SPANISH FOOTBALL TALK

ATLETICO DE MADRID took advantage of the official presentationof Liverpool signning Luis Garcia to media, to announce & confirm thesignning of Brazilian & SANTOS midfielder CLEBER SANTANA.The player has commited himself to Atletico for 3 seasons.SPORTING OF LISBOA is negotiating with FC BARCELONA the loanof its Argentine forward MAXI LOPEZ for next season. Lopez who belongsto Barça, played on

SPANISH FOOTBALL GOSSIP & TALK

GABRIEL MILITO defender for Argentina & ZARAGOZA is thecentre of a "fight" to get his services for next season. JUVENTUSseems to be in the front row, after the player apparently gave his word, but FC BARCELONA is now making a serious effort tolure over the player, specially after CHIVU has given his OK to RealMadrid. The latter club was also interested in Milito for a while, buthas backed off in

Grading the Fan Vote - American League

Now that that rosters are [mostly] picked, it's time to evaluate how the fans did in voting for the starters. I'll use the A-F grading scale, using my very subjective analysis.

Catcher: Ivan Rodriguez
Grade: F
Explanation: These days, Pudge isn't even one of the 5 best catchers in the AL. His AVG is still a respectable .280, but his OBP is less than .300 (thanks to a pathetic 4 BB on the year), and he's not hitting for that much power either. Jorge Posada, Victor Martinez, Joe Mauer, Kenji Johjima, and Jason Varitek all would have been better choices.

First Base: David Ortiz
Grade: A
Explanation: He's not really a first basemen, but he qualifies there on the ballot and he is deserving of this spot. You could certainly make a case for his teammate Kevin Youkilis (maybe the biggest snub), Casey Kotchman, Justin Morneau, or maybe even Mark Teixeira (though he has missed time), but Ortiz has been very good at the plate, as usual. I have no problems with this choice.

Second Base: Placido Polanco
Grade: C
Explanation: I don't think Polanco was the right choice, but it's not as bad as the choice of Pudge. Polanco has at least been above average. BJ Upton and Dustin Pedroia have both been better than Polanco, but they have considerably less ABs than him. The best choice, I think, would have been Brian Roberts, who is getting on base at a better than .400 clip and hitting for more power than Polanco.

Third Base: Alex Rodriguez
Grade: A
Explanation: It's simply not even close.

Shortstop: Derek Jeter
Grade: B
Explanation: I think Carlos Guillen has clearly been the best SS in the AL so far this year, but Jeter has probably been 2nd best, so he's not a terrible choice. You could probably make a case that Jeter has been more valuable overall, as he is getting on base more and has nearly 60 more ABs. So I'd take Guillen definitely, but Jeter is at least a rational choice.

Outfield: Magglio Ordonez
Grade: A
Explanation: He's been one of the top 2 hitters in the AL all season long (along with A-Rod), so he is the obvious and right choice here. He's getting on base at a great rate and has a ton of doubles. He's one of the top candidates for MVP of the first half of the year.

Outfield: Vladimir Guerrero
Grade: A
Explanation: Among AL outfielders in terms of hitting, there is Magglio and Vlad, and then there is everyone else. Vlad has shown surprisingly good patience, giving him a .423 OBP at this point, and continues to hit for solid power.

Outfield: Ichiro Suzuki
Grade: A-
Explanation: There are a couple other possibilities here, such as Torii Hunter or Curtis Granderson (another large snub), but Ichiro is a pretty good choice. He's getting on base a ton and playing very good defense in CF. It's be nice if he would hit for more power, but he has been very valuable so far.

So overall, pretty nice picks. I would say 2 picks were blatantly wrong, and maybe 2-3 more were questionable. All in all, that's pretty good.

What are your thoughts on the picks?

REAL MADRID NEWS. CHIVU SAYS OK TO REAL MADRID

Fresh from the "Marca" web :http://www.marca.com - ROMAplayer CHIVU has accepted & agreed to the REAL MADRID offer.Pedja Mijatovic, Real "Football Director" is in Rome meeting theplayer & has managed to sway Chivu away from the Fc Barcelona &Inter Milan offers.Real now needed to negotiate with Roma & come to an agreement.Real has put down 15M€ plus a player which could be either Cassano,Cicinho

Is ESPN Killing the NHL?

Jason Chung has an excellent piece over on The Situationist that examines to what extent ESPN has harmed the NHL by either ignoring it or belittling it. Jason studies how fans' attitudes can be shaped by broadcasting choices, particularly at dramatic junctures, such as in the aftermath of the 2004-05 NHL lockout. Here is an excerpt from Jason's piece:

Since the NHL made the questionable decision to abandon the cable network as its broadcast partner in favor of the fledgling Versus network, many have argued that NHL coverage on the Worldwide Leader in Sports has ranged from underwhelming to disrespectful. Even ESPN’s ombudsman, Le Anne Schreiber, felt compelled to examine hockey coverage on the network. In an article last month, she confirmed that hockey coverage has indeed diminished 28% on Sportscenter over the last three years and that hockey-oriented shows such as NHL 2Night were cut altogether since ESPN’s loss of NHL rights.

The reduced exposure on ESPN can only be harmful to the NHL. By minimizing coverage and highlights, the network is effectively reducing the imprint of the game on Americans’ collective sports consciousness. Worse still, several ESPN writers and commentators have gone out of their way to emphasize the demise of hockey. Le Ann Schreiber recently noted that during the NHL’s regular season, hockey was only mentioned on-air if there happened to be “some egregious brawl” or if it was being “dissed” for its invisibility and irrelevance. . . .

Surely, ESPN’s attitude towards hockey influences its audience. Herbert C. Kelman of Harvard University notes that there are three source characteristics necessary to persuade others and change their attitudes: the source’s (1) expertise, (2) trustworthiness, and (3) power. Of course, ESPN scores a hat trick by (1) regularly hosting a series of experts on various sporting subjects, (2) hosting several hard-news sports programs, and (3) attracting sports’ heavy hitters to its airwaves. Thus, ESPN can exert informational and normative social influence on sports fans who, like the rest of us, seek consensus and conformity far more than we realize. As Situationist contributor Sung Hui Kim notes, this motive for conformity exists among peers and groups of many types, including otherwise adversarial lawyers.

For the rest of the piece, click here.

Update: Eric McErlain over on Off Wing Opinion--the leading blog on hockey--has a terrific analysis of Jason's post.

FERNANDO TORRES TO LIVERPOOL. A QUESTION OF HOURS

Spanish media has the following developments all our its sportspages in headlines. Things are real close!ATLETICO DE MADRID forward FERNANDO TORRES hasreturned to Madrid from his holidays & is currently in meetings withhis club & LIVERPOOL representative to negotiate & clear the fewobstacules left in his transfer to the English club.Close sources are commenting that the operation maybe

New Sports Law Scholarship

Recently published scholarship includes:

Brian W. Collins, Note, Tackling unconscious bias in hiring practices: the plight of the Rooney Rule, 82 NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW 870 (2007)

Mike Rogers and Rory Ryan, Navigating the bylaw maze in NCAA major-infractions cases, 37 SETON HALL LAW REVIEW 749 (2007)

Eric Thieme, Note, You can’t win ‘em all: how the NCAA’s dominance of the college basketball postseason reveals there will never be an NCAA football playoff, 40 INDIANA LAW REVIEW 453 (2007)