Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 6-5-2017

Pittsburgh Press, June 5, 1917:

Rumor says today that the address of the Washington ball club is to be changed. Ban Johnson says there is nothing to the rumor.

Poor patronage at Washington, it is said, makes the transfer of the Senators to some other city imperative, and Baltimore, Brooklyn and Toronto have been mentioned.

Ban Johnson says: “The sentiment of the American league is to stick by Washington. I can say that the league would rather operate in Washington at a loss than elsewhere at a profit…”
...
The very latest whisper today names Pittsburg as the logical city for the location of the Washington franchise, providing the National league consents to further invasion of its territory.

The eventual choice, Minneapolis/St. Paul, would have been a completely reasonable destination as well. Combined, the Twin Cities had a population of 615,280 in the 1920 census. That’s bigger than Pittsburgh, Washington, and Cincinnati were at the time.

Major League Baseball in Las Vegas? Commissioner says it’s an option

Major League Baseball would be open to having a team in Las Vegas, Commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday.

With two existing franchises — the Oakland A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays — struggling to secure financing for new stadiums, the option of relocating a team to Las Vegas is very much on the table.

“If we were looking at relocation,” Manfred said, “Las Vegas would be on the list.”...

Manfred didn’t rule out the possibility of an expansion franchise in Las Vegas, but added that “until the Tampa Bay and Oakland situations are settled, I can’t see talking about expansion.”