The Associated Press released information this morning that should make Pirate and general baseball fans sick and Yankee fans even more appreciative of what they had in George Steinbrenner.

The AP reports that the Pittsburgh Pirates have been able to turn a profit over the last three years – the same Pittsburgh Pirates that haven’t had a winning season in over 18 years.

According to the financial documents that were obtained by the AP, the Pirates took home $15,008,032 in 2007, $14,408,249 in 2008 and $5.4 million 2009. That’s chump change compared to what a team like the Yankees have been able to take home, but they also win.

The Pirates claim that principal owner Bob Nutting doesn’t take a salary and that may be the case, but it’s also clear that they’re not using all of their resources to win on the field. How could they be? If they were, former All-Stars like Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez, Nate McLouth and Jack Wilson wouldn’t be suiting up for other teams tonight. Nor would arbitration eligible or players close to becoming free agents like Tom Gorzelanny, Ian Snell, John Grabow, Xavier Nady, Adam LaRoche, Damaso Marte, Nyjer Morgan, Ronny Paulino and Sean Burnett be playing for other clubs right now either. (Let’s not forget that the Bucs also dealt Jose Bautista – the current home run leader in the AL – to the Blue Jays for 20 shake weights and an instructional shake weight at-home video.)

The Bucos say that they’re trying to win through the draft and with players like Andrew McCutcheon, Pedro Alvarez, Jose Tabata, Jameson Taillon and Stetson Allie either on the big league roster or in the minors that may be case. They say that they’ve paid nearly $12 million for amateur draft picks and have raised their draft expenditures to $31 million over the last three years.

Again, that may be the case but considering they’ve passed on players such as B.J. Upton, Tim Lincecum, Jason Heyward and Buster Posey (taken in the same draft as Alvarez, so this may be a poor example) in recent drafts, are they truly committed to using their resources to build through the draft? Granted, other teams passed on those players for various reasons too and the Pirates’ drafting on a whole has improved. But let’s not forget that this is a club that has consistently been accused of only selecting prospects that will sign manageable contracts. So are they truly using all of their resources in their draft programs or are they still penny-pinching wherever they see fit?

That said, nobody should blame the Pirates’ ownership for making a profit. After all, business is business and people don’t start businesses to not turn a profit.

But it was late Steinbrenner who mastered the art of making money while winning. And it’s not like he used witch magic in order to accomplish both; he knew he first had to be in a profitable market, and then he had to have a product that people would buy. Obviously New York and Pittsburgh are two different animals when you’re talking about generating revenue, but credit Steinbrenner for putting a winning product on the field and using most to all profits on continuing to win. Let’s not forget that the Mets play in the same market as the Yankees and have been unable to match their cross-town rival’s success.

The biggest problem that the AP article brings to the public’s attention is not that the Pirates have found a way to turn a profit. The biggest problem is that baseball’s revenue sharing doesn’t work like it should.

First and foremost, teams like the Pirates aren’t required to use the money they get from the Yankees in revenue sharing on the field. They’ve also obviously figured out how to turn a profit while losing, so what’s the incentive for lower market teams to produce winners? If they haven’t already, what’s stopping the Royals from using the same approach? Owners can still make money while fans continue to suffer watching losing season after losing season, and that’s not right.

This further proves that baseball needs a salary cap. Can it survive without one? Yes. Can lower market teams still compete? Yes – the Marlins, Rays and now Padres have proved that. But can they compete on a consistent basis? No, because they can’t outspend the Yankees in order to keep their players, which is just one of the many reasons why the current system can’t stay in place.

If baseball truly cared about its fans, then a salary ceiling and floor would be put in place. But if the league (and therefore, the owners) cares mostly about turning a profit, then the current system should stay. Because after all, if a perennially losing team like the Pirates can turn a profit in this current system, then any team can.

And they don’t even have to win in order to do so.

10. The scoring system in tennis
Love? 15? 30? 40? Deuce? Actually, I kind of like “deuce.” But why not just go to four, win by two. It’s the exact same thing and a lot easier to follow when you’ve already thrown back a couple of Bloody Marys.

9. The overkill of NASCAR
Does it really take 500 laps to figure out which car and driver are the fastest? Here’s an idea: Make every race 50 to 100 laps and limit the number of pit stops. Every decision will be magnified and second-guessed and strategy will become an even bigger part of the sport.

8. Offsides (in soccer and hockey)
Anytime that you have defenders trying to encourage offsides calls by pulling up as they run/skate back to protect their goal, it’s not a good thing. There’s no offsides in basketball and it works just fine. When Randy Moss outruns a cornerback, play doesn’t stop because he has a clear path to the endzone. Why not reward anticipation and speed, and make soccer and hockey that much more exciting by creating a flurry of one-on-one situations between the striker/forward and the goalie?

7. The Pro Bowl
Why? What’s the point? For years, the Pro Bowl was played in Hawaii after the Super Bowl, which is like going to a concert where the headliner plays before the supporting act. To its credit, the NFL finally realized it had a wet turd on its hands and moved the game to Miami to take place before the Super Bowl. This should help, but football is a violent sport, so why play the game at all? Guys don’t want to get hurt, so they’re only going to go half speed. Plus, with all the guys scratching due to injury and the players that won’t play because their team made the big game, the rosters aren’t nearly as good as they could be. Just forget it — hand out All-NFL awards and be done with it.

6. The NBA age limit
I was once a proponent of an age limit, but not anymore. It’s not that the NBA doesn’t have every right to restrict who can and cannot join the league — they do — but the age limit (19) is wreaking havoc on college basketball. Many of the top freshmen that would have otherwise gone straight to the NBA are making a mockery of the term “student athlete.” They know they only have to stay eligible for one season, so they only really have to attend class for the fall semester. Coaches are burning hundreds of man hours trying to recruit players that they know are only going to play for one season before bolting for the NBA. Players that went straight from high school to the NBA have a higher success rate than any other sub-group, so why not let them in? The NBA wants to improve the quality of its product, and that’s commendable, but this is not the way to do it. Maybe they should expand roster sizes to 18 or 20 to allow rookies to develop in practice. I think that if a player is draft-worthy when he graduates high school, then he should be able to enter the NBA. If a player isn’t draft-worthy and goes to college, he should be required to stay for a minimum of two years. This format would allow surefire stars to enter the NBA immediately, and would increase the continuity of the college game while at the same time giving borderline NBA prospects an opportunity to develop in the collegiate ranks.

5. The seven-game series
I get it. Professional sports is a business and leagues like the NBA and NHL need to squeeze as much money out of their playoff systems as possible. (The seven-game series makes sense in baseball; teams need to be able to take advantage of a strong pitching rotation.) But playoff series in the NBA and NHL don’t truly get exciting until a team is facing elimination, which is why the single-elimination format is by far the most exciting. (March Madness and the NFL playoffs are two great examples.) While single-elimination is too much to ask for, how about a three- or five-game series? The fewer the games, the more that each game will mean. This creates drama and interest (and, ahem, ratings). There is still the opportunity for the much-ballyhooed “chess match,” but there will be a better chance that an underdog could pull the upset. I know this isn’t going to happen, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

4. Exclusive rights to Sunday Ticket
I live in a condo with no view of the southern horizon, so every Sunday, I have to pack up my laptop and head over to my buddy LaRusso’s house to watch Sunday Ticket on his DirecTV. Don’t get me wrong — I like hanging out with my friends, but this Sunday ritual is a pain in my ass. And it’s not a technology problem — it’s all about money for the NFL. They realize that Sunday Ticket is a valuable product, and they know that the package is the lifeblood of DirecTV. But enough is enough. DirecTV now has 18 million subscribers, so it’s time to offer Sunday Ticket to cable subscribers as well. I have no problem with the NFL’s desire to make a profit, but it’s not wise (or fair) to leave a good portion of your fan base out in the cold. Most of what the league garners in exclusive rights fees would be covered by a huge increase in its subscriber base. Enough.

3. Seasons that are just too long (MLB, NBA, NHL)
People say the NBA regular season doesn’t matter, and for the most part, they’re right. The NBA’s postseason is so inclusive that sub-.500 teams regularly make the playoffs, so the regular season becomes a grind because the good teams know that they’re going to make the postseason come hell or high water. Baseball has a less inclusive postseason, but a 162-game season makes each individual game fairly meaningless. Who wants to go to a game when it doesn’t really matter who wins? Of all the leagues, the NHL has the least to lose. They should toss out their current format, cut the regular season in half and drop the number of teams that make the postseason from 16 to eight or 12. Suddenly, every regular season game would be crucial to a team’s playoff hopes.

2. No salary cap in baseball
The top four payrolls in MLB — Yankees, Mets, Cubs and Red Sox — combine to spend more than the bottom ten. The Yankees alone outspend the Marlins, Padres, Pirates and Nationals combined. The Yankees’ payroll is 5.5 times the lowest payroll in the league (the Marlins). How can there be a level playing field when certain teams can afford to spend three or four or even five times as much as the competition? Sure, a small market team with savvy management can make a run every so often, but they can’t afford to keep their stars because the big market teams can simply outspend them. Forget ridiculous — this is ridonkulous. Yeah, I said it.

1. The BCS
The BCS is like a bad marriage. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but somewhere along the line, you realize that it’s an awful mess. You don’t know when it’s going to end, or how, but you know that one day it will be over. And that will be a fine, fine day. We ran a poll a while back and 90% of fans want to see some sort of playoff system in college football. The current system is so asinine and flawed that there’s no point in rehashing all that is wrong with it. I’m a proponent of an eight-team playoff where the six BCS conference champs get an automatic bid (unless they are ranked outside of the top 15). The first round of the playoffs would be held at the home stadiums of the higher seeds and the two semifinal games and title game can be rotated amongst the four BCS cities — Pasadena, Miami, New Orleans and Phoenix — so that they don’t lose any revenue under a new system. Television ratings for the non-title games would go through the roof. That would be like true love — everybody wins.

Those are my top 10…what is it about sports that drives you crazy?

Our list of things we already knew this year includes the BCS’ continued suckiness (Texas-Oklahoma), how teamwork wins championships (KG, Pierce and Ray-Ray), and the #1 rule for carrying a handgun into a nightclub – don’t use your sweatpants as a holster. (Come on, Plax. Really? Sweatpants?)

Don’t miss the other two parts of our 2008 Year-End Sports Review: “What We Learned” and “What We Think Might Happen.”

Brett Favre can’t make up his mind.

The biggest story of the summer was all the drama surrounding Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers. This saga has been covered to death, but there’s one detail that never seemed to get that much play. At the start, it looked like the Packers were making a bad decision by moving on so quickly even when Favre decided he wanted to return. But when the news broke about Favre’s near-unretirement in March, the Packers stance became much more clear. They were ready to take him back after the owners’ meetings, but he called it off at the last minute. At that point, the Packer brass was understandably finished with Brett Favre, much to the chagrin of a good portion of the Packer faithful. – John Paulsen

The Chicago Cubs’ title drought is not a fans-only phenomenon.

The 2008 Cubs were easily the best team the franchise has assembled in decades, but they still couldn’t win a single game in the playoffs, and the reason is simple: the pressure finally got to them. Sure, they said the right things to the press about how they didn’t care about what had happened in the past, but don’t believe a word of it; there wasn’t a single person in that dugout that wasn’t fantasizing about being part of the team that finally, mercifully, ended the longest title drought in sports history. Once ESPN picked them to win it all, however, they were doomed. Ryan Dempster walked seven batters in Game 1, which matched his total for the month of September. The entire infield, including the sure-handed Derrek Lee, committed errors in Game 2. Alfonso Soriano went 1-14 with four strikeouts in the leadoff spot, while the team as a whole drew six walks and struck out 24 times. The team with so much balance in the regular season suddenly became the most one-dimensional team in baseball; take Game 1 from them, then sit back and watch them choke. And now that this group has lost six straight playoff games (the team has lost nine straight dating back to 2003), it isn’t about to get any easier. Get a helmet, Cubs fans. – David Medsker

If you’re going to wear sweatpants to a nightclub, leave the gun at home.

If winning a Super Bowl is the pinnacle of an NFL player’s career, than shooting yourself with your own gun in a nightclub has to be rock bottom. Case in point: Plaxico Antonio Burress. Just 10 months after helping the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, Burress accidentally shot himself in the leg while at a nightclub. Apparently the (unregistered) gun was slipping down his leg and when he tried to grab it to keep it from falling, the lucky bastard wound up pulling the trigger and shooting himself. And that wasn’t the worst of it because as Plaxico found out, New York has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. He was arrested, but posted bail of $100,000 and is scheduled to return to court on March 31, 2009. If convicted of carrying a weapon without a license, he faces up to three and a half years in jail. He shouldn’t expect special treatment, either. The mayor of New York wants to be sure that Burress is prosecuted just like any other resident of NYC. The Giants, meanwhile, placed him on their reserve/non-football injury list and effectively ended his season. While “Plax” definitely deserves “Boner of the Week” consideration for his stupidity, what’s sad is that in the wake of Washington Redskins’ safety Sean Taylor’s death, most NFL players feel the need to arm themselves when they go out. Maybe players can learn from not only Taylor’s death, but also Burress’s accident so further incidents can be avoided. – Anthony Stalter

Shaq can’t rap.

”You know how I be. Last week Kobe couldn’t do without me.” Those are about the only lyrics that are fit to print from Shaquille O’Neal’s post-Finals obscenity-laced rap directed at former teammate Kobe Bryant. Clearly, O’Neal is not over Kobe and is rooting for him to fail. Has there ever been a superstar more obsessed with another player? It’s kind of sad, really. Here’s the full video of the rap – be sure the kids are out of the room. – JP

The BCS sucks.

Only in college football can two teams finish with the same record but the team with the head to head edge does not benefit, as was the case with Oklahoma and Texas this year. The Longhorns beat the Sooners 45-35 (on a neutral field, mind you) on October 11 this season but when it came time for the BCS to decide which team should play Missouri in the Big 12 Championship Game, Oklahoma got the nod over Texas. Look, we understand a playoff in college football would still breed some controversy, but at least teams would be allowed to prove their worth on the field and not allow some computer to decide their fate. The BCS is set up to determine which two teams are the best in college football during the year, but how can it effectively do that when beating an opponent head to head is lumped into the same categories as strength of schedule, illogical rankings, vending sales, parking prices, players’ shoe sizes and everything else? 2008 was just another example of how the BCS is still a gigantic mess. – AS

Tiger Woods is one tough dude.

His victory over Rocco Mediate at the U.S. proved that Tiger can make golf look hardcore. Mediate challenged him all the way to the 91st hole before a visibly ailing Tiger prevailed as the U.S. Open champion. It turns out he was playing with serious knee and leg injuries. After the event, the golf legend had reconstructive surgery to the anterior cruciate ligament on his left knee and rehabilitation on a double stress fracture of his left tibia, which ended his season. But what a way to go out! – Christopher Glotfelty

Someone should sign Brendan Shanahan.

Aside from Mats Sundin, forward Brendan Shanahan is the best impact free agent available on the open market. He wishes to remain close to his New York home, which could give an Eastern Division contending team the edge in signing Shanahan for the remainder of the season. He has scored 650 goals in his stellar NHL career, including netting 23 goals in an injury-plagued season with New York Rangers last year. Still, Shanahan possesses a top-notch wrist shot that is absolutely devastating from the slot in the offensive zone; his booming slap shot could help an ailing powerplay from the point position, and his leadership could help mentor young forwards on an inexperienced team. Shanahan may not have the wheels available to play in an open ice game, but he still can be a valuable member to any team thinking they’re one forward away from Stanley Cup contention. – Thomas Conroy

Trouble follows Pacman Jones wherever he goes.

On April 23, the Dallas Cowboys acquired Adam “Pacman” Jones from the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a fourth-round pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. Dallas owner Jerry Jones then wisely paired his new investment with a bodyguard to help keep him out of trouble. On June 2, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell gave Jones permission to start participating in organized team activities with the Cowboys, which included training camp practices and preseason games. It took Pacman just four months before he was involved in yet another off-field altercation, which was roughly his seventh off-field altercation since he came into the league in 2005. On October 8, Jones was involved in an incident in a hotel bathroom with the very same bodyguard Jones had hired to keep Pacman out of trouble. The bodyguard did not press any charges, but Goodell wasted zero time handing down a punishment and on October 14, Pacman was suspended four games. Jones has since been reinstated by the league, but was warned that just one more incident would lead to his total banishment from the NFL. The over/under on what date Pacman will get into his next off-field altercation has been set for New Year’s Eve night, 2009. – AS

The mid-majors can ball.

They may not play in a power conference, but the so-called “mid-major” programs like Davidson (with sharpshooting guard Stephen Curry) and Xavier (with senior stud Josh Duncan) were able to overcome the odds and advance to the Elite Eight. It’s a sign of the times that a team like Xavier owned the #3 seed, so once #2 Duke fell to #7 West Virginia, the Musketeers were actually expected to make the West Regional Final. On the other hand, #10 Davidson had to upend #7 Gonzaga, #2 Georgetown, and #3 Wisconsin before losing to #1-seed (and eventual champion) Kansas, 59-57. As more and more blue chip players only spend a year or two at the college level, these mid-majors are able to keep most of their players for four years, developing the chemistry and experience necessary to compete with the big boys. Eventually, the sheer talent of the top teams takes its toll on the mid-majors, but it won’t be long before one of these teams breaks through and wins a title. (That hasn’t happened since UNLV did it, 18 years ago.) – JP

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh are the best beach volleyball team…ever.

After May and Walsh won their second consecutive gold medal (which doulbed as their 108th consecutive win), Karch Kiraly pronounced them to be the best beach volleyball team – male or female – in the history of the sport. Who are we to argue? It looks as if the pair is going to take some time off to start their respective families, so this might be the last we see of the dynamic duo in international competition. Thanks for the memories, ladies. – JP

God has a Rayhawk.

We called it in this here column last year: God would shine upon the newly ‘Devil’-free Tampa Bay Rays and see to it that they play in the World Series. Yes, yes, we were joking when we said it – and we also predicted that they would win it all, over the Cubs, no less (our bad) – but never mind that; we had them in the Series before the season even started, which is more than Peter “Small Market Teams Suck” Gammons can claim. Of course, this meant that God had to forsake The The Angels Angels of Anaheim, which means a multi-billion-dollar lawsuit from Angels owner Arte Moreno citing breach of contract is surely in the works. Who knows; if Moreno wins the suit, then he’d have the money to pay both Mark Teixeira and CC Sabathia. The Lord works in mysterious ways, indeed. – DM

Parity rules in the NFL.

How about this for parity: Three teams — the Dolphins, Falcons and Jets — that picked in the top 6 of April’s NFL Draft were still fighting for a playoff berth through Week 15 of the 2008 season. Not only that, but all three teams still had a shot to win their division, too. On the flip side, four teams — the Jaguars, Seahawks, Chargers and Packers — that made the playoffs the previous year were hoping to avoid a last-place finish in their respective divisions at the end of the year. (Settle down, Packer fans. The Lions don’t count.) Some NFL purists claim they don’t like parity because they think the game is too watered down. But how can you not love how every team has a shot to make the playoffs on a yearly basis? How exciting has it been to watch Matt Ryan turn around the Falcons or Brett Favre transform the Jets into a Super Bowl contender? New teams emerge every year and for that, we love how parity has made the NFL the most popular league in America. – AS

It ain’t over til it’s over, especially when the team with the lead can’t shoot free throws.

It’s not often that a team overcomes a nine-point deficit with two minutes to play. It’s even tougher to pull off that kind of a comeback against an elite team like Memphis. But that’s exactly what the Kansas Jayhawks did to win the 2008 NCAA Championship. Trailing 60-51 with 2:12 to play, the Jayhawks capitalized on four missed free throws by the Tigers and made its final four shots – including Mario Chalmers’ clutch three-pointer with 0:09 to play – to force an extra period. Kansas started OT with a 6-0 run and Memphis couldn’t recover. If you ever have trouble convincing your kid to practice his free throws, just show him the final two minutes of that game. – JP

Roger Clemens is (allegedly) a liar.

Last December, former MLB pitcher Roger Clemens’ name was mentioned 82 times in the Mitchell Report, which was Senator George Mitchell’s 20-month investigation into the use of anabolic steroid use and human growth hormone in baseball. On January 6 of this year, Clemens appeared on “60 Minutes” to deny the allegations. On January 28, his agent, Randy Hendricks, released an 18,000-word statistical report in efforts to once again refute the claims that his client used performance-enhancing drugs. On February 13, Clemens appeared before a Congressional committee, along with his former trainer Brian McNamee, who claimed he had documentation that proved his ex-client had used performance-enhancing drugs throughout his MLB career. The case is now in the hands of federal prosecutors. To date, there’s still no hard evidence that Clemens used HGH or other banned substances, but given Mitchell’s report and McNamee’s testimony, things don’t look good for the potential Hall of Fame pitcher. Every man deserves the right to his day in court, but there’s plenty of evidence that says Clemens is a liar and worse, a cheat. And if it acts, walks and talks like a rat, it’s probably a rat. – AS

The Cincinnati Bengals are one dysfunctional mess.

Before the start of the 2008 NFL Season, wide receiver Chad Johnson publicly said that he wanted out of Cincy. The team didn’t oblige his wishes, however, so he decided to legally change his name to Chad Ocho Cinco instead. Keeping up with their reputation, the Bungles decided to re-sign troubled wideout Chris Henry and also signed running back Cedric Benson, who had his own off-field issues with the Bears during the offseason. Did we mention the team also started the season 0-8? And that Carson Palmer has missed most of the season due to a shoulder injury? The Bengals are just one of those teams that appears destined to be forever doomed to NFL hell. – AS

The Redeem Team would live up to its nickname.

After mowing through the competition en route to the championship game, Team USA – led by Kobe Bryant and LeBron James – survived a scare against a feisty squad from Spain (which featured Pau Gasol and NBA ROY candidate Rudy Fernandez) to win the gold medal, 118-107. The win culminated a three-year quest to overcome the embarrassment of the team’s three-loss, third-place performance at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Jerry Colangelo assembled a terrific team (securing Kobe was the key) and found great head coach to lead them. With that much focused talent and Coach K guiding them, it wasn’t likely that they would falter. However, the gold medal game was closer than the score, and it’s a shame that it was only on in the middle of the night in the U.S. – JP

Signing Edgerrin James to a huge contract was probably a bad idea.

Two years ago, the Arizona Cardinals signed free agent running back Edgerrin James to a four-year, $30 million contract despite the fact that he was already 28 and had plenty of mileage on him after being the Colts’ workhorse for seven years. After rushing for just 72.4 yards per game in 2006 and 76.4 YPG in 2007, James was essentially replaced by Tim Hightower midway through the 2008 season. What’s worse, after the team made the move to Hightower, James asked to be released so that he could play elsewhere. Granted, a $30 million contract didn’t destroy the Cards’ salary cap situation, but they ignored obvious warning signs (i.e. age, previous workload) when they signed him and they now have a disgruntled 30-year old backup running back making roughly $7.5 mil a year. While they were criticized at the time for not giving into his contract demands, the Colts now look awfully wise for not overpaying James when he became a free agent. – AS

Rafael Nadal is the next great tennis superstar.

He had already proved his worth at the French Open over the years, but in 2008, Nadal won Wimbledon and took the gold in Beijing Olympics. At just 22 years of age, Nadal has already won five Grand Slams. Having won four straight French Opens, many say Nadal is the most dominant clay court player in the history of tennis. His victory over Roger Federer at Wimbledon was not only the greatest tennis match ever, but undoubtedly one of the most amazing displays of athleticism and endurance in recent memory. Roger Federer will soon hold the record for most Grand Slams – a record that no current player is close to touching. However, Rafael Nadal has the same ability Federer exhibited when he was 22. If Nadal can replicate that level of play he conjured up at Wimbledon, he will continue to rack up Grand Slam titles and, before long, he’ll break Federer’s record. – CG

Teams that spend the most don’t always win (or appear) in the Fall Classic.

Of the five clubs that spent the most in 2008 – the Yankees, Tigers, Mets, Red Sox and White Sox – only two made the postseason. And neither appeared in the World Series. The two teams that did appear in the Fall Classic – the Phillies and Rays – had the 13th and 29th largest payrolls in the league, respectively. Tampa Bay is a prime example that baseball teams don’t have to spend truckloads of money to win. The Rays spent just $43,820,598 on player salaries this year, which was $165,260,981 less than the Yankees, and yet it was Tampa that won the AL East and not the Bronx Bombers. The Rays proved the making sound choices in the draft, wise trades, and not overspending for free agents is a better way to build a team than to recklessly construct a club with big name acquisitions. Think the Yankees learned anything from the Rays this year? We doubt it. They’re already courting the likes of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Manny Ramirez and Mark Teixiera – some of the biggest names on the 2008-2009 free agent market. – AS

The St. Louis Rams are just a bad, bad football team.

The last time the St. Louis Rams made the playoffs, Eli Manning was a rookie, Michael Vick was still in the NFL and Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a 15-1 record. But times have definitely changed for the Rams, who are assured of their third losing season in the last four years. Even worse, there doesn’t seem to be much hope on the horizon. The offensive line might be the worst in all of football, Marc Bulger stopped trying after receiving a huge contract extension before the start of the 2007 season, and a-holes like Richie Incognito would rather put blame on the fans for the team’s troubles instead of the team itself. The Rams also fired their head coach (Scott Linehan) in the middle of the season and his replacement, former defensive coordinator Jim Haslett, appears to be a dud as well. The Rams will no doubt be picking at the top of the draft again in 2009 and are certainly a long ways from being competitive again. – AS

The MLS has a terrible public relations department.

The MLS profile is so low that even its superstars are unknowns to the American public. The MLS Cup, broadcast on ABC at 3:30 PM ET on a Sunday, received a 0.7 rating. Obviously unable to compete with the “other” football, the MLS needs to put up more money to get a better timeslot. It’s amazing how a sport so popular all over the world can’t seem to gain a foothold here in the United States. – CG

It’s easy to overreact in the NBA.

After the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol for Javaris Crittenton, Pau’s brother and a bag of peanuts, two rivals made big trades of their own. The Suns traded Shawn Marion to the Heat for an aging Shaquille O’Neal, breaking up a Phoenix team that was a couple of bench-clearing suspensions away from upsetting the eventual champion Spurs a year earlier. Marion was (reportedly) starting to become a distraction, so the trade at least made a little bit of sense, unlike the Mavs’ decision to trade the about-to-breakout Devin Harris along with two first round draft picks to the Nets for an aging Jason Kidd. While the Lakers made it to Finals, both the Suns and Mavs were bounced out of the first round of the 2008 Playoffs. This year, the Lakers are the class of the West while the Suns and Mavs are both hovering just above .500. – JP

Monte Kiffin runs one of the best defenses in the NFL.

There are a couple of NFL coaches that don’t get nearly enough credit for how good they are. Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin is one of those coaches. Perhaps no defensive coordinator in the league schemes better on a game-to-game basis than Kiffin. Furthermore, he gets the most out of his players despite their age or experience and rarely does his unit get torched for a ton of points. In 2008, the Bucs have the ninth-best defense in the league, have allowed just 17.9 points per game and once again the defense has been the strength of Tampa’s playoff-bound team. But since he’s planning to join his son at the University of Tennessee, the Bucs and the NFL will lose one of the most underrated defensive coordinators in the history of the league. – AS

The Kimbo Slice experience wasn’t built to last.

Kevin Ferguson, better known to the American public as Kimbo Slice, rose to stardom by fighting random nobodies in backyards on YouTube. Somehow Slice rode his YouTube fame to into a career as a mixed-martial arts fighter and a role on a prime time network event called EliteXC. On October 4, Slice was supposed to take on Ken Shamrock as part of CBS’s “Saturday Night Fights,” but Shamrock received a cut above his left eye during a warm up and couldn’t fight. So Seth Petruzelli, a former K-1 kickboxer turned MMA fighter, replaced Shamrock and promptly knocked Slice out 14 seconds into the first round. – AS

If three stars are willing to work together, great things can happen.

Some questioned the trio’s willingness to share the ball, but Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen didn’t have any problem putting their egos aside in pursuit of an ever-elusive NBA Championship. After a first-round scare against the Hawks (where they couldn’t win on the road), the C’s plowed through the competition in the East before working over the Lakers in the Finals. While Pierce, KG and Ray Ray stole most of the headlines, the rest of the Celtics had much to do with the team’s success, especially point guard Rajon Rondo and utility man James Posey. – JP

NASCAR’s sponsorship dollars are shrinking.

In the past year, many long-time NASCAR sponsors have ended their agreements with smaller racing teams in favor of signing with larger, more successful teams. It’s no longer good enough to have your name on the hood of a competitive automobile; instead, sponsors want to be associated with drivers turning into the winner’s circle on a weekly basis. Sponsors moving from one team to another are not a new concept in NASCAR, but it hasn’t ever happened at this frenetic of a pace. Many in NASCAR fear that with the current economic recession, it could reduce the amount of sponsorship dollars available this off-season. – TC

Mike Singletary is a great motivator – even when he has to pull down his pants to prove a point.

After the San Francisco 49ers fired head coach Mike Nolan following the team’s 2-5 start, he was replaced by defensive coordinator Mike Singletary, who was highly regarded as an emotional leader during his playing days and a great motivator for young players as a coach. But his first game as the interim coach was a disaster as the Seahawks built a 20-3 halftime lead and eventually beat San Fran 34-13 on their home field. After the game, Singletary gave a postgame speech that rivaled the likes of Denny Green’s “They are who we thought they were” meltdown. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. Word spread that Singletary actually dropped his pants during his halftime speech in an effort to relate to them that the Seahawks were – for lack of a better term – making fools out of them. The speech apparently worked because the Niners almost upset the Cardinals the following week in Arizona on Monday night, then thumped the Rams 35-16 in Week 11. Although maybe the players turned in a better effort in hopes that they wouldn’t be subjected to seeing their coach drop his trou again in the locker room. – AS

Paul Newman loved racing.

On September 27th, actor Paul Newman died from his long battle with lung cancer. He was famous for starring in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” and “The Verdict.” He also founded “Newman’s Own” a food company that donated all of its profits to various charities. But Newman was also recognized as a racing enthusiast and became involved in the sport after filming “Winning” in 1969. He competed in his first race in 1972 and finished in second place at the 1979 LeMans 24-hour endurance race. Later, Newman co-founded a racing team with Carl Haas, and at the age of 70, he became the oldest driver to compete in a sanctioned race. He often joked that racing was his escape from his day job. He will be missed. – TC

The world is a mess. Osama Bin Laden is still at large, the U.S. economy is in a recession and our country is still fighting two different wars on two different fronts.

But I can’t control any of that. On the whole, 2008 has been a pretty good year for Team Paulsen. My wife and I had our first child, a happy and healthy son (97th percentile in height = future 6’10” power forward), and I still have a job and a roof over my head.

I write about sports, so in the spirit of Christmas, which – let’s be honest – is really about getting, not giving, I scribbled down a few things that I’d like to see gift-wrapped underneath the tree.

So, without further ado, all I want for Christmas…

…is a college football playoff.
This drives me nuts and I know I’m not alone. I’m a casual fan of college football and I only watch maybe 10-15 games the entire year, including one bowl game – the BCS title game. If there were an eight-team playoff, I would make a point to watch every single one of those seven games. Not only that, but I’d start watching more of those late-season games that feature teams that are fighting for a playoff berth. I know money is a big issue with the BCS, but if casual fans are going to increase the number of games they watch by 50-70%, how can this not bring higher ratings and more ad revenue? This whole situation is mind-boggling.

…is Sunday Ticket for all fans.
I live in a condo and my patio doesn’t have a view of the southern horizon, so I can’t get DirecTV. And since I can’t have DirecTV, I can’t get NFL Sunday Ticket. Whenever the package is up for sale, the NFL continues to sell the exclusive rights for Sunday Ticket to DirecTV. The cable companies are part of the problem – they can’t seem to join forces and get a combined offer together – but the NFL is mostly to blame for not doing everything in their power to bring as much NFL action as possible to their fans. The increase in the number of subscriptions would offset the loss in profit from selling the “exclusive rights,” or at least I think it would. I don’t really care. I just want to get Sunday Ticket in my condo that has no view of the southern horizon and I’m guessing there are millions of fans that are in the same boat.

…is every game in HD.
The NFL is on board. But there are still some sports that are slow to move to the HD format. The NBA Season Pass is a perfect example. Sure, I can watch any NBA game I want, but the picture is always crappy. Wouldn’t it be great if all the major sports – NFL, CFB, CBB, MLB, NBA and NHL – broadcast every game in high def?

…is a NBA “Fourth Quarter Channel” that bounces around to the best action.
DirecTV’s Red Zone Channel is great. Every Sunday, they jump from game to game and bring us all the scoring plays and red zone possessions. Why doesn’t the NBA Season Pass create a similar channel? It wouldn’t have to operate on days where the league has a light schedule – say, less than five games – but when there are five or more games, why not have a channel (in HD, of course) that brings us all the action, especially all the nail-biting drama in the fourth quarter? The NBA has an advantage over the NFL in that the start times are staggered due to the different time zones, so when there is a full slate of games, there should be plenty of good action and exciting finishes to choose from.

…is a salary cap in Major League Baseball.
I’m not asking for a hard cap, like the NFL, though that would be optimal. I just want some sort of a salary cap with a 50% luxury tax that pays the small-market, fiscally conservative franchises and allows them to be profitable. Say we have a cap of $100,000,000. That way, when the Yankees roll out their $250,000,000 payroll, they have to pony up another $75,000,000 to be divvied up amongst the small market teams. Maybe that would make them think twice before buying up every good player on the market. Before you throw the Tampa Bay Rays in my face, let’s see where they are in four or five seasons. Small market franchises can put together a competitive team for one or two seasons, but it’s impossible to keep it up over the long haul because the Yankees or the Red Sox are inevitably going to come in and sign all their good players.

…are shorter MLB, NBA and NHL seasons.
I know this is a moneymaker for each league, but these seasons are so long that they barely even matter. Long seasons are all right as long as the playoffs aren’t too inclusive, but the NBA and NHL have 82-game seasons and over half the teams make the postseason. This adds up to relatively meaningless regular season games. I’d cut the regular season for all three sports in half and eliminate back-to-back games, at least in the NBA and NHL. This would improve the quality of play and make the regular season important again. Anytime people refer to your regular season as a “grind,” it’s time to start thinking about paring it back.

…are more Saturday NFL games once the college season is over.
College football is pretty much dead the entire month of December yet the NFL is reluctant to schedule more than the occasional Saturday game. This seems like a missed opportunity to me. I know the NFL likes to own Sundays, but what’s wrong with scheduling a few of the better matchups on Saturday so the entire country can see them?

…is a two-year minimum (or an age-limit of 20) before players can declare for the NBA.
These “one and done” players are making a joke out of college basketball. It’s wreaking havoc for college recruiters and there is little continuity in many of the major collegiate programs. In a perfect world, this would be the rule: 1) high school players can declare themselves eligible for the NBA Draft immediately after graduation or 2) they can go to college (or the NBDL or overseas) for a minimum of two seasons before making themselves eligible for the draft. Almost two years ago, I wrote a column that went into great detail about how high school draftees have a better chance of making it in the pros than college or international players do. Almost two-thirds (64%) of high school players drafted in the first round went on to become superstars, stars or starters in the NBA. Compare that to the one-third (32%) of college and international players drafted in the first round that went on to have similar success. It’s clear that high school players are capable of being successful in the NBA, but I understand why the league would like these players to get a year or two of coaching and experience on the college level before making the jump. Under my proposal, if a player does not get drafted, he could still go to college for two seasons and make himself eligible again. If a high school player is drafted but is a bust, he can play in the NBDL or overseas until he’s seasoned enough to return to the NBA (and the league should have an office that helps these players find a new basketball home). The best players successfully make the leap, the fringe players have two years of college before the NBA and the so-called busts have the safety net of the NBDL and/or playing overseas until they’re good enough to return.

But enough about me – what sports-related gifts would you like to see under the tree?

To pique fan interest, lure sponsors and maximize TV ratings, MLB has, over time, adopted a three-tiered playoff system — four divisional series leading to two championship series to, finally, the World Series — which by definition diminishes the meaning of the regular season.

Talk about your mixed messages. On the one hand, the game is at its pastoral best when it is played out over time, when it meanders through the summer like a lazy river, when patience is rewarded, when one game by itself may mean so little.

Then, once we hit October, baseball becomes manic. The marathon turns into a sprint, especially in the division series, which still are the quirkiest of arrangements, just a quick, best-of-five-games test.
Of course, every team knows what the rules are. None of this is new to them. And what infuriates purists delights the masses. When teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were only six games above .500 and had the 15th-best record during the regular season, are potentially just four games away from the World Series, that’s the kind of story that brings people running to their TV sets.

But let’s examine that sentence again. A team with the 15th-best record in baseball is four games away from the World Series. And the teams with the two best records in the game are at least 169 games from the World Series — next year’s World Series.

Like all other big U.S. professional sports, baseball elongates its season not necessarily to crown the year’s best team, but to meet and perhaps exceed all financial, marketing and entertainment goals.
But not every last bit of regular-season integrity need be lost. It’s time for MLB to go back to two divisions in each league, with the top two teams in each division making the playoffs. In other words, no more 15th-best teams allowed.

Brennan makes a great point that in the end, baseball wants to market itself in the best way possibly to make more money. But MLB is a business, so of course it wants to make more money and will continue to think of ways to do so.

Where she misses the point is that it’s not the league’s fault that every infielder for the Cubs made an error in the same game against the Dodgers, or that the Red Sox continue to own the Angels in the postseason. And only four teams in the postseason? How is this fun for fans? Without a salary cap, more times than not the teams that spend the most will go to the playoffs. (And before anyone says anything, I know that the Rockies and Rays made the playoffs the last two years with small pay rolls. But look at the Rockies – they couldn’t sustain their World Series momentum this year because they don’t spend enough to compete year in and year out.)

The postseason format is fine. It’s getting a cap in place that should be the league’s top priority. But that will never happen.