The Padres have been spoiled, er, I mean lucky enough to have the the city of San Diego footing the bill for much of the cost of Petco Park. Now San Diego, like every other city, is strapped for cash, and has had to look for help to make the debt payments on the ballpark […]

The latest in the business of baseball.

Someone has placed a camera in my head and has recorded my every memory of Jeff Francoeur. (thanks to Crowhop for the link)

I hadn’t heard about this, but there’s a new Manny Ramirez biography coming out today. It’s called “Becoming Manny,” and its co-author is a clinical psychologist named Jean Rhodes. Rhodes is interviewed today in the Boston Globe: Q. If you had to diagnose him, what would you say? A. Well, he has an incredible ability […]

The Marlins’ stadium plan depends greatly on certain assumptions regarding hotel tax revenue. Assumptions which may have been far more reasonable before Depression v.2.0: The financing plan for the proposed Florida Marlins stadium took a potentially severe hit in January, with a 22 percent plunge in the hotel taxes counted on to cover most of […]

You can only look so far into spring training statistics, but one gets the sense that Randy Johnson is about to put up a big season: Randy Johnson wasn’t as overpowering as in his previous start (seven strikeouts, three innings), but he was just as effective in 31/3 scoreless innings in a 10-1 victory over […]

Shining a light into the lone dark alley of The Mahatma’s long and brilliant career.

A’s owner Lew Wolff defends Bud Selig from attacks that he looked the other way on steroids: “There’s one thing I don’t think enough people realize about Bud,” Wolff said. “He knows that baseball is the players. Whether he reacted soon enough to the steroid situation or not, once he did react, it was still […]

Willie Mays makes Giants’ players feel at home during spring training: When Willie Mays sits down at his customary card table in the Giants’ spring clubhouse, he immediately lets out a high-pitched yell and demands to know [Fred] Lewis’ whereabouts. The “Say Hey Kid” has found himself a surrogate godson. They go back and forth […]

Forbes’ Tom Van Riper wonders whether the razor will sap the strength of the mighty CC Sabathia: In order to join the Yankees, Sabathia will be required to shave off the beard he sported during his 2007 Cy Young Award season in Cleveland and his 2008 second-half surge in Milwaukee, when he carried the Brewers […]