MLB announced Friday that MLBE President Greg Murphy
has resigned his position. Murphy was at MLBE for just over
one year. MLB President & COO Paul Beeston said the league
was "disappointed, as Greg has achieved what he has set out
to do in his first year," with marketing deals with PepsiCo,
Anheuser-Busch, Quaker-Gatorade, MasterCard and Hershey.
Murphy said that with Beeston in his new position, "there is
just not enough content for both Paul and me, so I decided
it was time to return to the business world" (MLB). The AP
reported that MLB "fired" Murphy after it hired him "with
much hype" 16 months ago. Murphy "quickly ran afoul of the
teams and the staff of the commissioner's office." While
MLB said he resigned, "several officials speaking on the
condition that they not be identified confirmed that Murphy
was fired" (AP/N.Y. TIMES, 10/19).
SLOW ROLLERS: ESPN's Mitch Albom, on the pace of the
World Series Saturday night: "If they don't pick up the pace
of this sport ... 10 years from now this is going to be the
No. 3 sport in America" ("The Sports Reporters," ESPN,
10/19)....In Boston, Peter Gammons: "The embarrassing
display of umpiring in the National League playoffs and the
presence of Dale Ford in the World Series are examples of a
problem that the weak-kneed leaders of baseball must
address. ... Instead of protecting the game, the absurd
power of the union protects the incompetents, results in
disgraces like Game 5 and 6 of the NLCS, and embarrasses all
the good umpires who work hard during the season but are
left home" (Peter Gammons, BOSTON GLOBE, 10/20).
