It really does make a ton of sense to have your AAA team very close to your MLB squad these days!

AS far as the distance thing, I don’t think too many players are being moves back and forth between teams via car or any other land transportation. Odds are, players are flying from what even city they are in too the city the other team is playing at. Being an hour away driving distance to Queens doesn’t mean much when the Mets are playing on the WC. I we look at it that way, Buffalo is probably the best upstate city to be playing in because the Airport there makes more direct flights to more major markets. Rochester (despite being an international airport) usually needs a connecting flight to Chicago or another major hub to reach most places in the country (that’s why we drive to Buffalo 1/2 the time we travel).

As for the stadium, I’ve been to many games at Silver Stadium and at Frontier Field, I have to say the Frontier Field is by far a greater experience and a it’s a very nice park to see a game. The Neighborhood around Silver Stadium has really gone down hill and the park was very dated. Frontier Field has great parking, a few nice bars in the area and it has a very nice “retro” fell to it. The food is simple, but really good. There are no bad seats at the park and for about $20 a ticket, you can get seats at field level right behind home plate. Plus you get a great view of down town Rochester looking out towards the OF. Sadly, you get a great view of the Kodak building, a nice reminder one of how the great company’s of Rochester have been managed into the ground.

Making another swing through – thanks for the responses!

I think Miami’s problem is one of geography and lack of AAA markets in Florida or they, and their AL counterpart in Tampa Bay, would have their senior minor league affiliate in the Sunshine State. New Orleans has a AAA franchise and it doesn’t appear as though they are going to sell it to be moved elsewhere, so one of the 30 MLB teams needs to affiliate with it. The last couple of times, that team has been the odd man out (much like Vegas). The Mets issue in Buffalo is prospects and name players to put butts in the seats. I imagine that was much the same issue they had in Norfolk as well. I think New Orleans was, again, a geographical issue – to far removed from the MLB market to generate an interest.

LOL – yes, ‘technically’ Rochester is closer (but only if the ferry is up and running again OR the players can flap their arms really really fast ). My question is – were the Red Wings equally as unhappy with Baltimore? They were affiliates for a very long time, so I wouldn’t think that. The Orioles, in their quest to have all of their affiliates close (they would like all of them in Maryland, but the state can only support so many minor league ballclubs for goodness sake) found the closest, available, viable AAA club and jumped at it (I’m keeping Richmond out of that equation because, apparently, their stadium wasn’t up to AAA standards). Was that the driving force in driving the Baltimore/Rochester affiliation apart? By the way – Rochester IS one of baseball’s most historic franchises in my book, even though it’s AAA. Still miss going to games at Silver – I’m sure Frontier Field is better in many ways, but I had family in Rochester (Pittsford) growing up and went to a game my first year at St. John Fisher there as well, it was a grand old park in my mind.

Living in Rochester, I hear all the time that the Red Wings are unhappy with the Twins. The Twins haven’t been producing the quality players they once were and the ones they do produce don’t stay in AAA for very long. That has left the Red Wings losing a lot of games and a lot of losing seasons, which does not sit well with one of baseballs most historic franchises. (yes I know it’s AAA).

Reality, I loved when the Mets joined up with Buffalo, I’ve gotten the chance to see a lot of “future” Mets players (ie: Kirk, Duda, Tejada and Mejia) when they’ve come to town, but if the Mets moved to Rochester, I’d be very excited.

I’m going to fasion a ‘part two’ to the affiliate saga – that being Binghamton – but won’t get it done until next week sometime; there’s a lot more that goes into what’s going on here right now and it’ll take me a bit to put it all together.