Last year, when the Yankees failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1994, baseball fans the country over were gleeful. They were also uninterested in watching the postseason, and as the Yanks are now within three wins of a World Series title, a common theme has emerged this October: The Yankees are good for baseball. The ratings from Games 1 and 2 of the World Series are in, and the numbers are great. The ratings for Game 1 were up 34 percent over 2008, and the game was the second most viewed Game 1 since 1999. Last night’s game saw a whopping 48 percent increase in viewership over 2008’s Game 2. If this World Series stretches on long enough, the TV ratings and viewership figures could very well set some cumulative Fall Classic records.

The Cardinals will announce at a Monday morning press conference Tony La Russa’s decision to return for a 15th season as manager. Today’s run-up, however, features mounting evidence that La Russa’s return after a 2-week deliberation will be dwarfed by former Redbirds first baseman Mark McGwire’s return from a self-imposed 8-year exile to become the team’s hitting coach.

The club on Friday notified hitting coach Hal McRae it would not renew his contract, the Post-Dispatch has learned.

Multiple sources, including McRae’s son Brian, have confirmed McRae’s ouster following a five-year term as hitting coach.

A club source confirmed a plan to bring back McGwire but cautioned that a formal announcement could wait until after Monday’s press conference. McGwire is believed to still be negotiating a deal that would put him back in uniform for the first time since he abruptly retired after the 2001 season due to chronic injuries.

Club sources indicated Saturday that La Russa’s return was all but certain; however, La Russa deferred, saying he still had loose ends to tie before confirming he would be back.

General manager John Mozeliak offered no comment Sunday. La Russa, who arrived in St. Louis to attend a Sunday night Bruce Springsteen concert, did not return phone messages.

As recently as the day after the Cardinals were eliminated from the Division Series by the Los Angeles Dodgers La Russa insisted he did not foresee changes to his coaching staff should he return. Growing speculation arose during the season’s final weeks that the club was considering replacement McRae, whose contract expires Oct. 31. McRae becomes the fifth hitting coach dismissed during La Russa’s term in St. Louis. His 5-year term is the longest of any.

The club remains extremely sensitive to reaction about McGwire’s return. After setting the single-season home run record by hitting 70 in 1998, McGwire became the face of an ongoing controversy surrounding the prevalance of performance-enhancing drugs in the game. The club offered him a spot as a guest hitting instructor during 2007 spring training, an invite McGwire briefly entertained before rejecting due to a family issue.

McGwire has operated a de facto off-season hitting camp in Orange County for a number of major-league hitters in recent years. Current Cardinal outfielders Skip Schumaker and Matt Holliday along with recently-traded outfielder Chris Duncan are among the campers. Daric Barton, Bobby Crosby and Garrett Atkins also have attended.

McGwire has eased a bit from his seclusion from media in recent months, serving as a panelist on a Sporting News opinion board. He also spoke to the Post-Dispatch shortly before the 10th anniversary of his breaking Roger Maris’ single-season home run mark. However, he has yet to address the smear to his reputation that followed him from Congressional hearings on steroid abuse on March 17, 2005. McGwire famously insisted he did not attend to ”talk about the past.”

Free agents 2009 salary
Brandon Lyon $4,250,000
Fernando Rodney $2,700,000
Jarrod Washburn $9,850,000
Adam Everett $1,000,000
Aubrey Huff $8,000,000
Placido Polanco $4,600,000


Signed through 2010
Pitchers 2010 salary
Jeremy Bonderman $12,500,000
Rick Porcello $2,005,000
Nate Robertson $10,000,000
Dontrelle Willis (DL) $12,000,000

Hitters 2010 salary
Miguel Cabrera $20,000,000
Brandon Inge $6,600,000
Curtis Granderson $5,500,000
Magglio Ordońez $18,000,000
Carlos Guillen $13,000,000

Arbitration eligible
Pitchers F.A. after
Edwin Jackson 2011
Zack Miner 2012
Bobby Seay 2010
Justin Verlander 2011
Joel Zumaya (DL) 2011

Hitters F.A. after
Gerald Laird 2010
Ramon Santiago 2010
Marcus Thames 2010
Matt Treanor (DL) 2010

Under club control*
Pitchers 2009 salary
Eddie Bonine $400,000
Freddy Dolsi $407,000
Casey Fien $400,000
Alfredo Figaro $400,000
Armando Galarraga $435,000
Fu-Te Ni $400,000
Ryan Perry $400,000
Clay Rapada $405,000
Zach Simons** $400,000

Hitters 2009 salary
Alex Avila $400,000
Dusty Ryan** $400,000
Brent Dlugach** $400,000
Michael Hollimon (DL) $400,000
Jeff Larish (DL) $403,000
Don Kelly** $405,000
Ryan Raburn $410,000
Wilkin Ramirez** $400,000
Clete Thomas $403,000
Casper Wells** $400,000

*club can renew at figure club sets if parties don't agree to contract.

** spent all or most of season in minors

http://www.freep.com/article/20091008/SPOR...-agents-and-all

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- If Boston pitching coach John Farrell is the No.1 managerial candidate on GM Mark Shapiro's list, Shapiro better be ready to do his best selling job.

Boston GM Theo Epstein granted the Indians permission to talk Farrell on Monday, the day after the Red Sox were eliminated from the postseason in a three-game sweep by the Angels in the AL Division Series. The feeling, however, is that Farrell is committed to stay in Boston.

This is Farrell's third year as Boston's pitching coach. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2007, reached the seventh game in the ALCS in 2008 and won the AL wild card this year to reach the postseason. As Indians manager, Farrell would looking at a two- to three-year rebuilding project under the best conditions.

Epstein told The Associated Press that Farrell would be allowed to interview with the Indians if he wanted. Epstein added that Farrell said he would like to stay in Boston.

Farrell was the Indians' farm director from 2001-06 before taking the pitching coach's job with Boston. He pitched for the Indians from 1987-90 and again in 1995.

After retiring as a player, Farrell spent as the assistant coach/pitching and recruiting coordinator at Oklahoma State. It was Farrell's alma mater and he finished his degree there while coaching.

The Indians did not ask for permission to talk to Boston bench coach Brad Mills, another person who was thought to be under consideration to replace manager Eric Wedge, fired with six games left in the 2009 season. Wedge and his staff finished the year.

San Francisco bench coach Ron Wotus, another possible candidate, has not been contacted to date.

Dave Clark, who finished the year as Houston's interim manager, had not heard from the Indians as of Monday. Clark, a former Indian, will interview Wednesday for the Astros job.

Mike Hargrove, with the second most managerial victories in Indians history, would love a chance to interview for the job, but as of Monday had not heard from the team.

Shapiro and Antonetti began phone interviews Monday with "eight to 10 candidates" culled from a list of about 30 managerial possibilities. They are conducting the interviews from their spring training headquarters in Goodyear, Ariz., where they are beginning the team's organizational meetings with scouts and staff members.

From that list, three to five candidates will be brought to Cleveland for interviews. Shapiro would like to have the manager in place by the end of the World Series.

Former big league manager Bobby Valentine is thought to be one of those candidates. Valentine has spent the last six years managing in Japan.

In an e-mail to The Plain Dealer, Valentine responded, when asked if the Indians' job interested him, "I would be honored to talk with the guys who run the club."

In another e-mail sent Monday, Valentine said he had just returned from Japan and was anticipating getting a call from the Indians sometime this week. Valentine, who just signed a lucrative deal with ESPN, has an escape clause in his contract if he is offered another managerial job. Shapiro would not comment when asked if he was interested in Valentine.

Japan's Chiba Lotte Marines cut ties with Valentine at the end of this season because they could no longer afford him.

NEW YORK – The Chicago Cubs filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday, a step that will allow their owner to sell the baseball team in an $845 million deal. The filing in Wilmington, Del., was anticipated and is expected to lead to a brief stay in Chapter 11 for the Cubs. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday in front of the judge who has been handling the bankruptcy of the Cubs' owner, Tribune Co.

The Cubs' filing is part of the Tribune Co.'s plans to sell the team, Wrigley Field and related properties to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts, the founder of Omaha, Neb.-based TD Ameritrade.

Tribune, which also owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy protection in December, but the Cubs were not covered in the filing. The team's run through Chapter 11 could last mere days, enough to protect its new owners from potential claims by Tribune creditors, said Ira Herman, a bankruptcy attorney with Thompson & Knight.

Tribune bought the Cubs in 1981 for $20.5 million from candy maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. Tribune announced plans to sell the franchise in 2007, but got tripped up by the recession and the collapse of the credit markets.

It has agreed to sell the Ricketts family a 95 percent stake in a deal that tops the record $660 million paid for the Boston Red Sox and its related properties in 2002. Tribune Co. is keeping the remaining 5 percent.

Major League Baseball's other owners have approved the sale.

The Cubs' bankruptcy filing is not the first in baseball. The Baltimore Orioles were sold in a bankruptcy auction in 1993 after owner Eli Jacobs filed for Chapter 11. The same happened to the Seattle Pilots after the 1969 season. The new owners moved the team to Milwaukee and changed the name to the Brewers.

The National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes, a franchise that has yet to make a profit since moving from Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1996, filed for Chapter 11 protection in May.