Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't you a Pirates fans? I would think you would be one of the leaders in promoting equality among all the teams in baseball.

i think what the pirates need is a owner who wants to win, and not one who is cheap....so that salary floor would be great.

It depends what the floor is. People got all over the Marlins for fielding a very young squad, whose salaries were low, but comparable with those of similar players on other teams. Nonetheless, they were competitive, and the team reflected a clear and onsistent plan and vision, which many of the big market teams lack because they can bury their mistakes and myopic judgment with cash.

While baseball revenue has increased incredibly this decade, a salary cap is needed to even the playing field among the individual teams. The luxury tax didn't solve anything as the gap between the haves and have nots grows.

The team revenues must be examined and if there is a cap, a portion of
profits that exceed a certain predetermined figure should be divided on a share(based on salary) among teammates and coaches.

Football excels on a system where gate receipts, tv money and merchandising are split equally among the 32 teams.

I'm not interested in baseball teams equality. They compete against each other with the talent they can muster - that's the hand they are dealt.

That seems like a strange thing to say. Teams aren't dealt hands, they control them. Look at how many teams in the NFL go from being a bad team to making it to the Superbowl in one year. The Arizona Cardinals are the most recent. That will never happen in baseball if there aren't rules to even out the playing field.

So what! If you've got the money to pay people to work for you, then do so. If not, tough.

But these teams are just pocketing the money instead of spending it. That's the point of having a minimum salary as well as a cap. They have money to spend and aren't spending it.

My younger son, who turned 14 in May, has a big baseball tournament this weekend. His travel team is for boys 16 and under, but he starts and gets to pitch. He's playing to get ready for high school tryouts, plus he loves it. When he's not pitching, he plays mostly third and some first. He also plays the outfield. His coach thinks the player in the mlb that his game most resembles is Kevin Youkilis.

This tournament is a showcase tournament, which means that college and pro scouts are there. Now I have no unreasonable expectations for my son (who hasn't stepped foot in high school yet), but there are a few older players on some of the teams hoping to be recognized. It's amazing how much pressure is put on some of these kids...often by their own parents.

I enjoy these weekends. I get to sit back with my cooler and enjoy about three good baseball games a day.

hey klydon just asking since your son is a pitcher...is there still a rule about not throwing curve balls. i heard a couple weeks ago it was "safe" to throw it when your young, but yea it has been years though since i played.

Kly, my stepson (15 years old) is hooked up with a travel ball team that is 18 and under. They are paying his way because they want him on the team so bad. He just had his first tournament this weekend and he said it was overwhelming facing 18 year old pitchers throwing in the high 80's and even some in the 90's. He was hit by pitches twice and said it was scary, but I think it was a good experience for him to see what it's going to be like in a few years for him as he gets older.

The tournament was a few hours away and he stayed at a hotel (with adult friends we totally trust) but we couldn't be there to watch unfortunately. I think it was a good experience for him because locally he is a super star, but he takes it for granted and doesn't try very hard because he is naturally so talented. So it was good for him to be a little humiliated by older players.

You seem to be going through similar times with your son as I am with my stepson. It's fun

No rule on curve balls. My son throws an effective one that is at times nasty. I can't take credit for it as I couldn't get my curve ever to break sharply. He's still working on command of it though and he's getting better. If he throws 90 pitches in an outing, he might throw the curve 15-20 times.

My older son, whose season was affected this year by illness, doesn't throw the curve as often. He throws a hard cutter though and is very successful when he's keeping it down in the zone.

While there is no ban of curve balls, I was at a teener game last year when the umpire told the manager and 13 year old pitcher that too many curves were being thrown and if the kid threw another one, he would eject him and the manager.

I know of one boy about 7 years ago in our area who threw a lot of curves when he was 12 or 11. He's had two surgeries on his elbow. There is some thought the curves contributed to it as well as the fact that he was overused on multiple teams by his dad.

That's great, blibble. Keep me posted. My son, J, does alright batting against fastballs, but it's the off speed stuff mixed in that sometimes frustrates him. It's nice that they're paying his way too as some of these teams can get costly.

I think that it's a great learning experience to play against older boys. You get better faster when you're thrown into an older age class. Sounds like you will have lots of fun watching him play.

Just wondering what areas do you go to play? Our team tries to stay within 2 hours, which would encompass Philly, Baltimore, Allentown, D.C., Williamsport, etc. We also have a nearby complex of four outdoor and 2 indoor fields that the team loves. One of the fields has the same general dimensions of Fenway Park, complete with a Green Monster. Of course, everyone wants that field, and they try to schedule tournaments so that everybody can play there. We're there this weekend.

I didn't think there could be a slimier figure in college basketball than John Calipari, but Rick Pitino is right there. He better win a lot of games in Louisville because he's not exactly projecting a positive image or sound character for that institution of higher learning that he represents.

So, the Eagles sign Vick. The National Felons League marches on.

i thought he would go to carolina or green bay...i understand why they did this mcnabb is somebody that gets hurt every season.

VICK!!! I'm definitely buying his jersey. I have two dogs, but I never thought that his punishment was fair. He didn't fight anyone's pet, he fought animals that were trained to fight from birth. BFD

But he didn't just fight his animals that were "trained to fight from birth". He also brutally tortured and killed them.

I don't care. They were animals that no one had any emotional connection to. As a hunter and a meat eater, I'm not very sympathetic towards an anonymous animal's death. Sorry, but I don't mourn their loss.

I'm not just saying this because I'm an Eagles fan. My fantasy team name last year was "Free Mike Vick".

I can't wait to see Vick, McNabb, Westbrook, DeSean Jackson, and Jeremy Maclin on the field together.

I think it's time for Vick to return. I was predicting that Washington would sign him.I also thought that his sentence was fair. While he should be allowed a second chance in the NFL, his crime was certainly heinous and reflected depravity.

The key factor in the gravity of the sentence had not so much to do with the value of the dogs, but the calculated cruelty that Vick systematically inflicted upon animals without remorse.


I've heard a lot of people say that what Dontae Stallworth and Leonard Little was worse because human lives were lost. This is apples and oranges. Even though Stallworth and Little committed serious crimes, these crimes were not intntional and reflected poor judgment. Vick's crimes reflected sheer malice. The result of the loss of human life is more devastating than the loss of the anmals' lives, but the intentof the act makes Vick's crimes more despicable.

Well said, Klyd. Well said.

Klyd, I disagree. I think he should spend the rest of his life shoveling dogsh*t in a kennel. You phrased it exactly: "the calculated cruelty that Vick systematically inflicted". What evidence is there that his innate nature has changed? None. How does one who has engaged in such depravity time after time and only stops because they got caught change?

I think Vick is like Freddie C. as he expressed in his post above. Freddie uses the device of anonymity to rationalize not only his, but Vick's behavior. I'm sure that Vick did the same. Like Freddie, life is only useful to Vick. Beyond that, it has no meaning for them.

my opinion on vick is this. he did one of the worst things you can do to an animal, and he did his time. he deserves a second chance while being on a short leash with the commish. some people said that he should be banned for life, and its stupid if he gets banned while others who were drunk and killed somebody gets back in the league. yea not on purpose, but human life's are weighed more than a dogs life.

My son, J, did very well in this past weekend's travel baseball team. Though he's the youngest on the team, he bats third in the lineup and had 6 hits and three walks over 5 games, all of the hits doubles. On Saturday he got hit with a fastball on the inside of the right knee, but he was fine on Sunday despite a heavy bruise.

In the semi-finals, we played a team that won their tournament games by scores of 17-0, 17-2, 15-0 and 15-0 (all of them 15 run mercy games). J pitched the first three innings and gave up two runs. He was pitching against a kid, regarded as one of the top high school pitchers in the area and I could see why. His fastball was 90 mph. In the top of the fifth we scored a run and got two runners on base. J hit a ball high off the left-centerfield fence, which had the same height as the Green Monster in Fenway. The distance to the fence was 385 feet, so the ball would have gone more than 400 feet, the farthest ball he ever hit. It put us ahead and knocked the pitcher out.

The other team, whose players were dancing and joking in the field and ridiculing us in the early innings, changed their tune and rallied for a couple of runs and edged us 5-4. J's team gave them a struggle they didn't expect. They left the tournament happy.

Good for J and his team Klyd

Plaxico pleads guilty. Will spend 2 years in jail.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08202009/new...ilty_185509.htm

Good.

Asshole cost the Giants another shot at the Super Bowl last year.

Gotta love The Posts' headline, "Plax Cracks".

plaxico gets two years for shooting himself

stallworth gets 23 days for being drunk and killing a guy by running him over...if anything stallworth should get more of a stricter sentence.

There are a plethora of elements in any prosecution. To start with, Stallworth plead under Florida law while Burress plead under New York law. The extent of mitigating circumstances in either case are largely unknown to us as are sentencing statutes and guidelines.

Correct. Let's not forget that NY has a statute for a mandatory 3 year sentence for Plaxico's crime. He got a big break. While the sentence is seemingly stiff for a first time offender, he got a considerable break. Burress was stupid, and his career in football could likely be over.