The Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant reports that Orel Hershiser (above), no doubt wanting greater responsibility than just doing the narration on “Arrested Development” every week, has received permission from the Rangers to speak with the Oakland A’s about their managerial opening.

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, as quoted in today’s Sun-Times when asked about the neighborhood surrounding US Cellular Field :

Should City Hall make an effort to re-create on the South Side the nightclubs and restaurants that give Wrigley Field its unique “stadium in a neighborhood” charm?

Not if Chicago’s No. 1 Sox fan can help it. Mayor Daley said he’s perfectly content with the stadium in a sea of parking lots. “You go to the game to see a baseball game. Simple as that.”

“Wrigley Field is unique and different . . . because of the location, the lack of parking, the number of housing and retail businesses. You can’t say, ‘We’re going to do the same thing here.’ If you try to do that, you usually fail. . . . You can’t make every park the same. If you do, it just gets more and more boring,” he said.

“Up there, it’s a great area. It’s the oldest ballpark. It’s really unique and different, Wrigley Field. You have to admire that — the whole idea of a community. . . . But you don’t try to take one model and say, ‘We’re going to do it all over the city.’ They’ll come up with a different scenario.”

Daley said the redevelopment of State Street — from 35th all the way to 55th — will bring plenty of retail to the area.

“That’s only really about two, three blocks from Comiskey Park,” he said, referring to the park by its former name. “Right over the Dan Ryan and you’re right there. So, that’s going to change a lot.”

The mayor categorically denied that crime or the absence of nightlife around the ballpark has hurt Sox attendance, which still lags behind the mediocre Cubs.

“I don’t think that has anything to do with it. Crime is lower than any other area of the city. . . . Look at it. . . . They have parking. They have public transportation. That’s not the reason. . . . I don’t think that’s it,” he said.

Last week, Daley blamed the team’s historic attendance problems on the Tribune Co. and its ownership of the Cubs and a media empire that includes the Chicago Tribune, WGN radio and a superstation, WGN-TV, that’s carried all over the country.

Jermaine Dye, interviewed last night on the reliably excruciating “Hot Seat” segment on “SportsCenter”, described the atmosphere at Wrigley as “electric”, while only characterizing the Cell as “kind of far away”. Asked to rate the popularity of Chicago’s sporting franchises on a scale of 1 to 10, Dye scored the Cubs at 10, the White Sox at 9 and gave the Blackhawks a 5, though from his facial expression it seemed like he was being polite. Not everyone’s a Nikolai Khabibulin fan, then.