Tag: MLB

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MLB General

MLB Network Rolls Out With Bait & Swith

By Diane M. Grassi

On January 1, 2009, Major League Baseball (MLB) launched its long awaited Major League Baseball Network (MLBN) on major cable broadcast providers throughout U.S. television markets.

Hailed by MLB itself as a boon to its continued growth, the MLBN hopes to garner $150–$200 million in additional revenue in just its first year of distribution.

And to that end, the MLBN starts right off the bat with a built-in cushion of an instant 50 million television household subscribers or about one third of the cable market share.

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MLB MLB General New York Yankees

Major League Baseball’s Communist Manifesto

“No nation was ever ruined by trade, even seemingly the most disadvantageous.” -Benjamin Franklin

The New York Yankees showcased their latest holiday impulse buy yesterday when they introduced 1B Mark Teixiera to their $223 million toy chest. Coming on the heels on the A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia purchases, the Yankees are undoubtedly making an unabashed statement to the rest of Major League Baseball. But in the context of the ever-disintegrating economy, their off-season spending binge does not connote aggressive World Series campaigning so much as it invokes the contempt and ire of fiscal-conscious Americans.

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Oakland A's

Bring Him Back

by Trevor Freeman

I will be quite honest. I still cannot think rationally when his name pops up. It hurt when Mark McGwire left for St. Louis and it stung when the 49ers shipped Joe Montana to Kansas City. However, those departures will never compare to the way I felt when Jason Giambi signed with the New York Yankees. I can honestly say that it tore the hymen of my sports virginity. It has been quite awhile since I penned an article that did not involve the sport of water polo, but I feel compelled to jump back into the fray with the news that Jason Giambi is on the radar of my beloved Oakland A’s.

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General Sports

The First Step is Admitting You Have a Problem: How Sports Have Skewed My Sanity

“The fan is the one who suffers.”
-Frank Robinson

When you’ve spent enough time screaming at the TV in public or when you have worn enough team-branded clothing, you become known as the sports you support. You become the first person people think of when your team loses or wins, which means the sound of 489 text messages coming in at the same time runs the gamut from “Merry TEIX-mas!” or “%&#!! Did we really just give up a four goal lead to the Caps?”

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MLB General

MLB Invests in First Indian-Born Players

The Pittsburgh Pirates now have the sole distinction of signing two non-drafted free agents from India. Not only are the players the first Indian-born signed players from that country by MLB, but also for any other major league sport outside of India.

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MLB General

MLB No Longer Recession-Proof

What MLB did not foresee, much like its compatriots on Wall Street who bought up valueless mortgages, and pimped them off as viable commodities, was that such actions would have such a deleterious impact on their baseball revenues come next season, just a few months from now.

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General Sports

For Love Of The Game: Retirement Case Studies To Help Jamie Moyer

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”–Orson Welles

My dad tells this story of his friend’s big night at the craps table in Vegas. It was one of those scenes that generally doesn’t exist in reality–the casino’s population all concentrated around this one table, my dad’s friend spurred on by the rallying cries of everyone around him.  He was holding court, throwing more and more colored chips on every space of felt left on the table, which at that point looked like the streets of New Orleans at the height of Mardi Gras. The story is legendary, as the entire table was up thousands of dollars.

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MLB General

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend: Choosing Sides in the 2008 World Series

“There is nobody as enslaved as the fanatic, the person whom in one impulse, one value, assumes ascendancy over all others.” -Milton R. Sapirstein

There are few things more aggravating than trying to escape mushrooming media hype of a story you just don’t want to hear. The internet is a demon the day immediately after your team blows Game 7, or your idolized all-star is caught in salacious mischief, or your star QB’s season-ending injury is documented in 14,000 different photo angles.

You’d think that New York City journalism would be so overwhelmed with news that it could avoid spinning out the same stories over and over. But as it stands, the only thing transpiring in Manhattan is the election. And the World Series. And trying to decide what’s less interesting is like trying to pick between sharing a cell with Omarosa or Andy Dick.

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MLB General

Are MLB Bats the New PED’s?

Questions remain regarding the current MLB bat manufacturing process and after-market tampering of bats which may be responsible for the present epidemic of broken and exploding bats, as players look for that extra edge, no longer satisfied by PED’s.

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MLB General

Gaming Congress- Yanks Could Strike Out

At a time when NYC and NY state are both eliminating important public services due to budget shortfalls, as are many states across the country, it  is incumbent for taxpayers to know far more comprehensively the machinations of the public financing of its stadiums.

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