Facing accusations of collusion by new head of the players’ union Michael Weiner, commissioner Bud Selig is standing his ground.

“That’s fine. They’re entitled to their opinion,” Selig said Tuesday at a meeting of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. “Given the world we live in and what’s happened in the last 18 months, I think this is one sport where I can’t even fathom that anybody could think that. Player compensation hasn’t gone down. We have many clubs struggling, and even those that have done remarkably well, remember, are very aggressive in their marketing and their discounting,” he said. (ESPN)
While an investigation continues, suspicion is in the air. Players’ agents and union members believe that a planned and organized conspiracy to keep salaries down has taken place.

“There are too many things that need to be explained,” said Seth Levinson, who represented nearly a dozen free agents following the 2008 season. “In my experience, there are no coincidences in a monopoly.” (ESPN)

In a time of an economic downturn in this country, it seems very hard to believe that the issue of players salaries has to do with anything other than decreased revenues, which are prevalent across the board in all businesses in this country.

Still, so- called “superagent” Scott Boras has seized the opportunity to cry foul.

“I think the clubs uniformly felt they were taking the momentum of a national event — that being the economy — and suggesting that that was going to have an impact on their revenues,” Boras said. “I think they were attempting to leverage that into a belief structure that the value of players has gone down because there’s a perception that baseball will suffer because of the economy. After experiencing the biggest blow of the economy in the fall of 2008, we know that baseball has stood its ground and still has an extraordinary revenue base.”

I find it quite appalling that Boras would accuse anyone of using an economic downturn to their advantage.

The owners are feeling the pinch of the economy and it is being passed down to the players. It is that simple. There is no foul play taking place here.

Selig was quick to say as much, “Some of us, let me be as blunt as I can be, have to live in the real world, not in some make-believe little scenario that doesn’t exist. And I mean that very, very sincerely,” Selig said. “They can say whatever they want to say. I wouldn’t even waste my time reacting to that.” (ESPN).

I have never been much of a fan of Selig, but I believe he is dead- on in his assessment of the current events transpiring here. I am very happy to see that he is holding his ground against these baseless accusations.

I have little doubt that this will pass in time.

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Here we are, Wednesday, July 15th. Today is also known as the slowest day in the sports year.

Historically, the day after the MLB All- Star game is the slowest sports day of the entire year.

There are no major sports playing today. None.

Perhaps you care a lot about summer league basketball? Maybe European football (soccer)?

If you don’t, you’re left with tidbits of information from other sports.

If you tune in to ESPN you can see the same highlights of last night’s All- Star game (over and over), complete with the same over- analysis of a game with little significance in the first place.

Today actually isn’t as bad as it used to be. Some of the younger readers may not remember a time when we would anxiously sit around waiting for the big 3:30 Sportscenter (back when it wasn’t on all day long) where we would actually be looking forward to those highlights of the All- Star game.

It was really quite pitiful, but it was all we had.

Thanks to the emergence of the internet, we have stories that weren’t available to us several years ago.

We now have the ability to hear about the ongoing Brett Favre updates, which really don’t mean anything since it’s the same information we get almost every day.

We have a report about the Lakers and Lamar Odom being far apart in contract negotiations. This is hardly breaking news.

There are the reports about where Allen Iverson will play next year. Again, basically the same information that has been out there all week.

There is a report that Pedro Martinez is about to sign with the Phillies. One problem: this is also a story that has been reported for almost a week.

Oh wait, there is breaking news about Terrell Suggs getting a contract extension from the Ravens! This is information that changes everything! Oh wait… it’s just another story that effects our sporting lives in no way whatsoever, unless you’re a big Ravens fan I suppose.

Now there’s a story about the WNBA All- Star starters being announced. This raises the age- old question: if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it…. you get the point.

So, what can we do? I guess we’re left to tweak our fantasy team lineups, keep hitting refresh on our favorite websites, maybe spend the day on facebook or myspace.

Personally, I’d love to get outside. Unfortunately, here in the Sacramento valley, we have expected highs of over 100 degrees.

I guess I’m lucky, I have a job I can work on all day. Wait, my job is working from home writing about and editing sports stories.

Darn, foiled again!

Well, the MLB season resumes tomorrow and there are at least four division races that may go down to the wire.

NFL training camps will be opening soon, as will NBA camps in two more months.

There is going to be a lot of excitement in the sports world in the second half of ‘09… and it just can’t get here fast enough for me.

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There are so many questions surrounding the timing of this NY Times report that was posted today regarding former slugger Sammy Sosa testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. Why does this all of a sudden come out now? Why would “lawyers with knowledge of the results” start singing six years later? Why does anyone care?

Sosa has retired from the game and ranks sixth all time in home runs. Sosa just spoke with ESPN Deportes earlier this Spring, after announcing his retirement, and said he would wait for his induction to the Hall of Fame in 2013. With this coming out now, not only will Sosa likely not enter the Hall, like Mark McGuire, but he also may face some legal troubles.

Sosa went before Congress four years ago and said he never took any performance enhancing drugs. The test, as reported by the Times, is from two years prior. Regardless of your take on the issue of steroids in baseball, without the great home run chase of nearly a decade ago, baseball would be dead. McGuire and Sosa brought people back to the game, and though we later found out it was done using enhancers, many major media outlets, baseball executives, and team presidents made quite a bit of money riding the wave.

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We often spend so much time praising the sports franchises that “get it” and run a successful business year after year that we often don’t shine a light on the ones that make their fans go crazy year after year. Sports On Drugs takes time out to highlight the top 5 franchises that are completely inept at putting a winner on the field/court.

5. Los Angeles Clippers
It doesn’t help the Clippers that they are in the second largest media market in the country and share an arena with the Lakers. The fact is that no one in Hollywood cares about them, no matter what free agents they overpay. Their luck may hopefully turn around with the selection of Blake Griffin (we presume) with the first pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, but odds are they will still be lottery bound next year too. The Clippers are the oldest NBA franchise to never appear in the NBA Finals, and one of only four (Bobcats, Thunder, Grizzlies) to never win a title. The other three teams are probably closer than L.A is.

Sad Franchise Fact – 0 NBA Titles, 0 Conference Titles, 0 Division Titles

4. Kansas City Royals
The Royals have gone almost 25 seasons since they tasted postseason success, and in today’s big market free agent era, that streak may not end anytime soon. Since the days of George Brett, KC has had it’s share of young stars, such as Tom “Flash” Gordon, Bo Jackson, David Cone, and Jermaine Dye. Most of their talented young stars left KC and ended up becoming All-Stars. While the Royals often boast one of the smallest payrolls of any team in the big leagues, they haven’t had the same success that another team has had in that same philosophy (Tampa Bay Rays).

Sad Franchise Fact

The Royals had an opportunity to get away from the Yankees, Red Sox and rest of the American League in 1997, when the expansion of MLB occurred. KC declined to switch to the National League, opting to take on more 100 loss seasons at the hands of the Goliaths for another decade.

3. Detroit Lions

In a city desperate for some flair of hope and inspiration, the people of Detroit haven’t found it from the Lions in a long time. The Lions have a storied history as a franchise, if you are old enough to remember their last NFL Championship in 1957. It’s been a decade since Detroit has appeared in the playoffs, and 16 years since the Lions won a division title. The selection of Matt Stafford is the latest in moves made by Lions management to resurrect the franchise. For the sake of Detroit, I hope this one works out.

Sad Franchise Fact – The 2008 Lions completed the first 0-16 season in NFL History, which is a feat we may (thankfully) never see again in our lifetimes.

2. Pittsburgh Pirates – The last time the Pirates won a World Series, I was five months away from entering the World. For fans in Pittsburgh, they luckily have two very well run franchises in the Steelers and Penguins. Pittsburgh has become the premier farm system/minor league-major league team in baseball, as they have carved a niche for developing young talent, letting them blossom, and then trading them away for next to nothing. Ever since their game seven losses in the 1991 and 1992 NLCS, Pittsburgh hasn’t been the same. After that year, the franchise decided winning with established talent would not be their forte’, and the youth movement (and losing) began.

Sad Franchise Fact – Last World Series Title – 1979

1. Oakland Raiders

If Donald Sterling is the worst owner in the NBA, Al Davis has become the worst owner in all of professional sports. Unlike the other four teams on this list, the Raiders have experienced mild success in this decade. Their appearance in SuperBowl XXVII was the highlight of the 2000’s thus far, and their 48-21 beat down at the hands of the Buccaneers began the roll of bad luck to fall on the franchise. Whether it was the lopsided trade that sent Randy Moss to New England for a fourth round pick, or the head coaching fiascos over the past five years, or even the questionable NFL draft selections, Oakland is a team with no identity. Friends of mine tell me there is only one team that matters in California these days, and they play on Saturday (USC Trojans).

Sad Franchise Fact – The once proud Raiders franchise now ranks among the lowest valued NFL franchises, according to Forbes Magazine.

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What a difference two years make. At the end of the 2007 season, the Colorado Rockies were the feel good story of Major League Baseball. Now, on May 29th, 2009, Clint Hurdle has been fired. Hurdle did not have any real success in his seven years at the helm with the Rockies, compiling a .460 winning percentage over that time. Aside from the team’s miraculous playoff run in ‘07, there was little to be happy about with the team. If he was in a big market that EXPECTED to win every year like New York, Chicago, or Boston, he would’ve been canned years ago.

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