Is Charlotte’s Dream Of Becoming Home To An MLB Team Suddenly Over

There's been a grass movement going on for a while. People want Major League Baseball in Charlotte. Charlotte's been part of discussions to become home to an MLB team when expansion comes to the sport soon. But Charlotte's dream of becoming home to an MLB team may be over. Rob Manfred, MLB's commissioner has mentioned the Queen City several times as a great city to have a team. Nashville, Portland, Salt Lake City and Montreal are also mentioned as potential expansion cities.

This all sounds great, except one huge problem just popped up. The Tampa Bay Rays have just signed a new stadium deal to remain in the Tampa St. Pete area. That means the Rays are no longer an option to move to one of the cities mentioned let alone Charlotte. So the MLB in Charlotte dream may be over. Now if Charlotte wants a team it will have to build a contender from the ground up. We all know how difficult that can be. (See the NBA's Bobcats).

Manfred has stated he will add 2 expansion teams in the near future. We could get a clearer picture of when that will happen this fall during MLB's owner's meetings in Las Vegas.

To complicate matters on the Charlotte front, no one person or investment group has said they want to bring an expansion team here. However, that person or group could come from elsewhere. Just like David Tepper did in 2018 when he bought the NFL Panthers for $2.275 billion. Tepper was part owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers. He later dished out $325 million to add a Major League Soccer expansion team to the QC. Michael Jordan just sold our city’s oldest big-league team, the NBA Hornets...for 3 billion.

I love going to AAA Charlotte Knights games. It's a cheap night, with an awesome new ballpark. Word is that if we do land an MLB team, that stadium would be ready to host the team. Of course, they'd need to add a few thousand seats which according to reports is not easy.  We may not see MLB in Charlotte anytime soon.

The list of baseball's best and worst mascots is in!   And,  just in time for Opening Day on March 30th.  Mascot names are always entertaining to me.  Probably because I love a good pun.  For example, a short fly ball that falls between the outfield and infield for a base hit is often referred to as a blooper.  The Atlanta Braves' mascot's name is Blooper.   The Cleveland Guardians' mascot's name is Slider.  A slider is also a pitch most pitchers throw.  Baseball doesn't have cheerleaders so the mascot is there to keep things light and family-friendly during games.  Recently, One Thousand people had to vote in a series of head-to-head matchups when it came to Major League Baseball mascots.  The only teams that weren't represented were the Yankees, Dodgers, and Angels.  This was because these teams don't have mascots.  The list of baseball's best and worst mascots is below!

Get each mascots winning percentage here!

SOURCE| YouGov