Keith Law on baseball owners' creative accounting, and on the possibility that John Henry (oh no) and Tom Werner (OH NO!) will end up owning the Red Sox. (Baseball Prospectus)

Wisconsin man drives 500 kilometres to Chicago to save Montreal Expos. Wearing a robot costume. (In an actual car, not a lawnmower, unfortunately.) (Canoe)

Rob Neyer: "[E]ven if owners are losing money -- and if they are, it's not nearly as much as Commissioner Bud claims -- whom do they have to blame but themselves? There's nothing inherent to the baseball business that demands non-profitability. Franchises receive huge revenues from TV networks and gigantic taxpayer subsidies for their new mallparks, and yet still they cry poor?" (ESPN)

Links to daily newspapers have been added to the ever-growing left-hand column. I've left out newspapers that require registration, most prominently the NY Times and the Dallas News. Any others out there that are worth adding? Let me know.

Geoff Baker: "Football was even more dead in Montreal than baseball is now until the Alouettes, under new owner Robert Wetenhall and team president Larry Smith, invested their own money in a full-time move to a downtown location at Molson Stadium in 1998. At the same time, Smith's strategy of reconnecting his team with French-speaking fans began to pay off. That is what led to the flag-waving, energy-packed crowd [of 65,000!] taking in the Grey Cup game [in Montreal] on Sunday. The Expos used to enjoy similar crowds, but baseball has never attempted the kind of grassroots rebuilding Smith undertook in Montreal." And apparently never will. (Toronto Star)

Jay Jaffe gives his account of Cal Ripken's final game. (Futility Infielder)

This week's guest host on Saturday Night Live: Derek Jeter, "following in the footsteps of other superstar athletes like Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana, Walter Peyton (sic), Chris Evert, Deion Sanders and George Foreman who’ve hosted the show." Yeah, we all remember how great those episodes were. I'm guessing Jeter will do a better job than most of those guys did, though. At some point, no doubt, he'll be confronted by Nomar-worshipping Lexington High School students Sully and Denise. Maybe Nomar himself will make an unnanounced cameo. (NBC.com)

Don Malcolm has moved his blog from Baseball Primer to his own site, Big Bad Baseball. "The fellows at baseballprimer.com, Sean Forman and Jim Furtado, are good guys who want to get along with others in that world, even if they aren’t always met half-way. Therefore they’re sensitive to my occasional sniping at certain people, and don’t want their site automatically associated with it. While I can’t help but roll my eyes at what I perceive to be their squeamishness, it is their web site—and their right to choose how they want things to be. I respect that. The solution, of course, is for me to continue to have this space for matters both too incendiary and too arcane for the bulk of their target audience."

Don Malcolm on the ten most questionable MVP Awards in baseball history. (Baseball Primer)

Chris Kahrl's Transaction Analysis for October 4 – November 16. "The easiest thing to do here is tip your cap to John Schuerholz for getting Andruw Jones to agree to a relatively cheap contract through his 30th birthday and the 2007 season, or for exactly the stretch of time you'd want to have him. Jones has taken an enormous risk, in that it's safe to say he's signed for less than market value for what ought to be the most productive years of his career. His comments that he'll worry about the next contract when he has to might strike some as thoughtless, but is it really naive when there's a pretty good chance that Peter Angelos will still have a lot of money to spend come 2008?" (Baseball Prospectus)

Al Shank on his favorite player, Mark McGwire, Part 1. (Baseball Primer)

Shank on McGwire, Part 2. (Baseball Primer)

Retrosheet now has box scores and play-by-play summaries for every game since 1978.

Retrosheet-related thread at Baseball Primer. Many fans recall their first MLB game with Retrosheet's help. Unfortunately, my first game was too long ago (1968). I think it might have been Mickey Mantle's last game at Fenway Park. As I remember it, he struck out and got a standing O.

Reblogger has been installed on a trial basis. Want to make a comment? Click below.

Joe Sheehan previews this year's free agent class. (ESPN)

Interesting thread at Baseball Primer: A "contest for Primer readers to see who can guess the ultimate destination of some of the bigger name free-agents."

Joe Sheehan: "The voters for the AL MVP have made it clear that they're not going to use any standards we can recognize, and are going to give the award to whomever they damn well please. From Mo Vaughn in 1995 through the multiple shunnings of Alex Rodriguez and Pedro Martinez, the AL MVP award has become an annual joke, and I'm left to treat it as such." (Baseball Prospectus)

Rany Jazayerli hopes the Royals can get something for Neifi Perez. "The Dodgers are one of the few teams with the abundance of cash to afford Perez and the poverty of intellect to want him. They shouldn't be a tough sell at all; if they could win 86 games starting Alex Cora and his .217 average, think of how many they can with with Perez?" (Baseball Prospectus)

Bill James on Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Joe Morgan, Henry Aaron and Christy Mathewson. "[Craig] Biggio passed Bonds as the best player in baseball in 1997." (ESPN)

Bob Hohler: "In one of the clearest signs yet that the Red Sox aim to rid themselves of Carl Everett, general manager Dan Duquette yesterday plucked Detroit's Tony Clark off the waiver wire and promptly described the young All-Star as a switch-hitting slugger who can bat fifth behind Manny Ramirez." That's great, but it doesn't answer the question of HOW to get rid of Carl Everett. (Boston Globe)

From Bill James's ESPN chat:

CT (Wash DC): Rather than push another theory I thought I would just ask you: What factors have YOU seen in your research and analysis to explain the offensive explosion in recent years?
Bill James: None. I would never ask such a question, and I would never attempt to answer it.

In an excerpt from his new book, Bill James explains the offensive explosion in recent years. (ESPN)

Seth Meyers (on Saturday Night Live, the night before Game 7): "I know the real reason the Yankees have struggled a bit in the playoffs. It's because, for the first time in history, Red Sox fans are rooting for the Yankees to win...Everyone and everything Boston roots for loses. If Boston rooted for gravity, we’d all be floating three inches off the ground." I know, this is old stuff, but I didn't find a transcript until now. (SNL Transcripts)

Clemens captures sixth Cy Young honor. He wasn't the best pitcher in the league, but he had a gaudy won-loss record. Unfair? Sort of. But in 1990, he was the best pitcher in the league, and he lost the Cy to a guy (Bob Welch) with a gaudy won-loss record. So now he's even. Welch owes one to Freddy Garcia. (ESPN)

Chat wrap with Bill James. Sanford from New York: "What's your feeling on contraction? If you feel teams should be contracted, which ones would you favor contracting?" Bill: "Let's get rid of the Yankees." (ESPN)

My apologies for the less-than-daily updates. I'll probably post two or three times a week during the offseason.

The Internet Baseball Awards results are here. So far, the Internet voters are in agreement with the official ones (Pujols and Ichiro for ROY, Johnson for NL Cy Young). (Baseball Prospectus)

Joe Sheehan: "If McGwire really is done sharing his talent with us, he'll retire as the second- or third-best first baseman in the game's history, depending on your opinion of Jimmie Foxx." (Baseball Prospectus)

Rob Neyer interviews Bill James. (ESPN)

Thomas Boswell: "Nothing delights baseball owners like shoving something down the union's throat. Despite the fact that, every time they've tried it, they're lived to regret it profoundly...That's what's going to happen again. Just watch. The key issue, which should be delicious, will be the viability of baseball in Washington. That's the land mine. The union already recognizes it. Baseball owners ignore it." (Washington Post)

Keith Law: "MLB has made the threat clear by implying that if Quebec, Minnesota, or Florida coughs up the cash and builds a new stadium for its team, that team will not be eliminated. When the mob does this, it's called a shakedown--or racketeering--and it's a federal crime. When MLB does it, the media applauds." (Baseball Prospectus)

Joe Sheehan: "[Contraction] isn't about viability, or competitiveness, or any of the other marginally acceptable reasons for ditching a franchise or two. This is extortion. This is about trying to force a city or a state to commit millions of taxpayer dollars to a ballpark that will generate lots of money for private enterprise." (Baseball Prospectus)

Is MasterCard going to change their TV ads? "22 stadiums down, 8 to go? Priceless. No, make that 6. Still priceless." Did those guys really go every stadium? If so, why do we only see Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Seattle, and San Francisco?

Indians get a discount and saves. Bob Wickman signs for less than his market value to stay in Cleveland. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Bud Shaw: "Bob Wickman's signing should lead to a compensation proposal for Texas over the departure of John Hart. No hard feelings if the Rangers take John Rocker, too." (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Rob Neyer has folded Rob and Rany on the Royals, but Rany Jazayerli keeps the faith with Rany on the Royals, a new weekly column at Baseball Prospectus. "Why would so many otherwise sane baseball fans read a column that discussed, in excruciating detail, a team they didn't even follow? I eventually came up with an answer, and it certainly wasn't that the quality of our writing was drawing crowds. No, the lesson is that failure is more fascinating than success, because failure is more educational than success."

Jays: Is there a GM in house? The Blue Jays are reluctant to make Dave Stewart their GM because he lacks experience. The writer points out that Joe Garagiola Jr. didn't have much experience, either. I'd like to bring up another name: Brian Cashman. (Toronto Star)

Bill Simmons' Game 7 diary. "Can't we have some sort of 'Jumping Out of Your Seat And Doing a Fist Pump' pay-per-view match with [Michelle 'Blame It on Rio' Johnson] and Brigitte Sampras-Wilson? Can Don King make this happen?" (ESPN)

Rany Jazayerli: "The Diamondbacks broke not one, but two curses tonight. Forget the Curse of the Balboni; with Luis Gonzalez, Mark Grace, and Mike Morgan, the Diamondbacks had three ex-Cubs, and the Curse of the Ex-Cub Factor hasn't been broken in 41 years. The last team to win with three ex-Cubs? The last team to inspire such hope in the improbable: the 1960 Pirates... Pay attention, Boston. There's hope for you yet." (Slate)

Joe Sheehan: "Just remember something as this World Series moves into the history books: the Diamondbacks had to beat the Yankees six times, and they had to do so because Bob Brenly kept making the wrong decision at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. What Brenly did over the last nine days shouldn't be whitewashed because he happened to have two amazing pitchers on his side; it needs to be a part of the record as much as Gonzalez's RBI and Schilling's strikeouts and the Yankees' errors." (Baseball Prospectus)

Rob Neyer: "[A]fter Rivera plunked Craig Counsell, Tim McCarver said one of the most prescient things that any broadcaster has ever said. With the bases loaded and just one out, the Yankee infield had to play in. McCarver: 'Rivera gives up a lot of broken-bat fly balls to the short outfield, which could be a problem with the infield in.' That's not exactly what he said, but it's close enough. The point is that McCarver nailed it precisely, because Luis Gonzalez's Series-winning single would quite likely have been caught by Derek Jeter, if Jeter had been playing in his normal spot." (ESPN)

Rob Neyer: "[Y]ou've probably guessed that I'm not Tim McCarver's biggest fan. But he was absolutely right about Bernie Williams, who didn't run hard on his blooper in the eighth, and so wound up on first base rather than second. It didn't make a bit of difference because Tino Martinez flied to left. But what if Martinez had singled? Bernie's slothfulness would have cost the Yankees perhaps a run, and perhaps the game, and perhaps the World Series. That's at least, what, three times in the postseason that he's stood around watching a baseball when he should have been sprinting?" (ESPN)

Joe Sheehan: "[Luis] Gonzalez had a pretty brutal trip to New York. He went 2-for-10 with a walk in the D'backs losses, and failed to get a runner home from third with less than two outs twice. I can't help but think that if it were a different National League West left fielder who hit a lot of home runs in 2001 having a series like this, it would be a bigger story. I guess it pays to not have a Barcalounger." (Baseball Prospectus)

Joe Pappalardo talks with Mike Marshall, relief pitcher turned physiologist turned pitching instructor, about the mechanics of pitching. Marshall: "We don't treat the arm like it's fragile, like it's going to break. We make the arm so damn strong it will never break." (Village Voice)

Joe Sheehan: "I just hope that the responsibility for this loss ends up being placed where it belongs. Byung-Hyun Kim screwed up, and deserves a share of the blame, but Bob Brenly lost this game. He screwed it up six ways from Sunday, and unlike the Cardinals in the Division Series, the Yankees made him pay for his mistakes." (Baseball Prospectus)