RichO

Bridgeview proper, sure. But it's pretty convenient to Cicero and Berwyn. That whole area is one of the most Latino in Cook County.

That said, the move out of Bridgeview, while generally good, is seen as a move to get a whiter fan base.

Seems to me that anything involved with player development should be on MLB's dime. If they want to control player facilities, they should pay for it. Now, if they want a cut of ticket revenue for the trouble or whatever- that's a quibble between billionaires and millionaires. Honestly MLB teams really should just be owning their affiliates at this point.

And keep in mind within this concept that MLB a lot of these "leftover" teams will end up in the "Dream League" pool where undrafted players would play. Which is also, itself would be a pretty firm attack on Indy ball as it exists now.

With the advances in player development, you could see this coming. Most MLB organizations don't really need to be supporting this many teams. At the same time, baseball is such a local sport, and the minor leagues are so ingrained, killing off these local baseball outposts seems very self-defeating. I know there's value in shorter seasons and players getting more time in team complexes doing work in the hitting and pitching labs refining their games that way. There just needs to be some way to internalize the value to the overall sport that having organized ball spread across the country has and make investing in it make sense.

By what magical process does an athlete getting paid by someone else make that athlete an employee of the school?

There's a wave coming and it's up to the NCAA to ride it instead of fighting it

Ah but are they officially licensed NBA ninja headbands? Haven't they been sticklers about un-licensed headbands in the past?

Yeah, the way they were dripping this out here and there during the year, you could see it coming. It's a clever way to add something a little retro without trying to do a throwback to the late 80s look that no one reallly would be into, while not messing with the core of the primary uniforms. And hopefully it's a way to migrate away from the early 80s stuff for at least a couple years.

With Dombrowski specializing in throwing money and prospects around to win as much as possible in the present, the Red Sox in tough luxury tax territory, and the seams showing this year, it's a good time to move from him anyway.

I'm pleasantly surprised that there are so many coaches who are reasonable on this. And that last quote is just *chef's kiss*

I'm all for third base coaches being aggressive- they all should be. But what was he thinking there? That throw didn't even have to be perfect to get the out- it just needed to be close enough.

This is why they're so protective of the "student athlete" cover- it was made to keep athletes from being considered employees and duck workers' compensation and health claims way way way back. So now you get "full cost of attendance" as the means to give players stipends because it's a figure rooted somewhere in financial aid. The minute players are finally recognized as employees, all hell breaks loose for the NCAA. If it even gets close to that you know the lobbying efforts on Congress will go into overdrive

And there's always a good sized gray area the covers the ends of major league rosters and the top end of minor league rosters- or in the NFL's case those guys who are in the practice squad/last cut range and the guys who are rostered.

This Stallions is really good- love the subtle/not subtle arch. The horse profile goes for majestic rather than aggro.