Mets! Yankees! Madoff! Stanford! Johnny Damon, earning $13 million this season, cannot pay his bills. Xavier Nady, earning $6.55 million, cannot purchase an apartment in New York. The Stanford Financial Group scandal extends to Major League Baseball. The issues facing Damon and Nady — both New York Yankees outfielders and both clients of agent Scott […]

Ballpark Village, we hardly knew ye: Oakland Athletics officials today asked the City of Fremont to halt the planning process required to build a new stadium and move the team there, saying they want to reconsider their options. The Fremont city clerk’s office issued a notice today saying the A’s have asked the city to […]

At least their ticket office does: The Cleveland Indians may have found their most valuable statistics this season are coming from the ticket office rather than the playing field. Using statistical analysis of ticket purchases to understand the preferences and price limits of their fans, the Indians learned that fireworks after a game draw an […]

The government’s case against Bonds gets weaker by the day: A federal judge has barred prosecutors from using three positive steroid tests and other key evidence in Barry Bonds’ trial next month because of his personal trainer’s refusal to testify. The ruling issued late Thursday was expected. The judge had said earlier she was troubled […]

Yesterday Neyer noted that big heads should roll in Washington as a result of the Esmailyn González fiasco. Today Tom Boswell amps up the pressure on the biggest of the heads: Bleak humor about the Nats now bounces all around baseball. But this case, as Kasten says ominously, “will have big repercussions.” At one level, […]

The Royals signing of Jose Guillen stands as one of the worst deals of the past few years. Guillen must know that himself, because he’s trying to save the club money in other ways: Royals outfielder José Guillen expects to return to full-time drills, perhaps by this weekend, after easing the pain in his right […]

Sabermetric writing and analysis was and remains an essential corrective to inane, old school sportswriter blather, but I like a little right-brained action too, ya know? Thank goodness then for Phil Bencomo, late of Baseball Toaster’s Cub Town, who has a new project in the works: As much as baseball is about statistics, it is […]

You probably know Jon Bois best as the moderator of The Dugout, but there’s more to him than merely inventing insanely clever screen names for ballplayers. Like this piece for example, in which he takes a look at the often erratic and increasingly diminishing attendance spikes new ballparks have brought their teams. Upshot: recessions and […]

I was catching up on recorded episodes of “Man vs. Wild” last night — Bear Grylls actually ate bear poop in this one! — when I noticed no less than three commercials for new Discovery Channel reality shows. For those who don’t watch the Discovery Channel, these aren’t the super-contrived kinds of shows you see […]

Four perennial losing organizations and the steps they’ve taken to get on the right track for this season.