And what antics transpire within?

This morning, whilst savoring my morning ritual of Fortnum & Mason and The Sydney Morning Herald, I ran across this item about the charter jets used by most American sports teams. It seems like Delta has a good grip on the business, holding contracts with half of the MLB franchises.

The article is worth checking out for some insight into the business side of the charter service and a cool slideshow of what the planes are like inside, if you’re not a baseball player/journalist/groupie and have never had the pleasure of seeing one.

Apparently the NBA configurations have 60″ of legroom between seats. That’s five feet! You could lay David Eckstein out in front of you as a floormat and you’d both be perfectly comfortable (especially if you were considerate enough to remove your shoes first).

Road uniform concept sketch.

It sounds like the Korea Professional Baseball League may be getting a ninth team, this one in the city of Changwon.

As in Japan, baseball teams in South Korea are typically owned by corporations. Intriguingly, one corporation bidding for the rights to the proposed Changwon franchise is NCSoft, a leading publisher of massively multiplayer online roleplaying games, including the popular Lineage and Guild Wars series of games.

NCSoft’s corporate motto is “make people’s life more fun.” But when does more fun become too much fun? That question was raised in a US District Court last summer, when a former customer sued NCSoft for negligence, arguing that their game Lineage II was “too addictive.” The plaintiff claimed that he was “unable to function independently in usual daily activities such as getting up, getting dressed, bathing or communicating with family and friends.”

Video gaming is a plausible competitive sport in Korea, and perhaps NCSoft sees some nefarious synergies between publishing video games and running a baseball team. More likely, they’re just looking to do some good old-fashioned advertising.

Fear not, innocent denizens of Changwon: there is no way baseball will ever be as life-wreckingly fun as massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. Baseball has a far more wholesome and more moderate fun-ness.

We hate it when our friends become successful/And if they’re northern…

With Joey Votto winning the NL MVP this year, Canadians have scooped 3 of the last 28 MVPs (Larry Walker in 1997, Justin Morneau in 2006). That’s pretty amazing considering how there are only something like 20 Canadian Major Leaguers. Hooray Canada, right?

Wrong! At least, so says Alison Korn of the Toronto Sun.

Read the rest of this entry »

The iPad version.

Late last week Apple announced the top iPhone/iPad apps of 2010. In a heartwarming change of fortune for innocently exuberant technophile Bud Selig (not really), “MLB At Bat 2010” was the top grossing iPhone/iPod Touch app overall, as well as the top grossing sports-related iPad app. General info on the app awards can be found at Slashgear and in the iTunes Store.

One factor in MLB At Bat 2010 being the highest grossing app of 2010 was probably that, at $15, it was one of the most expensive apps of 2010. But it’s still pretty impressive to beat out games and other general-interest apps that retail for $0.99. Think about it — less than 15x as many people bought “Angry Birds” for $1 this year as bought MLB At Bat for $15. That says something about the simple appetite for baseball, at least within the iPhone/iPad demographic.

The popularity of this app probably also says something about the broad appeal of a new, more active way of “watching” sports. MLB has leveraged their control over the premium content involved (game video) to create something pretty cutting-edge in the At Bat app: it’s TV (if you have the separate MLB.tv subscription), combined with controllable, web-like data displays, combined with a browsable newspaper. If you can’t really imagine what that’s all like, Fangraphs creator David Appelman posted a description of the iPad version back in April.

Since this is an app you have to purchase annually (brilliant!), MLB Advanced Media will be looking forward to another pile of money in 2011, especially with holiday iPad sales and the putative Verizon iPhone expanding the iOS user base. Here’s hoping they reinvest some of that cash in the app experience. Like, for starters, including both the iPhone and iPad versions for my $15?

Billy Beane, grinchopotamus.

So apparently Hisashi Iwakuma won’t be joining the A’s after all.

From the start, many people were surprised that the A’s had put in such an aggressive bid. FanGraphs’ own Dave Cameron argued that maybe the A’s needed starting pitching. But $19M still seemed like a big posting fee for this player.

And things got really interesting when contract talks began. Read the rest of this entry »

Tip: Wait for sales.

‘Tis the season when Major League Baseball generously offers to intervene in your holiday shopping. For example, just last week fans learned “20 reasons to customize a jersey right now at the MLB.com Shop.” Because I am acutely sensitive to the average fan’s extreme busy-ness during this, the busy-est of seasons, I have reformed MLB’s list from an intimidating 20 to a manageable 7, complete with helpful glosses. Without further ado:

Read the rest of this entry »

Dood, Jetah has weahd ahms.

This item broke pre-Thanksgiving, but sports card publication company Beckett Media recently posted some mocked-up images of Derek Jeter in all 30 MLB uniforms. (“Mocked-up” describes the fact better than the effect, but this is a family-friendly blog.) The creator of the images sportingly notes that some of his results were not strictly rigorous proportion-wise.

Actually, the best images are eerily convincing (Red Sox, Athletics) and thrill the viewer with a momentary trip to an alternate universe — for one split-second, some part of your brain actually perceives Derek Jeter as a BoSock or an Athletic. The tastefully decorated upper floors of my intellect were warmed by this.

However, the well-lived-in lower floors of my intellect, which are usually set to smoking by the Jete-dog, were left fully aflame by the less carefully-executed mockups. These caused me to perceive Derek, in turn, as having a VERY large head, using some kind of reverse-Sosa skin-darkening cream, and sitting in a way that Derek Jeter would never, ever, ever sit.

I am not particularly a fan of Derek Jeter. But even I have little stomach to further explore these dark and perverse parallel realities.

Fay Vincent in his pomp.

Former commissioner Fay Vincent has an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal suggesting that baseball players negotiate for ownership shares in their teams as part of their compensation. (The piece is behind the WSJ.com pay wall, but if you have a login it’s worth a look.)

Why would players prefer stock to cold, hard cash? As Mr. Vincent notes, it’s all about taxes. Capital gains — the kind of income realized when you sell shares that have appreciated in value — are typically taxed at a much lower rate than regular salary income. Since professional athletes earn major dollars and often have their entire lifetimes’ earnings collapsed into relatively short careers, optimal tax planning is extremely important.

Indeed, tax issues have received some attention in the sports media recently. When LeBron James chose to sign the Miami Heat this summer, the media was quick to note that Florida has no personal income tax. More recently, articles about the race for Cliff Lee’s services have recognized the fact that Texas is another state without a personal income tax. New York on the other hand does have an income tax (although it also has the Yankees).

For my part, I’m not sure most baseball players are suited to being significant corporate shareholders. People who own large amounts of shares in individual companies should be very knowledgeable about the businesses in which they are invested. Your typical player might have a good understanding of the on-field team, but I doubt he knows (or wants to know) everything about his team as a business. Also, the player would only get the lower tax rate on any gain in share value, as the initial payment of shares would be taxed at ordinary rates.

Still, for those players with an interest in the business of baseball, it could certainly make sense. It’s somewhat surprising that agents and teams haven’t gotten creative and tried this more than they have.

Javier Vazquez, Good Samaritan.

On Tuesday it was reported that Type B free agents Trevor Hoffman and Javier Vazquez were being offered arbitration by their respective teams, but that pursuant to “gentleman’s agreements” the players would not accept the offers.

Maybe it’s just me, but I find these arrangements a little odd. Read the rest of this entry »

Lou Merloni’s pregame meal of choice.

This weekend’s Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame induction was a time for sharing memories. And based on this article in the Cape Cod Times, mostly what everyone remembers from those weeks on the Cape is what the players ate.

Lou Merloni shared a fond reminiscence of his house mother:

“I was struggling early in the season. She made me steamers one day, put everything in it, carrots, linguica. I got three hits that night off Billy Wagner. Next day, she made steamers again, and I had two more hits… I went on to win the batting title all because of that host family and those steamers.”

Former Cape Cod League player Mike Loggins, who never made the majors but spent several years in the Royals’ system, offered a cautionary tale about his own house mother and the unredeemable unfairness of life:

“After my first home run, she told me she was going to make me a London Broil. It was so tender I told myself I was going to hit some more. I hit one again soon after, and I got another one. Then in three games I hit something like five homers, and I never got another London Broil.”

Sad. Lastly, and leastly, David Aardsma’s house mother revealed to the world young Aardsma’s “penchant for eating Spaghetti-O’s.”

In case you’re not familiar with the Cape Cod Baseball League, it’s a wood bat summer league for college players. The Cape Cod Times article linked above really captures how memorable the experience is for the young players, who typically stay with a host family and work day jobs on the side. Like any developmental league, some players go on to star in the majors, most don’t. If you’re interested in the league, or you just want to think summer thoughts as the weather cools down, several books have been written about it.