"If they convince all 30 teams to pay $50,000 each, that’s $1.5 million," said John Dewan, the owner of a rival, Baseball Info Solutions, which sells software that analyzes fielding to about half the major league teams. "Is that big enough? It’s nice for a small company. For a big company? I don’t think they’ll get the return they want."

Take-Two said the largest reason for the shortfall was disappointing performance by its Major League Baseball titles in the quarter, reducing EPS by about 9 cents a share.

Derek Jeter posed in his crisp pinstripe uniform, resting a shiny black bat on his shoulder, while a photographer lying on the ground near the entrance to a Bronx subway station snapped pictures of the New York Yankees shortstop from a low angle.
Photographing the Yankees captain from below to make him look more regal seemed beside the point. Jeter already has an image that is larger than life.

(We should all aspire to have photographers b-low us, shooting upwards, near the subway station. Fellini could not've set this mental image any better.)

Thirteen of the 17 players who led a league in O.P.S. from 1946 through 1970 eventually made the Hall of Fame. (The exceptions were Dick Allen, Bob Allison, Norm Cash and Al Rosen.)

Since my last FanShot on the same subject was so popular I thought I'd Andy Kaufman it and keep repeating until I have thoroughly pissed off my audence. And screw Bob Allison, Norm Cash, and Al Rosen. Oh, and FRN and FKL.

The 2009 honors for Lincecum and Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke reflect a recent shift in how pitchers are evaluated. The focus has changed to more developed statistics, including some that even take into account team defense.
Greinke equaled the previous low of 16 wins for a non-shortened season when he won the AL award on Tuesday. Afterward, he talked all about FIP, a mathematician's dream that stands for Fielding Independent Pitching.
Lincecum has his own favorite indicator.
"To say which one I look to the most, I would just say WHIP," he said, referring to walks plus hits allowed per inning, "just because you just limit the amount of baserunners that can hurt you."

I especially like the tone of the column - he/she's very disappointed in these kids and their newfangled stats.

As anniversaries go, it's one most baseball fans would like to forget. Fifteen years ago the leaders of the Major League Baseball Players Association advised their members to walk off the job, thus beginning the ugliest, longest (232 days) and most damaging work stoppage in American sports history.

As a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Chicago White Sox Fan, would President Barack Obama rather see world peace or the White Sox win the World Series?

"That's a tough one,'' said First Lady Michelle Obama, running the paces of Jay Leno's 10@10 questions last night. "I think if you would ask him, he'd say he'd probably prefer world peace, but he probably wouldn't mind a World Series bid too... But I think he'd choose world peace.''

It's a trend that shows just how widespread the impacts of the credit meltdown really are -- and that may just let a few investors become sports team co-owners, an elite position usually reserved for billionaires.

If an institution is only as strong as its founding principles, then the grand tradition of umpiring would be ripe for reexamination. Umpires weren't introduced to baseball to improve the accuracy of calls—they were brought in during the 19th century to cut down on rampant cheating. Historians say players routinely pushed base runners off base, then tagged them out. Runners would occasionally run straight from first to third without touching second.

The ESPN analyst Steve Phillips said: "It’s a great concept, and I’m sold on it. It tells a clearer story on who the best hitter is. Home runs measure slugging ability, R.B.I. measure run production, but on-base is a better measure than batting average."

(Dick Allen would've won this mythical Crown in 1972. Yes, THAT Dick Allen.)