A mile stretch along Harbor Drive separates the Manchester Grand Hyatt and Hilton San Diego Bayfront — one the bustling home of Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings; the other a relatively sedate landing spot for minor-league stakeholders.
Though the groups are too large to fit in one location, it’s impossible to miss the symbolism of maintaining some distance, as if a referee was directing bloody prizefighters to opposite corners.
Since news leaked that MLB was considering cutting ties with affiliates by roughly 25 percent, shock waves wobbled communities from the Padres’ Tri-City Dust Devils to the Vermont Lake Monsters.