Sunday Reading

If you have gone down the sidebar and seen "Other Places I've Worked" you would notcie the Duluth-Superior Dukes. Yes, I spent time in the independent leagues. Great times. The St. Paul Saints were the kings of the Northern League and they had different ideas and wacky promotions to get publicity and draw fans to the ballpark.

If I am remembering correctly, one of those promotions was somehting like "Two Fat, Dead Guy" Night. The Saints happened to be home on the anniversary of the death of Elvis and Babe Ruth.

During my time in Duluth, one of the radio announcers for the Saints was Jim Lucas. His on-air partner, Don Wardlow, was blind. Both moved on in the ranks. Don has retired from broadcasting, I think, and Jim has taken over as president of the Brockton Rox of the Can-Am League.

Why do I bring this up today in the Sunday Reading post? Jim has learned well from his days in St. Paul. In 2004, Brockton had the idea after the Red Sox lost Game Seven of the 2003 ALCS to the Yankees for a Grady Little bobble-arm promotion. Remember, Little stuck with Pedro Martinez a bit too long in that game.

Well, in 2006 they Rox are off to a flying start trying to build some publicity. They have offered a contract to Roger Clemens. They have challenged the Kansas City Royals, betting that they will win more games than the Royals will this season. The Rox play just a 92 game schedule. The Rox will put up $500 to go to the KC YMCA, but they are asking the Royals to put up $5,000 for the Brockton YMCA Challenger Division of Little League. Read the story for the response from the Royals. Putting it here out of context does it no justice.

Over at RattlersReport.com, Brett gets clubhouse response to Matt Rico's 100 game suspension for testing positive for a "drug of abuse".

If your are Tom Hardricourt, it is not too early to be looking at the Brewers draft possibilities at #16 this year. Also, this Pujols guy in St. Louis, he is off to a prettygood start.

The Admirals swept Houston in the AHL second round series. Now they wait for the winner of Manitoba and Grand Rapids.

So, you own an NBA team. You move it from a basketball crazy area to a place that lost an NBA franchise a long time ago. The new market suffers a natural disaster that forces you to play games in a place that hasn't had a Major League team ever -- unless you count the Oklahoma Outlaws of the USFL. Thing are going well in the new place so what do you do? Why threaten the city that suffered through Katrina that you are going to move if you don't get a new arena. The MightyMJD reacts to a post on The Sports Frog about Hornet owner George Shinn. Careful. Language warning.