Mr. ALAN SCHWARZ (Sports Writer, Baseball America, New York Times): Well, thank you, Neal.
Joining us now from our bureau in New York is our baseball pal, Alan Schwarz, who writes for Baseball America and the New York Times and Podcasts for ESPN.
"We have a target on our backs, but we're kind of used to that this year, being the No. 1 team (in the Baseball America poll) for most of the season, " outfielder Chaz Frank said Thursday.
While seven-figure bonuses have become the norm for top baseball picks, the league has actually done a pretty good job of taming the inflation that was so rampant in the 1990s, according to Baseball America Executive Editor Jim Callis.
Baseball America thinks highly enough of Comer to label him as a potential first-round talent for 2014 if he does indeed sign with Vandy, where he would be a part of an amazing class that also includes Tyler Beede (Mass.), Shawon Dunston Jr.(Calif.) and Phil Pfeifer (Tenn.).
FORBES: 2011 MLB Draft: 10 First-Round Draft Picks Who Will Be Toughest to Sign
But the most heavily represented sport in the Sotheby's sale is baseball, America's national pastime.
Most of the credit for old-timer strength goes to Ruth, an almost mythological figure who represents the dominance of baseball in America's sports history.
His league had been around for more than six decades, and was in the process of replacing Major League Baseball as America's beloved pastime.
Clemens last played in 2007 and would be eligible to be inducted into the Hall by the Baseball Writers of America in 2013.
Now Mr Hayes wants to turn Compton's baseball stadium into America's first professional cricket ground, giving international teams a pitch in the heart of South-Central.
ECONOMIST: The inner cities: Breathless hush in the ��hood | The
There is, certainly, a great movie to be made about a young baseball player from the islands or South America who enters an American-run baseball academy, gets a tryout with a minor-league franchise, suffers the cultural dislocations of American wealth and strangeness, and then, on the verge of success, hits a rock somewhere and capsizes before he can get to the majors.
Only time and the Baseball Writers Association of America will tell!
FORBES: Jorge Posada Spurns Nomadic Lifestyle Of An Aging Superstar
Not a single candidate for induction in 2013 received sufficient support from voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, the Hall announced Wednesday.
WSJ: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens Kept Out of Baseball Hall of Fame: Voters Pitch a Shutout
The Baseball Writers Association of America has held the tremendous honor and responsibility of selecting the Most Valuable Player Award in both leagues for the past eight decades.
FORBES: Why Justin Verlander Deserves To Be The American League's MVP
If the Baseball Writers Association of America does decide that no one will gain entry into the Hall of Fame this year from their election, it would mark the third time since 1970 the baseball writers have failed to produce a single candidate worthy of enshrinement.
Major League Baseball and it entities has theoretically distanced themselves from the voting process and has unfairly left the Baseball Writers Association of America to determine whether or not these dishonest individuals should be punished for their egregious acts by denying them entrance into the Hall of Fame.
FORBES: A Hall of Fame Quandary Involving Sportsmanship, Integrity and Character
While you have to applaud the Baseball Writers Association of America for taking a definitive stand with regard to ball players who were either associated or could have been associated with performance enhancing substances, they have inadvertently penalized Jack Morris during a critical moment in his time on the ballot.
FORBES: The BBWAA Pitches a Costly Shutout Against Jack Morris
In what can be gently described as a lackluster ballot highlighted by a handful of legitimate borderline candidates and a couple of steroid-tainted cheaters, the Baseball Writers Association of America have finally opened the pearly gates to the hallowed halls of Cooperstown for Barry Larkin in his third year of eligibility.
Instead of evaluating the meritorious careers of the candidates on the ballot by thoroughly studying their statistical achievements and contributions, the Baseball Writers Association of America is now wrestling with the moral conundrum of sifting through a laundry list of confirmed, accused or rumored cheaters by using the subjective criteria of sportsmanship, integrity and character.
FORBES: A Hall of Fame Quandary Involving Sportsmanship, Integrity and Character
Back then, it rivaled boxing and baseball as the sport in America.
FORBES: After The Breeders' Cup, A Question Worth Asking: Is The Sport Of Horse Racing Really Dying?
Verlander earned the American League MVP honor Monday, receiving 13 of 28 first-place votes and 280 points in voting announced by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
WSJ: MLB 2011: Justin Verlander of Detroit Tigers Becomes Rare MVP Pitcher
"The streak is a reflection of a phenomenal period of baseball in Boston and of America's greatest ballpark, " Red Sox owner John W. Henry said in a statement.
He fell well short of the 75% of the vote required for induction last year, with his name appearing on just 62.1% of ballots cast by voting members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
WSJ: Barry Larkin Enters Baseball's Hall of Fame on Third Try
"It really would be a shame, especially since the other people going in this year are not among the living, which will make for a rather strange ceremony, " said the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser, president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
America's pro baseball league has never come close to being challenged as the best league in the world.
"I think people confuse the Hall of Fame and Museum with getting a plaque from the Baseball Writers (Association) of America, " he wrote.
Dominating the tournament field are baseball-rich countries in Latin America (Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama and Venezuela) and Asia (Japan and South Korea).
The four networks in Latin America show soccer and baseball.
Starting his annual tour of the 30 spring training camps, Weiner cautioned that Major League Baseball is still investigating Biogenesis of America, a defunct anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla.
Surely baseball fans near and far would commend America's political class for trying to clean up the game they so dearly love.
应用推荐