I agree with you that baseball salaries are probably pretty decently correlated with merit (or with projected merit, anyway), and that it's not lack of merit that causes inequality.

They're not especially "closing in" on anything — this is just the mayor throwing out a proposal, which Davis, the city council, and the county would all have to okay before it became reality. Also, those "land and infrastructure" costs could come to half a billion dollars, so probably best not to brush over them too…

It's actually more like $500m that the Falcons got, counting all the hidden tax kickbacks they're getting down the road. With boodle like this available for teams suffering with 17-year-old stadiums, I'm not surprised Snyder figures he might as well grab what he can: http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2013/03/18/473…

The first baseman was Chick Gandil, of course, which perhaps helps explain how Daubert advanced to second on a throw that was cut off near the pitcher's mound.

Pretty sure that "ball hit on the infield" is actually the first baseman cutting off a throw in from a single to the outfield. Cicotte sure looks uninterested in helping out, though.

You know, until about a week ago, I believed the line that throwing money at players like Ellsbury was sound business, because it would pay off in ticket sales, cable revenue, etc. Now, not so much:

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/643326…

They have to extend the tax surcharge beyond 2018 in order to use it for the stadium. So while it's not a tax increase over what property owners pay now, it is an increase over what they'd pay if the stadium isn't built.

Hi, Rod. Anything you see in the Panthers documents that indicates how necessary/profitable stadium renovations would be for the team? From my cursory look, it appears that their revenues are mostly about just sitting back and cashing TV checks, so I'm wondering if that likely means that stuff like suite money isn't…

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that NASCAR (or the Yankees, or anyone) can't assert that they've obtained copyright to someone's footage just because of something they printed on a ticket. They can claim that by posting footage the ticket holder has violated the terms of entry, and kick them out of the venue,…