Saturday Night’s Alright: Business of Sports Network Enters New Phase, the Tiger Effect, the Prez Visits the Wizards, More
28th February 2009
When I created BizofBaseball.com a few years back, the idea was simply to take off in as many directions I could see fit after doing BusinessofBaseball.com, the Business of Baseball committee website for SABR. Now, what was a small move has turned into what I call the Winchester Mystery House of sports business websites: BizofBasketball.com, BizofFootball.com, and BizofHockey.com.
Oh, and BusinessofSportsNetwork.com, the portal for all four online resources. Today marks the beginning of the next phase for the Business of Sports Network, as the portal has now become the catch-all for sports outside the lines that doesn’t fall under baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. We hope you’ll visit.
Enough of that, here’s what Saturday offers:
Tiger Woods came back to the PGA Tour this week, which must have breathed a sigh of relief for the PGA, but mostly NBC and the Golf Channel. Don’t believe me? See the ratings while Tiger was away injured.
Rich Lederer of the excellent The Baseball Analysts asked if I had end of year salary information for the past few years. That got me to publishing 2002-2008’s final salary figures… well, sort of. I’m missing 2004. Just waiting for a fantastic national baseball reporter to get back from vacation to see if I can fill in the gap.
Business of Sports Network staffer Jordan Kobritz says the case against Barry Bonds long ago passed the demarcation line between prosecution and persecution.
The World Baseball Classic is seeing players drop like flies due to injury. The latest sees Grady Sizemore having groin problems, which opens the door for Shane Victorino.
Following the news earlier this week that the White Sox will be streaming Spring Training games for free, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced Friday that the club will provide live video streams of 11 Spring Training games exclusively on dodgers.com.
Bill Gilbert, who has worked on the preparation of arbitration cases for 17 years, files this wrap-up of this year’s salary arbitration class.
It’s another day of Spring Training, which means just one more day of the saga between Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Johan Santana is injured, and it appears, it may be more serious than had been initially reported.
The guy goes under the moniker Joliet Jake, and has been known to be a bit paranoid from time to time over at the Bucco Blog, but the notion of micro-payments for sports content may not be as “Oliver Stone” as one thinks.
Peter O’Malley thinks that MLB can’t ignore the steroid issue, but the money quote has more to deal with Scott Boras. “I remember when we had to sign Fernando [Valenzuela],” O’Malley says. “You think Scott Boras is tough. You should have dealt with Dick Moss. I remember our approach: firm, but fair. And it worked.” For anyone that has had the pleasure of talking with Dick Moss, it’s an unbelievable ride into the history of the MLBPA and one of the first “super agents.”
Forget about the International Softball Federation buddying up with International Baseball Federation in an effort to bring baseball back for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Bay Bridge Baseball goes after Fangraph’s Dave Cameron, and in the process, seems to have not read what Cameron had to say (or for that matter, what Rob Neyer said) about the Rocky Mountain News folding.
NFL free agency is in high gear. Ask Haynesworth, Winslow. Also, Matt Cassel is involved in a trade-and-sign.
Baseball Prospectus has updated PECOTA
Will Carroll asks, “On the Mend?”
Finally, who is this guy at the Wizards game last night?
Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown’s full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.