Apparently the guys who stand around the water cooler at work and brag about their sexual conquests are really sabermetricians. Who knew?

That’s what ESPN is reporting anyway: Pitcher Mike Hampton has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Houston Astros pending a physical exam, two baseball sources told ESPN.com. The contract will pay Hampton a base salary of about $2 million plus incentives, the source said . . . . . . Hampton spent […]

One of the things longtime readers know about me is that I tend to tread lightly on the stories that tend to otherwise generate the most media heat. I’ll write a post about the post-season awards, and I’ll occasionally weigh in on whatever issue is monopolizing the headlines on a given day, but I’m just […]

The deadline to offer arbitration is midnight tonight. There are lots of stories floating around today about whether so-and-so will be offered arbitration. Many of them conclude with some variation of “worse case scenario, Player X accepts, and Club Y has the services of a good player at a manageable price without the risk or […]

Peter Gammons said something very odd over the weekend: We know the Yankees can, will and may keep moving up to make it impossible for Sabathia to go anywhere else. We also know that Angels owner Arte Moreno can make it very difficult for anyone to say no; ask Torii Hunter after Moreno put the […]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a story about how few people ride the light rail line from downtown to the airport each day: It’s cheap, reliable and fast. But the RTA rapid that whisks riders from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to downtown in 20 minutes — for $2 — has an identity problem. Airport employees […]

In my first year of law school, the professor for my civil procedure class (i.e. the class in which you learn all of the rules of litigation) spent the whole first day going over baseball rules. The point was to show how the particular rules of a game — be it baseball or litigation — […]

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust . . . Lifelong Red Sox fans can now take their love of the team to the next level — eternity. A Massachusetts funeral home recently took delivery of the first Red Sox casket, which features the team logo on the exterior as well as the inside. The casket […]

A New Jersey sports consulting firm conducted a sports “brand loyalty” survey, in which they asked fans to offer some phrases which describe their favorite professional sports teams, among other things. The Cincinnati Business Courier is interested in the results regarding the Reds and Bengals: Cincinnati sports fans think of the Reds as “professional” and […]

You may have read over the weekend about the back and forth between the Yankees and Mayor Bloomberg’s office over luxury suites: The Bloomberg administration was so intent on obtaining a free luxury suite for its own use at the new Yankee Stadium, newly released e-mail messages show, that the mayor’s aides pushed for a […]