I can’t say I disagree with Pierce’s characterization. He lays it on a little thick, but in 1 instance at least—blaming him for the 2004 team’s loss to Boston—he’s completely right. The Cardinals pitchers spent 5 games nibbling around the strike zone to a team that had spent the whole season demonstrating that they will not, under any circumstances, swing at junk like that. what was the stat—the Red Sox swung and missed a total of 13 times, something like that? Hard not to blame the manager for that.

I live in Milwaukee.  I couldn’t be happier that Chicago was denied the Olympics.  I already get pissed off enough when I have to drive to Indiana (or Ohio or Kentucky or Tennessee or…) and hit “rush-hour” traffic at 8:30pm on a Wednesday.

Craig - You should bear in mind that Boswell is pandering to the Nationals “fans” that have been bitching ad infinitum about the payroll, to which the real fans note: You’re complaining that the Lerners aren’t being like Peter Angelos.

Furthermore, nowhere in either Boswell’s column or in the Forbes article is the amount of revenue sharing received by the Washington Nationals specified. If we can extrapolate from Maury Brown’s reporting <http://bit.ly/67sEk>, it’s doubtful that Washington received significantly more than the revenue sharing they did in ‘05, if they received any at all</a>.

Those of us who are professionally trained to check it out will point out that Boswell did not include <i>Forbes’ disclaimer regarding the operating income figure, so I’ll do the heavy lifting that Boswell didn’t: Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

I’m no accountant, but I strongly suspect that’s like saying I ran the best time in the Boston Marathon for someone my age, weight, and height.

Also suspiciously missing from the Boswell article: That Washington’s franchise value DECREASED 12% from 2007 to 2008, according to Forbes.

Think about that: A new stadium, and the franchise LOST value. And everybody and their grandmother will tell you that the deal to build Nationals Park was as good as it gets from the perspective of an owner.

There may be a story about revenue sharing being abused by certain franchises, but Boswell ain’t telling it, and there’s simply not enough evidence to support his delusion.

I am disappointed that Chicago did not get the Olympics.  Traffic around Chicagoland is awful regardless but from what I can understand of the placement of venues. it would not be any worse than a major convention at McCormick, and using the Dan Ryan even 20 years ago never brought anything than heartache.  Anyway, it would have done a lot to showcase a world class U.S. city.
As for the Mets moving home plate, the old saw “re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic” applies.