The AP's Ronald Blum noted the Dodgers' acquisition of 2B Chase Utley has put the team "close to becoming the first baseball team" with a $300M luxury-tax payroll. MLB calculations show that the Dodgers' "projected payroll for tax purposes" rose to about $298.5M. Performance bonuses for other players and end-of-season award bonuses "could make the Dodgers the first team" to reach the $300M mark. The NL West-leading Dodgers are "well above" the $198M tax threshold and will pay at a 40% rate for "exceeding the mark for the third straight year." The team's projected tax bill is about $44M, which "would top the record" $34M paid by the Yankees after the '05 season (AP, 8/20).
NO FUN IN THE SUN: In Ft. Worth, Mac Engel noted every MLB team "has to deal with a handful of bad start times," but no team "is routinely hammered with this reality" like the Rangers. Since May 11, they "will have played 11 afternoon games at home" this season, which is 11 games "too many." Fans are "paying too much money to attend games to be this miserable" due to the heat, and the Rangers "do not need any help in losing attendance." The team is "averaging a little more than 31,000 fans at home this season, down from the 33,500 it had last year." Afternoon start times "are murder at the gate" (STAR-TELEGRAM.com, 8/19).
I AM DOLL PARTS: In DC, Scott Allen noted the first 20,000 fans at Nationals Park on Sept. 3 will "receive a set of nesting dolls featuring five Nationals players painted in five different uniforms from the team’s 11 years" in the city. The set includes former Nats manager Frank Robinson, former P Chad Cordero, 1B Ryan Zimmerman, RF Bryce Harper and P Max Scherzer. The team "originally wanted to do a 10-piece nesting doll, with a different player from every year in Nationals history." The production cost of 20,000 sets "was prohibitive, but the Nationals ordered 100 10-piece sets that will be redeemable with 'golden tickets' randomly inserted in 100 boxes of the five-piece sets" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 8/20).
