Baseball’s Expansion Failure

There were 347 people in the stands for yesterday’s Marlins game.

Twenty years ago, when the NL was considering expansion, here is what The New York Times said:

…Buffalo ranks second to none under criteria established by Peter Ueberroth: it has a baseball-only, open-air, natural grass stadium; state and local government support, well-endowed local ownership and demonstrated fan commitment.

As noted in the book Lords of the Realm, south Florida got an expansion franchise because initial owner Wayne Huizenga could “write the check” that went into the other owners’ pockets.

I caught a game in 2009 at the (now aging) stadium that Buffalo built to attract expansion. It’s still a sweet place to see a game:

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