The Biz of Baseball: Looking Back on Peter Magowan and the Giants

Maury Brown reminds us about this important piece of information:

Three words should come to mind when one thinks of Peter Magowan: Tampa Bay Giants.

If not for MLB, Peter Magowan, the rest of his ownership group (which included Walter Shorenstein, Charles Schwab and Don Fisher), a legion of season-ticket holders that opened their pocketbooks, and a creative City of San Francisco, the Giants would have very easily packed up their bags and moved across the country to St. Petersburg where a newly built domed facility had been built to lure a Major League Baseball team.

Crosscut: Van Dyk: The M’s need a smarter management team

There is a core there which should be maintained but several expensive, waning players who should be traded or dumped outrightly, post haste.

Your heart goes out to McLaren, who has surrounded himself this season with what is perhaps the major leagues’ best coaching staff. He clearly is earnest and hardworking but probably more suited to being Lou Piniella’s No. 2, which he was for many years, than a premium leader in his own right. His awkward silences and explanations, during the team’s slow start, have been painful.

Bavasi comes on strong and leaves an impression of knowledgeability. But his track record, regrettably, indicates a lack of judgment about player talent and value. If someone has to go, and there is justice, Bavasi should walk the plank before McLaren.

In the end, of course, responsibility comes down to the people who own the Mariners and constitute the team’s senior management. So long as fans keep coming in large numbers, they are unlikely to take any decision action toward change. But if fans decide to spend their discretionary income elsewhere, stuff will happen.

Jose Lopez is becoming a truly good hitter....you mean the one who’s BA (.315) is higher than his OBP (.313)?

Beckett: 101 A-Rod Rookies Walk Through the Door

WHOA!...This blows away my 25 1962 Mickey Mantle cards in SS (Schwinn Spokes) condition!

You never know what comes through the door here at Beckett. Today, a guy walks in with 101 A-Rod Rookies graded BGS 9.

Graded card investor Brad Englehart has amassed during the past eight months 101 BGS 9 examples of 1994 SP Alex Rodriguez. (Are you sure there are really 101? Click on the photo and count ‘em for yourself.) Some were purchased at shows, some online and some were purchased raw and graded by BGS.

“I think that over the last 10 years, the grading companies have realized what a tough card this really is,” said Englehart, a Florida dealer who was at Beckett HQ on a business visit.

...Englehart says the 101-card collection will stay intact at least until the National Convention in Chicago the last week of July. The card currently sells for around $350-$375 at BGS 9 condition.

Thanks to Sports Locker.

St. Petersburg Times: Rays release financing details for new stadium

The Tampa Bay Rays released new details of their plan to finance a proposed $450-million downtown waterfront ballpark, including millions of dollars from the team in guaranteed parking revenue.
...
The financing package includes:
• $150-million from the team.
• $100-million from extending a 1 percent tax on Pinellas County hotel stays for 25 to 30 years.
• $75-million from extending the city’s contribution to Tropicana Field for another 25 to 30 years.
• $70-million from the developer purchasing Tropicana Field.
• And $55-million in guaranteed parking revenue associated with the 34,000-seat ballpark.

As part of the agreement, the Rays said they would pay any cost overruns if they oversee construction of the stadium. The Rays also said the public’s contribution — $175-million — would be dwarfed by the taxes generated by redeveloping Tropicana Field.

Kornheiser Among ‘Wash Post’ Buyout Takers

The Seinfeld Curse continues…

Kornheiser, the Post sports columnist who gained national fame on Monday Night Football and other ESPN network programs, announced on his radio show Wednesday afternoon that he was taking a buyout after 29 years with the newspaper.

“It just feels odd,” Kornheiser said on his radio show, according to a transcript posted on the “D.C. Sports Bog” by Post sportswriter Dan Steinberg. “It feels odd and it feels bad. It doesn’t feel sad, there’s no sadness to it, it just feels wrong.”

Kornheiser said “all I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer.” “In my mind that’s what it says on the headstone, it says ‘newspaper guy,’ “ he added.

Kornheiser hasn’t written a regular column for the paper recently, but provides video for its Web site, with some items excerpted on the second page of the sports section. Kornheiser said on the radio that he might continue to contribute to the Web. He said he signed the buyout papers Tuesday night.

In addition to commenting on Monday Night Football, Kornheiser co-hosts a daily sports talk show “Pardon the Interruption” with fellow Post sportswriter Michael Wilbon.

Thanks to Can’t Stop the Bleeding.

Soccer Giants Borrow Beane’s Formula to Chase Champions League

FROM BLOOMBERG.COM:

Forget the Brazilian street kids juggling soccer balls with their bare feet. The sport’s next big star may be a mathematician…

...Soccer coaches are following the lead of Billy Beane, the general manager of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics who was featured in the 2003 U.S. bestseller ``Moneyball.’

GREAT, JUST WHAT WE NEED, SOCCER HOOLIGANS READING E.T. JAYNES!!!

The Biz of Baseball: Brown: “[Your Business] At Wrigley Field” Still Being Considered

Or as Maury sez..."Can’t find a business with this name, but what if “4 out of 5 Dentists” got deal?”

One thing that was not mentioned, possibly due to the hot-button nature of it, has been the possible selling of naming rights to The Friendly Confines. As Kurt Hunzeker and I noted in The Curse of the Ex-Wrigley Field, any company looking to purchase the secondary naming rights for Wrigley would find it nearly impossible for anyone to think of Wrigley Field as, well, anything other than “Wrigley Field”. While secondary naming deals have been able to get out from under the original name’s recognition (best example would be the short-lived Enron Field which is now Minute Maid Park), Wrigley would nearly impossible. As we wrote in Curse, “Hyatt Field?  Gatorade Field?  State Farm Field?  Blue Cross Blue Shield Field? None of them work.”

Beyond the financial implications (based upon Hunzeker’s research, using the Mets Citigroup naming deal as a barometer, a secondary naming deal for Wrigley would run -276 percent of value based on Wrigley’s longstanding history as a name), the political realities of those immersed in the purist and traditional world that baseball, and more importantly, the Cubs hold, show that a complete renaming of Wrigley Field would create a backlash the likes of which the Cubs may have never seen before.

Mushnick: YANKEE COLLECTIBLES CERTIFIABLY RIDICULOUS (RR)

Wow!...This gunk blows away the 10-spot I still have that Monoman pulled out of his wharf rat underwear!

Steiner Sports, contracted collectibles dealer for MLB, the Mets and Yanks, is now selling the following “Bronx Game-Used Equipment” from Yankee Stadium:

“2005 Opening Day Batter’s Box Dirt Collage” for $120 (call me cynical, but the dirt looks suspiciously similar to 2006 Opening Day batter’s box dirt). Ian Kennedy’s “Yankees Clubhouse Locker Room Name Plate” is selling for $500 (how a locker name plate was used in a game escapes us, but Shelley Duncan’s is a steal at $300).

For $250, you can own Jose Veras’ alleged “game-used” Yankee duffel bag (I can’t recall Veras using that duffel bag in a game, either, but that’s the beauty of the hidden duffel bag trick).

But wait! There’s more! Kyle Farnsworth’s “Yankee Spring Training Game Used Locker Room Name Plate” for $100 (this game-used Yankee Stadium item was neither used in a game nor in Yankee Stadium), something called a “Joe DiMaggio Mini Dirt Collage” for $60 and other bric-a-brac that could be unscrewed, pried free, pocketed, stuffed into a game-used duffel bag or scooped up.

The Biz of Baseball: Brown: Financial Book on the Cubs Expected This Week

And from Maury..."Or, as some like to call it, the prelude to John Canning owning the Cubs, and Cuban getting snubbed”

The sale of the Chicago Cubs will move beyond pure discussion when Sam Zell and the Tribune Co. deliver the financial “book” to the six prospective bidding groups sometime this week.

The “book” is a financial assessment of all the holdings being sold by Tribune in association with the storied franchise, including the team, Wrigley Field, Comcast SportsNet Chicago, and Wrigley Field Premium Tickets. A separate “book” is also being distributed with Wrigley Field removed as part of the sale. Zell has been in discussions with the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority about selling it off separately, a move seen as a negative for prospective owners.

As for the six groups bidding they include Madison Dearborn Partners CEO John Canning, Jr., the Ricketts family, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the partnership of attorney Thomas Mandler and businessman Jim Anixter, MVC Capital Chairman Michael Tokarz and private-equity investor Thomas Begel.

As we have reported at the outset, from MLB’s perspective, the leading candidate is John Canning, Jr. due to his close ties to MLB and deep financial resources. He is a minority owner in the Milwaukee Brewers and has had close ties to Commissioner Selig. As reported by the Chicago Tribune, MLB could pass on any of the prospective buyers, even they are acceptable to Zell and Tribune, or offer more money than an owner they see as working well within MLB’s close-knit ownership framework.

Olbermann Blown Away By New Yankee Stadium (Video)

And look for a special Dukakis-he-for-real?! moment with Olbermann wearing a Yankee construction helmet!

Ignore his politics for one minute and watch this video of Keith Olbermann touring the new Yankee Stadium. He has nothing but nice things to say about it.

FBG: Joura: A Critical Look at Why People Stop Collecting Baseball Cards

It wouldn’t be that I once pulled 6 straight Tom Paciorek “I’ma little teapot cards”, would it?

Chances are you know someone in your life that collected baseball cards. And just as likely they no longer consider it a hobby. And like a jilted lover, they blame the hobby for their lack of current participation. That’s sad, but the truly tragic part is there’s no reason for them to continue to hold a grudge.

Here are some of the most frequent reasons given by ex-baseball card collectors as to why they no longer participate in the hobby.

Graded cards - Don’t like graded cards? Then don’t collect them! I estimate my collection at around 45,000 cards, of which about 25 are graded. I’m not morally opposed to them but they just don’t interest me so I don’t collect them. I’ve got a PSA 10 Fleer Flair Alex Rodriguez rookie card which is not nearly as memorable to me as my 1966 Johnny Stephenson card with a brown stain from a punk burn which makes it look like he crapped his pants.

Instantly available statistics make cards obsolete - I loved the stats on the back of the cards and I used to have them memorized. My short-term memory may not be much, but I’ll be able to tell you that Cleon Jones batted .340 in 1969 until the day I die. That’s because I memorized that from his 1970 baseball card. I’m a stat guy, so I really don’t understand this line of thinking. The more places we can have access to baseball stats, the better off the world will be.

Indiana Jones Slides into MLB.com Team Schedules

Moola ram down your throat?

Official Major League Baseball team sites have long been home for entertainment advertisers promoting sports flicks. A campaign for Paramount’s upcoming Indiana Jones movie is among the few non-sports film related efforts seen on MLB.com and its 30 team sites. And after launching Friday, one unique component of the campaign already has the Web chattering.

Baseball fans checking their favorite team’s schedules for the month of May this past weekend were surprised to find Harrison Ford in his signature adventure hero getup peering up at them from the May 22nd calendar slot.

..."The demographics of the core portion of our traffic fit right in there with men who are vying for entertainment options,” said Matthew Gould, MLB advanced media’s VP, corporate communications.

In no time, the promo spurred Web buzz about the movie and the calendar ads themselves. One witty post about the bullwhip-wielding archaeologist to Fark.com, a news aggregator site popular with younger men, stated, “I’ve heard he has an awesome WHIP.” WHIP is a stat used to gauge pitching prowess.

The Biz of Baseball: Brown: 2008 All-Star Game to Be Highest Revenue Maker Ever

Or as Maury sez...(Dr. Evil) “We will make $1 million dollars!!! (/Dr. Evil)

What happens when you put the MLB All-Star Game in the largest market in the U.S. as well as Yankee Stadium’s final year? Look for the All-Star festivities to go down in history as the largest revenue making ASG in history.

As it currently stands, the entire six-week schedule encapsulating the All-Star Game is running at levels never seen before. When you throw in Jon Bon Jovi playing in Central Park as part of the All-Star Game (a prime sponsorship opportunity), and that fact that MLB is working to have every living member of the Hall of Fame attend as part of the pre-game ceremony, MLB may not see an opportunity like this for decades to come. As reported by the Sports Business Journal (subscription required):

The heavy hype is driving virtually all of baseball’s businesses to record-high revenue for the game in ad sales, merchandise, licensing and ticket sales.

For example, Fox’s ad sales inventory for the game is 85 percent sold and pacing 25 percent ahead of last year.

The highest price point for 30-second spots — the ones non-MLB sponsors pick up as one-off ad buys — has hit $550,000. Some of the remaining inventory could bring in as much as $600,000.

Interview - Kurt Badenhausen - Senior Editor Forbes

Bizball: RSNs (Regional Sports Networks) have become an incredibly important part of the revenue streams for many clubs. How big of a factor are they, and do they create a have and have-not environment for those clubs that are in markets where they are unable to take full or partial ownership of one?

Badenhausen: We don’t include the value of RSNs in our calculations of team values. From a revenue standpoint, we only include the rights fee that the RSN pays the baseball team. These are supposed to be arms-length transactions to adhere with MLB’s revenue sharing regulations. But there is no doubt that the Yankees and Red Sox are getting below-market rights fees from their RSNs. While we don’t include RSNs in the value of teams, they are an important factor driving the business of the teams that have them. The Yankees and Red Sox collect stars to help fuel ratings on YES and NESN respectively. Both RSNs are extremely profitable allowing the teams to dole out high salaries and potentially lose money on the team itself, while making it up with RSN profits.

Yahoo: Passan: Weak attendance could be a National emergency

Well...who the hell asked Vincent Price to hang garlic crops on all Nationals Park entrances?!

The Nationals’ season-ticket base, though up from 15,000 last season to 18,000, remains significantly short of the 22,500 sold during their first season in 2005 after moving from Montreal. They’re almost guaranteed to finish with the worst attendance in all numbers – total, average and percentage – for a new stadium since Cincinnati opened Great American Ball Park in 2003. In Washington’s low point, the second game in Nationals Park actually had worse attendance than the second game at decrepit RFK Stadium last year.

“Sounds like you’re a lot more concerned about this than me,” Kasten said.

Perhaps so, though Kasten can’t ignore the games on television where it looks as though the Nationals are playing to a crowd of ushers. The President seats, positioned behind home plate, go for more than $300 apiece, and they’re selling like underwear at a nudist colony. Every pitch, the view is the same: hitter, catcher, umpire and about 25 of their unoccupied blue friends.

Josh Peter: Attendance soars even as economy sags

Arizona’s Mark Reynolds struck out swinging, and before the crowd of 42,590 began filing out the stadium, Dawn Vieyra, aka “The Double Coupon Queen,” went to work scooping recyclables into the bag. Her postgame routine offered insight into the national economy, team loyalty and the financial health of professional sports in the face of a recession.

Gas prices are up. Food prices are up. So, oddly enough, is attendance at Major League Baseball games.

MLB officials say attendance is 2.6 percent ahead of record-breaking figures from last season, when the 30 teams raked in more than $6 billion. The NBA and the NFL also say they see no signs that the economy will cut into attendance or profits. But Bob Dupuy, MLB’s chief operating officer, echoed the sentiment of the three leagues when he said, “We will be closely monitoring ticket sales throughout the season.”

Newsday: Best: MLB.com believes strongly in charging for live games

The premium version costs $119.95 for the season and features amazing resolution for computer video. The regular version costs $89.95.

The recent trend in streaming video, from “Amen Corner Live” at The Masters to “March Madness on Demand’’ at the NCAAs is ad supported rather than fee supported.

Bob Bowman, the head of MLB Advanced Media, says baseball is not ready to go that route. “We believe firmly in charging for premium content,’’ he said.

The percentage of subscribers who opt for the $119.95 level, which features clearer pictures and the ability to watch six games at once, has risen from about 20 percent to about 65.

Overall, Bowman said, the service had about 400,000 subscribers last season and is growing at 20 to 30 percent per year.

Make that 399,999 subscribers...as my MLB.TV Nosaic is still frozen from Sept.!

LA Times: Buzzie Bavasi, former Dodgers GM, dies at 92

He may have bled Dodger blue, but he was still a front-office Giant:

“I’ve had to take the abuse for that over the years, but that’s fine,” Bavasi told The Times in 2005. “Stay around long enough and there’s going to be abuse.”

Although his reputation as a dynamic baseball executive became somewhat tarnished during his time with the Padres and Angels, Bavasi will be remembered best for building championship Dodgers teams while staying within the budget of parsimonious owner Walter O’Malley.

Inside the Numbers: A 6-Year Look at the Forbes Valuations

Before we delve into the historical trends over the last six years, here are some details based around the annual research by Michael Ozanian and Kurt Badenhausen from this year’s valuations (see http://www.forbes.com/baseball/):

* Total gross revenues for the 30 clubs has increased by 7.7 percent from last year to $5.5 billion (as opposed to the $6.075 billion reported by MLB)
* The average team is now worth $472 million, 9.5 percent higher than last year and 143 percent more than when Forbes first calculated team values in 1998.
* The increase in gross revenues has outpaced expenditures in player payroll. This year, 56 percent of revenues were spent on player payroll compared to 66 percent just five years ago.
* Paid attendance continues to be a driving factor for the incredible increases for MLB. Within that, interleague continues to be exceptionally popular. Last year, interleague averaged 34,900 fans per game, 15 percent more than intraleague contests.
* The Mets, currently ranked second with a value of $824 million, will also get a new stadium that should push their value close to $1 billion before long. Citigroup, beleaguered by the housing market meltdown, is still planning to pay the Amazins $400 million over 20 years for the stadium’s naming rights.

WCBS: Allard: Remembering the Days of Strat-O-Matic

MARK GRACE

7-SINGLE
8-SINGLE
9-SINGLE
10-SINGLE
11-SINGLE
12-strikeout plus injury

Since the early 1960s, STRAT-O-MATIC has been THE board game that allows you to play out entire major league baseball seasons. The combination of cards and dice lets you manage a game and get results statistically consistent with each player’s normal on-field performance. It’s this accuracy that remains STRAT-O-MATIC’s most redeeming quality.

I was reintroduced to STRAT-O-MATIC when I read Glenn Guzzo’s book STRAT-O-MATIC FANATICS. It’s a study of the game and its founder, Hal Richman. Once I began reading Guzzo’s book, I was hooked on the first page. I read through the night and into the next day. I didn’t cancel my plans as much as simply forget about them.

Hal Richman was a dreamy Long Island kid who forged an imaginative escape route into his self-created reality. His is a David-and-Goliath story about transcending a brutally abusive and sometimes sadistic father, and living the life he dreamed on his own terms.

STRAT-O-MATIC became Hal Richman’s redemption and his vision. Richman says: “The black athlete has dominated basketball. For him, it wasn’t a game, it was a way of life - a way out of the ghetto. For me, [STRAT-O-MATIC] was also a way out of my psychological ghetto.”

Thanks to Was Watching...But Never Playing Strat-O-Matic.

Wax Heaven: The day baseball cards died

A 1/1 MICKEY MANTLE / ROBINSON CANO Cut Signature Card?  This has to be the worst match-up I’ve seen...since Dylan shared a microphone with Melanie at that Drunks for Chile concert in ‘74!

Ok guys, it’s over. Topps has officially killed baseball cards. Something tells me that “Mick” is rolling in his grave after seeing this 1 of 1 cut autograph (terrible) on an Xfractor with a sticker autograph of Robinson Cano. Robinson is currently hitting .158 in full-time duty for the New York Yankees this season. Bidding on the card is up to the $400 mark with 5 days left.

Congratulations Topps, you have created the WORST BASEBALL CARD OF ALL-TIME!

WSJ: Carlton: Life After Barry Is a Strikeout At the Ballpark

Folding kayak folding?

Mr. Bonds was a major force behind another Giants-stadium oddity: kayaks. Kayakers used to float by the dozens in McCovey Cove, hoping to fish out a so-called “Splash Hit.” Of the 45 homers that have been blasted into the cove since the ballpark’s opening in 2000, 35 came off the bat of Mr. Bonds. This season, no homers have been hit into the cove, and the number of kayaks bobbing in the water fell to about 10 on opening day from 50 on opening day last year. During the second game of this season, there were no kayaks in the cove. “It’s not as fun,” says 52-year-old Mark Busch, a San Jose businessman who sat in one of the few kayaks on opening night.

That’s bad news for Ted Choi, a 44-year-old Korean immigrant who has rented kayaks to baseball fans for five years here. Game-related rentals used to account for as much as a third of his business, persuading a stable of advertisers to pay roughly $20,000 each to put their brands on his kayaks. This year, he has just two advertisers, and game rentals are scarce most days. “I will be happy if I can break even,” he says.

CStB: Raissman : Wilpon TV Is Leaning On MetsBlog

Jeesh, for a station that shows “Scream Benigno Scream” at least three times a day...you’d think they wouldn’t care about this stuff.

Prior to the start of the season, Matthew Cerrone joined forces with the Mets and SportsNet New York in a deal to have MetsBlog.com appear on SNY’s Web site. This was followed by a lot of yap-flapping out of Metsville (and MetsBlog) about MetsBlog being able to continue doing its thing.

On Thursday, MetsBlog posted a YouTube video of Joe Smith going mouth-to-mouth (”You ain’t s— … I’m in the big leagues you idiot”) with Cubs fans. Spies say when a Mets official was made aware of the video’s presence, he had it immediately pulled off MetsBlog.

For MetsBlog, and its fans, that’s called livin’ in a corporate world.

If SNY is hellbent ridding itself of any questionable associations, where’s the censors for Chris Cotter’s haircut?

Top 7 :: Best Long Term Baseball Contracts

Chan Ho Park is still upset he didn’t make the list of Worst Long Term Baseball Contracts

This week, showing that we’re not all about negativity, here are the best long-term contracts ever signed in terms of the value that they returned.  For the purposes of the list, it does not count when a guy is just coming into the league, they would have to sign a contract afterwards, so Prince Fielder’s rookie contract can’t be on here even though it’s about as good of a deal as you can have.  The same goes for fliers taken on a guy - Chris Carpenter’s deal with the Cardinals would top that list.  These are long-term deals that actually ended up working out well, and they are kind of hard to find.....

5. Manny Ramirez
When he turned down Cleveland’s deal and signed with Boston for 8 years and $160 million, it seemed like an insane amount of money, until two things happened—A-Rod signing for almost $100 million more, and Manny being…a guy who was worth it.  He has finished in the top 20 of MVP every year including the top 10 each year but one (plus he would be the MVP so far this season), has two titles, and a World Series MVP.  He also has 260 homers and a batting average well over .300.  It’s amazing that even in the last year of such a massive deal that he is still giving them value.

Mariners expect Safeco Field’s name will not be changed

Yeah...coming next week, The Hedges at Liberty Mutual Park.

Seattle Mariners officials said Wednesday they don’t expect Safeco Field’s name to change “in the foreseeable future” despite the acquisition of Safeco by Liberty Mutual Group. When the Mariners opened their new ballpark in 1999, Safeco landed the naming rights in what is believed to be a 20-year, $40 million deal.

“We’ve been told there won’t be any immediate impact on the ballpark or us, and they’re not planning on changing the name in the foreseeable future,” said Rebecca Hale, the Mariners’ director of public information.

...Rob Vogel, president of the Bonham Group, a Denver-based sports- and entertainment-marketing firm that has done extensive work in naming rights, said that the pertinent issue is whether Liberty Mutual will keep the Safeco brand.

“If they are keeping the Safeco name, then the name of the stadium probably wouldn’t change,” Vogel said in a telephone interview. “If the Safeco name is going away, it would be likely they would change the stadium name.

“That’s a common thing — the acquiring company rebrands the ballpark.”

NJ.com: Don’t drink the water!

Two signs on the doors leading from the visitors’ clubhouse at U.S. Cellular Field to the first-base dugout read, “NO BOTTLED WATER ON THE BENCH.”

What’s this? Athletes can’t drink water? Even in the humid Chicago summers?

Here’s the explanation I got:

Gatorade is Major League Baseball’s “official sports drink.” So instructions were sent that no player could be seen drinking anything but Gatorade in the dugout. Not even Aquafina, which is the “official water” of MLB. Not even bottles of water with the labels removed.

Water?  Like outta the toilet?

Detroit News: Bid to save parts of Tiger Stadium falters

Sometimes I think this whole world
Is one big ballyard.
Some of us are customers
The rest of us are guards.
Lord, Lord,
They let George Jackson tear it down.

The clock is ticking once again on the destruction of old Tiger Stadium, with a nonprofit group racing to raise $15 million to save part of the vacant ballpark before demolition begins in a matter of weeks. Work to tear down most of the historic stadium and sell it for scrap is slated to begin as soon as private contractors can get started.

...The demolition agreement also gives the nonprofit Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy a number of deadlines—starting with June 1—to come up with the money to preserve the dugouts and home plate area of the stadium.

City officials have extended previous deadlines several times, but Tuesday the development agency made it clear that time is up.

“We’ve given a grace period that no other city in the history of this country has given,” said George Jackson, president of the Detroit Economic Growth Corp., the quasi-public agency that oversees the development corporation.

Gordon Edes to Yahoo!

Multiple sources have confirmed to Scott’s Shots that Boston Globe writer, Gordon Edes, has agreed “in principle” to a job with Yahoo! Sports as a national baseball writer. Edes, according to sources, is committed to going to Yahoo!, but was still hoping to be part of the buyout offer at the Globe that recently lured Jackie MacMullan off the masthead.

The specifics of how Edes will leave - either through the buyout or simply by switching teams - are still being ironed out, according to sources.

...Either way, the Edes departure will be yet another crippling blow for Joe Sullivan’s thinning sports desk and will continue to give the Boston Herald a leg up in Sox coverage with the talented, experienced three-headed monster of Rob Bradford, Michael Silverman and Jeff Horrigan now going up against the 17 Percenter’s still-developing Amalie Benjamin and long-timer Nick Cafardo. Up-and-comer Julian Benbow has been “pitching in” on Sox coverage, especially on the Web, so we’d expect to see Benbow get more reps if Edes follows through on his Globe G’Bye.

Thanks to the inky-fingers of ShysterBall.

30 Years Ago Today, Lyman Bostock Tried to Forfeit His Salary

Mired in a horrendous slump after signing a rich free-agent contract with the Angels in November 1977, the former Cal State Northridge and Manual Arts High star told owner Gene Autry, in essence, he didn’t deserve to be paid.

...

Autry, through general manager Buzzie Bavasi, declined the offer. Baseball regulations also would have forbidden it, but Bavasi appreciated the gesture.

“He came into my office and told me he was reluctant to take his salary,” Bavasi recalled 10 years later. “He said, ‘I’m not doing my job.’ But I told him, ‘I won’t let you do that.’ And he says, ‘Why not?’ So I told him, ‘What if you hit .600 next month? You’re sure as hell not getting any more money out of me.’ “

Unmoved, Bostock donated a month’s salary to charity.

After April 22, Bostock hit 312/379/399, good for an OPS+ of 124.  Of course, you know what happened next.

CNBC: Rovell: Real Sports Investments: Selling Shares Of MLB Players?

Chat with Randy Newsom, the minor league pitcher who wants to be part of the “real” futures game.

Darren: If your company does proceed, what’s the max amount a player could sell of himself?

Randy: We set a max for our players at five percent. We put in a lot of safeguards. We didn’t let too many people put too much in – I think the most anyone could buy of me was .25 percent of overall. We were trying to be very careful in terms of safeguards because we want this just to be about bringing fans in on a smaller level. We don’t want this to be about money to a point where people are expecting this to be just an investment vehicle. If people are investing economically, we don’t even want them. We want people who are fans of baseball or fans of players. Those are people we are looking to target.

Darren: Did the SEC ever get involved?

Randy: We talked to plenty of security experts. We were one of those square peg-round hole scenarios where there were lot of exemptions and nobody was sure how we fit. So we wanted to see, so we talked to them. We’ve gone through the appropriate channels. They said they couldn’t comment because they didn’t know. Nobody complained about anything and that’s when they usually rule on stuff. But for the most part, we were told that the $50,000 amount seemed to be below a lot of the thresholds.