Maybe it’s crazy to look for hidden benefits in all of the recent economic strife, but I try to do it anyway. One of them — and I realize that it may be pie in the sky as opposed to a silver-lined cloud — is the possibility that the bad times may lead to an […]

The Giants are looking to do more in Japan: If you can’t beat ’em, recruit ’em. On a day the Giants lost to Japan 6-4, they announced a hiring that they think will help make them competitors for top Japanese talent. Shun Kakazu, a Japanese native and Harvard grad who worked the past three years […]

From our friend MooseinOhio, in the Think of the Children thread, on baseball’s ability to provide teaching moments: As a parent and uncle to children under six who are already expressing a real interest in baseball (nephew memorized Red Sox yearbook latt year) I wonder when it is appropriate to talk about the negatives of […]

Italy is apparently trying to make bloggers register with the government. So much for my plan of retiring from the law and producing ShysterBall from a little Ligurian village.

Last year Fox’s Dayn Perry started — and then suspended — what looked to be shaping up into a must-read blog called Spolitical, which focused on the intersection of sports, politics, business, and society. The suspension was for a good reason: he owed a book to a publisher, and as I’m finding out, it’s hard […]

There was a story on NPR last night about a man trying to reconcile his young son’s love of baseball and the steroid era. The subject, Jim Gullo, has an eight year-old son who is becoming a hardcore baseball freak, but who, at the same time, is acutely aware of Barry Bonds’ issues, the Mitchell […]

CC Sabathia is having a rough spring: This was bound to happen. Despite the money and the expectations and the hope for perfection, there was bound to come an outing in which CC Sabathia would be wholly ineffective. Might as well come in Spring Training. Sabathia experienced his first frustrations with the Yankees on Wednesday, […]

Bob Young of the Arizona Republic is reviewing the new Cactus League spring training complexes. Yesterday was New Dodgertown. Today it’s the Indians’ new place, where he found some unhappy folks: Their complaint wasn’t with the ballpark itself, but with the “Recreational Complex” that includes the team’s development facilities, clubhouse and practice fields. For some, […]

The idea of bringing the A’s to San Jose is quickly moving from thinking out loud to formal campaign: The campaign to bring the Oakland Athletics to San Jose will be launched at the April 7 City Council meeting, city officials decided Wednesday. Speaking before a crowd of 40 plus representatives from TV and radio […]

Citigroup and any other business that buys naming rights obviously wants more than their name on the building. They want the name to be used constantly as people refer to the place in conversations, on broadcasts, in directions, in news stories, and everywhere else for that matter. “I’ll meet you at Citi Field.” “We’re located […]