The 2008 Major League Baseball World Series achieved the event's lowest television ratings in history, and the league is off to a similarly lousy start to the 2009 season.

Ratings for Fox Saturday Baseball have slipped 9% since last season and 23% since 2000. The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that Fox executives will be meeting with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig next week to try to come up with ways to boost ratings.

Executives are not panicking yet -- the real test will be the All-Star Game and the Playoffs, which account for 90% of the revenue under licensing deals.

Let's take a trip to the "yeah right" files with this entry. Boston Red Sox owner John Henry has again picked up the torch crying for a salary cap yet again. Pot, this is the kettle. The Red Sox payroll is the fourth-highest in Major League Baseball at $133,390,035. Henry's problem is that he was outspent by his arch rival: the New York Yankees. In fact, Henry said that the Yankees spent like Congress.

For history's sake, Henry presented a salary cap five years ago (which was sour grapes in the wake of losing A-Roid to the Yankees) -- obviously this proposal never took hold. I just find it humorous that the owner of the Red Sox is calling for a salary cap. This is a team that is spending a veritable ton of money, and is succeeding. Let's take a look at the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds, the Oakland A's. All of these teams are considered "small market" teams. One would think that one of their owners would be yelling for a cap -- and that isn't the case.

No, we aren't talking about a great deal of cross promotion between my Cincinnati Reds and my Columbus Blue Jackets or anything (although the thought of my right-handed doppelganger, Aaron Harang on skates should intimidate even the toughest hockey player), but Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) and the National Hockey League (NHL) are teaming up.

The two are going to start co-selling an online video package where out-of-market game subscriptions for both leagues will be marketed in tandem. According to The Sports Business Journal (SBJ), this deal "marks a rare level of cooperation between sports entities with limited common ownership."

The New York Mets, whose September collapses have delighted us Philadelphia Phillies fans, have screwed up even bigger with their $400 million stadium naming rights deal with Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C).

Baseball's premier choke artists are now denying an earlier report that the troubled New York-based bank was trying to back out of its commitment to the team. New York Newsday is quoting a team official "We're committed to our agreement with Citi, and Citi has indicated it is committed to users." He went on to defend Citi, saying that the bank "needs to advertise."

Last July I suggested that Citigroup (NYSE: C) should cancel its $400 million deal to put its name on the new New York Mets stadium. Although previous CEO Chuck Prince inked the 20-year deal, I called for it to be canceled after Citi posted $17 billion in losses for the first half of 2008. Not surprisingly, it took more than my blog post to push Citi to cancel the $400 million deal.

After getting $45 billion in government bailout cash and another $305 billion in loan guarantees; and canceling the delivery of a $50 million corporate jet, it comes as no surprise that Citi is beginning to realize that times have changed. But as I suggested last July, there is a rich history of companies naming stadiums after themselves and soon ceasing to exist. For instance, there used to be a stadium in Houston named after a little energy trading firm you may have heard of -- Enron.

Gotta love it when the worlds of sports and politics combine ... I mean at least our founding fathers had enough sense to try and separate church and state, right? Perhaps this news isn't that big of a deal, but I thought it funny that we now have the Chicago White Sox releasing a special Barack Obama hat.

That's right, the Chicago White Sox are fashioning a new hat based on their top fan in chief, President Obama. The Sox (not to be confused with the Sawx, don't bother me Boston fans) are going to release two special edition hats with Obama tributes on the back and the side of the cap.

Perhaps this is a post-season tilt that the Cubbies may actually be able to win. Sorry Chicago, but this blogger is a dyed-in-the-wool Cincinnati Reds fan ... and I love to take cheap shots at the competition whenever I can.

You see, the Cubs are suing Under Armour, Inc. (NYSE: UA) for breach of contract (check out SportsOneSource Media for the heads up). The UA logo is emblazoned on the left-center and right-center field doors embedded in the iconic ivy walls of Wrigley Field.

After the New York Yankees signed the three biggest free agents on the market, Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio sent an email to Bloomberg calling for a salary cap: "At the rate the Yankees are going, I'm not sure anyone can compete with them. Frankly, the sport might need a salary cap." He added that "I paid $220 million for my team; now they get three players for $420 million."

Under a salary cap system, teams would be limited as far as how much they can spend on player salaries each year -- the idea is to allow smaller-market teams to be competitive.

But in an interview with CNBC, Scott Boras -- the controversial super-agent who represents Mark Teixeira, Manny Ramirez and many others -- explained why he doesn't think baseball should have a salary cap. Of course it's a pretty self-serving argument but here's what he said: "I'm not sure what a salary cap does other than it prevents choices."

Of course Scott Boras could sell a champion sailor to a guy in the desert, but he actually might be onto something with this one: The free agent frenzy of out of control spending adds a "Hot Stove" season to baseball that others sports lack. And for all the talk about big budget teams killing competitiveness, the two teams that made it to the World Series ranked 13th and 29th (second to last) on the list of teams with the biggest budgets.

With the signings of C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira, The New York Yankees have signed the three biggest contracts of the off-season.

That spending spree is raising concerns about competitive balance in baseball, and Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio is none too pleased. In an email to Bloomberg, he wrote that "At the rate the Yankees are going, I'm not sure anyone can compete with them. Frankly, the sport might need a salary cap."

In a phone interview with Bloomberg, he added that "I paid $220 million for my team; now they get three players for $420 million." Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash had some fighting words for the Yankees: "This is very reminiscent of what they have tried before. It didn't work then, and I'm not sure it's going to work now."

Whether baseball will ever end up with a salary cap is an open question. Under the current system, teams that spend huge sums of money on players are required to pay a "luxury tax" to the league, but that seems to do little to dissuade these signings.

For the sport as a business, a salary cap seems to be the way to go. This arms race hurts profitability for all teams, and it certainly seems to be having a negative impact on team values. According to Forbes, the average National Football League team, which operates under a salary cap with non-guaranteed contracts, is worth $1.04 billion. In baseball, only the Yankees are valued at more than $1 billion, and the league average is just $472 million.

Are you disgusted yet? This week MBIA (NYSE: MBI) testified -- no they lobbied, hmm, actually they complained -- well the truth is they whined to Congress that short-seller William Ackman had trashed its reputation, and its stock for personal gain -- gee, no kidding -- but the big problem is he seems to have been correct to a major extent. For more on this see MBIA asks Congress to fight its battles with Ackman by Peter Cohan or MBIA plays the spooky short-seller card by Zac Bissonnette.

I own MBIA shares and recently "adventured" into more, but it was not based on management crying foul and everything being just fine. I did it because I think the company will work through the mess over time and that it is oversold now based on fear. MBIA needs to focus on cleaning up its exposure to risk and underwriting standards and stop looking for scapegoats.

Others are in the same boat. There are times the squirming around the truth is painful to watch. This week we watched a baseball pitching icon, Roger Clemens, remind us once again of the first rule of holes: "If you're in one, stop digging." I'm afraid this truism that I often refer to will continue to be a recurring theme in my stories every so often, because some folks just don't get it.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is probably too busy plotting world domination to spend much time worrying about something trivial like baseball -- until now.

America's pastime is about to start post-season play, most of which will be televised on the company's Fox television network. Already, there was one huge surprise as the Philadelphia Phillies overtook the New York Mets to win the National League East. But this isn't the type of surprise that the media mogul probably likes because a team from a smaller media market beat one from a larger one.

Remember that last year's series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers had record-low television ratings. Advertisers pay a premium price for television spots on the World Series because of the huge audience it attracts. Fox probably has guaranteed that the commercials will be seen by a set amount of viewers and must refund money to advertisers if these targets aren't hit.

During the past week or so, fashion designer Marc Ecko has been tabulating votes to decide what to do with Barry Bonds' 756th home-run ball. The three choices offered in an online poll were: Bestow It, Brand It, Banish It.

The fans have spoken, and door-number-2 was selected; the ball -- bought by Ecko for $752,467 -- will be marked with an asterisk before being handed over to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. According to the site Ecko set up for the express purpose of voting, 34% favored giving the ball, unblemished, to the Hall of Fame. 19% of voters wanted the ball banished, and 47% preferred branding it. The asterisk merely serves as a permanent reminder that Hank Aaron's record was toppled by someone facing allegations of steroid use. Bonds has repeatedly denied knowingly taking any performance-enhancing drugs.

Ecko and Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey both appeared on NBC's Today show to discuss the matter. Petroskey noted that, regardless of the asterisk, "We're happy to get [the ball] ... we're a nonprofit history museum, so this ball wouldn't be coming to Cooperstown without Marc Ecko buying it from the fan who caught it."

Bonds, naturally, had a compelling opinion on the matter, telling The San Francisco Chronicle, "[Marc Ecko's] stupid. He's an idiot ... What he's doing is stupid."

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Many people are puzzled over Sam Zell's highly leveraged $8.2 billion purchase of the Tribune Co. in light of the decline in the newspaper business. One of the diamonds in the deal, however, is the Chicago Cubs, and indications are that he intends to quickly mine that gem for all it's worth.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Tribune Co.'s (NYSE:TRB) avowed intention to sell the Cubbies may be considerably more complex than most franchise sales. The Tribune owns not only the ball club, but also the ballpark, and 25% of the cable TV network that carries its broadcasts, and could choose to sell them separately.

The Cubs, despite a century-long title drought, continue to draw capacity crowds to legendary Wrigley Field, over three million last year alone. This year, to the surprise of most prognosticators, the team is fighting for the NL Central pennant, great timing for the sellers. According to Forbes, the team alone is currently worth $592 million, on an operating income of $22 million.

Walt Disney Corp. (NYSE: DIS), Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) may be tempted to pick up the Yankee Entertainment & Sports Network, the cable TV channel that broadcasts the baseball team's games which Bloomberg News said could be worth as much as $2 billion.

The channel, whose owners include Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) and former New Jersey Nets owner Raymond Chambers, is "running a limited check" and would only consider selling if it got a price "reflecting its real value," spokesman Peter Rose told Bloomberg. Funny guy to be quoted in a baseball story. I guess anything is for sale at the right price. What an original concept.

It will be an interesting test of wills between Disney's ESPN and Comcast. ESPN remains a juggernaut for the house that Mickey built. Comcast is trying to challenge ESPN with its Comcast SportsNet channels including the one I watch in Philadelphia that broadcasts Phillies games.

Remember, we're talking about the Yankees here, one of the most recognized though not necessarily loved franchises in baseball. New Yorkers, though, continue to love their Bronx Bombers even though they have struggled this year.

But the time the YES network is sold, however, slugger Alex Rodriguez will have left the Big Apple for parts unknown. With $2 billion in the bank, I'm sure the team could afford to replace him.

"June swoon." "Lovable losers." "Completely Useless By September." The beleaguered and disrespected Chicago Cubs are a storied franchise with an historic ballpark, enthusiastic and loyal fans, and a supposed "curse" that has followed the team for nearly a century. In recent years, things have rolled even further downhill. In 2003, one misguided fan contributed to the team's elimination from the National League Championship Series. In 2005 and 2006, Cubs fans had to watch as their respective cross-city and division rivals, the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals, earned the World-Champion title.

For the boys in blue, it's time for a change, and maybe a new owner is just what the club needs as it approaches the 2008 season, marking the 100-year mark from the Cubs' last World-Series victory. For the past 26 years, publishing firm Tribune (NYSE: TRB) has owned the ball club, but as it progresses through its $8.2 billion buyout to Windy City real-estate mogul Sam Zell, it is planning a sale of the Cubs for somewhere close to $1 billion (Tribune acquired the team in 1981 for $21 million.) The deal, record-setting for the sporting world if it tops $1 billion, would include the ivy-covered walls of Wrigley Field and a 25% stake in Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Sportsnet Chicago.