No, they were not. There was a memo from the commissioners office but it was not in the collective bargaining agreement and there was no attempt to use the best interest in baseball clause so no it was not a real rule.

I love how we’ve reached a level of misanthropy where we decide that somebody isn’t a bad guy when we realize that their plan was “kill all humans.”

Well the entire system of baseball development in the DR and Venezuela would likely have collapsed as teams would have no incentive to keep their academies open, just as it did in Puerto Rico two decades ago, but yeah other than that, no real effects.

I agree that it’s a confusing statement. The only downside to an international draft is that it removes the incentive for teams to invest in local academies in the Dominican or Venezuela. Teams won’t bother to spend money teaching young kids the game if those same kids can end up drafted by some other team. So that…

Nobody cares when the Pats do it either, but if someone were to do this against the Pats all of New England would be up in arms about the NFL having an anti-Pats agenda.

My recollection is Belicheck getting almost universal praise on those kinds of things.

An interesting take, or further victim complex nonsense from Pats fans? I choose the latter.

Pats Pulpit writers have eternal victim complex. This article is more of it. 

Yeah the party line about Simmons-as-talent-cultivator I never understood. Some of Grantland’s stuff was interesting, some was entertaining, at its best it was both, but there was a LOT of self-indulgent chaff AND I’M SORRY BUT I’M INCLUDING REMBERT BROWNE IN THAT.

Bill Simmons never evolved a day past his 25th birthday. He didn’t have to. Nobody has to when they achieve that level of success that soon.

He has a face for radio and a voice for print work.

Anyone else kind of think that the failure of this show and the general mediocrity of the Ringer kind of shows that the common narrative coming out of the death of Grantland, that Simmons was a really great cultivator of writers/content even if he wasn’t the greatest writer/interviewer himself, has kind of been…

You could tell he was thinking “I’m going to be the Stewart or Colbert or Oliver of sports!” I guess he neglected to consider that those guys are worldly and intelligent, while he is a parochial ignoramus.

I think the Sports Guy Cartoon had more viewers.

Can’t wait till Simmons isn’t being financially supported by HBO so we can hear his brave takes on how his show never got a fair shot. He isn’t afraid to say anything!!

* morans

and this is why the indians will lose. Way to go morons.

Your estimate has to be wrong. According to USA Today above, Big Ten alone took in 450 million. Citation?

I live in CLE and totally disagree. He sucks.

The worst part of the attendance “discussion” is that it is always forced upon diehard fans. Diehards who, ya know, actually go to the fucking games. Instead of expecting them to explain the behavior of others, try aiming it at the right people. For starters, anyone who would rather talk about the Browns, even in the…