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Bob Feller's Winter Baseball Legacy
Yasmine Bleeth
typewriterking
We lost the great Cleveland Indians pitcher this month, and Fay Vincent wrote his remembrance of the great Rapid Robert in the TCPalm on the 17th. The most interesting part was his recollection of Feller in the winter:

In addition, he and the legendary Satchel Paige, organized postseason barnstorming trips in which white players, led by Feller, would play black players from the Negro Leagues. led by Paige.

Before the color barrier was broken in 1947, those were often the only games in which blacks and whites competed against one another.

I tried to get him to acknowledge his role as a pioneer in race relations but he insisted he and Satchel were only trying to make some good money. When I asked which team won more, Feller would grin and assure me he had the scorecards.

He sure had a competitive side.

I once asked him about the Negro League catcher Josh Gibson. "Good player, great fastball hitter, but couldn't hit a curve ball with an ironing board." Because Feller had a superb curve ball, I believe he meant Gibson could not hit his curve ball.

Joe DiMaggio told me he couldn't hit it either.

That's the magical thing about winter barnstorming before the Major League's racial integration. These tours, because of their integration, arguably had more talent stocked in them than the Big Show. Josh Gibson, "The Black Babe Ruth" got to test his stuff against the best of the majors.

It would be something for Feller to release those scorecards. We'd finally have data regarding him versus Paige in his prime. Do the testimonials about the greatness of Satchel Paige match the record? Were Paige and Feller really the best two of their era? Until those cards are released, the truth will be lost to history, but maybe the myth can suffice.

The Winter League Schedules
Faye
typewriterking
I'm sorry not to update through the month. I tried getting oriented to Dominican baseball, but I just never felt familiar in my brief excursions into news reports and such.

Anyway, let's look at some of the critical dates:

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Aggressive Marketing of Winter Baseball By ESPN Deportes
Faye
typewriterking
ESPN is determined to be positive America's large Hispanic communities know about this winter's Dominican season:
ESPN Deportes launched a new campaign for its Dominican winter baseball season. The Spanish-language campaign, via creative agency LatinWorks, will run until the end of December and will utilize radio, TV, print and guerrilla marketing to reach Caribbean communities in New York, Miami, Orlando and Tampa.

While ESPN Deportes has traditionally relied on radio-only spots and print ads to market its winter baseball season, this year, the campaign will encompass TV spots not only on ESPN Deportes, but also on Telemundo and Univision in New York and Miami.

The animated TV spots feature a plane-ride with two captains and a stewardess, who gives safety instructions filled with baseball references. The stewardess is the voice of Carolina Guillen, host of ESPN Deportes Béisbol Esta Noche, and the captains will be played by Dominican pitcher Juan Marichal and baseball commentator Ernesto Jerez. Tagline: "Durante el invierno el béisbol viaja al Caribe" (During winter, baseball travels to the Caribbean).

The Deportes website helpfully shows a few Liga Dominicana de Béisbol games on the schedule, but I was discouraged to see no support from properties like ESPN 360. A shame, as I don't have Deportes on my cable package.

I wish this marketing campaign the best. May it pique some interest.

Florida Winter Baseball League Cancels Season
Faye wanted
typewriterking
They didn't even last half of season one:

The Florida Winter Baseball League announced Wednesday they were suspending play for the inaugural season.

"Although the inaugural season was shortened, the FWBL will continue on with its mission to provide the only US-based winter baseball alternative for professional baseball players," wrote Mickey Filippucci, league president, on the League's website. "We are deeply saddened that we are unable to complete the inaugural season and regret the inconvenience we may have caused."

Filippucci also wrote that the league's obligations to its players, staff, corporate sponsors and season ticket holders would be met.

League officials suspended the season after the Global Scouting Bureau, the company hired to manage the four-team league, announced it was pulling out of its partnership with the league.

I don't know what the empty nonsense in the article about this being "the first winter league in the states" is about. There's historically been plenty of winter baseball, especially before the farm systems started providing highly-skilled play to smaller markets. It's just been such a long time since winterball has been a big deal, that nobody really knows about it.

I'm sure it had a better chance than the Texas Winter League, which placed all it's teams in the Rio Grande Valley, home of the absolutely poorest metropolitan area in the United States.
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Pontiac Silverdome Auctioned To A Canadian Buyer
Shannen Doherty
typewriterking
The Wall Street Journal reports:

Pontiac, Mich., reached a deal to sell the 80,000-seat Pontiac Silverdome to an unidentified Canadian buyer for $583,000, about 1% of what it cost to build, the city said Monday.

The city said the buyer planned to convert the former home of the National Football League's Detroit Lions into a soccer facility. A city official declined to release further information until the deal was finalized.

I'm wondering just what "soccer facility" means. At first, I assumed it would become a soccer-specific stadium for an MLS club, but at that low cost, and with the enigmatic nature of the sale, it doesn't sound like that's necessarily the case. For all I know, the buyer or buyers may have it's enclosed nature in mind, and wishes to use it as a winter training facility.

Depending on the buyer's intended use, the just might look for a good tenant like a major winter baseball team, right? ^_^ Soccer-specific stadiums in the United States usually scale back their seating to between twenty and thirty thousand, which would be just fine for the kind of major winter league I have in mind.

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Arizona Fall League Championship Game
Jeri Ryan
typewriterking
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Stephen Strasburg's Fourth Win
Renee Olstead
typewriterking
He came through, after looking a little shaky before the neck injury:

Making his first Arizona Fall League start in 12 days on Saturday, Strasburg hurled one-hit shutout ball through 3 2/3 innings to earn his league-high fourth win in the Phoenix Desert Dogs' 1-0 victory over Peoria at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.

Matt Angle's leadoff homer in the second was the only support Strasburg needed to run his record to 4-1 in his final start of the AFL's regular season.

"It was a good day. My goal was just to go out there and pound it in the strike zone," Strasburg said.

The Washington Nationals' magnetic No. 1 Draft choice walked two, struck out six and drilled 36 of his 64 pitches through the strike zone.

The article on the Nats' page says the Arizona Fall League championship game will air on the MLB Network and stream live on MLB.com, the first mention of any developmental winter league being covered I've seen so far.

I can't believe it's over already.

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Strasburg Sacked!
Washu
typewriterking
The first round pick had to stand down from a start in the Arizona Fall League:

Nationals phenom Stephen Strasburg has been scratched from his scheduled start on Saturday, the team announced on Friday.

The 21-year-old right-hander is suffering from a muscle strain in his neck, and the club said the move was "for precautionary reasons."
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In four AFL starts, Strasburg is 3-1 with a 5.28 ERA. There is no word yet on when his next AFL start will come.

The college game really doesn't prepare a guy, does it? So when will he be ready for the call up? I expect we'll see him up in Spring Training, then Short-Season A before they decide where to put him.

The Washington Post covered just what his injury is:
 
His injury occurred while he was sleeping; he awoke and felt soreness in his neck. He was seen by a doctor and was diagnosed with a strained muscle. The Nationals are expecting Strasburg to be back on the mound within a few days.

I'm reminded of Kevin Mitchell injured by a sneeze.
 

 

Baseball Head-To-Head Matchup With Football
Violet up close
typewriterking
Professional baseball is a very successful enterprise. Since the merger of the AL and NL in 1903, the only work stoppages have occurred because of labor strikes and the largest terror attack experienced in North American history. The World Series was only canceled once, in 1994, due to the longest labor strike the game had experienced.

At the minor league level, some lower class leagues have folded, but three AAA leagues, the International League, Pacific Coast League, and the American Association thrived for around a century, until 1998, when the American Association decided to split and merge two fragments with the two other Triple-A leagues. This merger facilitated the creation of a Triple-A World Series.

Baseball is remarkably successful, but seeing the World Series stretch into November has invited the perennial comparison in TV ratings with the NFL. Rhode Island's Providence Journal features an editorial that posits football is America's national pastime:

Game Four on Sunday night was watched by 22.8 million viewers – a 47 percent increase from last year’s Game Four, which attracted 15.5 million.

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The Falcons-Cowboys game Oct. 25 drew a TV audience of 28.4 million. The Giants and Redskins attracted 25.1 million viewers on Sept. 13. The following week, the Giants and Cowboys were watched by 24.8 million. A stunning total of 23.9 million watched the Patriots humiliate the Titans, 59-0, two weeks ago. The Steelers and Bears also were seen by 23.9 million Sept. 20.
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On Aug. 9, the Bills and Titans played in the Hall of Fame Game in Canton, Ohio. The Bills and Titans, mind you. Playing the first of five preseason games. By the second quarter, there would be guys playing most fans had never heard of, nor likely ever would see again.

That same Sunday, the Red Sox and Yankees – the best rivalry in baseball, if not in all of sports – were playing a nationally-televised game on ESPN with important ramifications on the A.L. East race.

The Sox and Yanks were watched by 4.7 million. As for the Bills and Titans -- how about 7.9 million?

 

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In aggregate, I assume the statistics are very different. Total 162 games versus 16, and I suspect baseball wins out in attendance and TV viewership. ^_^

The Freakonomics Blog approached an MLB versus NFL match-up very differently, with player salaries butting heads. The blog rounded up several opinions, and I'll excerpt one:

 

Pro football teams engage in a “national” business, with national broadcast rights making up the largest portion of their revenue stream.

As such, about 80 percent of the nearly $7 billion of the N.F.L.’s annual revenues are divided evenly among all 32 teams. Before the New York Giants or Kansas City Chiefs ever play a game, they’re each entitled to about $150 million in annual revenue. According to a Forbes estimate, all but one N.F.L. team brought in between $182 and $255 million in 2006 (only the Redskins exceeded $300 million). With the Jets and Giants in the middle of the pack, earning less revenue than Tampa Bay, Carolina, or Denver, it is clear that market size has little impact on the revenue base of an N.F.L. club.

By contrast, an M.L.B. team is essentially a local business. Less than 25 percent of all revenues are distributed evenly among the 30 teams. More than three-quarters of the $6 billion in annual revenues are earned and kept at the local level, with a disproportionate share going to teams in large markets with strong team brands and greater on-field success.

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Alright, so what does any of this have to do with winter ball? Well, the head-to-head ratings rankings was the most relevant part. Obviously, if the World Series loses to early regular season NFL games, a winter league will always be helplessly behind. But that doesn't really matter much. For, if the aim is to be a "tweener" in the middle of Triple-A and the majors, salaries (most of the overhead) should hang around the minimum salary for the 40-man roster. For 25 guys, we established that this was $7.5m for the whole team. Subtract the team sponsorship and the ad shoulder patch, and we have a tiny hurdle to climb. All we want is a series of regional TV contracts. FOX Sports Regional, Comcast Regional, and local terrestrial broadcasts.

Now, we know college football sometimes seems as big as the NFL, so I was surprised to see revenue grabs so small. I suppose because so many universities are public, the government has a website tracking data. Here's what I found for the University of Oklahoma:

Football: $40,922,446
That's revenue. Compare with expenses: $18,863,323
The joke must still stand. Oklahoma has the highest paid athletes in amateur sports. Clearing $22m in profit in one sport sounds impressive for an institution of learning.

And the Wall Street Journal reports that only football and basketball turn profits in the NCAA. And that would be men's basketball.

I thought that was worth mentioning, because the two profitable college sports would play in the season of winter baseball, and it would be embarrassing to boast of being "major" if college programs were boasting more revenue.

The Hawaii Winter League
Julianne hough
typewriterking
I must compliment whoever wrote the history on the About page. There's some pretty good stuff there, and the league sounds great. A terrible shame they couldn't come back this year, but their death means something greater, maybe continental in scope, can take it's place.

Meanwhile, as the online store appears to still be functional, maybe I can get a ball and a jersey.

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