Saving a stadium

Just last year, Tiger Stadium seemed as doomed as Jim Leyland's lungs. Detroit had awarded a demolition contract for the old ballpark and auctioneers had sold off everything, including a dugout urinal. (Why anyone would want a dugout urinal is a subject for another day. "Wanna come down the basement and see my urinal collection?") Now a Detroit group, the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy, is attempting to save it - the ballpark, not the urinal. The group, which includes Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) and Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell, has until June 1 to raise enough money to fund its plan to salvage part of the stadium, which the Tigers abandoned in 1999 after 87 years there. "The field is sort of sacred ground," Levin said.

Dirty laundry

Erica Ford is underpaid. The 59-year-old woman has to wash all the California Angels' dirty uniforms, socks and undergarments. She said manager Mike Scioscia superstitiously turns his pants inside out after wins, and Vladimir Guerrero nervously picks away his uniform's red piping. Ford is responsible for making those repairs, for sewing on numbers and letters as well as cleaning the disgusting stuff. So it's somewhat surprising that in a game in which multimillionaires are as commonplace as tobacco stains, she is paid $10.70 an hour. As the Los Angeles Times pointed out, that means that in a typical four-hour shift, Ford earns half of what a ballplayer gets in daily meal money.

 

Beane sprouts again

If there's one thing worse than the Oakland Athletics' colors, it's seeing them back atop the American League West. You know what that means, don't you? It means that now we'll again have to hear and read about Billy Beane, boy genius and A's general manager. It was nice not having to hear about the hero of "Moneyball" during those seasons when the A's were lower than Wendell Kim's knees. But now he's back pontificating, boring and driving old-school baseball men crazy.

 

Notable

Alex Rodriguez's strained right quadriceps will keep him from playing this week, causing the New York Yankees star to miss this weekend's series against the crosstown rival Mets. Rodriguez has not played since April 28.

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Contact staff writer Frank Fitzpatrick at 215-854-5068 or ffitzpatrick@phillynews.com.