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Sonics Tradition

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On the subject of NBA franchise relocation, James had an intriguing way to organize our thoughts:

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Personally, I don't think it's important to preserve [statistical] records, because we'll adapt to the new records, just like we adapted to huge strikeout changes, etc, (or NFL going from 14- to 16-game season and eventually 18). Even so, going to 8-inning game will radically change bullpen usage, but, we've seen that over the past 30 years anyway.
Asked by: tangotiger
Answered: 1/14/2013
Well. ...philosophically, you and I share a predisposition in favor of change; I think we're both inclined to believe that baseball hurts itself more than it helps itself by its fear of change.  
 
But at the same time, it does not follow that all changes are good changes, or that there is no value in tradition.   Indeed, almost the ENTIRE value of a sports franchise is in its traditions.   You and I could design a game which is as entertaining to watch as baseball or football, but were a league to be launched based on that game, its revenues in Year One would be less than 1% of the revenues of the NFL or MLB.    The other 99% is accounted for traditions.  
 
The value in the franchises is in the traditions which bind its fan base to the team.    While I agree that baseball needs to be open to change, I also think that it needs to be not TOO anxious to change.  

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This is a thought-provoking suggestion -- that 99% of the Seahawks' shirt sales* are really because of a contextual backdrop.  The fact that they're playing in the NFL(TM), the league of Lombardi and Walsh and Unitas and etc., and the investment that sons and fathers have made over the years -- this is the fabric of fan loyalty and intensity.

Compare the value of a product's "brand"; the Coca-Cola "brand" is worth 60-something billion.  The memories, feelings, and attitudes are themselves the marketable product.

Obviously, most of this is true.  You could build a USFL team to play in Portland, and it might have great players, but it's not going to have anything that we value about a Felix Hernandez - Albert Pujols matchup on Friday night.  This would be true even if Felix and Pujols jumped to the USFL.*

Twinks 0 ...

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In October of 1961, the Soviets set off a hydrogen bomb that, for all intents and purposes, set the limits of power for such a weapon (due to fallout affecting the initiator).  When the Russkies lit up the 55-megaton "Tsar Bomba", the fireball alone blazed 5 miles in diameter and the mushroom cloud blossomed 200,000 feet into the air, about eight times the height of Mt. Everest.  The cloud was 25 miles in diameter.

Picture a single bomb going off in Seattle, and blowing to smithereens all concrete and brick structures in ... Tacoma.  Mammals being terminated by the heat in Olympia.  Wooden houses in Portland being wiped out.  Windows being broken in northern California.  

The TNT equivalent would be represented by a cube about 1000' by 1000' by 1000', twice the height of the Space Needle.  That's one H-bomb; obviously 30 or 40 of these would put any country in the past tense.  The U.S. has 9,600 warheads.  By the grace of heaven, you and I sat there all last week not worried in the least.  

In related news, the Seattle Mariners lit up the 34-megaton starting pitcher "Felix Bomba" on the Twinks Saturday night.  A few post-blast damage reports:

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Felix' spitball, er, his changeup, had a runs value of -4.55 coming into the game.  Meaning that 100 changeups resulted in a -4.55 reduction in enemy runs scored.  In this particular game, he threw 38 changeups (!!) and those changeups resulted in a -2.25 reduction in runs scored, over those 38 pitches.

Give me one pitch anywhere in baseball, and I'll take Felix' dry spitball.  Bobby Murcer said he'd rather hit a 500-MPH fastball than Gaylord Perry's hard spitter.  At least that way he'd have a chance.

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Though the Twinkies have a terrible record, their offense isn't all that bad.  They're 22nd in the majors in wRC+, right next to the Angels.  They've got Denard Span, Joe Mauer, and Josh Willingham's OPS+ is 185.  They've got six players who draw good walks, have lots of lefty hitters, rank decently in AVG, OBP, 2Bs and SB's.  They ain't the Red Sox but Felix didn't blow away the 2010 Mariners out there.

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