The Rocky Mountain News is closing its doors. I'll make Tracy Ringolsby the same offer I made Murry Chass; he can come write for Baseball Musings. The pay will be lousy, but I suspect he'll add a lot of readers to the site.

I just saw a Nutri-System ad starring Chris Berman. It's by far the best Nutri-System ad ever.

Update: Here it is:

The New York Times is looking to sell their share of the Red Sox:

Under pressure from investors to sell noncore assets in recent years, executives of the Times Company have said repeatedly that they were open to selling the stake, but only on the right terms.

But recently, they have been actively shopping the company's stake in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Red Sox, said the person briefed on the plans, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and was given anonymity. The Times Company informed its partners in the venture of its plans last month.

The company executives have suggested that the central aim of any sale is to protect the company's newspapers, particularly the flagship Times. They have also been reluctant to consider the sale of About.com, an Internet site that is profitable and growing.

Shouldn't they be keeping the asset that is performing well (the Red Sox) and sell the one that is performing badly (the newspaper)? I'll be happy to pay $10,000 for the New York Times!

The Dallas Morning New is planning on reassigning their Rangers beat writer and reprinting stories from the Forth Worth Star Telegram.

ESPN the Magazine does everything it can to get the story.

BBWAA awarded a membership to Baseball Prospectus. Congratulations to Will Carroll and Christina Kahrl!

Update: Rob Neyer and Keith Law are admitted as well. Congratulations to both!

Even MLB.com is laying off workers.

The owner of the Cubs is bankrupt:

Tribune Co has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after struggling under a heavy debt load, according to a court document filed with the U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware on Monday.

The privately held publisher of the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, which took on about $13 billion of debt when it went private last year under a deal led by real estate mogul Sam Zell, said in the filing that it had $7.6 billion in assets and $12.97 billion in debt as of December 8.

I wonder if this makes the Cubs cheaper to buy? Will the court control the sale process instead of the Tribune? Any bankruptcy lawyers care to chime in?

I had the pleasure of meeting Mike DiGiovanna at a social gathering at Jim Storer's house last night. Mike is the Angels beat writer for the Los Angeles Times. Like the rest of us there, he's a native Connecticutian. We had a good time talking about growing up in Connecticut, and of course baseball. I hope to have Mike on the Baseball Musings Radio Show soon.

Keith Law names the three writers who voted for Edinson Volquez on the Rookie of the Year ballot. Volquez, of course, was not a rookie.

Doesn't the BBWAA give the voters a list of rookies? Voting for Volquez shows that these writers were derelict in their fact checking, but there are a number of players where it's tough to tell. At least set up a page on their website listing all rookies! (That page might exist. There is a member's only section. If it is there, these three should be kicked out of the club.)

Remember this the next time someone tells you that bloggers can't join the group.

Hat tip, The Big Lead.

Update: In looking at Volquez, I understand why the mistake was made. Keith Law assumes the innings are cumulative. They are not. If you do not break rookie status one year, the innings reset. So Volquez never reached 50 innings in a single season. He did spend too many days on the roster for Texas, however, in one of those seasons, that's why he's not a rookie. These voters still should have checked with Elias.

Update: Keith Law writes, and I retract the above update. The rule as laid out on the MLB web site (which didn't show up in my google search):

A player shall be considered a rookie unless, during a previous season or seasons, he has (a) exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues; or (b) accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the period of 25-player limit (excluding time in the military service and time on the disabled list).

I've seen this rule with seasons left out making me think the numbers only applied to the previous season. I'm sorry for the error.

Can the Boston Red Sox provide a cash infustion to the New York Times?

The Baltimore Sun bought out Roch Kubatko and he'll be moving his blog elsewhere. He also reports in the post that the Orioles rotation is about to undergo an overhaul.

I received this E-Mail from GotCast.com:

MLB.com is looking for a fan to guest host MLB.com's "The Dish". Baseball Musings has a great readership and I was hoping you could let them know of our search. One fan from this casting will be a host on "The Dish". Here is the info for MLB.com's "The Dish" hosting.

Good luck to whomever tries out!

It's not always fun:

Back when I made these flight plans, it seemed perfect. Arrive at LaGuardia around 11:15 a.m., grab some lunch in Queens and head over to Shea Stadium with plenty of time to spare to cover the game.

Then we had a rainout, the doubleheader was scheduled and now I have to race out of LaGuardia to get to Yankee Stadium then fight traffic going back to Queens. In all, this will be about a 19-hour day from wake-up call to getting home.

But the good news is I get to go to Shea Stadium to see Sidney Ponson pitch. Print and save this post for the next time you think, "I'd love to be a sportswriter." It's generally a great job and I should not complain. But unless Marissa Miller is covering the game for Sports Illustrated and has the seat next to me in the press box, it's not going to be a five-star day

We've Got Heart continues their series on Women in Baseball with a profile of Amber Theoharis. She's the sideline reporter for the Orioles games on MASN.

Carl Bialik gives Baseball Musings a nice mention in yesterday's The Numbers Guy column. Thanks, Carl!

We both write for The Sporting News.

Waiting for Next Year sits down with Terry Pluto. Here's Terry's take on Marte:

So, do you envision Marte becoming that "middle of the order impact hitter," or is that in the rear view mirror?

You guys sound pretty sophisticated, talking ages. When we signed him at 21, if you project out his numbers from there, Marte should have been a lot better than he currently is; but looks like he hit a wall and took a few steps backwards. He's worth looking at to see what you have, but I lost confidence. Some guys look great on paper, but he has a very long swing, he can't touch the outside corner of the plate, and his defense is very heavy-legged. He's a nice kid, does not give anyone any problems. He's a big mystery to me.

Sports Illustrated turns to a comic book artist for their latest cover. It shows an extremely muscular Rays player holding Derek Jeter over his head with one hand while a Bizzaro Superman looks on. Jeffrey Renaud of CBR News writes the story of how artist Mark Bagley drew this on a very short deadline:

Bagley, who, heroically, is scheduled to provide pencils for all 52 issues of "Trinity," told CBR News Tuesday evening, "Dan Didio called me Thursday afternoon asking if I could do the pencils. I asked him what the deadline was and he said inked and colored by Monday. I said something nasty, and agreed to do it. From then I dealt with Mark Chiarello.

"'SI' gave me a paragraph long description of what they needed, and I went to town with some sketches. I had a sketch approved by noon on Friday, and finished the piece Saturday morning.

I love the result.

Joe Christensen gives us an inside look at what the night of a beat writer is like in a close, extra inning, back and forth game:

My next deadline was 11 p.m. And it seemed like a gift from sports writer heaven when Bobby Korecky nearly pulled this 11th-inning trifecta -- first major league hit, first major-league run, first major-league win.

I had the story all set to go. But then, Morneau struck out, and Cuddyer grounded out, stranding Korecky at third. (Cuddyer stranded nine runners on base tonight, by the way.)

Well, it was sort of back to the drawing board at that point. Slot editor Jeff Rivers told me he needed something by the end of the 12th inning, even if it was a running story (ie: the game was in the 13th inning when this edition of the Star Tribune went to press), and this wound up saving me.

I had to make that story look like it was finished, even if the game wasn't. So, I was pretty well prepared when Clark hit the game-winner. Of course, I had no contingency plan for a Livan pinch-hit, or a Livan walk-off. I think my head would have just exploded.

Yes, Livan Hernandez was ready to pinch hit last night. Hernandez is a career .233 hitter with nine home runs.

I don't think anyone would help bloggers this way.

Jon Weisman is soliciting your input. Who are your favorite sports writers?

The Big Lead reviews Bob Costas and the "State of the Sports Media" show that aired last night. Thankfully, I don't have HBO so I could concentrate on baseball games. It doesn't sound like they treated Will Leitch of Deadspin very well.

Update: Will Leitch gives the behind the scenes view of what happened.

There are plenty of people in the "old" media who enjoy blogs and find them useful. It always seems the blowhards get the stage, however.

Rick A. at My Baseball Bias defends Murray Chass. My job offer is still open.

Gordon Edes is leaving the Globe for Yahoo.com. Gordon is one of my favorite baseball writers, and it's good to see him getting a national audience.

Hat tip, Projo Soxblog.

By the way, my offer to Murray Chass is still on the table.

The Big Lead has a source that puts the Harold Reynolds settlement in a positive light for ESPN.

Joe Cowely (the writer, not the former pitcher) demonstrates why you don't challenge professional athletes at their own game. Note that Pierzynski doesn't even throw hard.

When I was at ESPN, one of the researchers I worked with was a Red Sox fan named Vinny. Vinny used to throw a fake punch at people to see if they would flinch. If they flinched, he would hit the person in the shoulder. Of course if they didn't Vinny would receive the punch.

Well, for two years, every time Vinny saw Ray Knight, he would greet him with, "I hate you Ray Knight," as Vinny was still upset about the Red Sox loss to the Mets in the 1986 World Series. One Sunday morning Ray walks into the research office, and Vinny throws one of his pulled punches. Ray, who has stood in against a Nolan Ryan fast ball in his career, doesn't flinch a bit. Totally unfazed. Ray looks at Vinny and says, "I didn't flinch, that means I get to punch you." Ray then hits Vinny hard in the upper arm. There was nothing pulled about the punch. Vinny is in pain, and I'm laughing. Ray throws a pulled punch at Vinny, and Vinny flinches. Ray says, "You flinched, I get to hit you again, " and pounds the same spot. Again, I'm laughing, Vinny is laughing through his pain and Ray has a big smile on his face. I don't think Vinny did the punch game after that, and I don't think Cowley will write as harshly about players in the future.

ESPN and Harold Reynolds settled their lawsuit, although we don't know what terms were reached. I hope Harold received a nice pay day.

Update: Here's more from ESPN.

Reynolds told USA Today on Tuesday: "My family and I are very happy to have achieved an amicable settlement with ESPN. I feel my goals were satisfied, and I look forward now to concentrating on the game I love.''

ESPN said they settled for a fraction of what Reynolds was asking.

Peter Abraham reports that MLB and newspapers reached an agreement on online content:

There will be no limit on photographs or on the audio of press conferences (such as the manager's pre-game or post-game sessions). That is good news for those of you who enjoy the clips that we post here.

Other interviews will be limited to two minutes, which isn't a major problem. We will have to take the audio off our sites within 72 hours, which doesn't strike me as an issue for too many readers.

With permission from an individual team, longer audio interviews (such as our reader Q&A sessions) would be allowed.

Since most bloggers don't have credentials, I don't think there's much MLB can do about what we post at the moment.

Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts responds to Murray Chass's dislike of bloggers. Remember, Murray is about to lose his job with The New York Times, and I've offered him a job here at Baseball Musings.

It looks like The New York Times is trying to save money by buying out Murray Chass. No wonder he's so upset with bloggers. This news is a big downer for Fire Joe Morgan.

To be honest, I'm already mourning the loss of hundreds of future statphobic-fish-in-a-barrel posts. If this news is true, FJM has lost a goldmine.

I am not one to hold a grudge, however. Murray Chass is welcome to write for Baseball Musings, and I'm willing to pay him $10,000 a year. I'll edit his pieces to make sure they reflect statistical reality, but with the contacts he's developed over the year, he'd add a new dimension to the content here. Murray, you have a home whenever you want it!

Reader Jon sends along this note on an XM broadcast this afternoon:

Did you catch Murray Chass on Charlie Steiner's XM show today? Below are some random lines I was able to capture while at work today, sorry I didn't capture anything or in fuller detail (maybe XM provides a show archive?). Murray was followed by a guy who has a Dodgers blog and also writes for SI, I didn't catch his name. But he provided a nice rebuttal to what Murray spouted off. If it was anybody besides Murray Chass I wouldn't write this to you.

He then forwards some quotes from the Times writer:

"I hate bloggers." "Worst development in media business, anyone can be a blogger." "No credentials required, just spouting off their opinions." "Our wives could go on and do it if they wanted to." "I know they're not going away but I wish they did."

Nope, not going away. I'd love to see Murray's wife blog, by the way.

The person following Chass was Jon Weisman of Dodger Thoughts. I hope he writes up his rebuttal.

Citizen Sports Network is now producing video about major league baseball. Check it out below:

Peter Abraham is flying to work today:

It is 9 degrees outside of my place in New York as I write this. It's expected to get to 76 in Tampa today. Can't say I'm sorry to be getting back to work. I'm leaving for LaGuardia shortly and will check back in from Florida once I get a chance.

Peter Gammons penned a song about the Mitchell Report. Cool.

The BBWAA is now open to internet writers. Unfortunately, it appears to be writers who used to be newsmen:

After combing through the list, my first reaction was "what about Rob Neyer?" Well, as it turns out, Rob's nomination was one of two that were turned down. How can that be? Isn't Rob full time? Is he not a baseball writer? Is ESPN not "credentialed" for the post-season? I don't get it.

While I'm happy for the 16 web-based writers who were approved (many of whom had previously been members for years, if not decades), it doesn't make sense to exclude one of the most thoughtful, knowledgeable, and level-headed writers in the business. Rob gets it. Unfortunately, the BBWAA didn't get it quite right this time.

I commend the BBWAA for opening up its membership beyond the newspaper industry and am hopeful that the organization will see fit to approve Rob and many others inside and outside of ESPN, CBS, FoxSports, SI, and Yahoo in the future.

Thanks to Jeffrey Protzel for the link.

The baseball writers are tabling their decision not to vote for players with bonuses for awards. I suspect that this proposal will now get lost under the pile of junk of mail that builds up on the table and get throw out by the cleaning crew.

The late Larry Whiteside gained Hall of Fame recognition yesterday, and his friends remember him.

All any of us need to say about Larry Whiteside was said by commissioner Bud Selig from his office in Milwaukee yesterday afternoon.

more stories like this"I say this with all of my heart: I loved Larry Whiteside," said Selig. "I knew Larry from the day we bought the Milwaukee Brewers, and Larry was there from the outset. He was one of the fairest reporters I ever encountered. He was a friend to me and I was a friend to him.

"I remember in 1971, I tried to hire Larry to be the head of public relations for the Brewers. I know he thought long and hard about it and it was a very difficult decision for him. But I think shortly after that, he had a chance to go to the Boston Globe and really be at the pinnacle of his career and he took it. He was a great journalist. A great man."

The Bill Conlin story enters the wider blogosphere.

Bill Conlin would like bloggers wiped out. While some are going to rightly upset by the Hitler comment, the real problem is that Conlin doesn't respect the free speech right of bloggers. As a newspaper man, he would be the first defending them.

AZ Snakepit seems to lack knowledge of modern media. In talking about the change in time to put the DBacks-Rockies in prime time out west:

Still, regardless of the reason, I'm glad it was changed, and it only makes sense. The East-coast ALCS and the West-coast NLCS can now both get coverage in local prime-time, without overlapping. My only qualm is that the late (10pm Eastern) start of the D-backs game will mean even less coverage there, since it'll probably finish too late to make it into the papers on Saturday.

Out here on the east coast, our reporters have something called "computers." These attach to an internet thingy, which sends their story back to the office at nearly the speed of light. Then another "computer" at the office sets the type, and the paper can be published in plenty of time! This has caused the people who set type one letter at a time to lose their jobs, but it's worth it to have them out on the street starving so we can see the results in the paper at 6 AM the next morning.

Dan Patrick announced today he'll leave ESPN on Aug. 17th. I just want to wish Dan best of luck. I didn't work with him that much in my years at ESPN, but he was always fun to be around, always ready with a smile and a wisecrack. Good luck in your next endeavor, Dan!

The Mariners will hold a news conference at 11:30 PDT. No word yet on why.

Thanks to Maury Brown for the info.

The New York and Boston media faced off in a game earlier today and almost came to blows, according to this thread on Sons of Sam Horn. Here's the story at the LaHud blog.

Thanks to Eric Rubin '80 for the link.

The Baseball Zealot points out the Paper of Record site, which has The Sporting News back to 1886! I remember taking trips to the library to pour over microfilm looking at old boxscores. This site might make that trip obsolete!

Update: I was looking to see if I could find anything on Gehrig and grand slams, and came across this page from January 1934 on MLB hitting records. Times change. The "long hit" is given much more prominence than the home run, and doubles are called two baggers.

Sports Media Guide interviews Derrick Goold, beat writer for the St. Louis Cardinals. His comments on Albert Pujols are quite interesting.

The Smoking Gun posts a copy of Harold Reynolds' contract with ESPN, part of his admended lawsuit. The New York Times offers a summary.

The agreement states that the network could terminate Reynolds's deal if the announcer were to be involved in any "willful or egregious" act that would "constitute an act of moral turpitude" or which would "otherwise constitute public humiliation" to ESPN. It appears that this section of the agreement will prove to be central to the network's defense of its actions. While ESPN has not specified what triggered Reynolds's firing, the ex-athlete's Connecticut Superior Court lawsuit charges that he was canned for giving an "innocuous hug" one day to a female intern, with whom he later dined that same evening at a Boston Market.

I'm guessing the young lady is going to be the star witness if this ever gets to court.

Via Deadspin, the Smoking Gun provides us with the complaint filed by Harold Reynolds. Some points about Harold brought up in the suit:

I can't remember Reynolds swearing. I also never saw him smoke or drink.

I've been a recipient of Harold's generosity. He's helped me get tickets to games, and once gave me his first class ticket on a flight to the World Series.

It's going to be an interesting fight. I can't wait to see ESPN's reaction, especially to the part about ESPN not complying with law that requires them to make Harold's personnel file available to Reynolds.

Harold Reynolds is going after ESPN:

"I have tried everything possible to handle this situation quietly behind closed doors. After numerous conversations and multiple mediation discussions with ESPN executives, it is clear that ESPN had no intention of solving this problem amicably," Reynolds said in a statement.

"For 11 years, I served ESPN with enthusiasm and dedication. It is unfortunate that ESPN has handled this process in an unprofessional manner. At the end of the day, my integrity, reputation and family are my top priorities, and for those reasons I need to set the record straight and clear my name."

ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said Monday that the network had been made aware that Reynolds either has filed a lawsuit or plans to in coming days.

Good luck to Harold. I remember from STATS, Inc's negotiations with ESPN that their lawyers were sharks I hope Reynolds is ready for a very nasty fight.

I'm looking at my RSS feed and the New York Daily New is all Torre, all the time. They list eight different headlines on the Torre specualtion.

• George bides Torre's time
• Torre deserves 1 more year - Rudy
• Owner must nowshow who's Boss
• Steinbrenner hears voices
• George, do itnow or never
• Do Yanks need to ax Joe? YES
• Lou stays mum on Yank job speculation
• Jiltin' Joe? Most fans say, 'No'

Talk about owning a story.

U.S.S. Mariner praises sports writer Larry Stone for his understanding of how a baseball team is built.

The AP gives Peter Gammons' new CD, Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old an excellent review. We also get this word on his health:

"He's making good progress, and everyone's encouraged with how he's doing at this point," Vince Doria, the ESPN news director who was also Gammons' boss at the Boston Globe, said Thursday.

Proceeds from the sale of the CD got to Theo and Paul Epstein's Foundation to be Named Later. Click here to purchase.

Ryan Van Bibber sends a link to the baseball issue of Vice-Versa:

It's a nice distraction from this Grimsley insanity.

There's fiction, non-fiction, poetry and photo essays all related to baseball.

I just received my April 3rd edition of the New Yorker in the mail, and the cover is very funny. I can't find a copy on line, but it's a drawing of a baseball field viewed from the left field bleachers. Number 25 is standing in left, about ten times wider than anyone else on the grass.

Update: A commenter found the link to the cover.

Baseball Musings is conducting a pledge drive in March. Click here for details.

Congratulations to Ty Hillenbrandt, host of the Lehigh Valley Yankees Fan Club radio show. He's won the Next Great Sportswriter competition at FoxSports.com! Stop by and check out his excellent work.

Hal McCoy owns up to his mistake of yesterday:

I was misled by a couple of outside sources, who believed Beattie was the choice. They were wrong and I was submarined. I have never been so happy to be so wrong.

This is why you shouldn't trust anonymous sources. I wonder if the sources had an agenda where they wanted Beattie hired? Will never know, although when a source is this wrong I wonder if they're really worth protecting. After all, is McCoy going to trust them again?

Krivsky responded well to the payroll question:

Krivsky, a man with a smile nearly always in place, almost sneered when payroll was mentioned.

"The payroll thing? Hogwash," he said. "Forget it. I'm not here to talk about budget or money. We'll do it within our means. It's how you spend it. The roadside is littered with high-spending teams that don't win."

Benjamin Kabak looks at the ethics of the sports media, from the Michael Vick scandal to award voting.

I would disagree a bit on award voting. The MVP, Cy Young and Rookie of the Year voting is structured so that favorite sons can't win. Let's say that every year in voting for the MVP, the sports writers each picked the best player from their local team. The person who wins, in that case, will be the consensus second choice. It's easy to say, "I work with this guy, I like this guy, I'm voting for him #1." But the second choice you think about. So in favorite son voting, the second choice is really the guy you think deserves the award.

This type of voting is called a Borda count, and it's designed precisely to negate the conflict of interest voting. One writer can't make that much difference. People point to Pedro Martinez losing the MVP vote to Ivan Rodriguez because one writer left Pedro off the ballot, but if the other 27 voters all had Pedro #1, Martinez wins that award. There was a clear split in the voting that year, with six different players getting first place votes. What everyone agreed on was that Ivan Rodriguez was near the top, and he won.

So the conflict of interest in MVP voting is overblown. The much bigger conflict, as I see it, is with newspapers and media outlets that own clubs. Chicagoans see this every year in the difference in coverage of the Cubs and White Sox, while Boston fans saw this in the reporting on the general manager negotiations this winter. Maybe there should be a disclosure in every article written about a team that the newspaper owns a share.

The Baseball Crank notes an early version of last night's game story that lamented Geoff Blum not getting garbage time.

Deadspin links to an article on the traffic to ESPN.com. It appears Yahoo and others are gaining on the leader.

It's not surprising, given how ESPN pushed most of the interesting content to the pay side of the site. I used to love to visit their baseball page because you had a large number of columnists from which to choose. Now Neyer, Gammons and others are blocked out unless you pay. ESPN.com is becoming only good for headlines, and you can get those anywhere.

I understand the web site needs to turn a profit. It's too bad that doing so makes it less attractive to new customers.

My wife had CBS Sunday Morning on this morning, and I watched a piece on the Washington Nationals. You can read the transcript here, but the video does not appear to be on-line. As I watched, I couldn't believe one shot in particular. Here's the voice over.

Frank Robinson is more than just the biggest name on this ball club. He's part of baseball history. Thirty years ago, he became the first African American to manage a big league club, which means he's in a unique position – not just to help rekindle baseball's relationship with an entire city but a specific part of the community that has grown ever more distant from baseball altogether.

A mural next to a weed-covered baseball field a few blocks from the Nats' stadium says it all. "Play ball?" Sure. Every kind but baseball.

The shot is looking from behind a backstop across a baseball field to a building where a mural depicts a number of sports but no baseball. A good point. But the weed-covered baseball field is just baloney. The weeds are behind the backstop, and from the angle of the camera they looked like they were well behind the backstop. The actual playing surface of the diamond looked fine. There was grass on the infield and the outfield. The grass was mowed. The dirt looked smooth. It was a perfectly usable baseball field, as nice as the ones in the park two blocks from my house. It's a small thing, but it makes me wonder about the rest of the piece.

The Red Sox are beating the Yankees on the web:

The Boston Red Sox's recent edge over the New York Yankees appears to extend to the digital domain. And George Steinbrenner probably can't do anything about it. Last week, the sports publisher Street & Smith's released its ranking of professional sports Web sites, and in the baseball category the Red Sox led the major leagues while the Yankees were near the cellar - in 27th place among 30 teams.

I've noticed I get more traffic when the Red Sox or Cubs do well than when the Yankees do well. It could just be that the fans of those two clubs are more internet savvy.

Via Instapundit, Tapscott's Copy Desk reports on a journalistic scandal involving Mitch Albom.

Update: Broken link fixed.

The Baltimore Sun has a nice interactive feature, Interactive Baseball Cards. The front has a picture, the back has a bio and player stats. And since the Sun writes the bios they're not always complimentary. Have a look at the back side of Sammy Sosa's card.

This is a great example of how reporters can take advantage of the knowledge of their readers. Joe Posnanski of the KC Star is looking for story ideas for spring training over at Baseball Think Factory. Feel free to contribute to the discussion over there.

Baseball Musings is holding a pledge drive during March. Click here for details.

Murray Chass does a great impression of a blogger and Fisks the media who are drumming up the Boston vs. A-Rod story.

In this new version of "Get the good guy," the Red Sox are blameless. One player, Trot Nixon, ignited the game with negative comments about Rodriguez last week and a torrent of teammates have followed. But the teammates' comments have not been unsolicited. They were at the urging of reporters eager to inflame the game to incendiary levels. They were all but handed a script.

Athletes have long accused reporters of creating stories, and, sadly, this is one of those instances. It has become one of the most distasteful instances I have witnessed in 45 years of covering baseball.

I find it interesting that running Sammy Sosa out of town on a rail wasn't enough for Chicago. The Tribune is still writing negative stories just in case the Cubs fans didn't know what an awful person Sammy had become. In the latest, they travel to Sosa's home island to try to find people that might have a negative view of the home town slugger.

Folks, you've made your point. Sammy has nothing to do with the Cubs anymore. You traded him for nothing, and no amount of negative publicity is going to change that or make the Cubs any better. Cubs fans aren't going to be loyal because the scourge of Sosa has been removed. They'll be loyal because you win. And if they see Sosa having a great year in Baltimore and the Cubs struggling to stay above .500, they're going to start wondering if the wrong person was run out of town.

I found this story in Newsday interesting.

If the Mets are to add Carlos Delgado to their winter renovation, they'd prefer to clear some salary.

Conveniently enough, Mike Cameron would prefer to be elsewhere.

With Carlos Beltran taking his centerfield job, Cameron has conveyed to the Mets that he'd rather play centerfield elsewhere than play rightfield for them, according to an industry source. The Mets would like to shed Cameron, who is due about $14 million over the next two seasons, off their payroll as they prepare to meet with Delgado in Puerto Rico, as early as tonight.

An industry insider? Not even a Mets insider? That's pretty flimsy sourcing to go with a story. Here's what Minaya has to say.

But yesterday, general manager Omar Minaya said the team wasn't planning on moving Cameron anywhere else but to rightfield. "Of course we want him here," Minaya said. "We love the idea of Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron roaming the outfield at Shea Stadium."

Minaya met with Cameron earlier in the offseason and discussed the idea of moving him to right, and Cameron gave the green light to make a play for Beltran. Minaya said as late as last week that he spoke with Cameron to update him on negotiations with Beltran, but figures he now needs to make another call.

"You never know, these types of situations," Minaya said. "I'm sensitive to any feelings Mike may feel. So I will probably have a conversation with him at some point in time."

So Omar has had at least two conversations with Cameron where Mike said it was okay to move him to right. Now, someone outside the Mets organization says that Cameron's not happy with this? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

Of course, I thought it would be logical to trade Cameron. He's a good fielder, but his offense isn't up to right field. Maybe this is an attempt by the "industry insider" to stir up trouble so he can get his hand on Cameron. Or it could be that Cameron gave the go ahead wanting to look like a team player but figuring that the Mets would be out bid for Beltran's services. We'll have to wait to see how this plays out.

Peter Gammons has won the annual Spink award for

meritorious contributions to baseball writing.

One of my great pleasures in my years at Harvard was reading the Peter Gammons Sunday column in the globe. I consider myself lucky to have worked with Peter for 10 years at ESPN, and have him mention my work a number of times in his columns. He's a good colleague and a better friend. Congratulations, Peter!

I just did a search on Google News and All-Baseball.com came up as one of their sources. If anyone ever sees a Baseball Musings post on Google News, please let me know.

It really would be great if Google had a similar service just for blogs. Often times I see a story and would like blog reaction, but if my favorites aren't covering it yet, that reaction can be tough to find.

A Boston Globe reporter is doing a story on Red Sox fans abroad and their thoughts on the playoffs. If you fit into this category, leave your thoughts on the Red Sox post season here.

I'd say the Daily News beats the Post for best tabloid headlines today.

Via the Hardball Times, I see that ESPN is now offering RSS feeds for their columnists. What this means for me is that I can use my news reader to get Rob Neyer's columns without having to be an insider! Here's his latest on players and teams who have suffered bad luck in baseball this year.

What's up with the Cleveland Plain Dealer web site? For the second day in a row, I go looking for local reporting about a Tribe victory, and the news on the sports page is a day old? Don't they have middle of the night deadlines like other newspapers? Don't they have programs that automatically format a story for the web? Cleveland may rock, but the Plain Dealer doesn't know how to roll out a web site.

I find it rather depressing that four of the top five headlines on ESPN's home page are about legal issues rather than sports. I wish the sports outlets would leave those stories to the news stations on concentrate on what is happening on the field.

In my roundup of LA Times stories on the hiring of Paul DePodeta, I pointed to this negative story by Bill Plaschke. I didn't comment on it much, other to say that Plaschke was dismissive of DePodesta. The greater blogosphere has taken up the slack and given it a right fisking, mostly on the idea that Plaschke doesn't know that Branch Rickey used statistical analysis in making his baseball decisions.

Aaron Gleeman attacks on this front.

Matt Welch invents a new award, the "Moneyboner of the Day," and gives the first to Plaschke.

Baseball Primer has a whole thread dedicated to this article, again, ripping Plaschke for the Rickey reference.

Just to add my two cents on Rickey, one of my favorite quotes of his is, "Trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late." That seems to be a philosophy adopted by the Oakland Athletics, and I'm sure one that DePodesta knows very well.

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Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times rips into the White Sox management for not signing Magglio Ordonez to a long term contract. Part of his screed is due to a fanfest gone bad, where Jay was accused by Hawk Harrelson of being negative.

Is signing Ordonez long term a good idea? Here's what Ordonez wants (from the Jay Mariotti column):

Basically, he wants a contract in line with recent deals signed by comparable players -- Vladimir Guerrero's five-year, $70million deal in Anaheim and Miguel Tejada's six-year, $72 million deal in Baltimore. Considering Ordonez has stayed healthier than Guerrero, never has hit below .300 and is good for 30 homers and 120 RBI every year, his demands are more than fair. He's 30, in the prime of his career and sure to be productive another five seasons. As South Side no-brainers go, keeping Maggs is right up there with ordering the kosher dog without onions at the stand behind home plate.

"I think I have market value similar to that of Vladimir and Tejada,'' said Ordonez, apparently not bummed about his proposed role in the aborted Nomar Garciaparra trade. "It could be even more if you take into account that the market is going up again. I want a five- or six-year contract so I can relax and be in one place for a long time. I hope that can be in Chicago, a city that I like a lot.''

There are some assumptions here that I think are incorrect. First of all, a 30 year-old player is not in his prime, he's just past it. I would think it is more likely that you are going to see Ordonez's production decline over the next five years. Magglio is very good, so that decline may still leave him a productive ballplayer, but you can't depend on his numbers staying this good for that period.

Tejada and Guerrero are two years younger. That makes a big difference. Both are better ballplayers than Ordonez, and they still have a few years before their declines are likely to set in. Given that, I'd set Ordonez below $12 million a year.

Also, I don't understand why Ordonez thinks the market is going up again. I assume he means the market for player salaries. With insurance difficult to get and management realizing the value of flooding the market with free agents, I don't see a lot of upward pressure on salaries.

Given these caveats, however, I agree with Jay that the White Sox should sign Ordonez. I'd make it $40 million for four years. That's a fair price, and it does appear that White Sox fans need something to make them believe this team is committed to winning. Ordonez is an excellent player and a fan favorite, so it's worth the money to keep the base intact. If Jay is right, and Mags remains highly productive during that time, and Mags is right and the market rises, he'll be able to get another big contract when this one is up.

Update: One of commentors below disagrees with my assertion that Tejada is a better player than Ordonez. Bascially, over the last three years, Ordonez is over 100 points better in on-base+slugging than Tejada. He asks the question, "How much is playing SS worth over playing OF?"

Win shares gives a clear advantage to Tejada:

Win Shares by Year	Tejada	Ordonez
2003	25	23
2002	32	26
2001	25	25
2000	23	22

The best that Ordonez has been able to do in the last four years is be even with Tejada. So defense at shortstop can make up for 100 points in OPS.

Dominic Rivers points me to this Sons of Sam Horn thread in which Curt Schilling is answering real baseball questions. In it, he makes disparaging comments about Rob Neyer. (If you follow the link, go to page 3 and search for Neyer to see the quote.

(Edward Cossette points to another part of this post to try to bolster his team chemistry theory). Schilling makes a very good point; that what statistical analysis yields is trends and probabilities. The question is, how good are those trends and probabilities? In Neyer's case, I'd say they are pretty good. I'm tempted to go through Rob's archives and see how many of his predictions were really ludicrous, and how many were right on the mark. One thing is for sure, Rob would not make such a statement about Schilling without having done the research to back it up. And remember, for every Rob Neyer, there are many more sports writers who comment on the game without any idea what the stats mean. I guess players look at Rob Neyer the way Democrats look at Fox News. :-)

As for booing based on stats, I find that hard to believe. Schilling seems to see the Sons of Sam Horn as typical Red Sox fans. My experience is that most hard-core fans still just look at batting average and RBI. They boo when a guy strikes out in crucial situations. They boo when a pitcher gives up a game winning HR. They boo when they see performance on the field that hurts their team, not because someone has a .340 OBA when they expected him to have a .360 OBA.

But for you hard core stat-head Red Sox fans out there, I would boo Curt Schilling if:

• He strikes out less than 7 per 9 innings.


• If he walks more than 3 per 9 innings.


• If he gives up more than 40% of his HR with men on base.


• If his winning percentage is below his pythagorean projection, unless it's the fault of the bullpen. (Exception: If Schilling actually blames the bullpen, he's destroying chemistry, and should be booed heartily. :-) )

My statistical analysis tells me Schilling will be pretty good. For the sake of Curt's sensitive nature, I hope I'm not ludicrously wrong.

Update: I have been accused of being unethical in using a quote from Schilling that Schilling had declared to be off the record. (See comments below). For the record, the off the record comment was at the beginning of the thread, and I didn't see it. I have removed the quote at the request of Eric of SoSH.

However, I do not buy Eric's argument that what Schilling says is off the record. It's a publicly viewable web site. Schilling does nothing to hide his identity. What Curt has is a forum in which he can criticize and not be criticized. That seems a bit unfair to me.

Joe Strupp of Editor and Publisher takes an inside look at the BBWAA and how the conduct Hall of Fame Voting.

In general, I like Jim Caple, but yesterday's column was very poor. And it starts right in the first paragraph:

We all knew that Roger Clemens wouldn't be able to stay retired for long, and he didn't. His retirement officially lasted 78 days, which the typical retiree can spend just searching for his car keys. Britney Spears was married almost as long.

We all knew? I doubted this story the entire time. Clemens appeared to me to be very sincere when he retired. And since when is hours almost as long as months?

But we get to the real meat of Caple's piece in the third paragraph:

Although this announcement came sooner than expected, it is a welcome one. For one thing, this really makes George Steinbrenner and the Yankees look bad. They've now lost their starting pitchers from Games 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the World Series (Clemens, Andy Pettitte and David Wells), who accounted for 53 wins and 634 innings last season.

That's all that matters to Jim, hating the Yankees. Caple is turning into a one-trick pony, blasting the Yankees every chance he gets. It's fine once in a while. I know lots of people think the Yankees are responsible for all the ills of the world. When Dan Shaughnessy took over Peter Gammons Sunday column in the Boston Globe, he added a new feature, a weekly dig at the Yankees buried in the column. Maybe this made Dan very popular in Boston; maybe his Yankee hatred makes Caple popular across America. But in both cases, it turned me off because I know neither writer will ever say anything honest about the Yankees. And if I can't trust them with one team, why should I trust them with any other team?

From what I know of Jim, he's a smart, funny guy. He should save his criticism of the Yankees for when they really deserve it. Otherwise, the constant harping will make readers indifferent to his columns. It's already done that to me.

I have an update on my earlier post on this subject. Will Carroll wrote and Brad commented on a Baseball Prospectus Q&A with Ivan Santucci of Questec. The relevant quote is:

Finally, to clarify one of your points, a batter's strike zone is set and adjusted for every called pitch he sees. If he has three at-bats in a game and saw a total of 10 called pitches, we will adjust the strike zone 10 times.

So according to this, Schilling is wrong.

Edward Cossette voices an important concern today. Curt Schilling has made negative statements about Questec on the Sons of Sam Horn, and Cossette has reservations about accepting them at face value.

OK. Those are two statements that we are supposed to take as fact. But are they? I don't know. I assume so. I know Curt Schilling knows a hell of a lot more about it than I do. But where's the chance to hear the opposing view? If this statement were on the record with a reporter, the reporter would at some point pick up the phone and call Questec and MLB to verify and/or get further explanation/elucidation on these points.

Perhaps Questec and/or MLB wouldn't answer or wouldn't return the calls or whatever and our trusty reported would indicate that in the story and that lack of info would be meaningful on it's own. ("Hmm," the reader thinks, "if Questec is unwilling to publicly deny Mr. Schilling's claims, then those claims are probably true.")

See what I'm saying? In these cases the media acts as an arbiter, a middle man, between two opposing sides. And, to push this point, how is a player making statements in a vacuum about something, be it Questec or another subject, that different from a reporter saying "so and so player doesn't want to play in Boston anymore" without hearing it from the player himself. Isn't this the very thing players like get pissed off about with the media and what has, in the case of Schilling, prompted him to go direct to the fans?

Moreover, am I the only one who gets a queasy feeling over the whole off the record and this can only be used by SoSH and DirtDogs? Does that mean we aren't even supposed to link to it? And if it's off the record yet exists on the mother of all public spaces, the web, can it really be off the record? (Cue sounds of Star Trek computer. "Illogical. Does not compute. Illogical.")

Schilling has gone out of his way to reveal that he is on SoSH. So a statement he makes there is a public statement. It's just as public as an exclusive interview to ABC. Once it's public, you can't stop people from talking about it. And you can't stop a blogger from asking questions about it.

The answer here is that it's up to us to discover the veracity of Schilling's statements. To that end, I have written the following letter to Questec:

Dear Sir,

I write Baseball Musings (http://www.baseballmusings.com), a web log about major league baseball. Curt Schilling made the following statement on a Boston Red Sox fan web site last night:
"Questec calls balls and strikes approximately 4 feet or so from where the umpire is standing … You know how they measure a hitters K zone? First AB they take a still photo, regardless of hitters stance, even if you square to bunt, and thats your zone for the game. "

Is that statement true?

Thanks,

David Pinto
http://www.baseballmusings.com

I'll update if and when I hear back.

Update: Read the first comment below and this new post that contradicts Schilling's statement. I still have not heard from Questec directly.

Having written this column for almost two baseball seasons, I was thinking of trying to join the Baseball Writers Association of America. I went looking for information on the subject, and found this:

You have to be a reporter, editor, or columnist who covers baseball. You can't work for an internet-only outlet. You join after being nominated by an existing member and then being evaluated by the membership committee.

Internet discrimination! How is the writing of bloggers different than the writing of baseball columnists? They have a deadline and I don't? The get paid and I don't? How does that determine the quality of work?

The BBWAA has a nomination and evaluation process. So first, you have to get a member to like your work enough to nominate you. Then you have to go through peer review. One would think at that point only the best writers would be a member of the organization. I don't know if this blog could get past all that, but I know I'd like to try. And there are many other fine baseball writers on the internet who deserve the chance.

Major league baseball has a history of being slow to adapt to new technologies. They were slow to embrace radio and television, even though these both brought many new fans and much wealth to the sport. With all the negative things I write about Bud Selig, under his management MLB has embraced the internet, first with radio broadcasts and now television broadcasts. The writers, however, seem to be stuck in the old mode; afraid of new technology that might rob them of readers, when it fact it will help make all baseball writing better. I hope there are some BBWAA writers seeing this. I urge you to change the rule and give the talented internet writers a chance to proved themselves.

Of course, we could always form the IBWAA!

Jon at Dodger Thoughts has his view of the Baseball Prospectus Pete Rose story and the denial by MLB, and when you should and shouldn't use unnamed sources.

Off Wing Opinion has an excellent roundup of the fallout over the Toronto Star's article on the lack of racial diversity on the Blue Jays. He includes links to fine work done by the Wall Street Journal on the article.

I have no idea if my post made a difference, but currently on ESPN.com's baseball page (at 1:09 PM EDT), the Royals story has been inserted between Millwood and Chacon.

I should mention I'm really happy to see a story about Chacon in the headlines. It points out how he's working faster on the mound this year, and that has made a difference.

With the Twins and Royals beginning a four game battle tonight, I thought I'd go see what kind of buzz there was about the series in the local media. There is none. I checked the two local Twin Cities papers, no preview piece. I checked the Kansas City Star. No preview piece. I even checked Twins Geek and Aaron's Baseball Blog. They are much more concerned about Johan Santana's role on the club.

If this were the Yankees coming into Fenway for a four game series with the Sox four games back, there would be three pages in the globe devoted to the series. It would get space on the back pages of all the tabloids in both cities. The New York Times might even send a stringer to the event!

KC and Minnesota both need to attract fans. Creating a buzz about a series like this does so. The PR people for both teams have to work on their local media to get them to promote big games and big series. These four games should be sold out. Let's hope that a good game tonight generates the needed buzz.

Bronx Banter reports that Buster Olney is leaving the NY Times for ESPN. (Here's the permalink, but it doesn't work yet.) Looks like he's leaving because of the way the Times is being managed. If you want to learn more about the scandal at the Times, you can try Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan.

Yesterday, I answer the phone at my Dad's house, and it's a telemarketer trying to sell a home subscription to the NY Times. In general, I hang up on these people, but I couldn't resist knocking the Times. "That's the worst paper in the world," I said. "What do you mean?" the salesman replied. "You can't trust anything they say," I answered, "they print lies." "Oh, yeah," he replied and hung up.

Edward Cossette of Bambino's Curse has his thoughts here, including a link to a story about the Red Sox on the Jimmy Kimmel show last night. Also, Scott Brodeur uses the former post as a jumping off point for his blog beat today. There's a Red Sox forum there where you can join the discussion.

I don't know quite what to make of the tension between the Red Sox and the news media. The Sox are off to a good start; in most years, they would be leading the division. (Their .636 winning percentage would be in the lead or tied for the lead in 3 of the 6 divisions in baseball.) The Boston press has always been negative (maybe they thought it would change with the death of Mr. Negativity, Will McDonough). Why do the Red Sox get upset over these things? When you treat the reporters badly, they go into overdrive and write devestating articles like this from Tony Massarotti of the Boston Herald.

Growing more distracted and distrustful than ever before, the Red Sox called a team meeting prior to yesterday's game at The Ballpark in Arlington. During that session, the Sox decided they would heretofore engage reporters only on the topic of baseball.

Given those parameters, here is our first baseball question:

Why, fellas, did you go out and play the game today as if you had your heads rammed up your butts?

Baseball is a reasonably simple game, after all, at least if it is played properly. But that didn't stop the Red Sox from pitching as if they were blindfolded, throwing the ball to a phantom fielder and overthrowing cutoff men as if the latter were a third world government. The final score: Texas 16, Red Sox 5. And it wasn't nearly that close.

From purely a baseball perspective, the Sox embarrassed themselves. From purely a baseball perspective, they had a series of fundamental breakdowns. From purely a baseball perspective, they lost 2-of-3 to a one-dimensional Texas team with which they should have been able to clean their spikes.

I think it's time for the Red Sox to hire media trainers. I think this woman would be a good choice.

Update: I was not aware of the Timlin bumper sticker incident before I wrote this post.

YES and Cablevision have reached a last minute agreement. New Yorkers, once again, can see the Yankees on TV.

Oh, God. Bobby Valentine is on the Baseball Tonight set.

It looks like ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball game will not be seen in HDTV. I can't find anything on the net, or on the DirecTV schedule indicating that I will be able to see the game in high definition. I'm disappointed.

However, the Baseball Tonight Special is on in a few minutes. That should be fun.

Within a minute of each other, I received these two different views of the Skip Caray situation at TBS. The first is from Michael Blake of View from the 700 Level:

The news of Skip Carey and Pete Van Wieren had passed under my radar until I read your blurb about it this morning. To say it makes my blood boil is an understatement.

The decision by TBS to move Skip Carey and Pete Van Wieren to Turner South broadcasts and not on TBS is absolutely ridiculous! And TBS's decision to promote their games as "MLB on TBS" and not "Braves on TBS" is just as dumb.

I had the pleasure of growing up in South Florida in the 80s, long before the Marlins came to town. For a baseball fan like myself, my only viewing option -- other than the Saturday Game of the Week -- was the lowly Braves on TBS. So I watched them. Night after night, day after day, I watched the pathetic teams that the Braves sent out to the field in the eighties. I enjoyed watching Dale Murphy, Oddibe McDowell, Ken Oberkfell, Chris Chambliss, Rafael Ramirez, Glenn Hubbard, etc. day in and day out. But more importantly, I enjoyed listening to the pictures that guys like Carey and Van Wieren painted for me. They were the ones who really got me into baseball...

For a number of years, it was the presence of the Braves on the schedule that carried a young TBS station. As the Braves grew in the early 90s, so did the station. One has always been synonymous with the other -- the Braves are part of what TBS is, and Skip Carey and Pete Van Wieren are part of the Braves.

Even after I moved to the Philadelphia area, I have enjoyed listening to Braves broadcasts in order to hear these two gentlemen, as well as their partners, Don Sutton and Joe Simpson. The foursome offered a good listening experience, baseball insight, and overall general entertainment. Knowing that by watching only TBS this season I will be missing half of this broadcasting team, I find myself less likely to watch a TBS broadcast on a regular basis.

I know that not everyone agrees with me on this count. Some people do not enjoy listening to the Braves foursome. But we each have our own tastes. Personally, a baseball highlight for me has always been Sid Bream sliding (almost in slow motion) across the plate, and Skip Carey -- echoing his father, almost -- yelling "Braves win! Braves win! Braves win!". These guys are a part of my own baseball history.

I caught a TBS baseball promo the other day, and I was struck how it was promoting Major League Baseball on TBS, not the Braves...at that point I turned to my wife and asked her what they thought they were hiding by taking the focus away from the team that they broadcast. I guess now we know. They are trying to develop a more national flavor to their broadcasts, and thus in their broadcasters; yet, every game on that station will still have the Braves. Granted, they have a national following, but these games will not create the same sort of national appeal as would a schedule with different teams every time.

I just don't understand the decision. Braves baseball has worked on TBS for 20 years. Carey and Van Wieren have made it work. By trying to give the broadcast more of a national feel, TBS is losing so much of what has made the Braves broadcasts work for so long. It's a poor decision, and I think they will suffer because of it.

The opposing view is from Ben Jacobs:

I don't understand why so many people think it's a bad idea to take Caray and Van Wieren off the national broadcasts for TBS. They're a fine team for Braves fans to watch, but the great thing about TBS - at least for me and a lot of people I know - is watching our favorite teams on TV when they play the Braves. The problem with this is that Caray and Van Wieren take all of the fun out of that because they are so completely biased toward the Braves (and nobody can possibly argue that they are not unless you've never watched a TBS broadcast). I might be more inclined to watch Atlanta play other teams (besides my Red Sox) now that I don't have to listen to Caray and Van Wieren extolling the greatness of everything Braves...

I tend to agree with Mike in this argument. Having worked at ESPN and watched a lot of satellite broadcasts over the years, I think the Braves have one of the best broadcasting groups in the business. And if you really want to hear home team bias, listen to Ken Harrelson do a White Sox game sometime. :-) And I think it's going to be really hard for Sutton and Simpson not to be biased. Remember, even though it says MLB on TBS, Sutton and Simpson are going to be with the Braves every day. It's not like Jon Miller and Joe Morgan visiting different teams every week.

And besides, what about the Braves fans? I assume many people watch TBS because they couldn't see any other baseball, and became Braves fans along the way. The Braves will be the only team without regular home announcers. That, I feel, is an injustice to the home team fans.

In the end, there wasn't anything really wrong with the Braves broadcast. Again, I think this will be a short lived experiment.

The YES-Cablevision deal has fallen apart.

Negotiations have broken down between the YES Network and Cablevision to carry Yankee games to 3 million metropolitan homes this season, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday.

The collapse of the talks jeopardized the telecasts of Yankee games, less than a month after the two sides had vowed to work out their differences on behalf of the fans. The season begins Monday.

"Unfortunately, at the moment, Cablevision and the YES Network are unable to agree on the details of the previously announced agreement to have Yankees games carried on the Cablevision cable systems," Bloomberg said in a statement.

The mayor had helped orchestrate what was billed earlier this month as an interim agreement between the two companies, whose pricing dispute had meant that no Yankee games were carried on Cablevision last season.

Two mediators, Richard Aurelio and Gerry Levin, asked that they be removed from the negotiations, the mayor said. It was not immediately clear why the talks ended just before the Yankees open their season.

Makes you wonder if the French were involved. :-) Oh well, baseball is a lot of fun on radio.

Edward Cossette has an interesting insight on the coverage of the war:

Reading the ongoing media accounts of the war in Iraq where one day it's euphoria "the war is already won," to the next day doom and gloom "quagmire" talk, it's as if the war is being covered by the Red Sox beat writers. You know, one day a particular player is God's gift, the next day they are running him out of town.

Luckily the skills I've acquired over the years as a Red Sox fan, ie. the ability to completely ignore the media hype as necessary, is coming in very handy as I wade through the coverage from Iraq.

Things are never quite as good or as bad as they seem.

Oh, and Nomar is back.