Just before a critical vote on their taxpayer-funded playground, the Marlins are making promises: With final voting on the Florida Marlins’ long-sought ballpark less than two weeks away, club president David Samson says he expects near-capacity crowds nightly the first year in the team’s new home, with annual attendance above 2 million for at least […]

Needham despairs at the state of the Nats’ farm system: Last season, just about anything that could go wrong, did. Ross Detwiler, the top pitching prospect, threw batting practice at single-A. Chris Marrero, the top hitting prospect, didn’t excel, and his season ended halfway through thanks to a bone-shredding slide into home plate. Many other […]

It could be closer than you think: Citigroup Inc., eager to quell the controversy over how lenders are using government bailout money, is exploring the possibility of backing out of a nearly $400 million marketing deal with the New York Mets, say people familiar with the matter. Officials at Citigroup have made no final decision […]

First he has a two-year, $40 million option, but he doesn’t want it picked up. Then he gets a two-year $45 million offer, and doesn’t answer the phone. Then he gets a one-year, $25 million offer, and rejects it: Manny Ramirez wasted no time rejecting the Dodgers’ latest offer, a one-year, $25-million proposal that was […]

For those of you who don’t scroll down much, you may not have seen that I had a rare Sunday post yesterday. Subject: Rick Reilly’s story about a guy who crashed the Phillies’ World Series celebration. While I devoted most of the post to the notion that, if you look like you belong, you can […]

Chris Jaffe had the 50 best closer songs last week. This week: Geoff Young has the 71 worst. One quibble: Geoff includes “If you Leave” by OMD. I’ll grant him that it’s not exactly intimidating, but a San Diego guy like Young should know that OMD singer Andy McCluskey married himself a Coronado girl and […]

It appears that Red Sox owner John Henry is adding a third trophy to the case: Red Sox owner John Henry is engaged to girlfriend Linda Pizzuti . . . . . . It will be the first marriage for Pizzuti, who has been dating the millionaire businessman since she was introduced to him last […]

Another fun day in Pirates land: The Pittsburgh Pirates made a candid and surprising admission: Not only are they perennially in last place in the NL Central, they’ve dropped into last in their own city. The Pirates rank third among the Steel City’s three major sports franchises from a marketing and business perspective, team president […]

This past week, Zack Greinke and Paul Maholm both took leaps of faith in staying with their mediocre teams. Also, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox brought back their aging former stars while Garrett Olson went on the move again.

Forget Joe Torre. His tell-all isn’t even the most interesting one to come to light this week: On the greatest day of his life, Matt McCarthy took a call from a Major League baseball scout named Byron, who told him he had been drafted to play baseball for the Angels. “Now, you went to Yale,” […]