In Jacksonville, Vito Stellino wrote NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has “spent his entire career working in the league office and his lack of experience working for a team showed when the league pushed the draft into May for next season.” The move is “another example that the league is all about marketing now.” Another thing Goodell “doesn’t understand is the role of the preseason.” As he "lobbies for an 18-game regular season schedule, he talks about fans complaining about the ‘quality’ of the preseason.” But the preseason “isn’t about quality,” rather it is about “preparing the team for the regular season and giving coaches time to evaluate the players” (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 6/2).
MLB LOSING CHARACTER? In Detroit, Jerry Green wrote the allure of MLB interleague games "has gone kaput -- vanished.” What MLB Commissioner Bud Selig “designed as a baseball novelty in 1997 has turned into a drag.” While MLB has "prospered during Bud Selig's regime," it has “forfeited much of its dignity and integrity.” While producing "millions, maybe billions, more in revenue, it has cheapened itself as a game -- as a pastime.” Selig “counterattacks all criticism with the response that Major League Baseball is thriving.” Green: “True, due to soaring television revenue. The players are working for millions in wages. The owners are delighted” (DETROIT NEWS, 6/1).
ODD MAN RUSH: In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont noted the NHL will not stage its annual awards ceremony in Las Vegas, due “mainly to the lockout and the resultant jammed June schedule (playoffs/draft)." The league instead will “split the ceremony into two parts, the first on the day before Game 2 of the Cup Final, and the second as a lead-in show on the evening of Game 2” (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/2).
