MLN Sports Zone - The Editor's RAVE - Comment by Brian Ross

Hall of Shame? - Taylor Hall Takes Tulsa GM Slot (OPINION)

2008-05-05T14:05:25Z

MAJORBLOGS.net - 05.05.08 - OPINION - New Tulsa Oilers GM Taylor Hall had better hope that the third time is the charm. For those of you unfamiliar with the career of Mr. Hall after he left the ice in Tulsa as a player, let's take a trip down Flashback Alley. In September of 2003, in

Keep It Under Your Hat

2008-04-30T17:41:54Z

A Look Back at 2007:

Look out at any MLB or MiLB playing field this spring, and you'll see the quiet revolution.

Last summer, after the tragic death of base coach Mike Coolbaugh, I was the lone voice in the wilderness, calling for required head-gear for base coaches (See: The Height of Cool, MAJOR BLOGS, 07.29.07).

I didn't get much support from anyone else in the media. Even my good friend, the progressive Branch Rickey, said that the base coaches themselves would nix helmets (VIP Room 08.02.07 )

Apparently I was not alone after all. I had the...

It's Not Easy Being Green (OR: Bob Costas, You Can't Handle the Truth!)

2008-04-25T14:25:36Z

MAJORBLOGS.NET - 04.28.08 - I always love the casual put-down that print journalists like to drop on those of us who are digital magazine publishers.

Print Guy: "So, you have a magazine that's been around nearly ten years covering minor league sports?"

ME: "That's right SZ was the very first digital sports magazine in the world. Cover and sections and everything, going back to 2000."

Print Guy: "Oh, so you're just a website."

That is the unjust 'just' to which I usually smile and politely reply:

Three Vial Monte - What MLB and the MLBPA Drug Testing Agreement Misses

2008-04-11T19:55:44Z

MAJORBLOGS.net - OPINION - Major League Baseball (MLB), in conjunction with the MLB Players Association (the PA), announced reforms in the testing system for anti-doping that are supposed to fix the sad situation that was detailed in the Mitchell Report, a brutally honest look through league and PA imposed blinders at performance-enhancing-substances (PES). You can read the full release on the report at MLN - The Raw Feed. Is this ground breaking new policy, or a coat of white wash that would even make Huck Finn's mom proud? Here is what I think that they missed in today's announcement...

The Last Witness - The Mitchell Report at the House Hindsight Committee

2008-02-17T13:17:35Z

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - The following is a transcript of the testimony of the most important witness to date on performance-enhancing drug use and the Mitchell Report at the House Hindsight Committee. Speaking for the Committee is ranking Democrat Henry Waxjob.

WAXJOB: I would like to thank the witness for making time to speak with us today. I would ask that you rise, raise your right hand, and be sworn in.

(At this point, a large piece of turf flying off of the witness strikes Congressman Waxjob, causing a momentary delay as staffers clean him up.)

WAXJOB: Please state your name.

WITNESS: I'm the Game...

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?

2008-02-17T13:04:35Z

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - The famous explorer Sir Henry M. Stanley, who went in search of the lost British explorer Dr. Livingstone must have felt a bit like I've been feeling the last few years. You have to beat the bushes pretty hard to find not only a whole world of sports that has, to date, been underground, local, and nearly invisible to the national media. Minor league baseball is...

Vince McMahon - The Next Commissioner of Baseball? - AWWEsome!

2008-01-23T12:16:44Z

MAJOR BLOGS - An armchairgm.com first - 01.22.08 - When Bud Selig retires as the Commissioner, I have his replacement. A few years ago, I was thinking of someone like a Branch Rickey III, president of the Pacific Coast League. Long baseball pedigree. A man above reproach. There were only two things wrong with that idea: First, he's too smart to ever take the job, and second, as corrupt and morally bankrupt as baseball has become, the job of turning baseball from a sport to an entertainment requires someone with the proper pedigree. Vince McMahon. McMahon, the mastermind of WWE knows how to sell sport as entertainment. You'll note...

I'm Not Dead Yet - Austin Ice Bats Endure Through Rumors of Their Demise

2007-12-09T23:05:04Z

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - AUSTIN, TX. - This month marks my 10th anniversary covering minor league and indy pro sports. Thank you all for the tin cups. So why, when I've seen more than a hundred professional clubs come and go, do I care one iota what happens with the Austin Ice Bats? Because they do, owners, fans and players alike. Like the Monty Python joke about "Bring out yer dead!" where the old man being thrown on the cart of rotting corpses during the Black Plague complains "I'm not dead yet" to his son, the Ice Bats are alive and well, even though many in the local media have officially written them off with an impending decision on bringing Triple-A American Hockey League (AHL) hockey to the market...

Austin Statesman Engages in Unstatesmanlike Behavior With the Austin Ice Bats

2007-12-09T18:36:48Z

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - If you look at my previous blog on the Austin Ice Bats situation, you will know that a key component to their being abandoned by the community that they have served for twelve years has been the decision by the local media outlets, most notably the town's biggest newspaper, the Austin Statesman, to abandon the club in its hour of need. Our friends at the Statesman are gambling that the Ice Bats have gone Sixth Sense, and are...

Join me on the Winter Meeting Diary

2007-12-05T04:44:24Z

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - Brian Ross will be blogging on the Winter League Meetings Diary 2007 this week. Please join me there to find out what is happening in Minor League Baseball. You can also check out our complete MLB Winter Meetings 2007 section that appears at SZ.