The Boston Red Sox won the World Series last night, so what is the baseball world buzzing about today? In the same way that the antics of train wrecks like Britney Spears steal headlines away from others with worthy accomplishments, we are writing about the Yankees and their messy divorce from future Hall-of-Famer Alex Rodriguez. Yesterday, A-Rod's agent, Scott Boras, announced that the third-sacker would take his option to terminate his 10-year, $252 million contract early and put himself up for auction.

In the typical classy Yankee way, Steinbrenner the Lesser, Hank, took the opportunity to blast the player, telling the New York Daily News, "He doesn't understand the privilege of being a Yankee on a team where the owners are willing to pay $200 million to put a winning product on the field."

After years of being crucified by the New York press, fans and front office for failing to hit enough to overcome a minor-league starting rotation and a gaggle of overpaid, over-aged teammates, who wouldn't want out?

The question now is who will step forward to pay A-Rod more than his previous contract? No other team enjoys the Yankees' attendance or media income. Fortunately, we're not talking Wall Street, but baseball, and business economics are not its forte. Remember that A-Rod signed his huge contract with Texas, who, when they came back to their senses and realized they couldn't cover that salary, were forced to deal him to New York while agreeing still to cover part of his salary.

Boras, known as the superagent, is too shrewd to make such a move without confidence that a least a couple of teams will contend to sign the best player in baseball. The Chicago Cubs could use his talents, although last year's signing of Alfonso Soriano tied up a lot of Chicago's cash. The Cubs could also go on the block soon, as well, and a lot of debt might not help that.

Last night marked a once a every-few-years event: another Major League Baseball team got sold. Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) was finally given all approvals to close the sale of the Atlanta Braves to Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ: LINTA). The hold-up was the approval from Major League Baseball because of media changes and the potential changes that they take into consideration, but that is final.

Liberty Media exchanged approximately 68.5 million shares of Time Warner common stock for a newly created subsidiary that holds the Atlanta Braves, Time Inc.'s Leisure Arts, and $960 million in cash. Liberty has also retained approximately 103 million shares, or about 2.8% of Time Warner common stock.

This will also essentially complete Time Warner's $20 billion share buyback plan, taking care of two parts of its restructuring at once. This is a deal that had been in the works for some time, and that should put the restructuring at least well into the second half of the game. Batter up!

Jon Ogg is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

As if $7 beers, steroid scandals, and terrible haircuts (oh, Johnny Damon, what happened?) weren't enough of a challenge for the beleagured game of baseball to overcome, now there's an even bigger threat to worry about: changes in corporate ownership.

The Atlanta Braves are up on the auction block (as they have been for quite a while), and it looks like Time Warner may finally get out of the big leagues by selling them to Colorado-based Liberty Media Corporation.

Ted Turner had long held a soft spot for the Atlanta Braves, acquiring them three decades ago. When Time Warner merged with Turner Broadcasting System in 1996, it also picked up the Braves. But rather than seeing the Braves as a perk, TWX has long viewed the Braves as an albatross around its neck.

Third baseman Chipper Jones, echoing the sentiments many Braves, is worried about the corporate switch-up pitch. "I don't know what [Liberty Media's] intentions are as far as salary structure, but the bottom line is: They're from out of town."

If TWX can sell the Braves, will it finally get back on base?