Category: Sports

Who would have thought it? Bill McClellan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and I agree on something: the owners of the St. Louis Cardinals played the civic “leaders” like ballpark organs:

Not so with a ballpark. If developers thought a Ballpark Village were a great idea, they would have built a village around the old ballpark. They didn’t. So when the Cardinal owners wanted some financial help for their new stadium, they promised – and put that promise in writing – that they’d also build a Ballpark Village. This would be a big plus for the revitalization of downtown.

Now comes the word that yes, the Cardinal owners could live up to that promise, but the Village would be a lowercase sort of place: ballpark village. Doomed to failure. Who wants to live in ballpark village? On the other hand, the city could have something spectacular – three times the size of the original plan – but the taxpayers are going to have to help out again. Maybe $100 million or so worth of help.

Perhaps these crony capitalists are serving a function for the greater good.

Media Views: A cut in free-TV games seems to be in the Cards:

As the baseball season winds down, the clock also could be ticking on KPLR’s run of televising Cardinals games. It remains to be seen where the over-the-air games in the Cards’ local television package end up next season — or even if there will be a free-TV portion to the deal. The current agreement places 41 games on Channel 11.

FSN Midwest, the cable-satellite TV outlet that carries the bulk of the team’s local television package (110 games this season), has been negotiating with the club for months to increase its number of games as part of a new deal that would begin next year. (The club’s arrangement with KPLR allows for either side to opt out of after this season.)

This is a high stakes game not only for the team and TV outlets, but for a significant number of fans. Only about 80 percent of homes in the market subscribe to services that carry FSN Midwest, which is one of the lowest percentages of cable-satellite TV penetration in the country. That means that one in five homes in the area — about 244,000 total ­– could face a significant reduction in the number of telecasts available over free TV, as the club would be taking money over those fans’ interests and the fact more people watch on KPLR than FSN. That would parallel the team’s switch of flagship radio stations, from KMOX (1120 AM) to KTRS (550 AM).

Let’s not forget the Cardinals made the public build them a stadium with fewer seats in it, so they’ve got to dissuade the casual fans somehow. By making the games unavailable for free on television or the radio, they’re on their way.

You know, current sports owners remind me more and more of quick-turn real estate rehabbers. They buy a team, slap some wallpaper agreements raising revenue in the short term, and sell it for exorbitant profit after only a short time. The next investor group picks it up, does the same, and hopes to make their short term profits before the infrastructure–in this case, the fan base–crumbles entirely.

The St. Louis Cardinals want the taxpayers to throw more good money after bad–for the Cardinals owners to catch, of course:

As the new Busch Stadium continues to attract sellout crowds, the crater next door that was once the old stadium continues to do what it has done since the season’s first pitch: gather dust.

Team officials have promised that the site one day will be Ballpark Village, a bustling collection of shops, restaurants and condominiums that will transform downtown St. Louis. To get a tax break from the city, Cardinals executives three years ago committed to spending at least $60 million to develop two of Ballpark Village’s planned six blocks.

Now they are back, pushing for a $650 million project on all six blocks. But with that renewed ambition, comes an outstretched hand – more public financing. A look at similar projects shows that the taxpayers’ burden could well exceed $100 million.

I would be almost be happy if this proved to be an expensive lesson to governments who would spend their constituents’ money to pamper sports teams. However, like all other boondoggles before it, I expect this will ultimately only prove to be expensive.

Cardinals ticket sales are down, and they’ve got a million theories why, but none of the ones enumerated in the story match my expectation.

Here are two things that have alienated some of the out-of-town fan base:

A publicly funded stadium. Remember the signs that said “We’ll build a stadium when the Cardinals build highways”? The people who put them in their yards and on their farms do.

The Cardinals bought KTRS and moved their broadcasts to the underpowered AM station and a “network” that leaves the radio coverage spotty in St. Louis, much less within driving range of a weekend in St. Louis.

No, certainly the dive in tourism traffic comes from gas prices and the rumor that every game is a sell-out. Good luck with continuing delusions.

Egads, for a second time in a row, the National Hockey League Stanley Cup is awarded to a team in the Southeastern United States (Tampa Bay then, North Carolina now) over a Canadian team (Calgary then, Edmonton now). It’s an affront to the sport that places that don’t care about it triumph over teams in places where kids actually play pick-up games of it.

Rankles me almost to the point that I’d run away and join the hockey, which is the nearest thing Canada has to a military these days. But like other chickenwingers, I’m just going to complain about it and not do anything. Because I cannot skate backwards.

A “feud” exists between former St. Louis Cardinals shortstop Ozzie Smith and Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa stemming from the latter’s platooning of the hall-of-famer and St. Louis icon with Royce Clayton in 1996. Starting last week, the “feud” has flared again as Smith let the world know he was happy with the decision, and LaRussa said he was.

Here’s baseball writer Dan O’Neill in a column entitled 10 years later, it’s time for Ozzie to get over it:

To be fair, Smith was responding to questions, not preaching from a pulpit. The interview had a lot of positive information about his work with the Hall of Fame. He said all the right things as he indicated the past was behind and he had moved on.

But then he didn’t move on. He had to pick at the scab one more time with comments about management. A guy who has been paid $2 million by the Cardinals for “personal services” over the past 10 years can’t find it in himself to embrace that same organization as long as La Russa is around. That is almost as petty as it is absurd.

A nice sentiment, to be sure, but the current “feud” is nothing more than a soap operaesque crashing chord provided by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Let’s look over what the Post-Dispatch has provided:

• Rare Bird Sighting: Ozzie Smith, the profile of Ozzie that started the story.
• Tony La Russa on Ozzie Smith: ‘He’s not welcome’, the rebuttal that fueled the fire.
• Ozzie-Tony rift: Sad, but understandable, a column by Jeff Gordon.
• Ozzie-Tony spat hurts Cards’ image, a column by Bryan Burwell.
• The aforementioned column by O’Neill.
• Letters to Gordo: The Ozzie-Tony Feud, a round-up of letters to columnist Jeff Gordon.
• Letter in Sound off, the “letters to the editor” portion of the sports page.
• Another appearance in Sound Off.
• A third appearance in Sound Off
• An online forum backing Ozzie Smith.
• An online forum backing Tony LaRussa.
• Rick Hummel’s Take, today, a week after the original Ozzie Smith profile that set it off.

The Post-Dispatch certainly can flex its floodus zonei muscles effectively for the most inconsequential topics. Although, honestly, I’d prefer the paper do it on a silly topic that will sell papers to the impassioned Cardinals fans than for something designed to make our lives better by enabling more governmental rule.

(Full disclosure: The author booed when Royce Clayton appeared onscreen in the film The Rookie.)

Congratulations to the Milwaukee Admirals (of the American Hockey League) for sweeping the Grand Rapid Griffins and advancing to the Calder Cup playoffs.

Great shot, kids. Don’t get cocky.

Dear Marquette University:

Don’t bother sending me letters encouraging me to send $25 when you pay the basketball coach $1,650,000 a year.

Although your fundraising pitches are printed upon recyclable paper, I insist upon shredding anything with my name upon it. Also, the lost printing and postage has probably cost you enough to buy one minute of Tom Crean’s time next year.

Thank you, that is all.

You know, Scott Hamilton on color commentary sounds a little like Darren Pang.

Name could be big change:

At the least, it seems likely the word “Devil” will be dropped, as it already is in some official team references. Then a decision has to be made whether to continue associating Rays with the sea creatures or to connect with the sun. Or there could be a new name, such as the Tampa Bay Tarpons.

You know, that’s one redskin you don’t want suing you in the court of law. Because he sues for your soul.

Readers’ List: Best acting performances by athletes.

Brett Favre wins it for his performance in There’s Something About Mary.

Doubtlessly, radio call-in shows in Wisconsin are now figuring this into their calculations about whether he will return next year.

Pairs long program: Baldwin and Inoue make skating history:

Change sometimes happens at a glacial pace, as in an ice age. At other times, it occurs in an instant, such as the meteor that hit the earth and eradicated the dinosaurs.

Both types of changes occurred Friday at Savvis Center in the pairs competition of the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. John Baldwin, 32, is the oldest competitor in the field and has skated almost exclusively in obscurity for 21 years at nationals. But in one fell swoop, he captured a national title and berth on the Olympic team, pairing with Rena Inoue on the first throw triple axel completed in competition.

No doubt, this is a date which will define a generation.

The Los Angeles Kings beat the St. Louis Blues last night, 6-3, so here’s that logo again:

Once again, Brandon has smack to talk.

But unlike Machelle, I face up to as many Blues defeats as I can actually keep straight and adhere to the rules of the Hockey Whoopass Jamboree and post logos in a timely fashion because if the Blues aren’t ashamed of themselves, neither am I.

By the rules described by the Hockey Whoopass Jamboree, I must once again post the Red Wings logo to placate Michelle and David, who selected that team whereas I selected the St. Louis Blues and that team, like all other NHL teams and a couple of high school girls field hockey teams, j.v. at that, continue to beat the Blues like a bongo at a San Franscisco coffee shop circa 1967:

Jeff Goldstein defends Brett Favre’s play choices.

Sort of.

The Los Angeles Dammit There’s Demitras beat the St. Louis Blues last night, ergo here’s the logo:

Kudos to Brandon for selecting someone other than the worst team in the NHL, which I did out of duty and obligation.

Long Winter Update: Yes, friends, that does mean that my three winter teams (Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Admirals, St. Louis Blues) are a combined 5-17, but the Milwaukee Admirals are on a 2 game winning streak, and the Green Bay Packers are about to begin their winning streak which will lead them to Super Bowl XL, so perhaps it won’t be a long winter after all!

Vintage Base Ball Association.

Vintage Base Ball is base ball (yes, it was two words originally) played by the rules and customs of any earlier period. Ballists wear old-style uniforms, either the early long trouser and shield shirt, or a later style lace shirt and knickers, and recreate the game based on rules and research of the various periods of the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The activity of vintage base ball can be seen at open-air museums, re-enactments and city parks and is played on both open grass fields and modern baseball diamonds. Some groups consider vintage base ball to be a new sport, but at its core, vintage base ball is a reflection of how baseball existed at an earlier time.

Most vintage base ball clubs in the VBBA play the game of base ball as it was played in the late 1850s, 1860s and 1880s. Many clubs in the Midwest have adopted the rules recorded in the first Beadle’s Dime Base Ball Player, published in 1860, which recounted the third meeting of the National Association of Base Ball Players.

Watch for upstart leagues, base ball and other sports, to form and to draw attention and attendance as the “big leagues” price themselves out of the market and out of the imagination of the public.

Cards’ A Student program will be scaled back in ’06:

Middle schoolers will no longer be able to participate in a decades-old program that provides free Cardinals tickets to students whose grades are equivalent to an A-minus average or better. The reason cited: fewer seats in the new Busch Stadium.

The program will be limited to high schoolers. And each student will be eligible for two free tickets to a game instead of four.

I participated in this program in the middle 1980s, and the free tickets to bad games helped a Milwaukee boy overcome his automatic distaste for the Redbirds.

So let’s recap the Cardinals’ recent moves to reach out to fans:

• Forced government funding for a new stadium, which triggered some resentment from taxpayers, particularly those outside the St. Louis area in Missouri.
• Changed radio stations to lower wattage KTRS, diminishing the ability of many fans to pick the game up for free on the radio. The Cardinals, of course, are happy to let fans pay to listen on the Internet.
• Scaled back a program that allows many lower income families whose children do well in school can attend ball games and that hooks fans young.

Together, these moves will diminish the fan base over the coming generation. But ball teams don’t think in terms of generations and tradition. Instead, they think of short term corporate profits and the maximum value they can receive when they sell the franchise to the next short-sighted corporation.