While there’s an 80 percent chance of rain in St. Louis tonight, someone’s resisting the temption to call for future World Series’ to take place in a neutral location (hint : not Yankee Stadium); in this case, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Jim Reeves.
No city should be cheated of its chance at a World Series. That’s why baseball must cut back its 162-game schedule. Take it back to 154 games, like it used to be. Start the playoffs earlier.
And don’t give me the record-book argument. Baseball’s record book has been rendered virtually meaningless by the steroid cheaters anyway. It’s a moot point and somehow the Babe and Joe D. did OK playing just 154 games.
Cutting eight games would give baseball a chance to have its Series concluded by Oct. 20. There will always be a chance of bad weather in mid-October, too, but not like this.
The Post-Distpatch’s Joe Strauss writes there’s a movement afoot to hold the Mid-Summer Classic anywhere but St. Louis.
The Baseball Writers’ Association of America moved Wednesday to request that Major League Baseball withhold awarding the 2009 All-Star Game to the Cardinals until significant improvements are made to a press facility the organization considers unacceptable to host a special event.
Major League Baseball is expected to award the 2008 All-Star Game to the New York Yankees, who will move from current Yankee Stadium into a new stadium the following year. The Cardinals have not hosted an All-Star Game since 1966 but are expected to receive the 2009 event as reward for their new facility. Next July’s game will be played in San Francisco.
The Busch Stadium press facility has been criticized by media since the park opened this April. During construction of the stadium, Cardinals officials waived architect HOK’s standard design, opting for a less costly, exposed press box offering neither air conditioning nor heat. The club originally intended to locate the press facility down the right-field line until Major League Baseball mandated that it be situated behind home plate.
Journalists weren’t the only ones subject to the spartan conditions. The club placed its public relations offices in a windowless cinder block space also lacking heat and air conditioning.
Other complaints include poor sight lines from the box’s second row. Media members not sitting in the front row are unable to see the stadium scoreboard or follow fly balls unless they lay their heads flat on the table.
The BBWAA added its complaints about the facility to its agenda Wednesday after a number of its members were shocked by conditions encountered during the postseason. MLB officials who were unimpressed on opening day remain so despite minor adjustments that included removal of exposed insulation.
Bruce Bochy appears to be the frontrunner for San Francisco’s managerial vacancy, as the Padres seem to be doing everything short of packing their skipper’s bags, writes the San Jose Mercury News’ Andrew Baggerly.
“It’s the CEO’s policy that the person should have the right to talk,” San Diego GM KevinTowers said. “We’ve got to have confidence that if we lose Bruce, we’ll bring in a quality manager who will find ways to beat the Giants.”
Mike Timlin signed a one-year, $2.8 million deal with Boston. Chad Finn could probably wax poetic better than I about the price of mediocrity. Trouble is, he’d be writing about a strip club in Brockton.