St. Louis' four-decade quest to host an All-Star game stalls again
The American sports media's contempt for the St. Louis Cardinals evidently knows no limits. Most recently on Wednesday, the Baseball Writers Assocation of America moved forward on a formal request to Major League Baseball that it hold off on the awarding of the 2009 All-Star game to the Cardinals until the team agrees to improve working conditions in Busch Stadium's press room. The room is reportedly not climate-controlled, and reporters sitting in the box's top row are forced to lay their heads on the table in able to view the centerfield scoreboard. The commissioner on Wednesday called the issues "real and valid."Other than the Fall Classic's thorough absence of Yankees, Mets, and Red Sox, I guess we now know why so many sports journalists have been pouting this year about their post-season travel itineraries. Said incoming BBWAA president Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, "I can't believe anyone would build a brand new stadium with an open press box. If you're going to play in October and get weather like this, you're going to get this." Hoynes is evidently forgetting that the All-Star game is played in July. At a nearby table, New York reporter Max Mercy had no comment as he stencilled away at a drawing of Albert Pujols striking out.
Commissioner Selig, meanwhile, moved ahead with his plan to award the 2008 All-Star game to the New York Yankees and the new Yankee Stadium-- obviously forgetting that the new Yankee Stadium press box today lacks not only windows, but doors, walls, a ceiling and a floor.
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The full conspiracy behind protecting Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers didn't come to light until I saw the FOX pre-game show on Tuesday awkwardly seque from a conversation about putting the Rogers story to bed to a joint on-field interview with commissioner Bud Selig and union head Don Fehr. Baseball execs were busting their buttons in anticipation of having the World Series stage to announce their new labor agreement. The last thing they needed was to have another cheating scandal rear its ugly head two days before the blessed event.
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What do you suppose Ryan Howard is up to tonight?
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Lost in the sports media's attention to Kenny Rogers was the report that one of the NFL's leading defensive players, Shawne Merriman of the San Diego Chargers, failed a test for steroids. He'll be back on the field by Thanksgiving.
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Many Cardinals fans have begun labeling their team's World Series opponents the Detroit "Lyin's" or the Detroit "Cheat-ahs." But I hope you noticed I still called them "the Tigers" in the first paragraph.
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This Bud's for you, Detroit.
posted by CM @ 6:11 PM
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