MLB and the Powers of Location Inertia/MLB on the Radio

https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/07/23/bryce-harper-manny-machado-new-york-yankees-second-half-storylines

It is fascinating that after 50 years and longer, how expansion franchises in MLB appear to continue to struggle in the long-run. Were these marginal cities to begin with or is it just noise? We are seeing new examples in Europe as their soccer leagues take off that it takes a variety of types of cities to make a league. Many of those smaller cities bask in the play of out of town ballplayers and the occasional unexpected title or good season. Major League Baseball teams that were not among the original 16 MLB teams or that have re-located at some point in their history often struggle both in the standings and at the box office.

Look at the teams where expansion has taken place since 1960 and several of these franchises have still either never won the World Series or won once or twice and continued to struggle in general in the standings. Houston obviously only broke through last year. The Mets have won two titles in almost 60 years and that tops the list along with the Toronto Blue Jays who hit a temporary blip upon opening their ballpark in 1989 and the Marlins and Royals. However, the Marlins and Royals have also experienced long swathes of incompetent play from their teams and couldn't sustain their World Series success. Neither the Brewers, Nationals, Mariners, Rays, Rockies, Rangers nor Padres have won the World Series. The Nationals and Mariners have never even played in the World Series, although the Nationals have been among the best teams in baseball since 2011 and their local market conditions appear to be good.

1. New York Mets
2. Toronto Blue Jays
3. Kansas City Royals
4. Miami Marlins
5. L.A. Angels
6. Houston Astros
7. Arizona Diamondbacks
8. Tampa Bay Rays
9. Colorado Rockies
10. Washington Senators/Texas Rangers
11. San Diego Padres
12. Seattle Pilots/Milwaukee Brewers
13. Seattle Mariners
14. Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals

Related to the above franchises are the nomad teams and the changing name teams. Many of these teams are struggling on an ongoing basis either at the box office or in the standings, except for the Dodgers and Giants, and formerly the Braves, although the Braves have often struggled at the box office in spite of their former national presence on TBS:

1. Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns
2. Oakland A's/Philadelphia A's, Kansas City A's
3. Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Braves, Boston Braves
4. L.A. Angels, California Angels, Anaheim Angels, L.A. Angels of Anaheim, L.A. Angels,
5. L.A. Dodgers, Brooklyn Dodgers
6. San Francisco Giants, New York (Manhattan) Giants
7. Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos
8. Miami Marlins, Florida Marlins
9. Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Tampa Bay Rays
10. Minnesota Twins/Washington Senators/Washington Nationals
11. Houston Colt 45's/Astros
12. Milwaukee Brewers/Seattle Pilots


A third category of under-performing team is one where market factors in its home city appear to have changed making competition more difficult. This generally implies a location in the Rust Belt but also implies a lower population related to larger hubs on the east coast and in the Midwest, or a more working class fan base. Note that these teams have great histories and individual seasons and the fan bases are still highly involved when they are competitive and there is nothing surprising about seeing these teams succeed for a while but in the long-run, the numbers just aren't there in terms of competing with the top franchises. The Mets and White Sox and A's and Orioles all have to compete with local teams that are more successful and which have more affluent fan bases.


1. Cincinnati Reds
2. Pittsburgh Pirates
3. New York Mets
4. Chicago White Sox
5. Baltimore Orioles
6. Oakland A's
7. Cleveland Indians
8. Milwaukee Brewers

Most successful franchises on a long-run basis both financially and competitively:
1. New York Yankees
2. Los Angeles Dodgers
3. Boston Red Sox
4. Chicago Cubs
5. San Francisco Giants
6. St. Louis Cardinals


This last group is the elite. While they may not always win the World Series, they tend to get to the play-offs and sometimes win it all, and when they have losing seasons, they tend to bounce back almost immediately. The Cubs are a new member in terms of baseball success but they have had the financial success to be here for a while. There is little reason for any of these six teams to have extended seasons of losing.  They all control either large affluent markets or have national or large regional followings. They tend to have very successful baseball broadcasts on AM that can often be heard in vast swathes of the nation.  Yankee and Cardinal games are both easily heard all over the east coast on week nights on AM radio. Atlanta would have formerly been in this group but losing TBS which had featured it for years changes the framework for the franchise. The Braves have also made the surprising decision not to broadcast on clear channel AM like the Yankees and Cardinals. It is clear that the Braves have fallen out of the top tier since they were sold off in the aftermath of the AOL-Time Warner debacle.

It wasn't that long ago when Braves and Cubs games were available everywhere on cable on a daily basis so that in itself is a huge difference in the competitive landscape going back to the point where for 20 years, the Yankees and Braves were essentially above the other franchises. Without TBS, Atlanta will never be the same sort of guaranteed successful franchise again but apparently that three hour slot each day that the Braves were occupying is more lucratively being used up now with re-runs of Friends.

Speaking of baseball on the radio, I believe that that is another key indicator of MLB's health as well as a good vital sign for individual franchises. So, being in the Washington, DC area, I took to the AM air waves with my Sony ICF-7600G, which is an excellent portable AM/FM Shortwave receiver. What I found on a Monday evening after sundown was encouraging. Starting at WFAN 660, which is at the bottom of the so-called dial (this radio is digital and has no dial), I easily picked up the Yankees-Rays game in excellent clarity but with definite fading from time to time. At 670 AM, WSCR Chicago, the Cubs-Diamondbacks game out of Arizona comes in loud and clear.

Continuing upward, I go to WLW AM 700 and the Reds and Cardinals were in a 1-0 no-hitter, now a one-hitter and now a Reds comeback win after almost being no-hit. At AM 710, the Mets and Padres came in strong on WOR. On 720 AM, WGN, the Chicago White Sox and L.A. Angels can be heard playing their game on the west coast.  At AM 1000, the Indians and Pirates is on but fades in and out. Many evenings out of Cleveland, it is better than this, plus, I could use a loop antenna if this were critical listening, to improve the stability and clarity of the broadcast.  At AM 1120, the Cardinals and Reds came in strong, again but this time on KDKA out of St. Louis, instead of Cincinnati.

1270 AM, out of Detroit has the Royals-Tigers game on. It is easily identifiable but fades and is faint. On 1440 AM, out of Morgantown, West Virginia, the Pirates were blasting the Indians, 7-0. Then on 1500 AM, the Nats and the Brewers came in weakly, barely listenable, which may seem strange since it is local but high-powered AM stations often have a strongly-directional beam and 1500 out of DC is north-south oriented and as I am west of DC, I do much better listening to the Nationals on FM 106.7 although during the day, I have a local option out of Frederick at 820 AM but this station carries only a few miles at night and can only be heard in the city of Frederick but not the outer towns of the county.

I check in on the AM situation with respect to the broadcast of MLB every couple of years and I have to say that I am very impressed with what I found tonight. At night, larger AM stations are allowed to turn up their power and are referred to as clear channel stations and their signals can carry for hundreds and thousands of miles. I have heard 1110 WBT Charlotte all over the eastern United States and Canada, from Florida to New Brunswick. This station is the flagship of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, giving the Heels an advantage that Kentucky also has in that all of their night games can be followed on radio anywhere east of the Mississippi.

With the exception of the St. Louis Cardinals who play next to the river, I have never been able to receive a team west of the Mississippi from my locale but I  am elated to say that we don't seem to have lost many outlets in terms of AM broadcasting by the teams who have being broadcasting on clear channel AM on this side of the Mississippi. This is great because a few years back it appeared that there might be a movement towards having to pay to stream "radio" broadcasts. The Cardinals left clear channel for a couple of years in a money dispute but ended up coming back which was a smart decision as the Cardinals have fans all over the East coast but particularly in the South and Midwest who can listen at night again. The Phillies appear to have left AM radio, which is a poor choice, although I don't remember their flagship ever being very strong. Generally, from my point of view, a team wants to have an AM flagship and an FM flagship because the receiving conditions are very different for teams on the fringe of the reception area. If a team only has an FM flagship, then essentially no one more than 80 miles away will be able to receive the broadcasts and 80 miles is pushing it.