I have always felt that the way in which stadiums are built and the concomitant costs are vastly inefficient...not because I personally have built any stadiums whatsoever, or even priced a big LCD-screen.  But as I took in the reporting on the build of (various names) stadium on the San Francisco waterfront, I took note of the oh-so-deliberate progress and jaw-dropping bills and expenses for various steps. Now a Chinese company, Broad Group reports that they have built

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In the October 11th issue of New Yorker magazine, Malcolm Gladwell has written a fantastic article titled "Talent Grab"   "Why do we pay our stars so much money?"  Gladwell interviewed Marvin Miller and others regarding the relationship between capital and labor, and the history of how baseball players came to be paid, the way they are paid.  The reserve clause, the inside stories....

After his exemplary explanation of Cust and Ellis, "Notsellingjeans" also came to mind, as someone who would relish the content of this article.

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After reading comments by Oakland Athletics players in 2009 as to their feelings about the notion of "spoilers" (they lacked any incentive, to a man, as to playing harder against contending teams) I figured the myth about "spoilers" would begin to fade.....

No such luck.  In another attempt boost fan interest, MLB.com ran this story today.

Why does Major League Baseball feel the need to attempt to push fan interest in games that have no relevance to post season play??

Well, open any sports page of any major daily these days, and the front page is covered with football news, college and pro.  Today was considerably more baseball on my paper of choice, the SF Chronicle, but a story about high school football safety (concussions, etc) got more inches than coverage of the entire American League schedule outside of the "home team", the Oakland Athletics.

So, in my estimation, Major League Baseball has to construct an elaborate, subtle "reason to get excited" to attempt to find relevancy and build interest in games that will feature overwhelmingly good teams playing overwhelmingly bad teams.  As of August 25th, the playoff teams are pretty much determined.  In what other sport are playoff spots already assured for 75% of the playoff slots, with thirty-five, thirty-seven games remaining? 

Baseball is unique among sports in that the action can be granulated to individual performances by batter/pitcher episodes.  In addition, fielding is pretty much one player doing, or not doing, something to the best of his ability.  To begin with the premise that baseball players at the MLB level might possibly, simply, "go through the motions" if the game they are playing in, doesn't affect their own team's trip to playoffs (because the team is not going to the playoffs) is the singular falsehood upon which the "spoiler" myth is built.

Any player who is not hard-wired by the time he becomes a member of a 25-player MLB roster, to "not waste an AB", not hustle after a foul pop-up, will not be on that roster for long.  Plus, his own earnings will suffer, eventually.  Out of self interest, players play as hard as they can, all the time, every game.  Whether the opposing team is 47-75, or 75-47, never crosses a player's mind when he's at the plate.  Nor does that opposing team's position to get into the playoffs enter into individual efforts on the field to do the best they can.

How could it?  What is the evidence?

The evidence, as supplied by the players, in interviews, is repeatedly, "it doesn't matter" .  It doesn't matter to them that they hit a three-run homer, and thus (supposedly) caused the other team anguish.  That player wanted the three-run homer!  To speculate about how "bad" they made the other team feel, how there is satisfaction in "spoiling", making the other team suffer, is pure journalistic dreaming originated in attempting to build so many column-inches by deadline.  Or promote interest.  Everyone knows the false way in which MLB.com attempts to drive All-Star interest, by pushing non-all-stars to fans, attempting to get the fans to "participate" in the faux All-Star process.

Let's get rid of these embarrassing fabrications.

I propose a different system of determining who goes to the World Series, in order to (1) keep interest by MSM (main stream media) high during the last month (September) of the regular MLB season, and (2) stop the season from entering "football territory", the months of October and November, simply because of the NHL/NBA-style playoff system, which the overlords at the Commissioner's Office imposed on MLB because of the events of 1994.  The fact that it would erase the "spoiler" mythology is simply a nice added "feature" as they say in the software business.

I will use the American League (14 teams) as an example, because the math is "nice".

In my proposed system, there would be no regularly scheduled inter-league play and no divisions.  The fourteen American League teams would play a balanced schedule for 130 games, until August 31st.  That means each team gets five games at home, five games away, against every other team in the league.  If they have to schedule doubleheaders to make it work, so be it. But by the end of August, all teams would complete their 130 games.

After that, beginning September first, "Super September" would begin.  The top six teams out of the fourteen, would only play each other.  They would not play "bottom dwellers", they would not play "spoiler" teams, they would not have the benefit of an "easy schedule in September" to determine who goes to the World Series.  Each of the six "Top teams" qualifying to play for the World Series berth would play three games at home, three games away, against the other five teams, for the entire month of September.  Thirty games.  On September 30th, the team with the most wins in the month of September would play in the World Series, which would begin October 3rd, and resemble the World Series schedule of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.

What about the eight "also ran" teams?? Well, beginning September 1, they would also only play within their group of "also rans", thirty games.  But they could have an uneven schedule, play interleague games, expand rosters, play upcoming players without worrying about diluting the team effort against "contenders".  Now, teams feel some obligation to play established players if the other team is fighting for a spot in the playoffs, just out of "fairness".  This should not be an issue.  An unsuccessful team should not be beholden to hold back evaluating their own talent, which may benefit them in the future, simply because they're playing Tampa Bay, and the Yankees and Rays are tied atop the AL East with five games to go.  If also-rans played also-rans exclusively for the last month, realistic talent assessment could take place for teams requiring improvement.

Meanwhile, the six top teams would be playing week after week in September, with a "playoff-like" atmosphere surrounding every game.  This would propel MLB back to the front page of every newspaper, fan interest would concentrate, attendance for the six teams would exceed best wishes (and, ticket prices could be raised for fifteen games to quasi-playoff rates), and football would take a back seat for September....in my opinion.  Right now, NFL football is so dominating over MLB play, that even the premier baseball event, the World Series, cannot be played in the daytime on weekends, because routine, normal, average NFL games get higher ratings.  Why is that so?  Because the NFL is in mid-season form by end of October, and MLB is down to two teams.  MLB needs to avoid October. Period.  ML Baseball needs to avoid fabrications like "spoilers", which dilutes interest by the mere transparency that such constructions create.  People know you're lying about "spoilers", votes count for non-all-stars, and people generally shun liars, be they individual or institutional.

NBA/NHL-style playoffs, in my humble opinion, have no business in baseball.  College baseball uses a round-robin tournament, while college basketball uses the 65-team, one-game loss system.  Why? Because different sports require different championship systems.  The MLB has shown through the years since 1994 that wild-card teams disproportionately make the World Series versus their season-long indication of strength.  There is no need to keep this mis-built system.  Does anyone talk about an NBA fan interfering with a ball going out of bounds, and how that affected the entire season for a team?  Yet they still talk about Alou, Bart, and the Chicago Cubs.  That alone (and I could write sixteen examples) is the reason that MLB should abandon NBA/NHL-style playoffs, for a more intense and fair system. 

Reggie Jackson will forever be "Mr. October".  Let's avoid an MLB "Mr November".

Great day for baseball in the Bay Area!  I guess that wasn't an original thought today, as (1) no scalpers were to be found, selling cheap tickets and (2) a long long line to purchase tickets.  I bought a $19..or was in $20 ticket, well it turned out to be $18 for 204 Row 6 Plaza Outfield.  But, by simply acting as if I pay BBeane's salary ("Whoa, the boss is here!!") I plopped down pretty much behind home plate at the back of the first level instead of the OF.

Check the photos here:

http://public.fotki.com/srydstedt/athletics-day-game-/

By the way, I have many more pictures, but no one can be particularly interested in photos of , say, Suzuki taking a called strike three with the bases loaded, etc.

We all had a fine time courtesy of Optimist Prime, on a very unusual day...a sunny day!

Here is the link to the pictures:

http://public.fotki.com/srydstedt/an-fanfest2/

I just signed up with this "fotki" free download/photo site.  So far, not bad!

Downloads are a little slow, so I cut the text down to just a few lines on a few photos.  No comment means nothing more than I am getting  impatient and uncreative.  I tried to get everyone who was there in at least one photo.  Some, like Nico, love the camera!

clickclickclickclickclick....hey, whatzwidthe "preview" function??  ok ok ...try publish

Ever since the playoffs began in the late 1960s, I never felt right about the early five-game system, the four-team system, with the "borrowed" wild card idea...the whole system, really.  I wasn't sure what was missing, but somehow the traditional jump from a dominant regular season did not necessarily mean you were going to the World Series any more.  Some team like the Twins, and their weird indoor non-baseball sky, non-baseball carpet, might trampoline a few hits and all the hard work of May, June, and July ends in tears for the Twins' opponent.  I was happy that Colorado made the World Series, but it all came about because of one man's failure: Trevor Hoffman.  A future HoFer had a singular moment of "fail" and San Diego's season evaporated.

What would work better??

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In no particular order, and certainly, no particular comments, my "raw feed" from the February 8th fanfest is available to anyone caring to link to the pages online with Flicker.  Here is the address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bergquist/sets/72157613522633770/detail/

These are 2MB-plus photos, so if you look like an ant, just blow it big and you'll still see that mole that Mom said no one would ever notice.

This event was held in a glass-casting showroom, so every flat surface you spy in these photos is a 2-inch thick piece of glass.  I mean everything...the stairs, the table tops, counter tops.  So if you wonder..."Why is that photo in the mix??!!" it is because the glass was very very impressive, and added a unique ambiance to the whole event.  That shower stall in the bathroom, with floor to ceiling glass was something special.  Thanks again to Lynn for providing this space.

Now that I've teased you into this diary with buzzwords, let me tell what it's all about:  The Oakland Coliseum.

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Professional Sports Team - Mascot
Reply to: hr@oaklandathletics.com
Date: 2008-02-01, 11:04AM

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Since the city of Oakland could not muster enough resources to keep the Athletics inside the city limits and Fremont is the irretrievable destination of the Athletics, it is timely to revisit "what could have been":  the Dodgers were the first choice of the city of Oakland!

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I don't know how baseball players managed to get on the "fast track" about how things are run in "Heaven".
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/photo?sl...

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Anyone know how bats get certified for Major League usage?  I've read snippets here and there.  Apparently B. Bonds has one guy do his maple bats, and this guy is swamped.  But it is one guy.

California has a woody plant, Arctostaphylos, that would be great for baseball bats. It won't fracture on impact with a baseball, if treated.  However, if you cut down a growing Arctostaphylos, it will split and crack if you do not immediately give it (an obscure) treatment.