A Pittsburgh Pirates employee was found dead early Saturday morning — bleeding, face down on the pavement — after working the Friday night PNC Park Bucs game, in what police are calling a suspicious incident. Michael Schacht, 58, had been an usher for the Pirates since 2004. He was found unresponsive and bleeding around a […]
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Dodgers up security; will it be enough?
Most of us grew up with the image of Dodger Stadium as this bucolic paradise, a wide swath of verdant happiness in what’s become a rough-edged city. But now the rough edges of the city have intruded on the field of dreams, and there are definite issues with drunken, rowdy fans showing up to Los […]
Volunteers maintaining Tiger Stadium field
The city of Detroit and the Detroit Tigers may not give a darn, but a group of volunteers cleaned up and will maintain the old Tiger Stadium playing field — and as a bonus uncovered the Tiger Stadium home plate left behind when the team moved to Comerica Park. A group, Navin Field Grounds Crew, […]
Parsing the spring-training attendance numbers
With Spring Training 2011 now over, it’s time to look at the winners and losers in the annual tune-up to the Major League Baseball season, with over 3.5 million fans attending games in Florida, Arizona and other exhibition venues. There are actually a few different sets of spring-training numbers floating around out there: MLB tallies […]
Mayor Rahm: No to city aid for Wrigley Field
Acknowledging that Wrigley Field needs a lot of TLC, incoming Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the city can’t afford to give up proceeds from an amusement tax to fund improvements to the home of the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs had floated a plan where revenue from the amusement tax would be diverted to pay off […]
Twins set spring attendance record — in Florida
As spring training winds down, we’ll be looking at the winners and losers of 2011. The first big winner of 2011: the Minnesota Twins, who set a Florida spring-training attendance record at Hammond Stadium. The Twins drew 129,453 fans to 16 games at Hammond Stadium this spring. It’s a record for fans attending spring Twins […]
Moreno: Time to discuss ballpark renovations
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim owner Artie Moreno says it’s time to discuss another facelift for Angel Stadium, 15 years after the last one and some 45 years since the place originally opened. The Angels’ lease at Angel Stadium runs through 2016 (though there are some renewal options), and while Moreno explicitly rejected the idea […]
Is there too much parking at new Yankee Stadium?
The New York Yankees demanded a raft of parking spots in ramps surrounding the new Yankee Stadium, but given the great public-transportation options to the ballpark, game-day usage never exceeded 60 percent — and the company running the ramps is on the verge of default on the bonds used to build them. In retrospect, demanding […]
Earthquake/tsunami impacting Japanese pro baseball season
To play or not to play: that’s the issue facing players and owners in Nippon Professional Baseball, who are debating whether the season should start on schedule and under what circumstances, as rolling blackouts and homeless people are still big issues days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Two issues are at play: whether […]
Nats go public with desire for new spring-training facility
It’s not exactly been a secret in baseball circles — indeed, we’ve written about it more than once, based on inside sources — but over the weekend the Washington Nationals went public with their desire for a new spring-training facility. Nationals owner Mark Lerner confirmed to the Washington Post that the team was indeed looking […]
Report: Greenberg out as Rangers CEO
In an abrupt move, Chuck Greenberg is reportedly out as managing general partner of the Texas Rangers and CEO of the team’s holding company, according to the Dallas Morning News. The announcement could come as soon as today. Greenberg, a longtime minor-league owner and operator — his teams include the State College Spikes (short season; […]
Twins clear-cut Target Field
Batters at Target Field won’t be able to see the forest or the trees, as the Minnesota Twins took down 14 spruce trees that comprised the ballpark’s batter’s eye last season after complaints from batters. The 14 trees weren’t fed to the choppers: they were dug out and transported to Bergen’s Greenhouse in Forest Lake, […]
Mets’ financial woes worse than thought
The New York Mets required a cash infusion of $25 million from MLB lines of credit last November after the team faced a cash-flow crisis and had tapped out its other sources of capital, leaving many to wonder how long Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz can keep control of the ailing franchise. That the Mets […]