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 […]
Archive | Major-League Baseball
After spring training, the baseball continues
With the departure of MLB and MiLB squads from spring-training complex, most folks assume there’s no baseball in the likes of Peoria Stadium and Tempe Diablo Stadium. But the complexes are still buzzing, as extended spring will keep them busy for months. During discussions of spring training, many fans focus on the main ballpark and […]
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 […]
AT&T Park / San Francisco Giants
The concourses are surprisingly narrow, the traffic outside the ballpark stifling and you’re likely spend part of a game peering at the action through a light mist. Having said that, one thing is clear: watching a San Francisco Giants game at AT&T Park is one of the greatest experiences in Major League Baseball, one that […]
Cubs notch lowest attendance since 2002
The Chicago Cubs have been a box-office machine in recent years, but yesterday Wrigley Field saw its smallest crowd in nine years, with only 26,292 showing up for a matinee against the Arizona Diamondbacks on a chilly, windy Monday. Harbinger or aberration? Of course, many teams would be happy with announcing 26,292 fans in the […]
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, […]
Giants fan severely beaten in Dodger Stadium parking lot; suspects sought
Some ugliness arising from MLB‘s Opening Day: A San Francisco Giants fan was severely beaten by Los Angeles Dodgers fans in the Dodger Stadium parking lot; he’s in critical condition and police are searching for his attackers. The incident began after the Dodgers‘ 2-1 win over the Giants, with fans returning to their cars. A […]
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 […]
Forbes: It’s the Yankees and the 29 dwarves
It’s not even close: in the magazine’s annual evaluations of Major League Baseball franchise values, Forbes prices the New York Yankees at an astounding $1.7 billion — some 86 percent more than runner-up Boston Red Sox and far outpacing the average franchise value of $523 million. Still, you’ll be surprised by the most profitable team […]
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 […]