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Mets Block Yankees AAA In Newark


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http://www.nj.com/yankees/index.ssf/2011/09/izenberg_mets_blocked_yankees_plan.html

Izenberg: Mets blocked Yankees from bringing minor league team to Newark for a season

Published: Monday, September 26, 2011, 7:45 PM

This is a baseball story — but not about the universal baseball feeling for a community that we used to know. It is also about Newark, the city where I was raised to love baseball and where the Yankees’ Triple-A farm team, voted the greatest minor league franchise in the 20th century, was the emotional metronome to which the soul of an entire city marched.

I remember the day that I asked New Jersey’s populist poet laureate, a man named Yogi Berra, about the connection between the city and the players on that long-gone minor league franchise for which he played, and his instant hair-trigger response was:

“My baseball time in Newark ... all my memories of those days in Newark back then ... good time ... very good times.”

This comes to mind today because until around noon today the thought that all of us could “go home again” was as beautiful and as pristine as a walk-off home run.

It brought back memories of soft summer nights when you could walk the length of neighborhood streets in this town and through the open windows never miss a pitch of any of those Yankee farm team games. The city loved it. Could we borrow those glorious memories for a year now?

But then this morning, the Mets gave the Yankees a terse response that killed that moment — probably forever.

This is what happened.

The Yankees’ current Triple-A franchise is anchored in the twin cities of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, an area in northeast Pennsylvania that has always supported baseball on some level. But the Yankees organization decided that PNC Field, the Triple-A team’s home park, is in desperate need of renovation. The job will take all of 2012.

And back in New York, management came up with a magnificent public relations idea. Newark had been the bellwether of all Yankee minor league teams dating as far back as when Jacob Ruppert was paying Babe Ruth’s salary across the river. Newark, through horrendous mismanagement, has seen its minor league team dissolve.

Newark has a ballpark. With that in mind, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman visited the city’s Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, which does need work. He met with Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. Together, they hammered out an agreement that could be done for the least money.

To understand the mechanics of what followed, you have to understand that Major League Baseball has a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling giving it an antitrust exemption. The Boy Scouts of America have no such exemption. The NFL, NBA and NHL have no such blanket exemption. Chains of cloistered nuns or Trappist monasteries do not have an antitrust exemption.

Under baseball’s rules, the exclusivity of the Yankees and Mets territory is shared. The Yankees called the Mets and asked permission to put their Triple-A team in Newark for only a single year.

The Mets declined.

The Yankees tried again. They pointed out that it was only for a single year.

The Mets declined again.

The Yankees tried once more. They repeated that this was just for a single year. They said that if the Mets agreed for just that one season they would offer an evergreen matching proposal. In essence, they would give the Mets the same shot if they had a team with a minor league park in jeopardy, no matter how many eons into the future.

The Mets declined, saying their organization would only do something like that with mutual and immediate reciprocity as they did when the Yanks put a minor league team in Staten Island and allowed the Mets to do the same in Brooklyn.

But those were permanent moves. This was only for a year, the Yankees argued. They also offered a permanent waiver if a similar situation ever arose for the Mets. In addition, there was Yankee money involved in this final offer.

And once again, the Mets declined.

Today, DiVincenzo thanked the Yankees for their consideration and Brian Cashman, the Yankee GM, for his “professionalism.” But he could not hide his obvious disappointment:

“Unfortunately, the Mets exercised their territorial rights to block this temporary partnership and have prevented the chance for baseball fans to come to Newark and Essex County to watch players in minor league baseball’s highest classification on their way up to the major leagues. It would have rejuvenated interest in one of the highest levels of the sport in an important urban area.”

One of the concerns that influenced the Mets was their belief that a minor league team in Newark might have weaned potential Mets fans away from the affluent New Jersey suburbs.

Actually if such a presence was allowed, the idea of seeing future Yankees in New Jersey would probably have hurt the Yanks a little bit at their game — surely not the Mets.

Last night, a Mets spokesman confirmed that the team blocked the move, and would only say the decision was within the team’s rights.

The prospect of that wonderful season is now stone cold dead.

Perhaps the Mets have a point. At 23 games out of first place, they are farther back than all but three other National League teams.

A minor league team in Newark could be a problem to the current “minor league” team at Citi Field.

Jerry Izenberg: jizenberg@starledger.com

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Is anyone buying the idea that this was temporary? if Cash had gotten the AAA Yanks into Newark, they'd have stayed there.

I remember when Steinbrenner, at the behest of that scumbag Giuliani, stole the Oneonta Yankees and put them on Staten Island. On behalf of baseball fans outside metro NYC, I say thanks to the Mets.

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PNC Field was built round 1990 and is very good shape, at least to the untrained eye. Not sure what "desperate need of renovation" means, unless they are looking to upgrade the clubhouses. The field is well maintained, the facilities are respectable and the playing surface appears to be well maintained.

Something else must be motivating this.

EDIT-Just found article that says there are some water problems and some of the steel is compromised by rust.

Let the Yanks AAA team play in Hawaii ;)

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Is anyone buying the idea that this was temporary? if Cash had gotten the AAA Yanks into Newark, they'd have stayed there.

I remember when Steinbrenner, at the behest of that scumbag Giuliani, stole the Oneonta Yankees and put them on Staten Island. On behalf of baseball fans outside metro NYC, I say thanks to the Mets.

Umm, you think they are going to renovate their stadium is Scranton with no plans to return?

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Umm, you think they are going to renovate their stadium is Scranton with no plans to return?

I can absolutely see the team shafting the community. It's not like the Yankees are paying for the repairs.

Yes, games have been canceled on beautiful days because the field is under water.

This much, I believe. The flooding in the Susquehanna valley was horrendous, all the way from here in upstate NY through PA.

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Is anyone buying the idea that this was temporary? if Cash had gotten the AAA Yanks into Newark, they'd have stayed there.

I remember when Steinbrenner, at the behest of that scumbag Giuliani, stole the Oneonta Yankees and put them on Staten Island. On behalf of baseball fans outside metro NYC, I say thanks to the Mets.

Two different things Bob -- this was a one year thing. That is all the Mets were asked to agree to.

Let's not over complicate this. Mets = bad.

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The Mets once big financial success has been the A Brooklyn Cyclones. They could continue to proseper and flourish if they swapped AAA Buffalo or AA Binghamton with Brooklyn concurrent with this move. It would allow their Brooklyn team to have another 40 plus dates, and they sell out all the time. Also, the Brooklyn is owned by the Wilpons.

The Yankees recognize having their AAA prospects playing at a more "reasonable" venue nearby would be win win marketing longterm.The Mets do not have that kind of vision.

This would not have been a 1 year thing. And the Yankees are not telling the truth to claim that. Cashman is not going to sink money into Newark and then leave.

Also, the Tigers pulled up stakes and abandoned Oneonta too. The economy of Rustbelt upstate NY is awful. No one is obliged to lose money there. It's a shame, but it's not changing.

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The Mets once big financial success has been the A Brooklyn Cyclones. They could continue to proseper and flourish if they swapped AAA Buffalo or AA Binghamton with Brooklyn concurrent with this move. It would allow their Brooklyn team to have another 40 plus dates, and they sell out all the time. Also, the Brooklyn is owned by the Wilpons.

The Yankees recognize having their AAA prospects playing at a more "reasonable" venue nearby would be win win marketing longterm.The Mets do not have that kind of vision.

This would not have been a 1 year thing. And the Yankees are not telling the truth to claim that. Cashman is not going to sink money into Newark and then leave.

Also, the Tigers pulled up stakes and abandoned Oneonta too. The economy of Rustbelt upstate NY is awful. No one is obliged to lose money there. It's a shame, but it's not changing.

Based on what?

1. Their AAA stadium in Scranton is being renovated, that's why they need to move somewhere for 1 season.

2. The Yankees can't actually move their AAA team to Newark full time without the Mets permission. Obviously they would say no, since they wont even let them do it for 1 season.

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Point is if the Mets juggled their minor leaguers to have AAA in Brooklyn concurrent with the Yanks moving their AAA team to Newark, it would be a good move financially and marketing-wise for both teams.

And there is no way the Yanks were looking to do this for 1 season.

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Point is if the Mets juggled their minor leaguers to have AAA in Brooklyn concurrent with the Yanks moving their AAA team to Newark, it would be a good move financially and marketing-wise for both teams.

And there is no way the Yanks were looking to do this for 1 season.

again, based on what? and even if they did want to do for full time, the Mets would have to green light it. I'm looking to bang Scarlet Johnson, doesn't mean she will agree to it.

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Point is if the Mets juggled their minor leaguers to have AAA in Brooklyn concurrent with the Yanks moving their AAA team to Newark, it would be a good move financially and marketing-wise for both teams.

And there is no way the Yanks were looking to do this for 1 season.

The request that the Yankees made, specifically asked for this for one season. Would the Yankees have wanted more, sure. But they know that wasn't going to be a long term option.

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More wrinkles-who knows? But clear both clubs want minor league affiliates closer to the City.

NY Mets object to having Yankees' AAA team play in Newark, don't want 3rd Bomber farm team near city

BY Andy Martino AND Bill Madden

DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITERS

Tuesday, September 27th 2011, 7:05 PM

With PNC Field, where A-Rod rehabbed in August, unavailable for the 2012 season due to renovations, the Yankees sought a temporary home in Newark, a move the Mets put the brakes on.

Call it the case of the jobs-starved city, $250,000, and the dispute over a town rich in baseball history. It is the tangled story of how the Yankees and Mets could not agree on one year of Triple-A ball in Newark.

While powerful people dispute the particulars, the citizens of Newark - a town that once hosted the iconic Bears, the Yankees' flagship affiliate - have lost the chance for a summer of fun and temporary employment.

The Star-Ledger reported on Monday night that the Mets had exercised their territorial rights and denied a request from the the Yankees to move their top affiliate to Newark for one season. The Bombers' Triple-A club plays in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pa., but its stadium needs renovations that will make it uninhabitable for a season.

Neither the Mets nor Yankees can launch a new minor league franchise in the Tri-state area without the other's consent.

Beyond those basic facts, the tale gets complicated.

Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost said that he called Mets officials about a week ago, and inquired about a one-year waiver for Newark.

"Then I called back - because I hadn't heard from them - and was specifically told that in exchange for a one-year waiver in Newark, they would demand territorial rights (for a minor league franchise) in either Long Island or Connecticut," Trost told the Daily News on Tuesday.

"I said, 'Permanently?' They said, 'Permanently."'

Fifteen minutes later, Trost says, he called the Mets again, and declined their proposal.

As Trost recalls it, he continued communicating with the Mets about Newark, and later offered, "a quarter of a million dollars, plus the same rights I was requesting - a one-year waiver whenever they needed it. I was told no."

According to one source with knowledge of the talks, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's office contacted the Mets to press the issue, but was unsuccessful in changing their stance.

According to both the Yankees and Mets, the organizations have periodically discussed opening additional minor league franchises in the Tri-state area, as they already have done in Brooklyn and Staten Island. But the sides disagree about the relevance of that situation to the Newark issue. Mets officials say that they offered the Yankees a solution: They would own future minor league rights to Long Island and Connecticut, and the Yankees would own New Jersey and Westchester County. The Yankees do not agree with that characterization.

"That is 100% inaccurate," Trost said. "That never had anything to do with this issue."

The Mets, meanwhile, spent much of Tuesday livid that they had been painted as villains, according to sources. When the story became public, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo expressed his displeasure, as did Newark mayor Cory Booker, who Tweeted, "I am not happy about this." The Internet came alive with disapproval.

Inside the offices at Citi Field, Mets officials bristled, saying that the Yankees had given them just a few weeks to consider the Newark proposal. The Yankees did not dispute that timeline, but added that they only became aware of the need to relocate from Scranton within the past month or so.

The Mets also considered the prospect of three Yankees affiliates - Staten Island, Trenton and Newark - existing within driving distance of the city far from ideal, even for just a season.

Whatever happened, Newark lost a chance to briefly revive a legendary minor league franchise. From 1926-1949, the Bears fed top talent to the Yankees, including Yogi Berra and Joe Gordon. The 1937 Bears won 109 games, and are remembered as one of the best minor league teams in history.

There is now an independent team using the name, and the Bears/Yankees relationships appears forever relegated to the past.

"That door is closed at the moment," Trost said.

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