Actually, even without an MLB team, Buffalo fielded a pro football team in the APFA and NFL for 10 years. The Buffalo All-Americans/Bisons were a charter franchise of the NFL. They folded after the 1929 season and they weren't the only ones, the Boston Bulldogs and Dayton Triangles also went under the year of The Crash.
The Depression killed quite a few franchises, actually. The Minneapolis Red Jackets and Newark Tornadoes followed in 1930. The Providence Steam Roller and Frankford Yellow Jackets, at the time the two winingist teams in the league with two NFL titles between them, went under after the 1931 season. I have to figure the economic situation of the times hit some places harder than others.
Why they weren't included in the AAFC-NFL merger, I couldn't tell you. Obviously, by 1946, the area had recovered and capable of supporting a team again. Why they were left out I just don't know.
Now, the NHL? I can tell you why that didn't happen sooner: Stupidity.
The NHL decided to operate as a six team league for 25 years. Why?
No logical reason I can think of. The fact that Buffalo, Philly, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Ottawa, Milwaukee or Minneapolis all didn't have franchises
by 1960 boggles my mind.
Then again, much of what the NHL does/has done over the course of their history is puzzling at best and mind numbing at worst.
Of course, St. Louis didn't have an NFL franchise until 1960 always left me perplexed. Especially when you think about the Cardinals actually staying in Chicago WILLINGLY all those years, as a second thought to the Bears, while the untouched jewel of St. Louis just sat there...on second thought, don't. It's already giving me a headache.
They had an NL team from 1879-1884 and it folded.
They had one of the original NFL clubs and they folded.
The Bills joined the upstart AFL and made it into the NFL where they've enjoyed successes to a point.
The NBA gave them a shot with the Braves and they stayed for eight years...before they left for San Diego where they became the Clippers and the rest is a punchline.
The NHL gave them the Sabres and by The Great Gil Perreault's Mustache, in Buffalo they remain!
Buffalo's kind of a mystery to me; the economy for major league sport is there. The market interest for major league sport is there. Give them teams and the support for major league sport is there.
The only thing I can come up with to explain the lack of MLB and NBA presence there is that those regions are fairly saturated. Pittsburgh doesn't have an NBA team, does that make sense? Neither does Cinnci (Though, like Buffalo, they did at one time). St. Louis has no NBA team either. We're constantly told how Basketball is the most popular or second most popular sport in America, so why aren't there teams in all the major markets?
It's beyond me.
Kinda like: Why was Atlanta given TWO NHL expansion franchises, yet Milwaukee (where
women's collegiate hockey games sell out) hasn't even gotten a whiff of an NHL franchise?
Again, I feel a headache coming on, so I'll leave it at that.
1. The Reds will still be good, but won't become The Big Red Machine. The Astros, by contrast, probably would have been better, but by how much, I don't know. The 'Stros may be much better if Morgan experiences the same resurgence in his hitting as he did in Cinnci. Geronimo's not that big a deal. He was shipped out to make room for Cesar Cedeno, and that's actually an upgrade in center, unless Geronimo moves to right, that could work too. What the 'Stros seemed to lack in those days was consistent power. Did the Astrodome tend to kill long flies? It seems like the 'Stros never wanted for pitching, guys who could hit for average or speedsters on the base paths, but homers seemed hard to come by.
2. I was going to mention this one. My what if for J.R. is, "What if J.R. Richard gets a second opinion?"
He complained of "dead arm" (numbness in the hand and fingers in particular) and when checked at Methodist Hospital, he had almost no blood pressure at all in his right arm. The angiogram he was given revealed an obstruction in his subclavian and axillary arteries. The doctors, incredulously, dismissed the need for surgery because the arteries in his neck were clear.
If J.R. gets a second opinion, I'm almost positive the next doctor he saw would've had him prepped for emergency surgery.
When he gets back, I don't know. Depends on how quickly he heals but the more pressing question if J.R.'s stroke is prevented and then he has a total recovery from the surgery is this: Why would he EVER want to play for a club that disregarded his health like that or in a city where the local sports writers openly conjectured that he was just being "a whiner", "couldn't handle pitching in Houston"
confused
or was jealous of Nolan Ryan's recent contract.
If I'm J.R., I'm shutting it down for the rest of the season and going home after the surgery, listening to my doctors and hiring a personal trainer and physical therapist to help with my rehab and then, when I'm 100%, I'm asking for a trade. If I'm in my walk year, I'm walking.
That simple. The 'Stros didn't look out for their best pitcher and he lost his career, almost his life, because of it.
Why play for an organization like that? In a city where the media crapped on him while he was in serious medical danger?
3. Everyone has a sports What If? game. For me, it's the 1991 NFC Championship.
What If...Mike "Captain Hook" Cofer doesn't shank one or both of his two missed field goals that day? Answer: 49ers 16/19, Giants 12.
What If...George Seifert pulls Montana and lets Young, Craig and Rathman (and maybe a well timed reverse by Rice or Taylor to seal it) run out the clock? Answer: Maybe Craig still fumbles, but even money says the Giants are too deep in their own end for the comeback before the clock runs out. This much is certain: Montana doesn't miss the next two seasons.
For Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS...How about, Virdon brings in Dave Smith in the eighth to close out the game, instead of sending Ryan back out?
Doesn't help that the 'Stros blew games 4 and 5 at home in that series.
And both in the eighth.
