.

@whalesequence 2 месяца назад

@@noeonoohno4219 Exactly, it's hard to do the right thing

@TonyLeadholm 2 месяца назад

Visalia also entered the Cal League in 1946 and remains there to this day. So Modesto shares the title as the longest team in the Cal League with Visalia. Sad to see our San Joaquin Valley brethren fade away. 😢

@SippyCupAdventures 2 месяца назад

Thank you, Cheyenne. Maybe you read my previous messages, or, you just scoured the news. Our family grew up at John Thurman Field. I worked there for a couple of years. I literally washed Jason Giambi's and others jocks as the clubby one Summer. I will be sharing this to all my Modesto friends, including the mayor, a long time family friend, pushing back on everyone who blamed the city of Modesto.

@robertbaird5016 2 месяца назад

Independent leagues are the future. Follow the Oakland Ballers model.

@Sarkus01 2 месяца назад

We'll see. They have a one year deal to play in the league they are in and there are those who think the Ballers are a one or two year experiment by the owners.

@Skaz1hiphop Месяц назад

Yeah now that they fired the manager halfway through the season I’m kinda worried

@tastyamericano9960 Месяц назад

@@Sarkus01I personally think they’re a tax and embezzlement scam…which is perfect for Oakland and its culture.

@noeonoohno4219 2 месяца назад

You’re absolutely right to say if the private sector was being sincere about the profitability, they would pay for it themselves. Capitalists want to socialise losses and privatise profits.

@seanmoore9713 2 месяца назад

Growing up in Modesto, I've probably seen more baseball at John Thurman than anywhere else. I was there the night we retired Modesto native Joe Rudi's number. He set up a table behind the third base bleachers and signed everyone's Joe Rudi bobbleheads that night.

@99somerville 2 месяца назад

Talk about greed. The Cubs want Myrtle Beach to build them a new stadium for their Single A club. The existing stadium was built 1999 and seats 6,600. A Single A minor league team needs a brand new taxpayer built stadium?

@CIF-pm7tk 2 месяца назад

Complete bullllshit! A team? AAA, it’s all 🐎 💩

@zacplayshockey1 2 месяца назад

Same thing happened to the Bakersfield Blaze. After 75 years the MLB gave them the middle finger. Then they wonder why their sport is dying.

@ZackfromNoHo 2 месяца назад

Although, to be fair, the Bakersfield ballpark was really bad. The one time I went there they had to delay the start of the game until after the sun went down because the sun set behind the outfield and so batters would be looking into the sun. How they went for decades with the wrong orientation of the field I can't understand. The team at the time was the Bakersfield Dodgers so their cap was identical to a Brooklyn Dodgers cap, which was kind of cool. We lost our only minor league team in Los Angeles county when the Lancaster Jethawks were contracted out of the Cal League and replaced by a team in the Carolina League. I feel your pain, though. Bakersfield is a large market that should have a ballclub.

@tonyarmbrust 2 месяца назад

@@ZackfromNoHoLocals refer to the ballpark as PRE-Historic Sam Lynn. The wood bat Bakersfield Train Robbers of the independent Pecos League play there now.

@hornetguy9063 2 месяца назад

This is why the MK Dons are the most hated team in England. It was the first time an established club was allowed to up and move away from their home base, essentially reincorporate as a new club, but keep all the perks that the old club worked for. Milton Keynes essentially built the stadium and then went and snatched up a team. This is the problem with American sports as a whole. Instead of clubs being built organically and being an actual part of the community, they’re just a franchise that can be taken away on a whim without consequence for the ownership

@williejay9463 17 дней назад

MK Dons and a single A mlb club are not the same. What team was the minor league for MK Dons?

@krakrex780 2 месяца назад

That’s so sad. They were one of the teams I loved seeing come to town to play the SJ Giants when I lived in San jose

@Stevenirons 29 дней назад

Born and raised in Modesto, my dad was there that day in 62, he was 14 and laid down to look under the fence. He loved Mickey mantle. Got to meet Vida blue at a clinic there when i was about 12. So many memories that will be just that forever, memories 😢

@S_Over_Street 2 месяца назад

The 3 evil words that destroyed the city having a minor league affiliate team… Private Equity Firm

@BroadwayJoe99 2 месяца назад

All the more reason to force Skinflint Stanton to sell the Mariners to someone that actually wants to win a World Series.

@aaronmercado8630 2 месяца назад

I live in Fresno ca and we have a great stadium. Fresno had a AAA team then they were demoted to Single A. It’s such a shame baseball is genuinely killing itself in every local market. I doubt there’s much desire for a Single A team anywhere

@NoMoreTortillas1 Месяц назад

Sucks because they got demoted 6 years after they won the whole thing

@tommykeeran6776 Месяц назад

The Midwest has great support for its Single A teams......

@yobamayobama8940 Месяц назад

I feel like this video was almost entirely recommended to people who live in modesto haha

@jameslong1360 2 месяца назад

Great video as always. It’s a shame what is happening and you explained everything perfectly

@ThatC1official 2 месяца назад

They need a good stadium

@farmdwg 2 месяца назад

The new stadium promises sound exactly what Fisher is doing with Vegas. No way will they sell out every game.

@missbrookeladybug 16 дней назад

Thank you! I learned so much from this video. I'm from Modesto and a baseball fan, and most of this was new information to me.

@ICoyote65 2 месяца назад

When I was a kid I went to see a lot of the Modesto Reds games. Then it was with the Cardinals.

@samuelfrick3475 2 месяца назад

This is so sad MLB needs to get it together with their minor league teams!

@jonathanmantle2364 2 месяца назад

Having only come to baseball recently, it is amazing how minor league Baseball clubs dont care about anything other than money.

@LouisDaPen 2 месяца назад

Not even really MiLB; lots of good local owners. It's PE groups like DBH who want to squeeze money out of clubs and race to bottom by MLB owners who don't want to spend $ (see contraction of 40 MiLB teams and new rules cutting # of players per org)

@BillBird2111 2 месяца назад

I could only watch about 20-seconds of this. But, I wanted to add the following: Modesto's Mayor and City Council should be commended for rejecting this $32 MILLION cash grab. Because, that is what it is. A very wealthy MLB team owner wants to get paid. The City of Modesto told him to go stick it. Kudos to them. If they lose the Nuts, those are the breaks. The A's left town. So did the Reds. Modesto survived. It will continue to survive. Another team will see a profit opportunity and move right in, without the threat of a $32 million holdup.

@Lasxrcsto 22 дня назад

The 32 million would go into the stadium that the city owns. It’s 32 million in stadium upgrades to bring the stadium up to the leagues standards. The city hasn’t put money into that stadium since 1997, the city is a slumlord.

@BillBird2111 22 дня назад

@@Lasxrcsto It is what it is. You should have seen the place when they called it Del Webb Field. The improvement since then has been quite vast. So, I disagree with the slumlord comment. Finally, if the City of Modesto decides at some point to pony up and build the kind of facilities that can be found in placed like Stockton, that's up to the city. The city should never be strongarmed into anything. Plus, it should also be remembered that Stockton's stadium effort, which is quite nice, also led to a city-wide bankruptcy.

@brucehartnell1475 13 дней назад

Eugene, Oregon is going through something similar. The end of short season single A leagues ruined the relationship the Eugene Emeralds had with the University of Oregon, who built a new stadium when they brought back baseball in 2010 or so. The University gets the ball park first, and since the pro season now overlaps with the college season it limits the Emeralds options. They tried to pass a county bond to build a new stadium at the county fairgrounds but it failed pretty badly.

@brucehartnell1475 13 дней назад

There’s also some facility requirements that professional baseball has that college baseball doesn’t have, certain things like the size of locker rooms and other amenities. There were some pretty bad ball parks out there. In the Northwest league, the Salem Oregon franchise used to play at Chemeketa County junior college, and the outfield foul lines were 2x4 pieces of wood painted white. The Medford club had a pretty bad stadium, and the old Civic Stadium in Eugene had a raccoon problem.

@ocholoco5593 Месяц назад

Sad to hear. Won Californina League Championship in 2004….. Great memories! 😢

@NinnaFrank 2 месяца назад

Our high desert/ desert teams have all been destroyed in California .Its terrible 😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔 we seen Nolan arenado ,Trevor story and a lot of other pros on the Nuts

@richdiddens4059 2 месяца назад

The City of Modesto just dumped a tone of money to upgrade the stadium to MLB's then new standards about 15-20 years ago. Something like 6-12 million. @10:13 that big building on top of the stadium and those large roofed over sections on each side were parts of the upgrades. Lots of promises were made but no follow through.

@Lasxrcsto 22 дня назад

27 years ago, 1997 to be exact. The league has standards. The 32 million would go to the stadium the city owns.

@doubled3521 Месяц назад

Lived in modesto my whole life and the one sport we had is gone sucks to see how much influence outside places had in this

@Atlbluedevil 2 месяца назад

Thanks for making such a well done video that hit my algorithm Had no clue about the operation that DBH is pulling. Made the M-Braves moving to Columbus make so much more sense It's insane that the MLB is allowing such a conglomeration of one ownership group to buy out all of MiLB. Absolutely destroying one of the things about baseball that sets it so far apart from the other major sports

@PrimarySweeper13 2 месяца назад

Rip Modesto A’s/ Nuts

@serafinacosta7118 2 месяца назад

Private equity firms. It reminds me of the disfunctional Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst forays in professional sports. At one point they held majority stakes in the Texas Rangers ball club. They came to our shores , Brazil , and at one point in time , raked in 85% of profits on football ( soccer for Americans ) out of some investments they made in the club, mostly on players acquisitions ( transfer fees ). It was the ever so popular Sports Club Corinthians Paulista. Never spent a dime on facilities. The newly erected arena in São Paulo’s east side came years past their tenure. Corinthians , as with many other major and minor clubs with a pro football program, were private membership associations. A dues paying member holds a.voting right on how things are run, and who sits at the big chair. At some point in time , their gimmick ( Hicks and his partners ) ran old and tired, and the bigwig old timers managed to run the Americans out of town and flat in their arses. They tried suing, and went nowhere. Folks here gave private equity a taste of their own medicine.

@400alejandroo Месяц назад

Sad I live next the the stadium. Going to the last game this season. A lot childhood memories

@MoosefeetProductions 2 месяца назад

I love your DS9 references as much as your nor cal references!

@sebastianbelcher5354 2 месяца назад

Sucks to see this happening to a smaller farm team. Still boggles my mind the Diamondbacks are screaming for a new stadium. They could fix the roof and the stadium is perfect.... Glad to hear a city putting its foot down here.

@cadenhoback6219 26 дней назад

I live in Modesto and have gone to tons of nuts games it was always a good time sad there leaving

@shhhhh-n9p 2 месяца назад

DBH also owns the AA team in my area, the MS Braves. Who are also leaving to go to Georgia after this season.

@boxscorecollectibles 2 месяца назад

Some of us have not given up and hope to fight this. Time will tell. Stay tuned. Let's Gooooooooooo Nuts!

@tnktopbandit7863 2 месяца назад

Grew up watching modesto a's as a kid... Watched some big leaguers rehap there....when changed to nuts it was still fun to go... Sad to see it end

@UncleVatred 2 месяца назад

I knew this was going to be the endgame for Minor League Baseball in 2020 when the Rookie, Low A, and Short-Season teams were collapsed to save the Owners money. Not to mention how this and cutting 20 rounds off the Amateur Draft will dilute the talent level at the Major League level down the road. Think about it. The talent level can't be getting better if there's a shorter ladder to climb to get there.

@js1031 Месяц назад

We're basically watching the end of baseball in real time. The saddest thing about it is, it's all self-inflicted.

@skewtuh Месяц назад

Just found your vids and am loving them. Have you by chance done a video about the Fresno Fighting Falcons? When I was a kid I would go to there games all the time, especially when the San Diego Gulls would come to town. The games were always amazing and there was always good fights as The Gulls and Falcons were extreme rivals and hated each other. Keep up the great work. Love seeing Valley content. Thanks

@joehorne1410 2 месяца назад

I hated seeing this news yesterday. As you mentioned in a previous video about minor league baseball. If the MLB and people truly cared about the sport they'd help these small minor league towns thrive. Not only more opportunities for players, but these minor league teams are vital for the community. Also less opportunity for people to enjoy professional baseball. Money truly ruins everything, sadly no "good guys" are in control of baseball. First they take away basically the whole New York Penn League (Rip; Auburn, Batavia, Troy, Williamsport, Staten Island...etc.), now slowly more smaller MiLB teams taken away.

@Lenoh 2 месяца назад

It's been going downhill since the A's dropped us. E: $32 million?! Yeah, screw that. Good on Mayor Zwahlen for telling the MLB commissioner where to stick it.

@cliffwoodbury5319 2 месяца назад

Minor League Team Names Gave Some Interesting Names....

@drguarglemovies Месяц назад

Glad to see someone else covering this

@matiassalvatierra1223 13 дней назад

They weren't lying when they said it's a business first

@MrTakaMOSHi 2 месяца назад

So, DBH think's San Bernardino can support two Cal League teams?

@joelsimeone5112 2 месяца назад

Try 3. San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga, and the proposed new stadium in Ontario would all be within 25 miles of each other

@Sarkus01 2 месяца назад

@@joelsimeone5112That makes me think this is driven by cutting travel and housing costs. Just like they moved the rookie leagues to AZ and FL. That said, the Nuts averaged 1250 fans per game last year, so I see where the financials come from.

@HellStar24 Месяц назад

I tried working for them but they never got back to me and I lowkey prayed on their downfall that night, maybe I did this to them 😭

@jerkytoo8184 2 месяца назад

This is typical MLB behavior. For the city to pay for facilities that largely benefit your own business and claim that it benefits the community at large. Sadly, city councils often give in and pay up, so I'm glad to see Modesto not giving in.

@SlidinPonyCrew91 Месяц назад

As someone who lived in San jose and loved going to giants game it sucks seeing my new home town team possibly being dismantled

@stephenbird5472 2 месяца назад

There is a change happening in major league farm systems. The MLB is moving from the old model to utilizing college ball as their minor leagues. A high school player can now play just two years of college ball and then enter the draft. If you look at the most recent draft most of the players are coming from colleges. Even outstanding high school players are entering elite college programs for two years before entering the draft. I follow Oregon State and they have outstanding facilities. My guess is better than the Modesto Nuts. OSU is getting top 200 draft prospects every year. This year they had the first overall pick in the MLB draft and a total of 7 players drafted. The role of Single A ball is changing. Not for the better.

@michaelburchett5733 2 месяца назад

This makes me pretty scared for the Visalia Rawhide. It’s obvious with this, the contraction of MiLB, and the A’s situation the current MLB owners do not value grassroots baseball.

@pokemongo-up3rq Месяц назад

America is collapsing due to mismanagement. Baseball should be the least of our concerns.

@tubbychile Месяц назад

I believe the Lower A in Visalia is also going away

@robertbaird5016 2 месяца назад

How is Ontario getting a team when Cuca and San Bern are already there? The Cal League math doesn't really add up right now.

@mikeavina168 2 месяца назад

Are the Stockton ports still financially stable? Great vids btw. Rip the Nuts 😢

@ErnestGoesToMadeas 2 месяца назад

It sounds like the Quakes/Dodgers are moving to Ontario, and DBH will move the 66ers/Angels to Rancho Cucamonga. Makes sense because Loanmart Field is next to Route 66, and the San Bernardino team can go back to being called the San Bernardino Spirit. DBH owns the Spirit license/team history, and the Spirit are historically known for being tied with Ken Griffey Jr and the Mariners.

@Kaseyberg 2 месяца назад

My hometown team the Hillsboro hops also used the argument that the new stadium would host more events like concerts and i call bullshit. Also loved the DS9 mention.

@peterherrera7566 2 месяца назад

As if people saw a promising future for a professional team called, The Nuts.

@samuelfrick3475 21 день назад

Would love to see a follow up video after the city council voted to keep the Nuts around through at least 2025.

@thetouchback 21 день назад

Just finished the script. Incoming tonight or tomorrow.

@raider-d2843 26 дней назад

At the time I make this I don't know if vanessa city council was able to keep the nuts but the marriage should reach out to the River cats to see if they could get them for the next 3 to 4 years Vanessa will have baseball AAA no less and if the A's stadium in Sacramento area who knows maybe Modesto will have a AAA club

@PCSPounder 2 месяца назад

Check out the situation in Eugene. While ownership promised to cover part of the cost of a new $90 million park, and the state pledged to chip in $15 million, the city held an election for their $15 million contribution… which failed 32-68. The Emeralds are threatening to move. I just don’t see anyone in the Northwest stepping up to pay for a new facility. When Hillsboro was fundraising, Vancouver (Washington) was kind of hinted, but there is zero news out of there. So I’m wondering if this is a bluff… …or if there’s a merger of the California and Northwest Leagues in a planning stage, with several markets set to lose teams.

@gabagool7435 Месяц назад

One less thing to do in modesto

@aaronblaylock2092 Месяц назад

I believe there will be a movement where people are going to realize you don't need billions or surrender to people who do have it to have pro baseball in their town and enjoy it. More independent teams are going to spring up owned and ran by their communities and they will rival the minor leagues in attendance and in time surpass them. The Oakland Ballers are a good example though there are critics and know it alls suspecting negative things of them, their attendance and reviving affect on the west Oakland area continues to turn heads.

@j.d.lawrence1222 2 месяца назад

Try to have the city get the rights to the team name and then rebrand the team as a competitor of the Savana Bananas instead of being a farm team for the MLB!

@ErnestGoesToMadeas 2 месяца назад

DBH is not getting a new ballpark in Ontario California, Rancho Baseball who owns the Quakes agreed with the city of Ontario to put a team there.

@HoshizakiYoshimasa Месяц назад

California has too many teams anyway.

@patrickwillard2815 2 месяца назад

So they want to move the Nuts to the IE, and they are building a stadium in Ontario. There’s already stadiums in San Berdu - the 66ers and in Rancho Cucamonga - the Quakes. I love me some MiLB, but how many teams do they think we can support? Rancho is next door to Ontario!

@tonyarmbrust 2 месяца назад

I think someone already posted it, but an USL team could make a good replacement. Really, there should be USL teams in Bakersfield, Fresno (there was one there before.) Stockton, etc.

@GeoffKimo 2 месяца назад

The solution is simple: Convert the stadium to a soccer specific one (which is also ideal for lacrosse/rugby/field hockey), and get a USL League One or W League team in place of the Nuts. The demographics of soccer is the youngest of all the major pro sports, so that is the future. Soccer fandom in the U.S. has already surpassed hockey, and is projected to surpass baseball by the World Cup to be the Number three sport in the U.S. (behind only the NFL and NBA).

@Lasxrcsto 22 дня назад

In the area that John Thurman field is in? 😏

@GRUMPY656799 2 месяца назад

Mariners are a business investment club for a bunch of rich investors.. not a ball club... as soon as you wrap your head around that you can stop being a fan.. that's where it will hurt them.. 80 mil in 2022.. lots of j rod jerseys sales for a average mlb player

@01dirtydirk 2 месяца назад

Great content

@FranciscoMorales-ro5cn 2 месяца назад

And mlb wonders why they’re losing fans lol

@Biffysmalls 2 месяца назад

More awesome content, brother. It’s nice to see someone understand how unfettered capitalism destroys communities and culture

@derekgilbert2884 2 месяца назад

MLB revenue 2023 $12 Billion dollars next Seattle Marines revenue 2023 $365 Millions dollars . It very sad for town can't afford this shame on MLB be greedy 😊😊😊😊.

@scottwhitt9379 2 месяца назад

Curious how many teams DBH has relocated?

@GettinThere-yw3py 2 месяца назад

Everybody -- STOP hacking on Minor League Baseball. You're dragging a good name through the mud after The Office Of The Commisioner Of Baseball terribly seized control of this entity and are doing awful things. One that I dislike immensely is there are no games on Mondays. When I want to start a road trip (I'm almost up to 100 Major, Minor, and Independent league parks), I'm stuck without a game to visit by the second or third day. Gimme a break. I have a park that was voted one of the best in the Minors 2-3 times in the next city. But, I don't go there in protest of that owner's actions -- almost like he was a lead scout for the Commisioner's office.

@nutstar 2 месяца назад

NOOOOOOO!!!

@hopelyons479 2 месяца назад

Bro thanks so much for letting me know why the team is truly leaving. I'm not surprised it's a money thing since our country is mainly made up of capitalistic entities who worship the mighty dollar. 😔

@alexfeezell 2 месяца назад

Who is gonna replace them?

@donerickson1954 Месяц назад

Forget about baseball, rip thurmond stadium down and build low income housing. That is what is needed in Modesto and Stanislaus county right now

@joeriveracomedy 2 месяца назад

I auditioned to be an announcer there. Too scripted. I go off the cuff at boxing & 5Ks. My preference.

@BriannaBalenciaga981 2 месяца назад

I live in Modesto California let me tell you lies the crap I've seen and endured while out and about or going hiking the amount of madness i have to endure all the time tells me I've had random people come up to my front porch at night and during the day as well not to mention my neighbors are getting their windows broken into in their cars as well and everything else i can't move to another city at all

@Lasxrcsto 22 дня назад

Modesto is run by a certain party, would rather spend the money on social programs for 2% or the population than the good of the 98%.

@Sarkus01 2 месяца назад

1. Minor league teams relocate all the time. 2. The Nuts had the worst attendance in their league last year. 3. You noted the stadium age issue. With minor league contraction, there are fewer teams and the reality of professional sports at all levels is that supply does not meet demand for teams. So, every owner in every league at every level can be expected to ask for the best deal they can get and consider moving if better deals are available.

@bobbyjenkins7946 2 месяца назад

Cal league is done as a whole

@michaelbaucom4019 2 месяца назад

The park is in a bad part of town, with bad access and not much parking. There should have been a new park built in a different part of town decades ago. Sadly, it didn't happen, and this was the inevitable result

@PCSPounder 2 месяца назад

No. Prepare for the revolt. No more justifying ballpark extortion. Hillsboro, suburb of Portland, has the Hops. The current ballpark is only 11 years old (it was only a $15 million project as it replaced an existing softball field and shared a concourse with the adjacent football stadium), but grabbed $18 million from Hillsboro, $8 million from Washington County, and $15 million from the state to build a new park that will erase more heavily used softball fields in the same complex. Mind you, the ownership is contributing $82 million to the project… but, for Single A baseball, a $125 million ballpark? WHAT?!? They’re talking about getting a chunk of concert business (chuckle) and some other business entertainment events… again, what? It’s not like they’re selling out every game in the “old” ballpark since going from short season to full season. Besides, the Portland Pickles exist. Never mind that it’s collegiate wood-bat (West Coast League), it’s way more fun, even for playing in a park that barely has bleachers and encourages fans to bring folding chairs and situate on the grass berms. I know who’s getting my money.

@SippyCupAdventures 2 месяца назад

Where the park is located has nothing to do with this. It's been there for YEARS and people have come. Some days, more than others.

@BillBird2111 2 месяца назад

Bad part of town? Yes. Not much parking? Again, yes. But you just don't ditch an area like this. You work to change it. The ballpark can be improved. There is space for additional parking. The neighborhood and surrounding area could also greatly improve with some proactive city leadership. The investment would be $1-$2 million, not the $32 million money grab. Stockton went a different direction and build a new ballpark. It's in the same area, and yes the city went bankrupt because of it. But that Ports ballyard sure is nice.

@Lasxrcsto 22 дня назад

@@BillBird211132 million would be going into stadium upgrades to bring the stadium up to standards. Modesto owns the stadium, but they act like slumlords.

@GrumpyOld11Bravo Месяц назад

This is the Modesto City Councils fault. Chris Ricci and our mayor sue zwhallen are to blame for this. They wanted the land from thee Muni golf course and thee stadium to build condos. Videos like this do more to hurt than help.

@1_Fish.2_Fish.Red_Fish. 21 день назад

Methdesto is a strange place.

@mario3804 2 месяца назад

Bakersfield lost their minor league team 10 years ago and the town has not been the same, they have a semi pro team now but not the same.

@Lasxrcsto 22 дня назад

Modesto hasn’t put any funds into that stadium since 1997, MLB has standards that it requires and the city of Modesto is acting like a slumlord.

@thetouchback 21 день назад

Modesto has paid $1.3 million for capital improvements at John Thurman Field since 2017. An additional $3 million in operating costs for the stadium have also been provided by the city since 2018. Try again without lying.

@Lasxrcsto 19 дней назад

@@thetouchback my stats came right off the Modesto bee article. And I stand behind my slumlord comment.

@thetouchback 19 дней назад

@@Lasxrcsto You did not present stats, you just made an untrue comment. Those first two sentences about Modesto city funding for John Thurman Field came directly from the Modesto Bee: www.modbee.com/news/local/article289927864.html

@Lasxrcsto 18 дней назад

@@thetouchback ok Chris Ricci

@thetouchback 18 дней назад

@@Lasxrcsto So you lied, got exposed and that is all you can muster. Dude, you should probably rethink everything you are doing in life.

@samuelwright163 Месяц назад

The City failed to finance stadium improvements, city council just voted to increase their salary by 300percent. Ontario builds a new baseball stadium, Modesto cheap.

@thetouchback Месяц назад

You conveniently forgot to mention the city council hadn't received a raise since 2008. Better yet, that raise was only $6,000 annually. Also, the city has financed improvements to the stadium in the past...millions of dollars worth. But sure, not spending $32 million on these upgrades, Modesto is cheap.

@Lasxrcsto 22 дня назад

@@thetouchbacklast upgrade was 1997, 27 years ago.