Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen today will hold a press conference at Marlins Park at 10:30am ET to "address comments in a recent Time magazine article concerning Cuban dictator Fidel Castro" (MIAMI HERALD, 4/10). Cuban exile group Vigilia Mambisa "has called for a protest" today, as Guillen's comments have "outraged many within Miami's Cuban exile community" (MIAMI HERALD, 4/10). Miami-Dade Board of Commissioners Chair Joe Martinez has called on Marlins Owner Jeffrey Loria "to urge Guillen to resign" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 4/10).

FOXSPORTS.com's Ken Rosenthal writes the Marlins should suspend Guillen. Rosenthal: "A one-month suspension would send a powerful message." The PALM BEACH POST's Joe Capozzi writes the timing of Guillen's comments to Time "could not be worse for the Marlins" as they rebrand themselves in South Florida. The MIAMI HERALD's Beasley & Mazzei write this marks the "latest in a string of recent public relations stumbles" for the team.

Newark Mayor Cory Booker pens a guest column for the Newark STAR-LEDGER expanding on his previous public criticism of Devils Owner Jeff Vanderbeek. Booker lists what he believes are some of the "more serious breaches of public integrity demonstrated by Vanderbeek" under the arena deal with the city. These include failing to contribute to the city's "job-training and placement efforts," make contributions to nonprofit youth organizations or "build a recreation center." Booker: "I have never known businesspeople to conduct themselves as Vanderbeek has" (Newark STAR-LEDGER, 4/10).

The STAR-LEDGER's own editorial board weighed in on the issue over the weekend: "The city made a bad deal under former Mayor Sharpe James, investing huge subsidies to construct the team’s arena, and wound up with much less than expected to show for it." Newark is "responsible for its own mistakes," and it "should have been more careful in its dealing with the Devils." But the "team should be more generous to the city, given the enormous subsidy" (NJ.com, 4/8).

MLB is launching a new cable channel tonight at 7:00pm ET called MLB Network Strike Zone, which is patterned after the NFL's successful NFL RedZone Channel. The channel already has signed affiliate deals with Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, DirecTV and Dish Network. The channel will operate on Tuesday and Friday nights during the season, when MLB Network carries live games. During that time, Strike Zone will provide live look-ins and highlights commercial free. It will be part of DirecTV's Sports Pack and MLB Extra Innings package, and part of Dish Network's Multi-Sport Pack.

NBA Kings Owners the Maloofs are headed to N.Y. this week for a "series of crucial meetings with fellow NBA owners" regarding the team's arena plans. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and other city officials "don't plan to attend," and they have said that they "don't plan to renegotiate the arena deal and consider the dispute a matter to be resolved by the NBA and the Maloofs." A "key issue" is whether the Maloofs should contribute $3.2M toward environmental studies "and other pre-development costs" (SACBEE.com, 4/9).

The meetings "could be pivotal" for the Maloofs, who are expected to tell other owners that they "never formally agreed to deal details" spelled out in the non-binding agreement approved March 6 by the City Council (SACRAMENTO BEE, 4/10).

Georgia State Univ. announced that they are joining the Sun Belt Conference, "which they originally helped found" in '76. GSU will become an official member in July '13 "and will then be immediately eligible to compete" in all sports. The school "must pay an exit fee of at least $250,000 to leave" the FCS Colonial Athletic Association, and a $300,000 entry fee to the Sun Belt. The CAA is voting today whether to up its exit fee to $1M; GSU "will not participate" in that vote (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 4/10).

Meanwhile, new Sun Belt Commissioner Karl Benson is "hustling to hold on to" current Sun Belt schools "while rounding up replacements as well." The "pace of change" in conference affiliations prompted Benson to take over from retiring Sun Belt Commissioner Wright Waters last month, rather than the original date of June 30 (NOLA.com, 4/7).

MLS and adidas today will announce plans for the '12 MLS All-Star Game in Philadelphia to be the first-ever "smart soccer match," meaning it will feature adidas' new micoach professional soccer team performance analysis system. The tracking system provides real-time metrics for player position, power output, speed, distance covered, intensity of play, acceleration and GPS heat mapping. The system will be rolled out globally in the coming season after its July 25 All-Star debut (THE DAILY).

See an online video promoting the micoach system. 

As is usual early in the season, lagging attendance is a storyline for several MLB teams, with the Blue Jays' home opener being a notable exception. Below is a round-up of notable attendance figures from last night's games:

• A crowd of 48,473 attended the Blue Jays' home opener against the Red Sox at Rogers Centre. ESPN BOSTON’s Gordon Edes writes, “The Rogers Centre is a different place when it’s packed, which only happens these days for the opener. There were 48,473 on hand, and this team should be good enough to sustain some interest this summer” (ESPNBOSTON.com, 4/9).
• A crowd of 42,003 attended last night's Mariners-Rangers game at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, which marked the debut of Rangers P Yu Darvish. The game failed to sell out, but attendance was about 4,500 higher than a similar game against the Mariners last season (DALLASNEWS.com, 4/9). ESPN Dallas' Tim MacMahon on his Twitter feed posted an image of Rangers Ballpark last night and wrote, "Nowhere near a sellout for Yu debut."
• A crowd of 16,909 attended last night's Cardinals-Reds game at Great American Ball Park. NBCSports.com's Drew Silva wrote, "Empty seats tonight at GABP make me sad. Lot of MLB towns would kill for that roster and an ownership group willing to commit $225M to a 1B."
• A crowd of 10,054 attended last night's Royals-A's game at O.co Coliseum. The San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami wrote on his Twitter feed, "A's announced attendance: 10,054. Somehow I've missed about 8,000 of those people who supposedly are here." The Oakland Tribune's Joe Stiglich wrote, "I've seen some small Coliseum crowds for Monday games, but this has got to be the smallest. #Athletics."
• A crowd of 9,473 attended last night's White Sox-Indians game at Progressive Field. CNBC's Darren Rovell included an image of a nearly-empty Progressive Field in a tweet with the copy, "Extremely educated guess: There's no way the Indians are pulling a profit tonight." Last night's contest was the second straight game the Indians have drawn less than 11,000 fans (THE DAILY).

Steelers President Art Rooney II, Pro Football HOF VP/Communications & Exhibits Joe Horrigan and Pro Football HOFer Franco Harris today will announce that the Heinz History Center will "host a traveling exhibit from the hall for three months this upcoming fall" (PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE, 4/10).

Nets Owner Mikhail Prokhorov today is slated to tour the site of the Barclays Center "for the first time." Prokhorov is expected to attend the NBA BOG meetings on Thursday and Friday, when the league "will officially approve the franchise's impending move to Brooklyn" (NYPOST.com, 4/8).

Ball Corp. CEO John Hayes today will announce that he has acquired a CHL franchise that will play in Denver Coliseum (DENVER POST, 4/10).

NetJets is running a full-page ad in today's N.Y. Times featuring Bubba Watson hugging his mother following his playoff victory at The Masters and the copy, "The Best Fly The Best. ... Because Those Truly Special Moments In Life Demand Being There With Family And Friends" (THE DAILY).

"It's not something that you put on Craigslist. We have fairly high standards for our owners" – NASL Commissioner David Downs, who is looking for a buyer for the Minnesota Stars soccer team, on the league requiring team owners to have a net worth of at least $20M and own at least 35% of the franchise (MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/6 issue).

"When some sports get dropped, women get blamed. They shouldn't. Women are still $176 million behind in athletic scholarships, year after year, even though overall college enrollment is now around 54 percent women" – Billie Jean King, who discussed Title IX while speaking at the Simmons Leadership Conference in Boston (BOSTON GLOBE, 4/10).

"It can be healthy for ASU with a new burst of energy. This did not come as some bitter, kick-to-the-curb type situation. That's just not a fair description of the truth" – Former Arizona State Univ. VP/Athletics Lisa Love, on being replaced by Steve Patterson last month (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 4/10). 

"I think Larry and I are still in disbelief that they are doing a play about us. This is the first time I've been portrayed by anyone. It's a scary feeling when you are sitting there and somebody is saying Magic or Earvin and you are sitting there watching them" – Basketball HOFer Magic Johnson, on the "Magic/Bird" Broadway show (NEWSDAY, 4/10).

AP's Rob Harris: "New Wimbledon CEO Richard Lewis is also chairman of Sport England, which last week cut funding to ... tennis."

Oklahoma Univ. Senior Associate AD/External Operations Kenny Mossman: “A guy named Bubba Watson winning the Masters is like a guy named Thurston Howell III winning the Daytona 500.”

NBCSports.com’s Craig Calcaterra: “I think what Tim McCarver said over the weekend was way more disturbing than what Ozzie said.”

NLL Rochester Knighthawks account exec Ben Cerow: "Matt Kemp is on Conan. Must be nice to have his confidence. And his success. And his money. Well, I guess they're all kinda the same thing."

If you see a tweet we will not want to miss, send it to us at editorial@sportsbusinessdaily.com. 

Euro Sport & Event Management Managing Dir Christian Machowski posts this shot of the Netherlands Paralympic men's soccer team training in the London Olympic Village. Machowski tweets, "Great backdrop for the training session. The Velodrome is architecturally the outstanding building of this complex."

The Syracuse Univ. Chapter of Women in Sports and Events will present "A Word to the WISE: Leveling The Playing Field," a symposium that explores the issues and obstacles that women face in the sports and events industry. The event will be held from 2:00-4:00pm ET at the school's Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium.

Last night’s “Final Jeopardy!” category was “The Hollywood Walk of Fame.”

“His widow Maria Elena and actor Gary Busey were on hand when his star was dedicated outside Capitol Records in 2011.”

Last night’s edition of “Jeopardy!” featured the category “I’m Gonna Hurl.”

For $400: “In 2010, Roy Halladay of this team threw two no-hitters – one in the regular season and one in the post-season.”

For $800: “This Stanford quarterback was out of this as the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2010 and 2011.”

For $1200: “Forms of this field event, in which a 16-pound object is hurled, were once practiced at festivals honoring Thor.”

For $1600: “Jan Zelezny holds the world record in this field event with a throw of almost 325 feet.”

For $2000 (DAILY DOUBLE): “Wearing a kilt is mandatory in the Highland Games event called ‘tossing’ this, often a 17-foot-long fir pole.”

ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel: “Bubba Watson won The Masters Golf Tournament, Tiger Woods finished in 40th place. A lot of people picked him to finish first, but it was his worst finish there since his start as an amateur back in 1995. One more performance like that and they might demote him to miniature golf. … Mike Tyson has a one-man show starting on Friday at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas. It's called ‘Mike Tyson, Undisputed Truth.’ He's been doing interviews to promote this. … He was inspired to do this one-man show by a show Chazz Palminteri did on Broadway called ‘The Bronx Tale.’” … Tyson: “Can you imagine one guy making a play better than the movie? It's so overwhelming, breath-taking. You could hear a needle drop on a haystack, it was so mesmerizing.” Kimmel: “He really hit the nail on the button with that one” (“Jimmy Kimmel Live,” ABC, 4/9).

CBS’ David Letterman: “The Masters, first major of the year and probably the most prestigious; it came down to a playoff. You can't get much more excitement. Did you see the end of suspense of the playoffs? Take a look, we have it on tape.” While golfer Louis Oosthuizen was setting up for a putt, the announcer repeatedly mispronounced his name to the point CBS had to cut to commercial break. Letterman: “Louis Oosthuizen was in a tie at the end of the regulation rounds and they went into the playoff. At one point this guy scored a ‘double eagle.’ In golf, you get par and then one over par I think is like a ‘bogey.’ Then if you have like one under par, I think that's like a ‘birdie.’ Then you have like the ‘eagle’ and then they say what this guy did was called an ‘albatross.’ … But this ‘double eagle’ or ‘albatross’ as they call it, the only thing more rare at Augusta is a female member. … The membership committee at the Augusta National Golf say they still are not going to admit women to the club. However, this is a breakthrough: Beginning next month, they are going to start admitting effeminate men” (“Late Show,” CBS, 4/9).

NBC’s Jay Leno: “Congratulations, Bubba Watson won The Masters Golf Tournament! Not a lot of guys named ‘Bubba’ winning golf tournaments. That's like a guy named ‘Prescott’ winning the Cracker Barrel Monster Truck Pull” (“The Tonight Show,” NBC, 4/9).

Last night’s edition of CBS’ “Late Show” featured stage manager Biff Henderson at the Yankees Spring Training, talking with players and fans. Henderson mentioned at the beginning of the segment that this was his 12th year going down to Florida, which Letterman responded, “How about that? They should make you an honorary Yankee.” Henderson: “I would love to have a ring.” Henderson then asked the following questions to several Yankees players and fans: Henderson said to P Joba Chamberlain: “Hey Joba, check this out.” Henderson proceeds to put a wig on a baseball mitt. Henderson: “It’s Mitt Romney.” Henderson asked Baseball HOFer Reggie Jackson to explain "the infield fly rule in three words or less?” Jackson was unable to come up with a response. Henderson asked C Francisco Cervelli: “Are you upset because you guys didn’t get Peyton Manning?” Cervelli: “Peyton Manning? Yeah, we’re upset, but we got Andy Pettitte.” Henderson said to Pettitte: “Let’s be honest with me now: Were you just sick of taking the garbage out?” Pettitte: “That’s for sure” (“Late Show,” CBS, 4/9).

“Who was Buddy Holly?”

Correct responses to the “I’m Gonna Hurl” category:

For $400: “What is the Philadelphia Phillies?”

For $800: “Who is Andrew Luck?”

For $1200: “What is the hammer throw?”

For $1600: “What is the javelin?”

For $2000 (DAILY DOUBLE): “What is a caber toss?”