The Chicago Tribune reported today that the Chicago Cubs are one of nine franchises in violation of MLB’s debt service rules, according to information presented in a confidential briefing at the owners meetings last month.
Of course, the Dodgers and Mets have been in the news on account of their finaincial difficulties for their troubles and they are indeed on this list. These three teams are joined by the Orioles, Tigers, Marlins, Phillies, Rangers and Nationals as teams out of compliance with MLB’s rules. The rules, enacted as part of the 2002 labor negotiations, were established to ensure that the teams have the resources to support their financial obligations. The rule generally limits one team’s debt to 10 times its annual earnings, although Commissioner Bud Selig has wide latitude to enforce those rules
As the article pointed out, the Cubs have only $120.4 million in guaranteed salaries on the books beyond 2011, so it isn’t salaries that place the Cubs in violation. It appears that the Cubs are on the list because of the amount of debt that Tom Ricketts and his family used to buy the team in October 2009. The $845 million deal included Wrigley Field and part of Comcast SportsNet Chicago.
Of course, with the Cubs playing .426 ball (23-31) a lot of people have been conspicuously disguised as empty seats at Wrigley. Whereas before, people came to the ballpark with hope, a lot of Cub fans didn’t take a sip of the Kool-Aid this year and are staying away. (It also doesn’t help that according to Team Marketing Report, the Cubs had the highest average ticket in baseball in 2010 at $52.56. Cubs President Crane Kenney disputes the ranking, saying that the Cubs were fourth.)
Of course, it is finally getting warmer around here, and certainly the young men will want to go out there to drink beer and watch the young ladies, but perhaps the true sports fans knows when he/she is getting hosed. Now I was a supporter of having a family own the team, putting a face on the franchise, but the Ricketts are Wall Street types to whom using a great deal of debt wouldn’t be unheared of, or even unusual.
All I know is – if fans expect this team to spend heavily on free agents (especially the rumor that they would love to bring the Cardinals’ Albert Pujols to town – a deal that would cost the franchise $300 million or 35.5% of the purchase price of the franchise) they dollars may not be there.

Something had to give on the men’s draw of the 2011 French Open. One side of the bracket had been decided when Rafael Nadal defeated Andy Murray, returning to the Grand Slam even that he has owned for most of the last decade. But it was with difficulty that Nadal got to the final. He toughed out a five set victory in his first match, the first time he had ever been taken to five sets at Roland Garros. More tough matches and unlikely mistakes have les some observers to wonder whether Nadal was over the hill at a ripe old 25 years of age.
It’s not much of a stretch to see Nadal in the final since he is 44-1 on French clay, and looking to tie Bjorn Borg with six titles if he wins Sunday. The bigger question was who the Spaniard would face in the final. The other semi pitted Roger Federer, mired in the worst slump of his career having not reached a Grand Slam men’s final in 16 months and not won one since the 2010 Australian Open, against Novak Djokovic, the talk of the tennis world with 43 straight victories, 42 of them in 2011 to start the season, one short of the record.
Well, now we know – Federer ended the streak today, defeating Djokovic 7-6(5), 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5). So, we will have yet another Nadal vs. Federer Grand Slam final. It could be a classic. On Saturday, defending champion Francesca Schiavone will face Li Na in the women’s final. Overall, it should be an interesting weekend of tennis.

If famous deaths actually come in threes, someone else famous is about to die, because James Arness, Marshall Matt Dillon for decades on “Gunsmoke” on both television and radio died today at the age of 88, and Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the doctor who performed assisted suicides also died at age 83.
I’ll let you make the jokes about Arness going to the final roundup, and about Kevorkian not needing any assistance when his time came.
(I should say that I think that Dr. Kevorkian had a point about dying with dignity, but again, prudes, idiots and self-appointed meddlers had to go after the doctor and put him in jail. Idiots!)

Somehow, I can’t seem to remember a time when Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t in the NBA, but it actually has been 19 years since he entered the draft as the number 1 overall pick from LSU. We had a feeling that he would have a fine career in the league, but I think that he has been everything we expected and more… Six titles, 15 All-Star Game appearances. He has been the most dominant center since Jabbar and the most powerful force in the paint since Wilt.
On top of all that, he has been a great ambassador for the game; amusing; looking at life with bemusement and sharing that with the media and fans. It is this genial persona that allowed him to star in some forgettable movies like “Steel” and “Kazaam.” He was a bigger than life man with a bigger than life personality that was endearing to kids and adults alike.
Injuries has brought down the big man, and yesterday he used Twitter to announce his retirement. Expected to help rally the Celtics against the Heat last month, Shaq was barely able to play, the 19 years of carrying his team (figuratively) and his opponents (literally) has finally brought this career to an end.
Where does he belong all time? He will be in the Hall of Fame, no doubt. I would say that he is among the five best men ever to play the center position – Mikan, Wilt, Kareem, Russell, and Shaq.
Next, I could easily see him debating Charles Barkley, another ex-jock with personality who has moved very easily to the broadcast booth. In fact, I think Barkley and Shaq would be hilarious. I wouldn’t rule out a situation comedy for these two. I don’t watch much television, but I’d watch.

• Last week’s game 7 between Boston and Tampa Bay in the Eastern conference finals of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs was one of the best game 7s ever. A tight game that ended 1-0; it was exciting, never boring. Then we get a 1-0 first game of the Stanley Cup finals last night; a game that was as good as the Bruins-Lightning game.
• The Chicago Tribune is reporting that several NFL Owners, Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA head DeMaurice Smith have met in a location just outside of Chicago for the past three days. Friday, a court ruling on the lockout is supposed to be issued, and despite that, Goodell has stated that the lockout has already cost the league in the form of lower ratings for the draft and declined jersey sales. Perhaps some common sense has entered the room…
• I’m very proud to live in Illinois this week. Yesterday was the first day in which same sex couples could get licenses, and today, there was a ceremony after midnight for many of these couples, and a bigger one in Millennium Park attended by Mayor Rahm Emmanuel and Governor Quinn. It’s long past time that same sex couples have the right to be miserable like we heterosexual people (just kidding). Seriously, congratulations to the couples, many of whom have been together for decades. Love between consenting adults is a wonderful thing!
• The Chicago White Sox would win the American League if they could only plan the Red Sox only. They just swept the BoSox, their seventh straight win at Fenway Park and their 12th win out of the last 13 games anywhere. Let’s play 162!

Long time readers of this site and my previous site know that I have been an outspoken critic of Ohio State’s now former Head Football Coach Jim Tressel. Allegations against his program have been floating around since he went to Columbus in 2001, but I especially didn’t like the way he recruited, used and then dropped Maurice Clarett.
Clarett was a talented but troubled kids, who Tressel knew, would need some guidance to keep him out of trouble. After helping the team win the 2002 National championship, suddenly Clarett started getting into trouble. At first Tressel stood by his troubled running back, but when he got into real trouble with the law, and Tressel and Ohio State moved away from his faster than an Indy Car racer away from the starting line.
At the time, I said that Ohio State might be the dirtiest program in the Big Ten, and boy, did I get some nasty e-mails: I was jealous of OSU’s success; I didn’t know what I was talking about; I knew nothing about the Big Ten (I always shook my head at that since I went to Northwestern, which is still in the conference as of this morning).
The noose has been tightening on Tressel when five players including quarterback Terrell Pryor had sold memorabilia in return for tattoos and other favors. Then Tressel got in trouble personally when it was learned that he knew of the infractions and kept quiet – not only to the NCAA, but to university officials.
With a cover story coming out in Sports Illustrated this week about violations throughout his tenure in Columbus, Tressel stepped down yesterday morning. The image of Tressel is that of a holier then thou coach who did whatever he needed to do to protect the program and the shot at a national title every year. Apparently, further violations and investigations are being conducted on Pryor, who may wish that he had turned pro this past year instead of electing to stay at OSU another year.
I could jump up and gloat. I could dig out the e-mails of all those OSU fans who wrote me years ago and tell them that I told them so. But I don’t have that feeling. I’m just disgusted by the hypocrisy of college sports. Billions of dollars are going to these universities, but the players are not allowed any pay for their efforts. They can’t even have a work-study job. But these kids aren’t that stupid – they see the articles about the television revenues that the conferences and member schools are receiving. They can see jerseys with their names on them being sold and they get no money. They see the stories about the lawsuit by Ed O’Bannon who is suing because the schools have players sign contracts that allow the NCAA to use their likenesses and images for pictures and video games FOREVER, and the players are not entitled to any income.
The players saw this and found ways to earn some money, and at football crazy Ohio State, there’s lots of alumni and booster willing to give the young men some help in the form of money, clothes, cars, whatever, to keep the young men happy and playing. Never mind that these are NCAA violations. The hypocrisy of saying one thing publicly “these young men are getting adequately compensated for their sports through scholarships and room and board,” but we really know that these athletes, especially the ones from poor backgrounds, need income for basics and bling, so a Jim Tressel turns his back on the wrong doing.
So, I don’t necessarily blame Jim Tressel. Is Ohio State dirtier than Auburn, who paid Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton’s family money (and some say a great deal of money), but they found a way to do it that was not an NCAA violation? I don’t think so. Is Jim Tressel the only coach getting funds to players or turning his back on the practice? No way.
College athletics and the NCAA stink like a whorehouse at low tide – always have. But as the dollars get larger and there are more eyes on the practices of the schools, their administrators, coaches and players, perhaps this is the time when enough people get disgusted and bring meaningful change to college athletics. But I’m not holding my breath….

I can just hear Blackhawk announcer Pat Foley saying Winnipeg into the microphone. I hope that there is more to do in Winnipeg, because Foley told me that he hated going to Winnipeg – besides being boring, it is very cold up there, just like Calgary and Edmonton (but with less to do).
Finally, the deal was done to bring the Thrashers to Winnipeg, leaving Atlanta as the first city in the NHL’s modern era to lose two hockey teams – first the Flames left for Calgary, now the Thrashers. The teams’ owners agreed to sell the struggling franchise to True North Sports and Entertainment, and they will move the team to Winnipeg next season.
The deal is reportedly worth $170 million, including a $60 million relocation fee that would be split by the rest of the league (isn’t it just like the NHL to have the rest of the owners get paid in a transaction that has nothing to do with them).
Winnipeg has been without NHL hockey since the Jets moved to Phoenix in 1996. The Thrashers entered the league in 1999 as an expansion franchise, but as SI.com put it “ownership problems, a losing team and dwindling attendance doomed the club.” That’s not what doomed the club – the American South has no history of hockey and the NHL expanded down there in the hopes that people would come. The league bet that perhaps in Florida, where retirees from Canada and the northern states where hockey is well established, would embrace hockey. Hockey in Florida remains tenuous. Tampa Bay won a Stanley Cup and went to the conference finals this season. Having winners helps and perhaps the Lightning are a stable franchise, but the Panthers have been lousy and are an afterthought. Possibly, only the Thrashers and Coyotes were in more dire straights than Florida.
And Atlanta, growing and booming in the 1990s would be another place where they could build a franchise (with another fee to the owners, of course).
But Atlanta is a strange town – they support football when the Falcons are good, but they don’t exactly set the attendance figures on fire for the Braves – when they were winning division titles every year for over a decade, postseason failure kept people away from the ball park.
Between Vancouver playing in the Stanley Cup Finals and there being a new Canadian team, it’s probably a good week to be a Canadian hockey fan.