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June 19, 2013
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Baseball. Blogging. Whenever.Thursday, November 05, 2009Bit dramatic, ain’t it?I'd like to think that the announcement by Bugs & Cranks' Dave Chalk that he is quitting the baseball blogging business is dry humor, and that his leaving B&C is occasioned by another offer or a lack of free time or something as opposed to truly being disgusted with the sport. If not, it's simply baffling. He's been blogging about baseball for less than three years. None of the factors he cites -- high payroll teams having advantages, steroids -- came onto the scene anew during that period. If he is being straight-up about it, it just reinforces what I've always told people who ask me about blogging: I don't care if it's baseball or politics or tech or sitcoms or the self-indulgent, overrated novels of Susan Sontag. If you're going to seriously blog about something, you had better love the subject matter or at the very least find your peace with its flaws, because you're going to be living and breathing it. Good luck with whatever you're moving on to, David. Judge to Jamie McCourt: No you can not have your job backNot yours: A court commissioner has denied Jamie McCourt's bid to be reinstated as the chief executive of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon ruled Thursday in Los Angeles there is no state law to support her bid. I hate it when judges cite B.S. reasons for ruling against you. Stuff like "there's no state law to support your arguments" and "your pleading was a month late" and "you're not wearing any pants, Mr. Calcaterra, please cover yourself before I throw you in jail, you utter disgrace of an attorney." You know, just by way of example. My Morning in ExileNot sure why I'm writing this -- I'm guessing most readers are off work today for Guy Fawkes Day and everything -- but for those of you in essential services . . . Glad the series ended last night. If it had gone to Game 7, I'd have a living room half full of baseball fans and half full of people commemorating the unravelling of the Gunpowder Plot! AWK-ward! The Yankees and the DUI checkpointThis story is mostly about Joe Girardi helping an accident victim on his way home from the ballpark last night, but this is all kinds of fun: Police were in the area conducting a driving while intoxicated checkpoint on the parkway. In fact, about 15 minutes earlier, Girardi had passed through a driving while intoxicated checkpoint on the parkway. Cristiano, who was working the checkpoint, congratulated him on his first win as a manager and waved him through. He hadn't been the only Yankees member to pass by the checkpoint. Pitcher Andy Pettitte also passed through earlier. Of course it makes perfect sense that Girardi and Pettitte were waved through with a smile. I mean, it's not like there was any video of them drowning in booze from less than two hours prior . . . And That Happened: World SeriesYankees 7, Phillies 3: Champs. You saw it, so no need for me to describe it. I'll just offer some observations: I suppose I could go on all day. And really, there won't be much other news happening, so I probably will. For now, congratulations to the 2009 New York Yankees, champions of baseball. 151 days until Opening Day. Wednesday, November 04, 2009Viva DemocracyWith perks like these, you'd think the folks in Congress wouldn't beat baseball up over steroids and stuff as often as they do. I mean really, isn't a bribe worth anything in Washington anymore? Tickets for Wednesday's World Series game are nearly impossible to come by at face value. But that isn't the case if you are a member of Congress or one of their aides. (thanks to reader Rich C. for the link) My Morning in ExileJust want to thank everyone for all the kind words in my little ego thread yesterday. It's humbling to say the least. I feel like Johnny Fever after he told people to go throw garbage on the steps of city hall and they actually, you know, did it. I'll try to get back into my usual snarky-ass ways as the day progresses, but I'll admit: it would be way easier if Bailey Quarters were here to help me get my mojo back like she helped Johnny in that episode. Alas. BTW: Happy 59th birthday to Markie Post. (Call me). Great Moments in Being Vicente PadillaLadies and gentleman, the man on which Joe Torre depended to stave off elimination in the NLCS: Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla accidentally shot himself in the right leg, the Dodgers confirmed Tuesday, but the wound is believed to be minor. Whatever. I couldn't get too mad about that, even if I was a Dodgers fan. What I can't abide, however, is the fact that one of my NBC colleagues stole the Warren Zevon reference I was going to drop. I'm not going to get a chance like that again. At least until some ballplayer loses their head in a war in the Congo. I haven't officially signed my NBC deal yet, but rest assured, prior to doing so I will check the fine print to make sure that I have the authority to have Harkins killed if something like this happens again. Tuesday, November 03, 2009Programming NoteWhen I started writing ShysterBall in the spring of 2007, the idea was to give myself a place to be where I could escape the stress and unpleasantness of my legal career, if only for the briefest of moments. As time went on, it began to consume more and more of my waking hours and, in all honesty, interfering pretty significantly with that legal career. No, I never dropped the ball on a case, but it has been a struggle. I mean really, how is someone supposed to prepare for an oral argument when Roger Clemens is testifying before Congress? I'd like to say that I eventually managed to find balance with all of this, but that would be a lie. My life hasn't been in balance since at least 2006. Maybe earlier. Something has to be done. So I'm doing it: I'm quitting the law. Starting November 30th I will be writing about baseball full time for NBC Sports.com. Obviously this wasn't a unilateral decision on my part. NBC has decided that they want me all-in on Circling the Bases, and that's not the kind of thing you have to ask me twice. The people over there have been fantastic to me since I started moonlighting back in April. They've never censored a word I've written. They've never declared a topic off-limits. Their instructions to me when I started were to make some f*cking noise, and they've allowed me to do that non-stop since. When they asked me to do it full time, it was a complete no-brainer. I don't yet know how it's going to all work out -- the enormity of this is just starting to sink in -- but to say I'm excited would be something of an understatement. Q: But Craig! Where am I going to go for my daily ATH fix come April?! A: Right here. Well, to THT at least, because NBC has been good enough to allow me to keep doing ATH and posting it at The Hardball Times (see above about NBC being totally cool). It likely won't be in ShysterBall, because the ShysterBall name is going to go into mothballs. Right now the smart money is on it appearing as a daily post at THT Live, but we'll give you lots of advanced notice once the good Mr. Studeman and I figure it out. The upshot, though, is that everyone involved realizes just how valuable an outlet and how outstanding the readership and community is at THT, and no one wants to mess with a good thing. Day-to-day blogging will be at NBC, but ATH will continue to appear at The Hardball Times. Q: But Craig! How can you subject yourself to the kind of abuse you get from the commenters over there every day? A: I've learned a lot in a short period of time. I've also noticed a slight uptick in commenter quality as time has gone on. I credit many of you for that, as I have been seeing a lot of familiar commenting handles migrate over to NBC as the year has progressed. I hope that continues. And I'm sure that it can. None of you are the type who can't handle more baseball in your lives, so I'm sure you can make a point to be good boys and girls and read your THT, and then come over to NBC to see what I'm up to. Q: So, like, what does this all mean for you? A: I don't know. No shaving. Pants optional. Walking kids to the bus stop. Cheaper coffee. More time to go to the gym. Occasional cushion forts in the living room. I'm sure it's going to be an adjustment process. I'll ask Neyer what he does with his days. OK, enough self-indulgent crap, we have almost a month to get all of that in. In the meantime, let me offer some thanks to some people. Thanks ShysterBall readers of both the commenting and the lurking persuasion. I could bring more bloggy noise than anyone, but it's worthless if there's no one there to read it. I'm not the statcounter obsessive I used to be, but whenever I've lost the will to write, I've checked in to look at the numbers. When I see people who have way better things to do with their lives click and click and click like you've been doing for so damn long, I'm reinvigorated. And away we go . . . The McCourt divorce: messier than you could possibly imagineI may dabble, but Josh Fisher is the go-to source for all of your McCourtly goodness. Today, Josh talks about just how much of a clusterf*ck the Dodgers' sale was, and why it will make the McCourt divorce an even bigger hassle than most of us currently realize: So, if you're counting at home, the above adds up to $421 million in financing...for a $371 million purchase. That, friends, is a little scary. And there's more. In May 2005, McCourt announced a new, $250 million 25-year note which took out B of A and what remained of the debt to Fox (after the foreclosure on the Boston property). This increased the debt load to $521 million on a $371 million purchase. This financing, known as a private placement, was provided by an unidentified group of institutional investors, such as pension funds and insurance companies. The terms of the loan--5.66% fixed for 25 years--are relatively favorable to McCourt. The collateral for this new loan was reportedly the 300 acres of real estate surrounding Dodger Stadium--not the club itself. Importantly, one of the provisions of the private placement was that control of the Dodgers would not change hands. That is just a snippet of an insanely fascinating (at least to people like Josh and me) post about Dodgers, Inc. The upshot of which is that the McCourts don't have nearly as much money as Jamie McCourt's filings would have you believe, and that unwinding all of this is going to be a monster headache. So much so that if I were one of the McCourts, I'd consider some kind fo truce as soon as possible that would keep joint ownership to some degree rather than risk all of the creditors calling in the notes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||