Lists with Chris: Oakland the latest to lose its pro teams 10-17-24

Lists with Chris: Oakland the latest to lose its pro teams 10-17-24

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Who are the five greatest athletes of all time? Who's
the worst player to ever deliver an iconic sports moment,
Who's the least athletic looking athlete in history. It's time
to rank the best and the worst that sports has
to offer. Let's dive in to lists with Chris.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Here we go.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
We do it every week with my good friends Chris
Beckham and Craig Stevenson. We come up with some list
that is timely and topical. We think we have done
that again this time, and it has to do with
the fact that the Oakland A's are no more. They
just played their last season in Oakland, so they are
losing that team, and we started thinking about who else

(00:49):
has famously lost a team. In this case, the Oakland
A's are moving to Las Vegas. And Chris Beckham, you'll
recall that about a year and a half ago you
and I were staying at the Trumpicana Hotel in Las Vegas,
which they just blew up last week, literally so that
they could make room for the new A's field. Did
you see that into that pull out your heartstrings?

Speaker 4 (01:11):
Remind me when I blew up that blackjack tables will
remind me.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Of Yeah, well, it's that was.

Speaker 4 (01:20):
That was hate to see that. Trump Canon is one
of the one of the old school hotels in Vegas.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
I know, I know, well it's gone. And so now
Oakland's lost everything. They lost their NBA, their NFL, and
now they're baseball. So we started thinking about what about
other cities who have lost a team or maybe even
their only team. So that's what we're gonna do. And Chris,
you start us off every week like the Oakland A's
who else has lost a team?

Speaker 4 (01:44):
Well, I think one that a lot of folks, uh, well,
I guess at a certain age and they remember the
most was when the Baltimore Colt left Baltimore. I mean
Baltimore I mean had a long tradition, Johnny United, super Bowls,
Old nine Yards and everything that winning franchise would have.
But in the early and they were I mean and

(02:04):
they were good. They were good, kind of really almost
till where they left. But the striking eighty two the
attendants took a big hit and Barbers they started looking
at maybe moving he had been frustrated with the stadium,
started looking maybe moving around. And so but the state
of Maryland kind of stepped in and said no, you're

(02:26):
not gonna move, although only he had an amazing offer
from Indianapolis. But the Maryland Senate in eighty four passed
the bill that gave the city of Baltimore the right
they take over the team by eminent domain, which had
never been done before. It was really kind of weird.
So the night they passed the bill, barbarus, they broke
it to deal with Indianapolis to move the team before

(02:47):
they gout passed it. So about ten o'clock the next morning,
everything was gone. Made Flower trucks and everything loaded up.
We're out here. And and because the Maryland State Police
they were within their power to stop them moving, trucks
were moving. Every truck took a different route, I mean

(03:10):
the half past even a domain bill. But by the way,
it was too late. And so next to know, the
Indianapolis Colts.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
Yeah, the end of that. Uh, you can never hear
about that with somebody not bringing up Mayflower trucks. It's
like the Greater Advertising. I don't even know if it's
still in business, you know, but I don't think it is.
But I can remember the trucks all over the place
back in my day, Back in those days, I think
at least one time when we move we use Mayflower.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
But anyway, well, I guarantee if I was moving from
Baltimore to Atlanta, I wouldn't use Mayflower to heck with them.
Get her say to give you all some money. I'm
not giving you no money.

Speaker 5 (03:47):
You know.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah, bad advertising.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, well, any advertising, as they say, all right, uh, Greig,
what you're gonna lead off with?

Speaker 5 (03:55):
Yeah, Probably the most infamous in history, if not the Colts,
would be the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn for Los Angeles after
the nineteen fifty eight season.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
You know, the.

Speaker 5 (04:03):
Culture of New York had changed a lot after World
War Two. People started moving out to the suburbs. People
started driving more cars. There was not parking within the
city of Brooklyn in those days of the Borough of Brooklyn,
so they needed a new stadium. They were turned down
for a stadium, and the owner, Walter O'Malley, said, well,

(04:24):
you know what, We'll just go to California. I mean
there's a lot of people out there Beverly. You know.
They loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly
So's speak and started. They had to talk to giants
into going with them, so they would have somebody to play,
you know, to avoid the know at least, you know,
wouldn't have a multi time zon trip for every away game.

(04:46):
So but you know, and then for forty years after
you kept hearing on these SOB stories both they took.

Speaker 4 (04:52):
Away my dodg jerse. Yeah, well you.

Speaker 5 (04:54):
Still have two teams in New York.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
What are you worried about?

Speaker 5 (04:57):
Yeah, anyway, and it's like, yeah, we can't put team
in California. Why they don't deserve a team, you know,
it's only the second largest city in the United States. Yeah,
they don't get one anyway, So the Dodgers movement.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yeah, and you had the Giants out there too, so
that when you went on a road trip, you know,
it wasn't like you just have to go out there
to play one team. You could at least go and
stay for a little bit and play two different teams.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Yeah, I'm with you on that.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
It's so different you know in the in that part
of the country up around New York where I mean
in reality, you get off work and go to a
Red Sox game, just hop on a train, you know
what I mean, or you know whatever, it's just so
much closer together than it is in other parts of
the country.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
But anyway, here's.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
One that somebody lost the game, but I think we
talk about it more that somebody gained the game, and
that is the Senior Bowl nineteen fifty the first Senior
Bowl ever played at the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida,
and they had it for only one year, and we've
had it every year since in Mobile. So we don't
think of it as a loss for them, but really

(05:55):
it is, even though it was a long long time ago.
The Senior Bowl left Jacksonville four Mobile. All right, Chris,
now we know what we're doing.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
What you got, Well, I'll go to hockey and where
Norman Green, who is the owner of the Minnesota north Stars,
and this quote was only an idiot could lose money
on hockey and Minnesota and then he became idiots. The
north Stars were, you know, and again you know Minnesota

(06:25):
and hockey. I mean that's I mean, that's what everybody
goes up playing, you know. The I mean, the Mighty
Ducks were in Minnesota, although that's I know that's fictional,
but still but they have They were there for a
long time and they played the Stanley Cup Finals I
think in ninety one and then like a lot of
the NHL teams kind of moved south. It was kind

(06:45):
of a migration south, and he was one of them.
They booked it down to Dallas and became to the
Dallas Stars and then ended up winning the Stanley Cup
two years later, which Minnesota people just had to love that.
But there were a lot of reasons as to why. Again,
you know, hopefully a bigger fan base. There was some
thoughts that his wife had something to do with it

(07:06):
because Norman had been hit with a sexual harassment suit
and she's like a real even found in that sounds
like something that probably wouldn't have bigger factor, although it
could have been.

Speaker 5 (07:16):
Who knows, this makes her good story.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
When hockey moves out of Minnesota, you've not done something right.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
That's a really good call, yep, Greg.

Speaker 5 (07:25):
Yeah, if along with the cults, probably the bitterest franchise
move in NFL history was in nineteen ninety five when
the Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Baltimore Ravens,
and there was a compromise reached after legal threats that
the intellectual property including the team name, logos and history,

(07:50):
all the Records would stay in Cleveland, the Ravens would
basically be created as an entirely new franchise, and that
Cleveland would be guaranteed in expansion franchise whenever the NFL
has panned again. Of course, they got team again in
nineteen ninety nine, but the Ravens have gone on to
be one of the you know, model franchises in the NFL,
whereas the Browns have not been. But they at least

(08:12):
they at least got to keep their you know, it's
Bert Sienna helmet, So I guess I got that one.

Speaker 3 (08:19):
Yeah, yeah, And people in Baltimore are like, yeah, crimea river.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
You know, Yeah, we lost our team in the middle
of the night. So y'all lost a team, So what
we deserve to have a team too. I got mixed
feelings about that, but yeah, let me go to let
me go to baseball. Here's a team that I think
all three of us could relate to growing up. I
think I could still tell you the entire starting lineup
for like the nineteen seventy four Montreal Expos playing at

(08:46):
Olympic Stadium. Oh good grief, now you can put me
on spot. Uh, it was a figure of speech. I got,
I got Andre Dawson, I got Tim Rains, I got,
I got.

Speaker 5 (08:58):
Wallach and in nineteen seventy four of you.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Well see, I just pulled a year out of the
out of thin air. Yeah, I know a lot of Montreal.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
Expos, Craig. You can put Coca the Boy in.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
There, Cocoa. Yeah, yeah, all those I.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
Can probably do eighty two, eighty two.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Or all those go Gary Carter, yes, uh, anyway, that's
who I got the Expos. Yeah, I just I just
pulled a year out of there, Craig. I didn't really
plan to say that. Now, I thought, well, you know,
what year should I choose? Anyway, the Montreal Expos moved away,
and like we're just giving up on a country. You know,
now you get the Toronto Blue Jays, but given up

(09:31):
on a country. And they had that awful Olympic stadium
where they had the Olympics in what seventy six was it?
And then they played there. So the Expos they lost
them in Montreal.

Speaker 5 (09:42):
And what they become you didn't even say what they become?

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Oh what did they become? They went to the Uh,
they go.

Speaker 4 (09:46):
To Washington.

Speaker 5 (09:49):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
That's where they went, right, They went to Washington is
where they.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
Went, correct there?

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Now, yes, exactly, all right.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
So I'll kind of tied it in with that. And
I didn't actually have this on the list that it
just brings to mind, and this is closer to home,
much more personal. But the Montreal Expos uh, I guess
they were. They were a low class A team. But
the team that I got to go watch a lot,
uh the good old Albany, Georgia Polecats. All the pole
Cats uh minor league. Really the only team that Albandy,

(10:26):
Georgia has ever had, and they were and the great
thing about it for in baseball players in South Georgia,
we got to see a lot of great future expos Uh.
I mean I saw Cliff Floyd play It's all Black
greor Broly that saw uh uh, we saw different end
this pitch. I mean there were a lot of players
that came through. Ugio Beena was there so uh they
were there. Gosh, it was early nineties and they were

(10:48):
only there for three or four years. It wasn't like
they were this law it didn't ruin the city and
this huge outcrist Minor League baseball teams move around a lot,
but just because it is about less than an hour
from me, and they were with the Exposed. I remember
the Polecats, Will and the name.

Speaker 5 (11:03):
As Will Chris.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
I believe all those guys were on the seventy four
expos If I'm not mistaken, we might got them on
the way down.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Lit Okay, Okay, it could be Craig.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
Well, you know a lot of these are many of
these teams, it's because they weren't making any money, they
weren't winning, they weren't drawing, there was no fan interest.
But that was not at all the case with the
Milwaukee Braves, who moved to Atlanta in nineteen sixty six.
The Brave, they had been one of the most successful
franchises since moving from Boston in nineteen fifty three. They

(11:37):
had thirteen consecutive winning seasons, went to two straight World
Series in the late fifties. Obviously had you know, Hank
Aaron and a bunch of other you know, prominent young players,
Joe Tory among them. But I think the ownership group
just realized, hey, we're too close to Chicago, and eventually
we're not going to be able to This market is
not going to be able to succeed long term one,

(12:00):
so you know, the television becomes more of a thing
and all that sort of stuff. So they were looking
to expand, and obviously there was no major league baseball
team in the Deep South, and they built a stadium
in Atlanta, and they moved, and you know, they were
pretty good the first few years, but then, as we
all know, had about a twenty year stretch of pretty

(12:22):
bad baseball before the early nineties run.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
First cover of Sports illustrated ever Eddie Matthews of the
Milwaukee Braves, which was by the way.

Speaker 5 (12:33):
Before we move on, all right, I'm giving you the
nineteen seventy four starting lineup Catcher Barry Foot, first base,
Ron Fairley second base, Jim Cox shortstop, Tim Foley third base,
Ron Hunt leftfield, Bob Bailey centerfield, Willie Davis right field,
Ken Singleton. And looks like Gary Carter got into a

(12:55):
few games in September that year their number one starter Rodgers. Yeah,
he had a pretty good career.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
There you go.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
Second base in left field, I would have never gotten.
If I could have spent a week just sitting here
thinking about it, I might could have gotten all the
rest of them. Second base we say Cox, I don't
even know who.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
That is, Jim Cox. I don't know that. Yeah, look
like they used several guys at that. Limp was another one.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Don't know him. No, I don't know Secred Base don't
so I don't know that.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
But I said a lot of those guys like Ron
Fairley and Willie Davis were more famous with other teams. Yes,
and and Ken Singleton for that matter.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yeah, I didn't know that second basement though. All Right,
I'm going I'm going back to hockey here, and this
is one that is particularly painful and we've heard so
much about it because of quite frankly ESPN. It's the
Hertford Whalers. And here's the crazy thing about this in
hockey is that they were the Hartford Whalers in the
World Hockey Association for seven years. Okay, so they were like,

(13:52):
they're our local team and we support them so much
that the big leagues have basically called us up. And
in seventy nine the Hartford Whalers became an NHL team.
That's hard to do now, that just doesn't happen, but
they did, and they were successful whatever until ninety seven
when whatever happens and they decide Hartford can't have a professional,

(14:13):
you know, an NHL team, and so they leave and
they become the Carolina Hurricanes. But you heard a lot
about it and a lot of belly ache in because
it was right there next to ESPN, and those folks
were like, oh, we can go to Whalers games anytime
we want to. No, you can't because they're now in Carolina.
But that was really painful, I think because they were

(14:34):
so successful that they got bumped up to the bigs
and then they move them away.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
So there you go. I got the Hartford Whalers.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
Yeah, I'll go back to the NBA. So the old
Buffalo Braids, yes, we're not in Buffalo that long. I
think less than ten years, but they had some success
that Bob McAdoo was the MVP, and they do in
their early bitch seventies, I guess. But the guy who
owned the Buffalo Braids one day around thought man, it's
told up here, and so he tried to move the

(15:06):
team to Hollywood, Florida, which maybe the worst idea I
ever heard. But then there was a lawsuit they blocked that.
So Paul Schneyder was a guy's name, so he said well,
he got this stick team figured it out. So he
sells half of the team to John Y. Brown from Kentucky,
who owned the Kentucky Colonels and was I former governor or.
Maybe that's I mean, he's the future governor. I'm not
sure of being way. So he sells half of it

(15:28):
to him. He sells half of the other half to
somebody else, so Brown's the majority owner. So Brown goes
to the Bossons Celtics owner, who's a guy from California.
He's gotta tell you what, Let's swape franchises and you
can take this franchise and put it in southern California
where you're from. And the guy, who must have be
an idiot, said okay. So John Brown gets the Celtics

(15:50):
out of it, and they moved Buffalo's to San Diego
in the process. So Buffalo who by shifty owner, and
now they were called they have the basketball to watch.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
I like it.

Speaker 4 (16:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:03):
My good friend Joe Allen, who's you know here, basketball coach,
longtime basketball coach in sports administrator here inmobile, tells that
story because he grew up in Buffalo. He's like, you know,
all those Celtics teams, those were our teams, really, but
they basically just traded the entire teams.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
That's a good talk, good talk.

Speaker 5 (16:20):
Do you know John Y Brown? What he was more
famous than any of those.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
Things, or I do. He married Phillis George.

Speaker 5 (16:29):
He married Phillis George. Absolutely, yeah, good call, good time.
Probably the first major franchise to move in professional sports
was not the Dodgers, not the Saint Louis Brown's, not
the Milwaukee Braves, but it was the Cleveland Rams who
won the nineteen forty five NFL Championship game and then

(16:51):
moved to Los Angeles, which you know made sense at
the time. Obviously it paved the way for the Cleveland
Browns to be formed not long after that. But the
Los Angeles Rams had some really good teams in the
late forties and early fifties, and they have also moved
two other times since then. They moved to Saint Louis

(17:13):
and then they moved back to Los Angeles, So the
Los Angeles Rams camp.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
By the way, if we go back for a second,
John Y. Brown, he became rich and famous because he
bought Kentucky Fried chicken directly from Harlan Sanders. I mean,
just straight up Hey, colonel, I'll buy your restaurant. And
that turned out to be a good move. He made
a lot of money, a lot of money from doing
that so well.

Speaker 5 (17:35):
I mean, I guess he had to have he had
to have money to buy it, so he already had
some money, but he became he made more money.

Speaker 3 (17:40):
Yeah, but I don't think it took that much because
I don't think to take care Chicken was that big
a deal when he bought it. Yeah, yes, you had
to have some, sure, but I don't think it was.
I don't think it was all that much. So, yeah,
how about this. How about latter day NBA the Seattle Sonics.
I mean, Seattle loved the SuperSonics and you know Iced

(18:01):
Tea sang about them and all that.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
I mean, they were a big deal, and they moved.

Speaker 3 (18:06):
They moved to Oklahoma City, Like who in the world
thought that Oklahoma City could get an NBA team, And
Seattle never stopped loving the Sonics. I mean it was
like it just broke their heart to lose them. Then
they go to Oklahoma City, they got a whole bunch
of good players, and then they all left before they
realized that they could win a championship. With Kevin Durant

(18:27):
and James Harden and Westbrook and all those guys, but
they never were all that successful. They went and became
more successful elsewhere but Seattle and it maybe they get
an NBA team back soon, But losing the Sonics was
a very very big deal. All right, Chris, we're doing
like the city of Oakland just lost the A's and
they've also lost all their other pro teams, including in

(18:48):
football and basketball and now baseball. Cities that have lost
a professional sports franchise.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Who you got? I liked this somewhere, the thought that
Jack Sickmas sitting around going we want to He says,
we're famous for ice tea a ice you think about?

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Yeah, Noted noticed.

Speaker 4 (19:10):
This one. I just remember it was. It was I
thought a strange fit from the start, I guess because
the team had never been there. But the Vancouver Grizzlies
which moved to Memphis and they were just I mean,
they were terrible. And when you get the Canadian cities
like Montreal and Toronto, they're you know, close to other
you know, close to the Northeast teams, so it's not

(19:31):
that big of a deal. Vancouver is out there. I mean,
you know it's way out there, and they were. They
were never eat a year. They were always really bad,
and so, uh it just I think it was kind
of doing from the start. But uh so they started
looking around and looking for other places. They finally ended
up moving to Memphis, and but I always remember the
big Bright reads Big Country. I remember him. And then

(19:53):
the last uh NBA player who played for the Vancouver
Grizzlies who was in the A was Mike Bibby, who
went on to play for a good while after that.
But it was just, you know, I've read all stuff
about well the Canadian dollar, I don't know anything about
the Canadian economy life, saying I NA shouldn't put seen
in Vancouver's.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
If we took were out there, Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
The New England.

Speaker 5 (20:15):
Patriots began life as the Boston Patriots in nineteen sixty,
but they always had a bad stadium situation. They played
at Harvard part of the time, they played at Fenway
Park part of the time, but they had to play
games on the road if the Red Sox were in
a Pennant run, and so they threatened to move a

(20:36):
couple of times. I even talk at one point they
were going to move to Birmingham, but eventually in southern Massachusetts,
the Bay State Raceway owners donated some land for a
stadium to be built in Foxboro, and they moved there
to become the New England Patriots. Since they are no

(20:58):
longer within the city boss and I don't know if
it really counts as to losing the team, but they
didn't move to a different place. The thing that has
always struck me as weird is that the city where
they are located is Foxborough fox b r O U
g H.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
The stadium was called Foxboro Stadium fox bo r O. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
I have no idea why. That's what.

Speaker 5 (21:23):
I'm sure what? Yeah, I have no idea why. But
it did not come up with my research. But yeah,
there you have it. I think it's just you know,
I have no I have no idea why.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
Yeah, that's good.

Speaker 3 (21:40):
Do you know the last team that just went DEFAUNCT
in the NBA where they had a team they said well,
we're not gonna keep playing. It was the Baltimore Bullets.
So they they completely went away like we're just gonna fold.
We're just gonna fold. That was in nineteen fifty four,
and then they came back and of course they they

(22:00):
got back as the Baltimore Bullets, and then it moved
to Washington, which a lot of people think of Baltimore
and like DC is the same thing, but it's not.

Speaker 5 (22:08):
It's not.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Then they became Washington Bullets and then Washington whatever, so
they couldn't be the Bullets anymore when that wasn't politically
correct anymore. So there we go the Baltimore Bullets for
a while. They're in nineteen forty four to fifty four,
and then they came back a bunch of other things too,
but Baltimore lost the Bullets.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
That's what I got, Chris.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Yeah, the of course sincidents got the Reds, and they
got the Bengals, and they had the Cincinnati Orioles in
the NBA and for a long time, and they were
they were pretty good. They Oscar Robertson, they had Jerry
Lucas who was went to Ohio State. He was obviously
very popular there, and they were good, I mean, they
were really good. But then then it shouldn't have started

(22:48):
to decline some and then they hired as I know,
they hired new head coach Bob Cousy, and they immediately
traded away Jerry Lucas, they traded away Oscar Robertson. We
went to Milwaukee. Buckston won the championship in his first
year and then the fan base was real the Drunald
and so they moved them to Kansas City. But they
couldn't be the Kansas City Royals. That was hard there.

(23:11):
So that's why they changed the Well, first it was
the Kansas City Omaha Kings, which is sound stupid, and
so they just made it to the Kansas City the Kings,
which is where they were until you know later on
leaving for Sacramento. But yeah, that's Cincinnati. Always seems like,
you know, basketball is big in that, you know part
of the country. You would think they've got another NBA franchise,

(23:31):
but I really don't even think they've come close.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
Yeah, I like it.

Speaker 5 (23:35):
Greg. You mentioned the SuperSonics earlier. That was not the
first team that Seattle lost. The first team was to
the Seattle Pilots, who were an expansion baseball team in
nineteen sixty nine. Kind of a weird setup because they
originally were supposed to the American League was not going
to expand until nineteen seventy one, and Seattle was going

(23:55):
to get a team then, well, then Charlie Finley moved
to Kansas City to Oakland, would set Senator Stuart Symington
and Missouri on the war path. Decided he was going
to take a shot at Major League Baseball's any trust exempsion,
and so they decided to grant a franchise to Kansas City,

(24:16):
which became the Royals, and they needed another team to
join the league, so they put pressure on Seattle to
have a team in nineteen sixty nine. They were not ready.
The owner didn't have enough money, they didn't have a
good stadium. They were playing in an old, decrepit minor
league stadium called six Stadium Sicks to attendance was horrible. Obviously,

(24:36):
if you've read the Bootball four, you know all about
the Pilots because that's who Jim Batman was playing for
that year. Well, in the next offseason, you know, they
just they were just completely bankrupt and they decided they
were not going to be able to survive Milwaukee, which
had lost the Braves. Bud Selig got involved and said

(24:58):
he decided he wanted them to move to Milwaukee, and
it went the discussion went on and on, and there
was literally there were moving trucks sitting in Utah after
leaving spring training in Arizona, and they were waiting on
the call to let them know should they go east
to Milwaukee or west to Seattle. And they got the

(25:21):
call and they shut up in Milwaukee.

Speaker 4 (25:23):
And I mean, you know, the.

Speaker 5 (25:25):
Brewers the first year they were basically had pilot's uniforms
with just new logos slapped onto them at the beginning.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
I got three words for you, guys, Love you Blue.
The Houston Oilers who moved to Tennessee. And I think
some people will remember that the Oilers for one year
in nineteen ninety seven played in Memphis. Yeah, and then
they eventually became the Tennessee Titans, but they were still

(25:54):
the Oilers when they were in Tennessee. They were the
Tennessee Oilers and playing in Memphis in ninety seven, and
they were nobody's team, so they weren't Memphisis team. The
Houston folks weren't going to cheer for them, you know.
It was just it was just brutal the way that
went down. Now they got a good fan base and everything.
Now that they're in Nashville as the Tennessee Titans, but

(26:14):
they bungled that whole thing, and the Tennessee Oilers just
never never caught on at all. And people knew, oh,
we've got this Houston team in our city for one
year before they leave and go to Nashville. No thanks,
we're not that interested in that. So Houston Oilers, Houston
lost their team. Now they got the Texans, but they
did lose the Oilers.

Speaker 5 (26:34):
I think they were supposed to have it there for
two years, and the response was so bad they said, look,
we'll just get them out of here for a year.
That's why the Titans played for one year at Vanderbilt
because their stadium pots are ready.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yeah, good call, crazy, good call. All right, Uh, Chris,
what you.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Got Well in theory, this seems like a great idea.
But the New Orleans Jazz you told them about, they
had problem at the problem it sounded good. We're gonna
have it. They're gonna call it the Jazz. Well, the
NBA team has happened in seventy four. And then they
traded for Pete Marritach. Oh what about then he'll bring everybody?

(27:11):
And but their venue problems. They played at a I
mean this flaboratory to play at loyal to the Loyola Fieldhouse,
where the basketball court was raised so high that the
players Association made them put a net around the court
so players would fall off.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
Into that horrible that's like that ridiculous place they played
for vand.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
And then they moved to the super Dome, which is
just you know, just way too big and a terrible idea.
But and then marriage started having health problems, and then
ye know, for a month they had to go on
the road for a month every year because of Martin Grass.
So it was just it was just, I mean terrible.
So three way, they decided to move to Utah, which
had had the Utah Stars and then successful very popular

(27:58):
in the ABA. But so the question is why did
they change the name. There's nothing jazzy about Salt Lake City,
but when they moved out there, because the timing of it,
there was not enough time before the start of the
season to get legal approval for a name change. Let's
just make it the Jazz to keep it. And so
it makes no sense that people are used to it now.

(28:18):
I mean, you hear it now that it seems strange.
Back then, I would imagine it was seeming very strange.

Speaker 5 (28:23):
For sure, I think there was also some situation where
they broke the lease from the Superdome in New Orleans,
so the people in New Orleans were going to want
to sue over the part because the New Orleans people
wouldn't let them out of the lease in the Superdome
or made them pay to get out of the lease.
They kept the name Jazz out of fight too. I
think that was part of it as well. So yeah,

(28:46):
that's a good one. The NHL's Winnipeg Jets, you know,
they have a long history of playing in the NHL,
but the current Jets are not the original Jets. They
are the former Atlanta Thrashers, which is the second NHL
team to fail in Atlanta after the Flames left and
went to Calgary. But the Thrashers left and became the Jets.

(29:09):
The original Winnipeg Jets moved to Arizona to become the
Phoenix Coyotes, and that franchise just last year went defunct
and is now the Utah Hockey Club, and you know,
to bring it all back to Utah, that franchise they have,
the Coyotes franchise has officially just been suspended, so if

(29:34):
they ever get another expansion team, in Phoenix. It will
become the Coyotes again, and Utah will kind of have
its own history in the same way that the Baltimore
Regiments do.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
It debunks the notion that when you're a jet, you're
a jet all the way.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
It's just not true.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
It's just not true.

Speaker 5 (29:50):
We got seventy four expos in West Side Story it said,
we don't we're not you know, hip show here.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
We definitely are.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
Well, yeah, Chris, you brought up about the you know,
there's not jazz in Utah. I guarantee you there's more
jazz in Utah than there are lakes in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Lakers. They steal them from Minneapolis, the
Minneapolis Lakers. Of course, if you look up guys most
famous lakes in Los Angeles, the number one search that

(30:24):
comes up is.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
The Hollywood Reservoir. Well, that's not a lake. I mean,
I mean, LA's got a lot of things. They don't
have lakes.

Speaker 3 (30:34):
They don't have lakes, So it's ridiculous that they're the Lakers.
It's as ridiculous as the Utah jazz. But again, we've
just become accustomed to Oh yeah, sure, Los Angeles Lakers
of course that's their name. No, that should not be
their name. They're the Minneapolis Minneapolis lost the Lakers to
Los Angeles. So there you go, All right, Chris, we're
doing cities who lost their professional team.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
Who you go introducing your Los Angeles reservoir.

Speaker 2 (31:02):
The Hollywood Reservoir. Come on, that's ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
You know a lot of these are because well, I
guess probably more greedy owners, but also sometimes just connept owners.
And that's absolutely the case with the Georgia Front. They
who owned the Los Angeles Rams, who you know before
the before you know, the Raiders moved there for a
little while, but the Ram and a lot of teams
there now, but the Rams were la team. And she

(31:28):
was just a i mean, a terrible owner. The trade
of Eric Dickerson the Colts was ridiculous, and so that
really kind of started the decline. And again, she was
just a she was basically just an idiot. So she
struck up a deal with Saint Louis and then took
the name and the colors and everything you know with it. So, uh,
it's just hard to believe that at that time, I mean,

(31:50):
Los Angeles went for a while without having an NFL
team and getting the second biggest population center in the
country didn't have an NFL team, uh, and had one
for a long time. Well, I see there has played
in the Super Bowl. I guess he win one. But
they were I mean, very successful there. But she just
messed it all up for everybody.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
Great. In nineteen sixty one, the Washington Senators moved to
Minneapolis to become the Minnesota Twins. In nineteen sixty one,
there was another Washington Senators franchise playing, but it was
not the same one that had been the end of
the year before. It was a totally new expansion franchise.
And then, of course, you know, nine years later they

(32:31):
moved to Dallas to become the Texas Rangers. So you
had two. Washington lost its team twice within ten years,
and then it didn't get another team back until the
Nationals moved from Montreal in two thousand and five and
Gary Carter and Tim Wallach were suiting up for Washington.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
I think, yeah, we covered that already. We know all
about Montreal and the Expost. We're all over that.

Speaker 3 (32:57):
I got a baseball team for you. What about the
Mobile be Bears. We just lost them in twenty nineteen,
and I will tell you this, I think Craig, I
think you will go along with me on this, that
losing the Bay Bears to become the the trash pandas
up in Huntsville not as painful as the idea of
losing hank Areon Stadium, which officially it is not gone,

(33:19):
but unofficially it really is. I mean, I wish we
had the Beay Bears. I really, really really wish we
had an active hank are In stadium. So Bea Bears
are out trash pandas they become, which is ridiculous, but
that's what they are. So and I think they're doing
well up there. So that's what I got, all right, Chris?

Speaker 2 (33:36):
What else you got?

Speaker 4 (33:38):
I saw a Bea Bears game. I saw one be
Bears game, and God, remember the guy at the star
he was something. He was a famous player's kid. It
was some junior.

Speaker 5 (33:46):
Who was that Garrett Bens?

Speaker 4 (33:49):
Yeah, yeah that's right, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
He playing Albany.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
No, he played.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
Oh in Mobile in Mobil.

Speaker 3 (34:00):
We had some great players, There's no question we had
some great players come through playing at Hankard Stadium.

Speaker 2 (34:05):
But yeah, what you got, Chris?

Speaker 4 (34:07):
Well, so of course Charlotte, I mean North Carolina's basketball country,
and so you would think they would add a team.
They didn't have a big enough city, I guess until
the Charlotte Hornets in nineteen eighty eight, and they were
there until two thousand and two. Whenever they left. Of
course they got the bobcast now, who are terrible, but
or they had them. It's a little while. But the

(34:29):
thing I remember about Charlotte Hornets, the original Charlotte Hornets,
I think they were the first team to introduce like
teal in their colors, and that was that was cool.
I mean, that was controversial. They didn't didn't see that much.
So it was like they sold a lot of you know,
T shirts and stuff like that just because of being cool.
And they had Larry Johnson. They had lots of the

(34:49):
Morning I mean, they were they were really really good.
But then finally they that's when they moved into New Orleans,
and I guess that was in the early two thousands.
At tennis has peeled off dramatically. But and then also
they own had a sexual grasping suit, which seems to
just sometimes we get the recurring scene in this but
but yeah, Charlotte, I mean basketball in North Carolina. You

(35:11):
just figure that's never gonna fail, but finally didn't work
out for him. Yep. Great.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
This is not professional sports per se, but in the
state of Alabama it might as well be. How about
when the city of Birmingham lost Alabama and Auburn.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
Alabama.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
That was a big game.

Speaker 5 (35:28):
Auburn the Iron Bowl, the last played in in Birmingham
in nineteen ninety one. It obviously moved to Auburn in
eighty nine, but there was a lawsuit, so they got
one more, got a couple more. Uh, the last Auburn
home game, I should say ninety one. Alabama played the
Iron Bowl there every year until ninety eight. Was the

(35:51):
last Alabama home Iron Bowl in Birmingham, and Alabama quit
playing games there entirely after two thousand and three, so
that were going on. We're twenty years, more than twenty
years without an Alabama or Auburn game in the city
of Birmingham, and obviously that has changed a lot about
college football.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
In that city.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Good call, Craig.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
I'll go back to what you started with with the
You know, when the Dodgers left Brooklyn to go to
Los Angeles and everybody's like, you know, oh, this is terrible,
and they already had those other teams. It wasn't like
they didn't have teams. Same thing in basketball, where we
had a fairly successful New Jersey Nets team franchise where
people could go watch games in New Jersey. Instead we

(36:30):
have to go to the Brooklyn Nets. Like Brooklyn needs
a team. I mean, like you just get on a train.
You either stop here to watch the next or you
can go a couple more stops and watch the Nets play.
It's ridiculous. They don't need an extra team in Brooklyn
in addition to having the New York Knicks.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
But they do, and so they're terrible. That's what they deserve.
The Brooklyn Nets. They're awful.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Now they're run, They're run terribly. They got an awful team.
So anyway, I'll go with them. New Jersey lost the
Nets to Brooklyn.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
There you go, Chris, you got anything else?

Speaker 4 (37:03):
Well? City of Making just because it's a great name
for one year, had to make it. Whoopee.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I believe they came to Greenville.

Speaker 4 (37:11):
Whoopee. They did not?

Speaker 2 (37:16):
All right, Craig, what did you got?

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (37:19):
This is it's always struck me as kind of weird. Really,
in my I guess in most of my lifetime, there
has not been an NFL team in the city of
New York. They both play in New Jersey. Now, you
know the market again, the market kept the team, but
they are not in the city limits. They play in
New Jersey. The Jets played at Shay Stadium for a

(37:41):
long time. They actually both played there at one time.
The Giants traditionally played at Yankee Stadium. At both of
those facilities were no longer good, you know, worth playing
the NFL games there. They kept trying to build a
new stadium within the city and they never did, and
so they moved to New Jersey. And it's been pretty
successful for them. But still it's just odd that they

(38:04):
in an entirely different state.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Yep, all right, well this has been in honor of
the uh, downtrodden city of Oakland, which in pretty short
order has lost its basketball, football, and now baseball team.
So Oakland does not have professional teams. You can say, well,
they still got the Golden State Warriors, but that's San Francisco,
and that's uh, you know, that's different. People in Oakland

(38:26):
don't want to go to San Francisco and it's not
convenient for them. So Oakland, the Oakland A's who are
going to Las Vegas. That is the category this week
of cities who lost their team. Guys, what do you
think the winner is? Who's the most famous loss for
any city of a professional sports franchise?

Speaker 4 (38:44):
I see what the one Craig grew up at the ends.
I was born in Birmingham. Losing the I that's huge.
That was big for them, So.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Yeah, we could do that.

Speaker 4 (38:53):
I'll take that one.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
Yeah, Birmingham did lose college football basically then they got
Trent Dilfer, so that's even worse. Sir, Ye took a
shot at Trip Dilfer right there. It's not going well
for you, a b Right now, I'll just tell you,
all right, we'll go with that. What the heck, we'll
go with that, and the Oakland A's as well. All right, correct,
Steven said Chris Beckham. Appreciate you guys.

Speaker 2 (39:13):
We'll do it again next week. All right, yep, there
you go. That is list with Chris.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
We do it every week here on Sports Talk ninety
nine