Major League Baseball in Tennessee

This is all based on the graph David Hallstrom has put up a graph of 10 cities and their ability to host a Major League Baseball team. Espn.com has the article which is a conversation starter, if nothing else. Here's the link.

I started looking at a couple of numbers. Nashville, when I added numbers up, ranked just behind Portland. Portland's got a slight edge on median income (40,416 to 39,797), but Nashville's got the edge in TV Households (226,000 to 223,200). They have equitable populations and surrounding metro populations. They have similar ranks on the list with number of companies on the Fortune 500 (though their's are more highly ranked, on average, and more recognizable). Nashville and its surrounding areas, though, has a serious edge in population growth.

I say all this only because Portland is being bandied about as the big contender for the Expos, if (notice I said if) the Expos relocate.

I'm biased. I wouldn't mind at all a Major League Baseball team in Nashville.

But guess what? This should have been obvious...I think Memphis would rank even higher than Nashville on the list.

I'm not going to bore you with many of the stats, yet. Mostly because I'm not that sure of my numbers. I'm going to have to sit down and do a little number crunching later on tonight. What I'm saying here is based on the few numbers I've jotted down on a couple of pieces of printer paper.

The numbers I used, which may not be the same Hallstrom used for his sources, can be found if you dig on the U.S. Government census site, the Fortune 500 page, the Wikipedia, and the Tennessean's census page.

And like I said, I need to do a lot of fact checking...and I'm not sure how you rank Baseball History among the cities in question, and where my cities would fall in. I just know that Memphis probably ranks higher on the Baseball History and Projected Attendance, and it definitely ranks higher in population and Fortune 500 companies.

The only thing hurting it is its relative proximity to St. Louis. Nashville is 5 hours away from St. Louis and Cincinnati, and 4 or so away from Atlanta, which would keep it from any territorial squabbles.

Mostly, I'm thinking out loud.

Am I the only one that remembers the brief two hours where the rumor flew hot on talk radio that the Twins owner Carl Pohlad had contacted Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams and Nashville City Planners about the possibility of making the then-to-be-constructed Coliseum might be made to be convertable from football to baseball....and for two hours, there was a glimmer of hope that Nashville could get a MLB team. But then the next day they talked to a representative from the Twins, who said it was all bullcrap.

Keep in mind, too, that I understand baseball is the red headed stepchild in this football crazed state. The Sounds, the Pirates Triple-A affiliate play in a poorly-constructed, dilapidated after just 25 years, middle of nowhere stadium. And this year Nashville will have its highest attendance level in 10 years....and those numbers are still half of what the Redbirds get in Memphis. I think Memphis would just be a better baseball town than Nashville.

But then...I didn't think Nashville would be able to support a pro football team, and definitely not an NHL team. Nashville's a football town, so the Titans shouldn't have been a surprise. And even though the Preds have been pretty crappy the past couple of years, they've managed to keep a steady fanbase. It's tough to get a weekend ticket, and if the Avalanche, Redwings or Devils come into town, forget about it any day of the week.

So maybe that vaunted Tennessee Sports Council oughta look into this pro baseball thing. There's no way we could get the Expos....but if Tampa Bay and Florida don't start pulling better crowds, they may be looking for new homes before long, too.

Mostly I'm daydreaming.