John Beamer, a Boston-based management consultant, writes about the economics of baseball for The Hardball Times, an online baseball magazine (hardballtimes .com). Beamer recently answered a Tribune reporter's questions about the value of the Tampa Bay Rays, now that they have achieved a winning season, and how major league teams are valued overall. ...more

September 6, 2008

He is the model for professional sports commissioners. Pete Rozelle, a compromise candidate to replace Bert Bell as NFL commissioner in 1960, would become the most powerful man in pro football. During his 29-year tenure, Rozelle oversaw the NFL-AFL merger and the birth of the Super Bowl. He weathered labor strife in the 1980s, a gambling scandal in the 1960s, and an ill-advised decision to allow games the weekend John F. Kennedy was assassinated. ...more

December 26, 2007