Baseball and Geography
Dan shows us why science is neato.
Many people have asked me what I expect to do with a degree in Geography. This is, of course, ridiculous; there are many firms excited to take on geographers, including Safeway, Wal-Mart, and even Target. But the real reason I studied geography was so I could write this article on the geography of baseball.
I know what you’re thinking: Geography? Baseball? Surely the two disciplines never meet! But think again. Geography and baseball are as intertwined as curly fries. For example, geography is the study of the Earth, and without the Earth, we’d have to play baseball on the moon, and if you think games are too high-scoring in Denver—well, then, you’d better thank your lucky stars for geography.
Note: one common mistake is to confuse “geographers” with “geologists.” Actually, the two groups are quite distinct. Geologists are better funded, take more organized notes, and don’t tape their favorite “This Modern World” comics on their office doors. Most geologists did not do their graduate work while driving around Michigan in a chartreuse Microbus. And it would be a geologist, not a geographer, that tells you that California will crash into the sea in 20 or 30 years, taking four or five baseball teams with it, in a process called “contraction.”
So what can a geographer tell you about baseball? Well, there are a few things, and I hope for this to be a handy in-house reference for them. Things like rainfall, altitude, and population all help give current teams their individual character—and all help us to decide where best to put new ones or move old ones. Clearly, the best format for this exercise is a mock question-and-answer format, in which I make up ignorant questions, attribute them (in the spirit of Troy McClure) to some kid named Billy, and respond patronizingly, all while overusing the term “common misconception.” So without further ado:
Billy: Geographer Dan, I live in Buffalo, and I think we should get the Expos, because it rains too much in Portland.
Geographer Dan: That’s a common misconception, Billy. You see, the Northwest has a reputation for rainy weather for two reasons. First, Seattle is (deservedly) perceived as too frequently cloudy, dreary, and drizzly. Second, some of the rainiest places in the country are in western Washington, particularly on the Olympic Peninsula. However, you must also note two other facts: Seattle and Portland are in the rain shadow of the Coast Ranges, and they both have a Mediterranean climate, which means they have dry summers and wet winters.
Billy: So Seattle and Portland wouldn’t be the rainiest major league cities?
Geographer Dan: Nope. In fact, they’re among the driest during the baseball season. The best way to look at this issue is to look at the number of rainy days each city sees during the season—that is, the days with measurable precipitation (more than .01 inches) from April to September. Take a look (cities in italics are those that don’t currently have Major League teams):
Days of Rain APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP TOT
San Juan 13 16 15 19 18 18 99
Miami 6 10 15 16 17 17 81
Montreal 13 13 13 12 13 11 75
Pittsburgh 14 13 12 11 10 10 70
Buffalo 14 13 11 10 10 11 69
Tampa 5 6 12 16 16 13 68
Cleveland 14 13 11 10 9 10 67
Toronto 12 12 11 10 10 10 65
Minneapolis 10 12 12 10 10 10 64
Detroit 13 11 10 10 10 10 64
Chicago 13 11 10 10 9 9 62
Boston 11 12 11 9 10 9 62
Indianapolis 12 12 10 10 9 8 61
New York 11 11 10 11 10 8 61
Milwaukee 12 11 10 9 9 9 60
Cincinnati 12 11 10 10 8 8 59
Kansas City 10 12 11 9 9 8 59
Philadelphia 11 11 10 9 9 8 58
Atlanta 9 9 10 12 10 8 58
St. Louis 12 11 10 9 8 8 58
Washington 10 11 10 10 9 8 58
Baltimore 11 11 9 9 9 8 57
Charlotte 9 10 10 11 10 7 57
Seattle 14 10 9 5 6 9 53
Denver 9 11 9 9 9 6 53
Portland 14 12 9 4 5 8 52
Houston 7 8 9 9 9 9 51
Dallas 8 9 7 5 5 7 41
San Antonio 7 8 7 4 5 7 38
Phoenix 2 1 1 4 5 3 16
Las Vegas 2 1 1 3 3 2 12
San Francisco 6 3 1 0 1 1 12
Sacramento 5 3 1 0 0 1 10
San Diego 4 2 1 0 1 1 9
Los Angeles 3 1 1 1 0 1 7
Billy: Jeepers! You mean only cities in Texas and the Southwest get less rain in the summer than Portland?
Geographer Dan: Correct, Billy. And Buffalo’s summers are only pleasant when compared to Buffalo’s winters.
Billy: What about elevation? I live in Denver, and I thought the highest team in baseball was the Rockies, but my friend Jimmy said it was the Mets. What’s he talking about?
Geographer Dan: That doesn’t matter. You’re correct, of course, Billy. Denver’s elevation is 5,260 feet above sea level. The next highest city is Phoenix at just 1,090 feet. Then comes Atlanta, at 1,050. The rest of the cities are below 1,000 feet, but expansion or relocation could change that.
City Elev.
Denver 5260
Las Vegas 2000
Phoenix 1090
Atlanta 1050
Charlotte 850
Minneapolis 815
Pittsburgh 770
Kansas City 740
Indianapolis 717
San Antonio 650
Milwaukee 634
Chicago 596
Detroit 585
Buffalo 585
Dallas 463
St. Louis 455
Seattle 350
Los Angeles 330
Toronto 251
Montreal 221
Baltimore 100
San Francisco 63
New York 55
Portland 50
Tampa 48
Oakland 42
San Diego 40
Philadelphia 40
Houston 40
Washington 25
Sacramento 20
Boston 20
Miami 11
San Juan 8
Billy: Are those the elevations of the actual stadiums or just the cities in general?
Geographer Dan: How much free time do you think I have, Billy?
Billy: So a team in Las Vegas might have some high-scoring games?
Geographer Dan: That’s right. But some people have even suggested putting a team in Mexico City, which is at a whopping 7,570 feet above sea level.
Billy: But isn’t it also true that Mexico City is cooler and more humid than Denver?
Geographer Dan: Hey, who’s the geographer here, Billy?
Billy: Sorry. Geographer Dan, I live in San Antonio, and I think we should get the Expos, because we’re the biggest city without a team. I looked in my almanac, and it said San Antonio has 1,144,646 people. Washington and Portland have fewer than 600,000. Some cities, like Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Tampa are down around 300,000! Why do they get teams and we don’t?
Geographer Dan: This is a common misconception, Billy. You see, you’re looking at the population within the city limits. What you need to look at is the population of the metropolitan area. In the United States, that usually means looking at the Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area (CMSA).
Billy: Why is it called “consolidated?”
Geographer Dan: It’s consolidated when it’s a squashed together mass of Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas (PMSAs). The Baltimore PMSA, when combined with the Washington PMSA and the Hagerstown PMSA, comprise the Washington-Baltimore CMSA. The only problem is that CMSAs are based on counties, which makes a lot more sense in the East than in the West. For example, the Los Angeles CMSA has an area of 33,966 square miles, making it larger than South Carolina. It includes both Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park, two desert natural areas with a combined area of 4,026 square miles—about twice the size of Delaware.
Billy: Then how can the population figures be accurate?
Geographer Dan: They could be better, but fortunately, not many people live in those outlying areas. So the figures are typically good approximations.
Billy: How does Canada do it?
Geographer Dan: Our deviant neighbors to the north actually take the time to determine the specific urban areas that should be included. Anyway, here are the 2000 metropolitan population figures of the current cities and eight proposed MLB cities, along with population growth from 1990-2000:
City Metro Pop. Change
New York 21,199,865 8.4%
Los Angeles 16,373,645 12.7%
Chicago 9,157,540 11.1%
Washington-Baltimore 7,608,070 13.1%
San Francisco 7,039,362 12.6%
Philadelphia 6,188,463 5.0%
Boston 5,819,100 6.7%
Detroit 5,456,428 5.2%
Dallas 5,221,801 29.3%
Toronto 4,773,600 N/A
Houston 4,669,571 25.2%
Atlanta 4,112,198 38.9%
Miami 3,876,380 21.4%
Seattle 3,554,760 19.7%
Montreal 3,479,400 N/A
Phoenix 3,251,876 45.3%
Minneapolis 2,968,806 16.9%
Cleveland 2,945,831 3.0%
San Diego 2,813,833 12.6%
St. Louis 2,603,607 4.5%
Denver 2,581,506 30.4%
San Juan 2,450,292 7.9%
Tampa 2,395,997 15.9%
Pittsburgh 2,358,695 -1.5%
Portland 2,265,223 26.3%
Cincinnati 1,979,202 8.9%
Sacramento 1,796,857 21.3%
Kansas City 1,776,062 12.2%
Milwaukee 1,689,572 5.1%
Indianapolis 1,607,486 16.4%
San Antonio 1,592,383 20.2%
Las Vegas 1,563,282 83.3%
Charlotte 1,499,293 29.0%
Buffalo 1,170,111 -1.6%
Billy: Wow! Those sure are exciting numbers! And I thought geography was boring.
Geographer Dan: That’s a common misconception, Billy.
Billy: Geographer Dan, I live in Morgan, Montana, and my teacher says that it’s the farthest city in the continental United States from Major League Baseball.
Geographer Dan: Another common misconception, Billy. While Morgan is 895 miles from Seattle and 894 from Minneapolis, it is only 812 miles from Denver. Opheim, Montana, on the other hand, is 817 miles from Minneapolis, 894 miles from Denver, and 963 miles from Seattle. Anyway, that’s all the time we have today.
Billy: But I still have more questions about geography! What about temperature and humidity?
Geographer Dan: Sorry, Billy. I’ve already worked my butt off on an article that’ll get about two comments.
Billy: Aw, gee whiz. Are you at least paying me for this?
Geographer Dan: That’s a common misconception, Billy.
Dan 'The Boy' Werr
Posted: January 07, 2003 at 06:00 AM |
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1. Jason Posted: January 07, 2003 at 02:18 AM (#608106)Thank you, Craig. Thanks also for being the only voice in support of my sabermetric boy band.
Wow, I didn't even know you could major in geography. Where did you go to school? My college has 14,000 undergraduates and one geography class, an elective in the geology department. It wasn't a class at my high school or middle school or elementary school, either.
Really? Where are you from? Maybe it's an out west thing. I went to Eastern Washington University (mostly), where we had a whopping four Geography profs.
I used to go to UW. They have 21 Geog Profs and 70 grad students (don't know the undergrad numbers).
UCSB (or what we Geography majors call "The Promised Land") has 22 profs on faculty, 200 undergrads, and 100 grad students despite having about half the total enrollment of UW.
And yes, I took World Geography in 7th grade, too.
1. Is Cincinnati underwater? It doesn't appear in your list.
An oversight. Cincinnati checks in at 653 feet.
2. Isn't, say, Nome, Alaska, farther from a baseball team than anywhere in Montana?
I don't make the rules, but "continental United States" typically means the lower 48. You can look it up. That doesn't mean we have to like it, of course.
Huh. I guess I'm a Dan Werr fan. Who'da thunk it?
Dan, I'm a fan and all, but I think the Geographers Cabal should get together with some geologists (Tom Tomorrow-free doors notwithstanding) and talk about what the word "continent" means.
No problem. In my day I received the prestigious Yarwood (pronounced "Yahwood") Award.
ps I'm not really a geographer. Thats why I don't know what the westernmost city in Hawaii is.
Mana? I'm not certain either. By the way, those distances are by road, not as the crow flies.
Are you that guy lurking in my bushes all the time then?
By the way, Craig, since I'm your role model, isn't there some behavior of mine you should be emulating? Maybe something that involves picking things from a big list?
Dan, I'm a fan and all, but I think the Geographers Cabal should get together with some geologists (Tom Tomorrow-free doors notwithstanding) and talk about what the word "continent" means.
We're still angry at them for Mt. St. Helens. They knew we had just finished that map.
Another step would be to look at possible population pools for each team to draw attendance from. Make a bunch of assumptions about how driving distances affect likehood of attendance, how competition from other MLB teams affect it, etc., etc.
Similar to that market study. Now there's a GIS project waiting to happen! MLB, contact me at the address above with your offer of a generous research grant.
-I've used Thomas Brothers map books for years, and they could use someone to fix a ton of errors that I've found in their guides. Get a resume off to them.
Believe it or not, I did once. But who wants to live in Irvine anyway? Those are nice books, though, errors notwithstanding.
I would have voiced support, but I was too busy preparing for a possible audition to be a part of Craig Calcaterra's "Midwest Law".
But who wants to live in Irvine anyway?
A bunch of Republicans and people who like upscale stripmall looking things and automalls.
And what the hell is Kenosha doing in Chicago's CMSA? Is it not closer to Milwaukee? It seems that I'm 90 minutes from Milwaukee, but 60 minutes from Kenosha. I don't get it.
Great article, Dan.
The Mariners get some support, but there's no MLB-quality stadium, even for a temporary setup, no big corporations that'll buy into the team (other than Nike), and no real popular demand for a team. Try Northern Virginia.
Oh, and regarding weather, I always have to slowly explain to people that May through October in Portland are sunny and beautiful. It's just the rest of the year that we never see the sun. You might check rainouts for the minor league team and compare it to other teams -- that'd be a decent measure.
I've often heard and regulary use "contiguous United States" or "the 48 contiguous states" or a similar variant rather than use the word "continental" when wanting to spurn Alaska and Hawaii.
Once again, as in all things, the Simpsons has shown us the way.
Wow, I didn't even know you could major in geography.
Of course you can major in Geography. I took two Geography classes when I went to UCSB.
Count me in as a supporter of the Expos moving to Portland, OR.
I can see an argument for New York, but I don't see that happening, and an argument for Washington. My top choice, though, is Portland, but I'm biased because I'm close to Portland and could get closer.
One advantage Portland has is that it's pretty far from other MLB cities, and could help balance out the East-West thing.
Awesome article, Dan. How did you calculate what the further city from MLB is?
I took a Delorme Montana Gazeteer, found cities up near the Canadian border, and put them in Mapquest against the possible close cities (in most cases, MIN, COL, and SEA). You can narrow it down pretty quickly, though there might be some tiny city a little further that I don't know about. Trust me, though, Morgan is not a metropolis.
For those interested, the full U.S. census metro population data is at: http://www.census.gov/population/cen2000/phc-t3/tab03.txt
I considered including the PMSAs inside the CMSAs--it's instructive to see San Bernardino and Riverside separate from LA, for example, and Baltimore separate from DC. But it got so long. I have it right here, though.
Salt Lake City's at 4,266 ft, so it's pretty high. Not to say it's too high.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but 'continental' includes Alaska, whereas 'continuous' or 'contiguous' is just the 48.
This is really moot... but according to my dictionary, "continental United States" means "the states of the U.S. on the North American continent, usu. excluding Alaska; the 48 contiguous states (excluding Alaska and Hawaii)." Anyway, I agree that it makes more sense the other way.
I would have voiced support, but I was too busy preparing for a possible audition to be a part of Craig Calcaterra's "Midwest Law".
Shredder, are you moonlighting from <A >our firm</A>?
Great Article Dan. One omission however, the elevation of Cleveland is 791 ft. Give or take.
Hmmm... apparently I have some unresolved issues with Ohio elevations.
Would you consider doing a chart/table of the "mean distance" between a city and all the other cities (or contending cities) in MLB, or at least in their division/league?
Yes, I will try to do that. I'll see what my GIS software can't come up with. Any reasonable requests for data, analysis, or whatever in the area of Geography will be happily attempted (at least).
Honolulu is the closest thing in Hawaii to a city. The population of the City and County of Honolulu, which is also the entire island of Oahu, is 876,156.
He drives a gypsy cab.
Something to look forward to.
Isn't Oakland's playing surface actually below sea level?
Do we need to break out the topos?
If you live in Seattle, and want to be at 350', go to Woodland Park Zoo. The elephant house should be pretty close.
Yes, but the data is not as handy. Give me some time and maybe I'll scrounge it up.
BTW, what is the time frame for the rainy days data?
April through September. Days with precip.
Or maybe they said in-season inches of rain? Does it make a difference?
That could be. East of the Rockies there could be more rain per rainy day, being more thunderstorm prone.
It's certainly the case that Safeco Field is much less than 350 feet above sea level. Ten feet might be a tad low, but I'd buy 30.
Meet me at the main gate with a transit. If it's higher than ten, it's not much over 15'. Have you ever walked to the waterfront from the park? There's really not much to it.
The elephant house is actually below the main zoo elevation. It's a relatively new exhibit, so maybe your map shows an old elphant house.
It should be at a low point. The buildings aren't labeled on my map; I'm going by memory. I remember the elephant house being a big barn with pillars up in the northeast area.
Don't know about the airport. There are plenty of places in town at 350'. Kerry Park might be a good one (nice view, too). There are places on Queen Anne, Magnolia, First Hill, and Capitol Hill, just to give a few examples from the central area.
I know a lot of elevations are probably off, but Seattle jumped out by being 300-and-some feet off.
Note that we are NOT in the Southwest. Nor Texas, obviously.
Tell it to LA. We Washingtonians don't buy it. Get rid of the palm trees and we'll talk.
1. Regarding the rainfall statistic, I feel the relevancy of "number of inches" is misleading, since an inch of rain can fall all at once (like in a typical South-Florida deluge) or over a longer period of time (like in a Seattle day-long drizzle). Since ballgames only take a few hours, it seems to me that the RATE of rainfall (over time) should be considered. I'm pretty sure that Florida leads the league in rain-delays. The roof at Safeco is only needed (to prevent otherwise certain rain-delays) about four times a year.
2. I live in Seattle and was at first surprised at your number for our feet-above-sea-level, but then I remembered that Puget Sound is not the "sea," but basically a fiord above actual sea-level. You're number is probably correct. The biggest reason Safeco is such a strong pitcher's park is because it is situated so close to the water and the heavy marine air.
One nitpicky thing. You geographers have to stop calling it the Washington-Baltimore metro area. Such an animal does not exist. We can't even get Baltimore radio stations very clearly here in the Washington metro area. They are two distinct and seperate areas that have no really connection other than a 45 minute stretch of I-95.
Hagerstown is about and hour plus drive from either city, it would be like including Hartford, CT in the Boston Metro area or something.
Rant over. Thanks again for a great article.
It's sort of hard to read because the stadium is in some steep terrain.
Great article although I have to agree with Joe on the "Washington - Baltimore metro area." Only Peter Angelos and about 5 of his underlings believe such an animal exist. As for various sectors within the Federal Government, who believe them anyway?
Also, you forgot to include Tucson on the rainfall chart. Are you discriminating against "us" southern Arizonan Primates of something...? ;-) ...
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trevise :-) ...
Also FYI, if Morgan is anywhere near Opheim, then Billy lives 409 miles from Unabomber country (Lincoln, MT). Big difference, Lincoln is about 20 miles from the Continental Divide, surrounded by mountains and forests, while Opheim is in the Plains, nowhere near a tree.
As far as making wisecracks about really small Montana towns, we locals like to use Twodot as our example.
Montana - where men are men, women are scarce, and sheep are nervous. :-)
You geographers have to stop calling it the Washington-Baltimore metro area. Such an animal does not exist.
I don't make the rules. The Census Bureau does. That's why I wanted to include the PMSAs...maybe I'll post them (people can just scroll). Look at the bottom of this post. You can't miss them. I think, for example, the while Everett and Tacoma belong with Seattle, Thurston county should not be included. Kootenai County should be included in Spokane's (Despite what its residents say).
Also, you forgot to include Tucson on the rainfall chart.
Tucson is a lovely place, large and growing, but far from getting an MLB franchise. However, just for you, Trevise:
Don't forget your umbrella in late summer.
However, I do know that Opheim exists, so I am assuming that you didn't make it up. So where is Morgan?
Obviously, you've never driven to Malta from Swift Current, Saskatchewan on Highway 191. Or, it's equally possible that you have, and you just didn't know that the man in the booth who asked you if you had anything to declare was in Morgan, Montana.
Unless I don't include them. Here they are, sorry about the length, and hope the formatting works:
Tell me Dan. Do modern GIS's still use DIME files? Or have they gone the way of the buggy whip? (I did some work on a GIS once; it was a long time ago in a job description far away.)
Providence, as it happens, has its own MSA, of course. Why they're not amalgamated, I'm not sure, but they may become that way. People who travel from Westport, MA to Dartmouth, MA, will have gone from the Providence MSA to the Boston CMSA.
I suppose the Rhode Island Congressional delegation is against geographic imperialism.
Could be. I was surprised to read recently that the Census Bureau had deemed Kootenai County a gray area in the MSA question (as I alluded above). Kootenai County is the third-largest county in Idaho, and very quickly growing (55.7% from 1990-2000). It barely reached 100,000 in 2000, which is the typical MSA cutoff line. Anyone living in the Spokane area (as I do) has no doubt that the cities of Kootenai County (most notably Coeur d'Alene and Post Falls) are in the same metro area as Spokane.
What surprised me was that the Census Bureau decided to let Kootenai County choose whether it wanted to be part of the Spokane MSA. Spokane wanted them to join, as it would move our metro area from the 99th largest to about 81st, which would be good for attracting industry--something Spokane is desparate to do. But the North Idahoans decided they preferred "small town" to "suburb" and said no thanks.
By the next Census (or even sooner), Kootenai County will be out of the gray area anyway, and will be attached to Spokane. Look out Colorado Springs!
Do modern GIS's still use DIME files? Or have they gone the way of the buggy whip?
I must confess to never having run across DIME files. If they are still in use, they are either for purposes I have not had, or built-in and unnoticed.
In round numbers, the city of Manchester has a population of 100,000 and Nashua is around 80,000. Portmouth, on the other hand, is somewhere in the 22,000 range, nowhere close to the 50,000 I thought was the minimum requirement to be a central city.
Technically, the city or urbanized area has to be at 50,000. Portsmouth's urban area, which presumably includes places like Kittery and S. Eliot, has a census-defined population of 50,912.
As far as overall population, the Portsmouth PMSA is pretty far-flung--and I should mention I abbreviated the name; it's actually the Portsmouth-Rochester PMSA, and includes towns as far away as Farmington and Milton.
On the Milwaukee front - the world's biggest role-playing game convention, GENCON, is moving this year from Milwaukee to Indianapolis, largely because of a lack of hotel rooms in downtown Milwaukee. (Yes, I'm a loser who still plays Dungeons & Dragons occasionally.) The convention's been in Wisconsin for all of its existence, which I think goes back to the late 60s (before RPGs had even come into being), and in Milwaukee since 1987.
Well, first of all, you can go here:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/phc-t3.html
Table 1 is the one that would do that; it's available in Excel, PDF, or ASCII text formats.
But here's the answer to your specific question. What metro area does each NJ county belong to? (I didn't bother putting in the PMSAs for Philly):
That's right. Every inch of New Jersey is considered to be part of either greater New York or greater Philadelphia. Whether you're at Cape May or Tillman Ravine.
You know, what's even more disturbing than all of NJ being in Philly or New York's MSA is that New York extends into Pennsylvania. (I have to pull out the atlas tonight to find out where Pike County is.) I wonder how long it will be before it absorbs the Easton-Allentown MSA.
I know nobody cares, but what was really odd to me was seeing Warren and Sussex counties lumped in the Newark area. (If anybody cares, they're basically the western third of the state from Route 78 north to the NY border.) Morris and Union make sense, they're bordering Essex (heck, one town is trying to get out of Essex into Morris without much success). Nobody asked me, but I'd probably lump Hunterdon, Warren and Sussex into one area. They're the most rural parts of North Jersey. OTOH, there is a lot of logic in having Hunterdon and Somerset together - they share a county college among other things. Okay, I'll stop now.
But David, Wilmington is further away from Baltimore than Washington. And to allow the burg of Baltimore to believe it's the main attraction might undermine its inferiority complex. Like allowing the tail to wag the dog or the fly to swat the sledgehammer.
That is, unless you're speaking of the Baltimore - Westminster metro area!?!? I hear it's such a lovely place... ;-) ...
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trevise :-) ...
1. where is the fife
2. Give me the fife
and finally
3. don't you hate pants
(Sorry, just doing my job as the Los Angeles area's lone San Diego hater.)
I used to go to camp at WMC in Westminster. It is nice.
The person who stated that Pugent Sound is not at Sea Level is absolutely correct. If it was all that salt water in the ocean would just float back in at high tide. (Did you know they changed the direction of the Chicago River in the 19th century so that all that poopy would flow towards Iowa and not into Lake Michigan?)
Most elevations are taken at a specific spot in a city,usually City Hall. You can usually find a USGS marker somewhere on the ground near any major City Hall. Seattle has a lot of hills downtown and I think City Hall is on one of them.
Days with rain probably refers to days with measurable rainfall. If you find three drops on your windsheild, it probably doesn't count. If the Expos do move to Portland will they be realigned into the NL West? That would put seven teams in the NL west! Perhaps they could move to the AL West. That would certainly make sense. Let's make it a requirement of moving to Portland.
As far as radio stations in Washington and Baltimore, they are actually directed not to broadcast into each others cities by the FCC. You can manipulate a signal so that it can be directed that way. The United States broadcasts a signal to Cuba that's something like 250,000 Watts, 5 TIMES THE MAXIMUM WATTAGE OF A COMMERCIAL STATION. But it doesn't effect U.S. radios because it's omni-directional.
I'd like to point out that Sacramento is on both lists for population and fewest rainy days. Please move the A's here!
Doug
Don't know if the formatting works, but the body count on the east side of LA, as I've pointed out for years, makes this the most populous location for an expansion team or a team-on-the-lam anywhere in the USA, including New Jersey.
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