Marlins spending dough from controversial new ballpark

The Miami Marlins are opening a brand-new ballpark in 2012, but they aren’t pocketing all the money that comes with the new baseball stadium. They are hoping to spend a huge chunk of that dough on some of the best free agents on the market, namely Albert Pujols and Jose Reyes. But a lot of people in Miami are upset about what they call the sweetheart deal that financed the new stadium. Now the feds are poking around, which could mean big trouble.

You have to admire the Marlins’ aggressiveness this offseason. They are trying to make a splash in the free agent market, paying (and possibly overpaying) Heath Bell to close games for what they hope will be the new and improved Marlins. But Bell isn’t their only, or even primary, target as the Marlins have already reportedly made offers to Pujols and Reyes.

Imagine Pujols and Reyes in a brand-new ballpark with a glittering view of downtown Miami. Everyone has assumed that Pujols will return to St. Louis because he has played there his entire career and they just won another World Series. It is probably the longest of long shots, but until he signs his name to a contract I don’t think you can take it for granted that he will return to the Midwest. Reyes might be a more attractive target because it won’t take nearly as much money or be as difficult to pry him away from the New York Mets.

I had the pleasure of having a private tour of the new ballpark when I was in Miami recently (more on that in a separate blog post). While I got a genuine thrill of seeing a ballpark being built from the ground up, I was informed by my tour leader that the stadium deal is quite controversial because the county will end up paying more than $2.4 billion over 40 years to pay for the new ballpark. As it turns out, the deal may have also been illegal because the US Securities & Exchange Commission is now sniffing around. It is unclear what the SEC is looking for, but if investigators uncover something shady, it could set baseball in Florida back for decades.

My exciting first visit to Wrigley Field

I headed to Chicago today for a conference that doesn’t start until Tuesday, intentionally planning to get here a day early for a long overdue visit to Wrigley Field.

I'm surprised by that myself, considering that this is like my 7th trip to Chicago. But the forces have always conspired against my visiting Wrigley: it was the offseason, the Cubs were out of town, I was here only for a brief overnight trip. But not this time. I purposely set aside time to make the pilgrimage to Wrigley and am happy that I did.

Wrigley Field is exactly what you would imagine it to be: an aging stadium that has an unexplainable charm. I was excited from the moment I stepped off the "L," taking pictures of the famous Wrigley sign, marveling at the elaborate seating on the roofs of nearby buildings, walking around this treasure of a ballpark on the last home game of the year for the Cubbies. And as luck would have it, the opponent was their archrival St. Louis Cardinals, led by Albert Pujols, who I had never seen play in person. It didn't matter that both teams are out of the division race. The mutual dislike of their fans was palpable and made attending the game that much more fun. The Cubs fell just short of what would have been a fantastic comeback, but it still felt great to be there.

I do have two major complaints. One is that it was ridiculously, painfully cold out there for a day game. The temperature was in the 60s, but I always forget to factor in the infamous Chicago winds that make it feel 20 degrees lower than whatever the thermostat says.

My other major complaint was the unbelievable harassment by the ushers. I've gone to more than a dozen baseball stadiums and I keep an elaborate photo album of those trips, including pictures taken from every possible angle within the ballparks. But every time I tried to set up to take a picture, I had an usher rudely approach me to insist I get out of the way. Most ballparks take pride in providing great customer service. Wrigley seems to take pride in having the most impolite, annoying ushers available. I was just about to give up on all of them when one kindly, older usher pointed out a great spot for me to get a terrific photo, restoring my faith that not all Wrigley staffers set out to be as unbearable as possible.

Despite the presence of annoying ushers and excruciatingly cold temperatures, I enjoyed my visit to Wrigley Field. It felt like a rite of passage, which Chicago Cubs fans probably insist that it is.

But stay tuned, folks. I'll be at US Cellular Field tomorrow, hoping the White Sox can kick the crap out of the Boston Red Sox and help the New York Yankees out.

Baseball is back and as awesome as ever

Now that March Madness is over (sorry Butler, I was rooting for you even though you quashed Syracuse's national title hopes and broke my heart), we can all turn our full attention to baseball. And Monday was a fantastic day all around the majors, one that I'm sure Bud Selig was thrilled about.

Where do we start? Since I'm a pitching and defense kind of fan, I'll start with Roy "Doc" Halladay showing why the Philadelphia Phillies are probably on their way to repeating their division title and a World Series rematch with the New York Yankees after tossing 7 innings of one-run ball. Or we could go with the Freak Tim Lincecum showing why the San Francisco Giants were smart to finally get that contract done and lock the youngster up for a couple of years with a dominant performance in the first game of the regular season.

If you like offense, Albert Pujols started another Most Valuable Player campaign with not one, but two homers. Pujols seems to be trying to settle the question once and for all of who is the best player in baseball. It's hard to argue against him after swinging the bat like he did yesterday.

The Mets had a surprisingly good all-around game, led by a typical strong performance from Johan Santana. But David Wright's nice afternoon, including that homer, was probably more reassuring for fans of the Metsies hoping for a turnaround from an awful season.

All and all, it was an awesome opening day in baseball and hopefully a sign of the fantastic season to come.

Thanks to Bryce Edwards and UCinternational via Wikipedia for the photo.

Pujols right about the sad state of journalism

In a roundly-criticized exclusive story, ESPN's Buster Olney reported that the Phillies have held internal discussions about the possibility of swapping All-Star/MVP first basemen Ryan Howard and Albert Pujols. The story has a lot of people upset, including Pujols, who, without naming Olney, criticized stupid people who like to write stories that aren't true and are always trying to speculate and start a story so they can say that they had it first.

Pujols is angry, for sure, but his comments are remarkably insightful and an accurate reflection of the sad state of journalism, including sports journalism. This is the type of story that happens when sportswriters face too much pressure from their editors, publishers and yes, their readers, to come up with instant scoops. So you end up with overworked, underpaid reporters desperately trying to find something, anything, remotely newsworthy to file.

Teams have internal discussions about pretty much every aspect of their operations and roster, much of it speculative as staffers are encouraged to throw out any and all ideas to improve their ballclubs. So it is entirely possible that the Phillies tossed around the idea of trading for Pujols. That discussion could have easily happened in the offices of the New York Yankees or any other baseball team. Really, who wouldn't want Pujols, widely considered to be one of the best, if not the best player in the game today? But that doesn't mean the Phillies actually took any action. It just means they talked about it. And if they didn't take any steps toward making it a reality, such as a conversation to feel out the Cardinals on a possible trade, then it's a non-story.

Olney is a very good sports reporter and writer (he used to cover the Yankees for the New York Times) so I don't doubt that there is some truth to his story, even if the Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. denied it. But Olney himself has become a major part of the story, something no journalist wants. This could even hurt him going forward in his reporting, not only with Pujols and the Cardinals, but with any baseball people salivating at the prospect of Pujols hitting the free-agent market.

If a Pujols for Howard trade actually happens, Olney will be vindicated. But right now, he finds himself in a bad place, right in the middle of this story.

Thanks to Rafael Amado Deras via Wikipedia for the photo.