BASEBALL CRAZINESS

Competitive Balance Tax Complicates Teams’ Decisions Last season, Clayton Kershaw earned approximately $34.5 million.  On June 30th, the Dodgers placed him on the 15-day disabled list, and on August 3rd, Kershaw was moved to the 60-day DL (retroactive to June 30th).  Nonetheless, Kershaw received a check of approximately $2.65 million every two weeks (MLB players…

New MLB CBA Over-Complicates Qualifying Offers Last year I wrote about the Qualifying Offer (“QO”) rule, and how it affected player mobility.  And just when you thought you had a handle on how it worked, the owners and players went ahead and renegotiated the CBA.  In the process, they bolloxed up the QO in a…

Under Armour to Mar MLB Jerseys It started innocuously enough, with a sign on the outfield wall. And soon there were three or four. Before you knew it, there was advertising behind home plate, rotating inning by inning.   Some people loved the throwback nature of the signage — it reminded them of Ebbetts Field (with its…

THE DEBATE IS OVER Coke vs. Pepsi.  Hertz vs. Avis.  Budweiser vs. Coors.  Mounds vs. Almond Joy.  The debates can go on and on. But, for the love of all things holy, can we please put a definitive end to the Mike Trout vs. Bryce Harper debate?  This race is so one-sided, Trout is doing…

November 9 – The Day After Ed. Note: While this piece was inspired by the events of November 8, 2016, the words and phrases in italics below were taken from Selected Poems: 1965-1975 by Margaret Atwood. I refuse to look in the mirror, as I know what will stare back is sorrow and sadness.  I cannot allow my…

G.O.A.T. (Game 7 Edition) Wow!  Just, wow!  How else to describe what we witnessed Wednesday night in Cleveland? That game had so much, nearly all of which has been written about – wonderfully, poignantly, emotionally, by Buster Olney, Ken Rosenthal, Bob Nightengale, Ben Lindbergh,  Jonah Keri, Rick Telander, Michael Bauman, Jayson Stark, Peter Gammons, and…

THERE COULD BE NO OTHER WAY On June 19th of this year, on the morning of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, I wrote this. In the article – if you haven’t read it – I predicted the Cavaliers would beat the Warriors in Game 7 of the NBA finals to win the NBA Championship. I…

SWEET SOUNDS A baby’s coo into her mother’s ear. Children’s laughter. Waves crashing on a pristine beach. Whitney Houston owning the National Anthem. The question is, what is the sweetest sound in the world? I cannot say, with any certainty, the “sweetest”, but what I heard bellowing from a 102-year old ballpark on Saturday night comes…

THE CALL THAT COULD HAVE BEEN *Editors Note: The words you will read below are what you might have heard when we came back from commercial Thursday night, starting as  Clayton Kershaw finished up his warm-up pitches. As best you can, read this in Vin Scully’s voice, in Vin Scully’s cadence. “When Kershaw takes the hill, you…

GAME 5 There is truly no reason to add to the multiple canons that have been or will be written about last night’s Dodgers-Nationals game. That said, and while it is still quite early, after reading and listening to a ton of commentary, I have yet to hear anything about the following three points, which…