BOB:  MLB hits back at Dodgers

MLB petitions court to force Dodgers sale

I haven’t led off with a Dodgers story in a while but one of the biggest stories of the week that’s outside the lines would be MLB’s petition to the bankruptcy court to order the sale of the Los Angeles Dodgers. MLB was pretty frank in their admission that they won’t allow a sale of television rights that would let owner Frank McCourt to keep the team, and that the league would enforce it’s right to take over the team once it emerges from bankruptcy protection.

A hearing is set for October 12, but the Dodgers are asking that MLB not get their day in court on this matter until at least December 12. Instead, the Dodgers are asking that the television rights issue be decided at the October 12 hearing. In the Dodgers response, they spell out 20 areas they feel warrant further discovery, and if the judge agrees we could be looking at this dragging well into 2012. It’s also interesting that the Dodgers threw out the fact that not only will they have a winning record (even though they’ve been well out of playoff contention for some time) but they could also have a home grown MVP and Cy Young.

Brewers set attendance record

The Milwaukee Brewers set a new club attendance record on Monday. Through that day, they had 3,068,781 tickets sold and this surpassed the record they set back in 2008 when they sold 3,068,458. It’s no surprise, with the Brewers being in first place for most of the second half of the season. They also have a MLB-best 55 home wins. The Brewers will be the ninth and final team of the season to cross the three million threshold. The Texas Rangers just missed the mark and the Los Angeles Dodgers fell below three million fans for the first time since 2000.

Baseball travels to Taiwan

MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association announced last week that they would be sending a team of major league stars to Taiwan to play the Chinese Taipei national team in the 2011 Taiwan All-Star Series. They’ll play five games in three cities from November 2 through November 6. MLB and the MLBPA will pick the team and staff and all will be announced in October.

A’s put contract talks on hold until stadium situation resolved

Josh Willingham had a resurgence in his time with the Oakland Athletics this year but when his agent approached the Athletics about a contract extension, general manager Billy Beane told him that all spending decisions were on hold until the stadium issue was resolved. On a good note, Beane has indicated in interviews that he thinks the a decision on the stadium situation will be made soon. The A’s are looking to relocate and San Jose seems like the best option, but that’s an uphill battle because it’s in the middle of San Francisco Giants territory. A commission has been examining the situation for over two and a half years.

Hamilton County looks for solutions to stadium funding gap

Right now, it’s looking like Hamilton County is going to have a $14 million shortfall in their maintenance of the homes of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cincinnati Reds. They have two months to come up with a solution and the commissioners haven’t been able to agree on how to bridge this gap.

Field of Schemes

author Neil deMausse gave some of his opinions and the best he could come up with was that the economy improves. If that doesn’t happen, then either taxes will go up or other services will have to be cut.

The county has tried to get the teams to come to the table but, so far, they haven’t been successful. They tried to do this last year, but the Bengals sprung a last minute lease extension on the county that broke down the deal.

MLB celebrates 200,000 regular season game

This was being tracked over at Baseball-Reference.com, but MLB played it’s 200,000 regular season game on Saturday, September 24th, 2011. No other professional sports team comes close, and it’s a testament to both the popularity and longevity of this great sport.


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