Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.

Friday, December 12, 2008

And speaking of gambling . . .

It’s believed Madoff and the Mets owners have been connected for at least 20 years . . . The question now is how much money was invested? If we’re talking hundreds of millions of dollars, which is not out of the question, you’d have to think it could affect the Mets ability to further itself this off-season beyond the pitching moves they’ve already made.

Muera Las Vegas!

But even though Major League Baseball isn't coming to the valley anytime soon, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be here. Boston Globe writer Nick Cafardo, who was in town this week covering baseball's winter meetings at the Bellagio, is all for a franchise in Southern Nevada.

"I've always been shocked there isn't a team here," said Cafardo, who covers the Red Sox. "It's a popular place for players. A lot of players live in this area or live in Arizona. I know it's a fun place for them to be. I know there's the issue of the gambling, but if you want to gamble, you can gamble anywhere in this day and age.

"There's a lot of interest in baseball in this area, a lot of transplanted people from places where baseball's important. Again, I'm just flabbergasted there isn't a team here" . . .

. . . The Sporting News baseball writer Gerry Fraley: "This is my first time here. I'm a little taken aback. It looks like the economy is hurting here. I don't know if a tourist-based town can support a baseball team because of the fluctuations of the economy."

Excellent

Welcome to the American Dream: A billionaire using public funds to construct a private playground for the rich and powerful!

William S. Stevens: 1948-2008

William S. Stevens, whose slyly humorous law-review note on the relationship between baseball’s infield fly rule and Anglo-American common law became one of the most celebrated and imitated analyses in American legal history, died Monday in Anchorage, where he was working. He was 60 and lived in Narberth, Pa. The cause was a heart attack, said T. Dennis Sullivan, his brother-in-law . . .

. . . Mr. Stevens contributed many articles to The Philadelphia Lawyer, the magazine of the Philadelphia Bar Association, and was a member of its editorial board. None achieved the reputation of the infield fly note, which grew out of his passionate love for baseball and his abandoned plans to write a magisterial multivolume work with the title “Doubleday on Baseball.”

“It has given me far more than the 15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol said I should get,” he told Mr. Jarvis. “With recent flurries of interest in the piece, I am probably up to 21 minutes and 15 seconds.”

He added: “My ego is simultaneously flattered and bruised by the notion that something I cranked out more than 25 years ago would prove to be the highlight of my professional and academic careers.”

Good luck with that, Jim

He may be losing his marbles, but U.S. senator and ex-Tiger pitching great Jim Bunning still has big brass cojones.

After all, most of the GOP senators conspiring to kill a House rescue package for Detroit's auto companies wouldn't have the guts to set foot in Michigan this week, much less hawk their autographs to beleaguered Michiganders at $55 a pop.

But Hall of Famer Bunning -- a vocal opponent of the auto loans -- will do both of those things Sunday when he journeys to the deepest heart of UAW country.

He'll sign baseballs ($35), posters ($45) and jerseys or gloves ($55) from noon to 2 p.m. at the Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor . . .

. . . Taylor Mayor Cameron Priebe, who said he'd written Bunning a personal note imploring him to reconsider his opposition to the auto rescue package, was stunned when I told him Bunning would be in town to sell his signature.

"I doubt he'll have many takers at $35," Priebe said. "But as soon as I get off the phone with you, I'm going to call the UAW and see if I can't arrange for 5,000 of his biggest fans to be there when he arrives."

Today at THT

Teixeira’s Options

Three things matter to Teixeira, who has a clean-cut, almost corporate, image: family, business and winning. His dilemma: He can't get all three in the same place. Boston is 400 miles from Severna Park. But the Nats and Orioles are 400 miles from the World Series. Which team can negate the distance and how? The Red Sox can't move Boston south. But the Nats and Orioles can claim that their position in the standings will move north.

Like the Great Depression, but different

At the minor league job fair and trade show, the topic on many minds was the floundering economy, which was expected to have a far more pronounced effect on baseball’s lower levels than on the major leagues. Many minor league teams are searching for creative ways to save money but keep fans heading out to ballparks, and job seekers are finding few openings. Some of the cost-saving measures will affect fans, and others will reach the field . . .

. . . Teams are looking beyond uniforms for savings. The Round Rock Express, the Houston Astros’ Class AAA affiliate, has often bought new in-game entertainment features for fans from one season to the next. Next season, however, the team plans to run the same video entertainment on the outfield screen between innings.

“It will be the same cap shuffle video instead of changing the whole thing, like we’ve done in years past,” said Clint Musslewhite, the team’s director for ballpark entertainment. “We are not going to have them redo it. We’re going to strategically change our entertainment; the number of inflatable things we’ll rent will decrease.”