MAJOR BLOGS - 06.28.09 - OPINION - I really do not want to hear ANYONE from the cushy private boxes to the bleachers complain about steroid use in the professional game of baseball anymore.

Minor league fans have just affirmed what the owners of baseball know: You run your mouths about steroids, but the minute that a fallen major league superstar shows up in your town, your principles go out the window, the ticket window to be exact, in the form of a loud "Ka-CHING" of the club's cash registers.

The "rebab" tour of steroid cheat Manny Ramirez continued

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MAJORBLOGS.NET - 03.18.09 -  The pseudo-Olympic baseball competition of the World Baseball Class (WBC) is under way. We do not cover it. Here is why.

The WBC is a big coat of whitewash over the disgrace of

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MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - 12.19.08 - OPINION - I was asked several times at the Baseball Winter Meetings what I thought about BIRCO, the Baseball Internet Rights Company, which I did a story about earlier this year for SZ ("Keep Your Ball on the I", SZ. 09.04.08).

Since MiLB announced that the deal to create BIRCO is done today, and my shiny two aren't going to cast any undue influence on the proceedings, or give the President of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (the NA), Pat O'Conner, yet another reason to stick a pin in the voodoo doll of me that he keeps on his desk, I will tell all.

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MAJOR BLOGS of MLN Sports - www.majorblogs.net - OPINION - Montreal, CANADA - If you want to know the health of a professional sports franchise in any city, you have to visit a few bars and diners.

When I hit the ground in Nashville, the Sounds have their colors repped at the airport bar.

Drive around town and hit a 'cue joint or a sports bar in Memphis, or Albuquerue, or Round Rock/Austin or Pawtucket or Brooklyn and you will find the minor league team gets its props.

Logos, photos, jerseys, memorabilia and even in-season promotions can be found in healthy baseball towns, and even the ones that are struggling. 

The Florida Marlins, whose stadium pigeon population exceeds their paid gate, get their strokes from the area elbow-bending establishments and eateries, which keeps them in the public consciousness in ways that advertising, whining, begging and pleading simply do not.

On the bar and beanery count, Expos baseball here in Montreal is not dead, but in hibernation. The

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