Mention the word contraction in American sports circles and many fans will shudder. It was this word that was mentioned in the mid-90s by Major League Baseball in hopes of dissolving teams in markets that made little money. However, MLB ...
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Guest Post: I have Been to the Mountaintop: Rethinking Success for MLS

On the road tonight, so here is an encore of the most popular guest post in Footiebusiness history. The original generated a significant amount of comments. Back live on Monday.

Once again, we are fortunate to have a guest post from Dave Laidig.

Yu Darvish is the most sought after pitcher on the free agent market this offseason. The native of Japan hasn't pitched in the MLB but he already has front offices drooling. After posting a $51.7 million bid, the Texas Rangers now have a chance to sign him.

If Yu Darvish signs, his team in Japan the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters will get $51.

Could Brad Pitt win the Premier League?

You don't get too many Premier League managers who look like Brad Pitt, although Jose Mourinho did cool and brooding pretty well. But as baseball gets the Hollywood treatment with the UK premiere of the film Moneyball, based on the book that detailed how Billy Beane used statistics and analysis rather than gut instincts to turn the Oakland Athletics from nobodies to big players in the MLB, the same principles are starting to be applied in the top flight.

The Milwaukee Brewers declined their mutual option on Francisco Rodriguez and the closer is now a free agent. The Brewers had a chance to lock him up for next season but the $17.5 million price tag was apparently too high. Instead, the Brewers gave him a $4 million buyout.

Though a closer throughout his career, the Brewers used him as a setup man after trading for him in the middle of the season.

Stay classy, Frank McCourt. Lawyers for the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers are blaming Bryan Stow for getting beat up at a Dodgers game. All I can say is wow. This is a new low ... even for Frank McCourt.

It's no mistake that Major League Baseball is trying to take the Dodgers away from Frank McCourt.

In February 2008, Philadelphia was officially awarded a MLS franchise. Only a few months earlier, the Philadelphia Eagles had finished at the bottom of their division. The Phillies were still licking their wounds after being unceremoniously swept out of the MLB playoffs by a surging Rockies team that would make it to the World Series before crumbling.

In baseball's worst kept secret, the Florida Marlins officially hired Ozzie Guillen on Wednesday. It was such a bad secret that even MLB.com accidentally spilled the beans.

For the Marlins, their fans, their players and their owner, Wednesday was an exciting day.

Said Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria: "Welcome to a new era in Marlins baseball.

Ozzie Guillen wrote a blog post for MLB.com that was supposed to be published after he was officially hired by the Florida Marlins. However, MLB.com posted it right away.

Why?

Call it a baseball error.

Said Dinn Mann, the VP of MLB: "[Ozzie Guillen] put something together and submitted it, but it wasn't supposed to go up.

Canadian author James Grossi writes for The Blizzard and at his blog, Partially Obstructed View.

As MLS grows towards its twentieth club in the coming years there is a risk of losing the balanced schedule. Comments by Commissioner Don Garber intimated that perhaps such a pure form would have to be set aside in order to accommodate the expanded league.

In our first segment on RojaDirecta several years ago, we documented their success in Spain at defending a lawsuit vs. copyright-hostage-holders. However, the tides turned, and in our last segment, we mocked the idiocy of the US government for seizing the US domain name for RojaDirecta. Aside from the waste of tax dollars during a recession, the effectiveness was zilch.

Holidays are not really holidays in Major League Soccer. Or, holidays are truly treated as holidays in MLS. Depends on one's outlook. A sports fan might think the latter, but wishes it weren't true.
There is one match scheduled for Labor Day. It's a good one, with Donovan and Beckham leading the charge against the upstart Sporting KC squad in its newest, state-of-the-art Soccer specific stadium.

Welcome back, Matt Diaz. The Atlanta Braves sent a player to be named later to the Pittsburgh Pirates for outfielder Matt Diaz. The 33-year-old played for the Braves from 2006 through 2010. He signed with Pittsburgh last offseason.

So far this season, Diaz has been a bust. He's hitting .259 with no homers and 19 RBIs.

Jered Weaver, pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, signed a 5-year contract extension worth 85 million dollars this past week to continue his sojourn with the Angels. The story of Weaver's signing was significant beyond just the typical inflated, humongous, ridiculous salary. It's interesting because of why he signed now, instead of waiting until the end of his other contract in 2012, in order to test the free-agent market.

With the first positive impression of MLS on NBC from their promotion of it during Sunday Night Football there can be speculation about how much they are going to run with it. Sure, MLS doesn't have strong ratings (~300k viewers on ESPN2, ~70k on Fox Soccer) to merit strong promotion.
But there's a reason that NBC Sports will promote Major League Soccer in ways that the sport has never been promoted before 2012.

With the first positive impression of MLS on NBC from their promotion of it during Sunday Night Football there can be speculation about how much they are going to run with it. Sure, MLS doesn't have strong ratings (~300k viewers on ESPN2, ~70k on Fox Soccer) to merit strong promotion. But there's a reason that NBC Sports will promote Major League Soccer in ways that the sport has never been promoted before 2012.

MLS is on the rise at the turnstyle, too...
2011 has been a banner year at gate across Major League Soccer. The league is averaging more than 17,300 fans per game in 2011. This is the first time since the league's inagural season that average attendance has crested the 17k figure. Perhaps even more impressive, the median attendance in 2011 is at an all time high, easily surpassing the previous high (1996) of approximately 16,100.

When WNT stars Abby Wambach and Shannon Boxx threw out ceremonial first pitches before the MLB American League baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees at Fenway last weekend, there were probably a lot of soccer fans watching baseball for the first time. Goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc posted this pic of the players jumping before the big pitch.

The big news in the MLS today is this morning's announcement that they have struck a new 3-year TV deal with NBC. The deal is worth a reported $10M per year and will put at least 45 games per year onto a combination of NBC and NBC Sports (currently known as Versus but being re-branded in January 2012).

The big news in the MLS today is this morning's announcement that they have struck a new 3-year TV deal with NBC. The deal is worth a reported $10M per year and will put at least 45 games per year onto a combination of NBC and NBC Sports (currently known as Versus but being re-branded in January 2012).

The big news in the MLS today is this morning's announcement that they have struck a new 3-year TV deal with NBC. The deal is worth a reported $10M per year and will put at least 45 games per year onto a combination of NBC and NBC Sports (currently known as Versus but being re-branded in January 2012).

2011 has been a banner year at gate across Major League Soccer. The league is averaging more than 17,300 fans per game in 2011. This is the first time since the league's inagural season that average attendance has crested the 17k figure. Perhaps even more impressive, the median attendance in 2011 is at an all time high, easily surpassing the previous high (1996) of approximately 16,100.

The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers are fighting for a spot in the 2011 MLB playoffs. In a recent game between the two teams, Tony La Russa said Brewers fans went too far by saying "I hope you get shingles again". The manager for the Cardinals had shingles for two months earlier in the baseball season.

With the 2011 MLS All-Star Game over and done with, its already time for the league to plan ahead to next year's game. Kudos to the Brotherly Game for posting this earlier this morning too by the way. Right now the league and Don Garber are looking at three potential places for the 2012 ASG and as you'd expect it the sites involve fairly new clubs in the league.

Any betting men out there willing to put money down on Philly to host the next All Star game? I have no inside info on this but I'd favor them over other candidates like K.C. --which hosts the MLB All Star game in 2012-- and Houston, who have to be a favorite for MLS Cup 2012 with a gleaming, new AEG-backed stadium in a warm-weather market on the way.

Finally, someone reading my articles on Fox Soccer asked the big question: RealMD posted the following comment yesterday:

Why Fox Sports would partner with the author of this essay is obvious. Why she would partner with Fox Sports is the question.

Go up to the top masthead on this website and click on Fox Sports.

International Sports world-cup: Brazil Stadiums Near Complete for FIFA World Cup 2014 - Forbes (blog) - http://news.google.com/news... 9 hours ago from News MLB NBA NFL NHL... - Comment - Like The Guardian Brazil Stadiums Near Complete for FIFA World Cup 2014 Forbes (blog) Brazil is on track to upgrade and build-out its 12 stadiums scheduled to receive FIFA national soccer teams during the 2014 World Cup, the country's Sports Minister said on Thursday.

Post from: EveryJoe

Post from: EveryJoe

One of the things that sets soccer apart from the standard sports in America is the crowd atmosphere, often created by the supporter groups of the clubs. Want to experiment this summer? Go to an MLS match one night and an MLB game another night and compare how the fans at an MLS match create the atmosphere while the scoreboard at an MLB game tells fans when to clap and cheer.

I found myself in a McDonald's Saturday morning, drinking a cup of coffee after my 6 year old son's soccer game. A battered copy of the day's Houston Chronicle was piled at the table next to me. Bored, I thumbed to the sports section trying to find the pregame writeup of the upcoming home match between the leaders of the Eastern Conference.

Although I'm mellow when it comes to attendance, I want to take a brief look at what's going on in Columbus. Crappy weather, too many early home dates, and season ticket holder base in revolt over the Championship Purge have undoubtedly played a big role in some miserable announced attendances and even worse turnouts.

The Union's first appearance on Fox Soccer Channel this season was a rather special one, for the club's first-ever match against the Portland Timbers marked the debut of Soccer Night in America. It appears to be a two-pronged effort for Fox Soccer: one, to give MLS matches the "marquee event" status that have come from CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and NBC's Football Night in America, and two, to give Fox an opportunity to, in a sense, start anew with their MLS coverage.

New York Cosmos Finally Return to Adult Soccer

With former MLS player Giovanni Savarese to coach the U-23 PDL side offers an intriguing entry path for the New York Cosmos Academy players to enter the pro ranks by signing with the PDL team. Though there is no stadium solution yet, the team is clearly headed on a path to MLS, or at worst the NASL 2.

Right about now I imagine Beyonce's "Upgrade You" is on blast at the FOX Soccer offices as news just broke of their new-look Soccer Night in America thingy that drops on Friday night. From the photos and videos it looks and feels more like FOX's NFL and MLB broadcasts. So long as it doesn't have the damn breakdancing robots I'm sure we'll all be fine.

The haters and the non-coverted point to the flopping, the complaining, the asking for cards as THE indictment of soccer. "I just can't stand all the faking!" they scream. "How can this be a real sport when its based on conning the referee?" they question to the heavens.
News flash... we hate it, too.

This is a comment from Joe Posnanski's blog:

I think this is about two things: meaning and chance.

Meaning People want sports to mean something. They want it to be about dedication, or about drive, or about a team overcoming obstacles. It's usually just about the player or the team that executes or gets lucky on a given day.

Frank McCourt, the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has had a tough go of it lately. First, he allegedly found out that his wife was cheating with a bodyguard which led to an extremely messy divorce. Then just recently, MLB commissioner Bud Selig stepped in and took control of the Dodgers. Now a hairdresser is claiming that he's owed $15,000.

To find out which athletic organizations shell out the most dough, we surveyed 272 teams in 14 major pro leagues, covering seven sports, spanning 10 countries, comprising 7,802 athletes making a combined $15.2 billion in salary. Our final numbers, below, were compiled by Nick Harris, editor of sportingintelligence.

By Neil W. Blackmon This piece is dedicated to my co-writers, Puck, who has sat through meaningless Bills games in the blistering cold, and Jon Levy, who faces a month and a half long fight of his own with his beloved West Ham; and to any American sports fan who has been on the wrong [...]