Jessica Mendoza lost two jobs in one day last week but don’t expect to see her name added to the next unemployment numbers. Mendoza is the former All-American softball player from Stanford who is best known as an ESPN baseball analyst.
In December, the Los Angeles Times published a story which claimed the cost of attending a Major League sporting event in the area was unaffordable for the middle-class fan.
Baseball’s Hall of Fame voting has come and gone for 2020 and once again, neither Roger Clemens nor Barry Bonds received sufficient votes – 75 per cent - from the Baseball Writers Association of America for induction.
Mel Allen, the longtime play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees, also hosted a weekly television show titled “This Week in Baseball” from 1977 until his death in 1996.
A number of business issues will dominate MLB’s off-field headlines in 2020, with the three biggest discussed below.
It’s easy to spend money, even easier when the money isn’t yours. Sports fans are notorious for spending other people’s money, constantly urging team owners to increase team payroll and castigating them if they don’t.
Give NBA Commissioner Adam Silver credit. From the day he succeeded David Stern he has been pushing the envelope, proposing one novel idea after another in an effort to keep the league relevant.
Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reportedly reached an agreement to remove marijuana from the list of banned substances for Minor Leaguers.
If the thought of visiting a dentist makes you cringe, you’re not alone.
During last month’s General Managers meetings, Jeff Luhnow of the Houston Astros was reportedly shunned by his fellow GM’s. For good reason.
We may have witnessed the nadir in a drama known as Colin Kaepernick vs. the NFL.
Baseball’s offseason is referred to as the Hot Stove League, a phrase first used in 1886 in “Spirit of the Times.” It refers to baseball fans gathering around a hot stove during the cold winter months discussing their favorite baseball teams and players.
The word sportsmanship is synonymous with playing games fairly and treating opponents with respect. Among the unwritten rules is not running up the score on a defenseless or already beaten opponent.
A civil case currently underway in Stockton, California against U.S.A. Swimming clearly shows the “new” governing body is the same as the old governing body.
The best city for a sports fan may depend on what they prioritize. For some fans, winning championships is all that matters. For others, a team’s competitiveness on a regular basis may be the priority.
Anyone who thought sports was merely about the games learned a valuable lesson in the recent dust-up between the NBA and China.
California Governor Gavin Newsom did the expected last month when he signed a bill allowing college athletes in the state to profit from their own name, image and likeness.
Heading into the last weekend of the 2019 regular season, the 30 MLB teams had hit a record 6,647 home runs, 542 more than the previous high mark. Given those figures, the average fan might think hitting a baseball is a fairly easy task.
Title IX, which was enacted by Congress in 1972, prohibits sex discrimination in education. While the statute’s specific intent was to provide equal opportunities in STEM education, courts expanded the definition of education to include sports.
Instead of acting like “adults,” some grownups set a poor example for young people when it comes to exhibiting common sense and doing the right thing.
One prescription for a longer life may be to play Major League Baseball. That was the conclusion of a recent study by Harvard researchers, published in the peer reviewed medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Most sports fans are fickle by nature. We cheer for our favorite players and teams when they win and boo them when they lose. But the behavior of some Indianapolis Colts fans when quarterback Andrew Luck announced his retirement was both deplorable and unacceptable.
At the Yankees’ home opener in 1973, newly minted owner George Steinbrenner didn’t know his players’ names. But as he watched his players remove their caps for the national anthem, Steinbrenner wrote down a series of numbers on the back of an envelope.
When is a “forever” contract not forever? We are about to find out, thanks to a lawsuit involving one of the most popular and recognizable sports mascots of all time.
The biggest mystery of the baseball season may soon be resolved.
MLB ballparks are about to become safer for fans.
NFL brass have made a proposal that will turn the league into a facsimile of the recently expired Alliance of American Football: short on talent and bereft of credibility.
To get what it wants, the NCAA resorts to threats and intimidation.
We have reached a new nadir in the era of political correctness. A number of NBA players insist that team owners no longer refer to themselves as “owners” because the word is racially insensitive and offends them.
Two stadiums in two countries, playing half a season in one and half in the other. Sound strange? Improbable? Impossible?
“There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.” Joe DiMaggio.
Any time officials are the main topic of conversation after an athletic event, it’s not a good look for the sport. Unfortunately, that was the case throughout the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Major League Baseball instituted a reverse-order draft in 1965, severely limiting the negotiating leverage of amateur players. That may soon change.
Major League Baseball’s total revenue has been steadily rising since the strike year of 1994 and until three years ago, the same was true of the league’s attendance. That may no longer be the case.
Larry Nassar, the former doctor for Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics, is rotting in prison for sexually abusing over 300 girls and women during a 30-year period.
Mention college sports and people think of scholarships, intense recruiting, and professional opportunities. That’s certainly the norm for sports like football and basketball.
Every world class athlete has certain biological and physical advantages that sets them apart from “normal folks.” As examples, most basketball players are taller than average and most baseball pitchers have large hands.
On the opening night of the NFL draft, Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray completed his stunning one-year transformation from little-known college backup planning a career in baseball to the No. 1 overall pick of the Arizona Cardinals.
It’s not a stretch to say home plate umpires have the most influence of anyone on the outcome of a baseball game. The man behind the plate – all 89 MLB umpires are male - makes a call on every pitch and each one is a judgment call.
When fans make plans to attend a sporting event, they rarely contemplate the risk to life and limb that lurks within stadiums and arenas. Jennifer Harughty was one such fan, until she attended a Houston Astros game at Minute Maid Park on July 8, 2018.
Sometimes, rich people do things that don’t seem very smart. But one of the perks of being rich is you don’t always have to act in a financially responsible manner.
Storming the court might seem like a harmless “tradition,” a fun and exciting way to celebrate a victory. It isn’t.
If your favorite MLB team has recently signed a free agent or given a star player an extension, you may be concerned about the future price of tickets. Don’t be.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal statute that limited state-sponsored sports betting to a handful of states. Since the ruling, seven states — Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia — have approved sports betting, with more to follow.
The New York Mets’ hire of Brodie Van Wagenen as general manager last year was viewed as unconventional, an out-of-the-box move by a team desperate for change, on and off the field.
You can’t always get what you want,” said the Rolling Stones. Most people want money, but even when they get it, there’s no guarantee it will make them happy. Just ask NBA players.
February is one of the best times of the year for baseball fans. Players report to spring training camps in Florida and Arizona and optimism abounds — our team will win the World Series!
Linda Goldbloom died tragically on Aug. 29, 2018, four days after she was hit by a foul ball at Dodger Stadium.
On the eve of Spring Training there are still more than a hundred MLB free agents searching for a team and the union and its members continue to lament the failure of MLB teams to open the vault for aging players.
Super Bowl LIII is in the books and the Patriots – ho-hum – won again. But the best news for the NFL is, unlike the league championship games, there wasn’t a single officiating controversy.
