Loyal readers of this blog (all three of you) have probably been wondering why I haven't updated in a while. Well, I must confess that I have been away with my wife on an 11-day trek through Italy and Spain, which included a week-long cruise on the Mediterranean Sea. I make no apologies.

Traveling abroad and trying to find sports scores becomes a challenge when you decide against bringing your laptop, thereby placing yourself at the mercy of international television and a 75-cent-per-minute Internet cafe. Our ship broadcast a European version of ESPN that aired almost nothing but soccer, including a live broadcast of the selection of the Champions League draw. The "bottom line" ticker that we're all accustomed to appeared sparingly, and usually to only give more soccer results. At one point I went five days without a single score involving my hometown Phillies, who are in the middle of a pennant race. Painful.

Of course, since this was a vacation to get AWAY from work, I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about sports. We did see the Roman Coliseum (impressive) and the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, where Real Madrid plays (big, but not as impressive.) But we saw far more historic churches than stadiums.

A few thoughts on some of the sports biz stories that broke while I was gone:

-The Nationals decision to drop Aramark and go with Centerplate as the concession provider at the new ballpark is about as surprising as Fred Thompson's "announcement" that he was running for president. The stories of cold hot dogs, surly service and food shortages made this a no-brainer for team officials, who probably made this decision months ago. I know very little about Centerplate except that I've heard they've done some interesting things at AT&T Park in San Francisco and have provided concessions at FedEx Field for years.

Fans should expect a vast improvement in food service next year, but that will largely be the result of the new ballpark. RFK Stadium, for all its rustic charm, simply had too many narrow concourses and broken elevators to make a concession provider's life easy. Aramark isn't blameless, but they were probably in a no-win situation.

What will be interesting to see is what role the Nationals and Centerplate will have in hiring concession workers at the new stadium. Many fans complained not only about the quality of food at RFK but the competence and friendliness of the staff. I'm still trying to determine whether the city will still be in charge of hiring, but even if they aren't, hiring laws may still require the team and the company to draw from the same pool of workers.

- Now that David Beckham looks like he's out for the year, some people have asked whether it's possible for L.A. Galaxy fans to ask for a refund.

Geoffrey Rapp at the great Sports Law Blog suggests that the team and Major League Soccer doesn't have much to worry about legally, but that they might be wise to refund some money just to be nice.

Personally, I don't think the Galaxy or MLS owes anyone a dime, since I generally laugh at the notion of paying money to see one player perform. And frankly, I bet most of the people who shelled out hundreds of dollars to see Beckham play simply wanted to say they were part of the Hollywood hype. They got what they deserved.

Why someone would pay $500 to see Beckham play in an exhibition game against Chelsea when they could spend the same amount on a game to the World Series or NFL playoff game is beyond me. I guess some people have more money than sense.

- And now to try something that might screw up the time/space continuum: A reporter who also blogs will now blog about a blogger who reports on an interview he conducted with a reporter who also blogs.

My friend Maury Brown at bizoffootball.com interviewed Darren Rovell of CNBC about a variety of issues including the Michael Vick case and the discussion of playing more NFL games in Europe. I love Rovell's response when Maury asks him if the NFL is "bulletproof."

"Yep," Rovell says. "These past couple months and this season will prove that the NFL is impossible to damage. ... When games come around, diehards still watch and go to games. Do they care that their player got arrested? Only the part about him not being on the field."

Interesting article by John Ourand in this week's Sports Business Journal about Ron Darling, the former Mets pitcher who served as an analyst for MASN during the network's debut season in 2005. If you recall, Darling was skewered by fans and local media for his performance and was dropped from the network after just one season.

Darling is now an analyst for Mets games on SportsNet New York, and he seems content now. But his comments about his MASN experience make for a great read.

Some tidbits from the article:

-Darling had a mere two hours to decide whether to join MASN. He was sitting at his home in Lake Tahoe when he got a call from his agent just two days before the season started. He never auditioned for the job or even sent tapes of his in-booth performance. He met play-by-play man Mel Procter for the first time just three hours before the game.

-The first production meeting took place in a rented Toyota Corrolla three hours before the first pitch of the Nats' first game. Then-GM Bob Whitelaw was behind the wheel and got lost, resulting in a drive from the Four Seasons Hotel to the stadium that took more than an hour.

"We were like the Keystone Cops, with heads hanging out of windows. Our production meeting was held in a rent-a-car. What can I say?" said Darling.

-Darling admits to being so inexperienced that he often said nothing, even when Procter fed him lines.

-At one point, there were so many technical difficulties that Darling had to comment on a replay he wasn't even able to see.

-"I was on an island," Darling said. "I never had one meeting with the powers that be at MASN over my inability to express myself. Because I was getting such criticism, I thought at some point I'd either be fired or they'd tell me to start doing something differently. That just didn't happen."

Sorry for the lack of link, folks. SBJ's site is subscription only.

ESPN may be the so-called Worldwide Leader in Sports, but it actually finished behind Yahoo Sports in the number of hits to its Web site last month, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Yahoo Sports reported 20.2 million unique visitors last month, versus 19.7 million for ESPN.com. Much of that shift can be attributed to Yahoo's recent purchase of Rivals, a popular Web site devoted to high school and college sports.

That Yahoo Sports would surpass ESPN.com in Web hits might seem surprising, but it really isn't. Remember that Yahoo Sports is part of the Yahoo network, one of the biggest Web portals around. Think of all the people who log on to Yahoo.com just to check their e-mail or read some news headlines who might be directed to Yahoo's sports pages. ESPN doesn't have that built-in advantage.

And this is not the first time ESPN.com has been surpassed; FoxSports.com occasionally records more monthly hits than ESPN.com, in large part because of its relationship with another enormous Web portal, MSN.com.

ESPN said simply recording the number of visitors to its Web site does not reflect the true connection it has with sports fans. It does not record downloads of ESPN podcasts, for instance, or the number of people watching games online through ESPN360 or on mobile phones.

"No single metric completely reflects that reach and connection we make with sports fans, regardless of which month we're talking about,” the company said in a statement.

Don't worry: ESPN.com is not struggling. It still has far more original editorial content than other sports Web sites, and visitors to the site tend to stay much longer. My guess is that ESPN.com also pulls in far more advertising revenue than Yahoo Sports or Foxsports.com. But to be the top sports Web site in terms of unique visitors might require a partnership with another high-traffic Web portal.

-- Tim Lemke

Reclusive Redskins owner Dan Snyder has granted a rare one-on-one interview with Comcast SportsNet, to air following next Sunday's game against the Giants. The network will show the entire interview in its entirety on "Redskins Post-Game Live" after the game, with excerpts to air during "Redskins Kickoff" at 3 p.m. that day.

Comcast says Snyder will discuss his relationship with fans and the media, with coach Joe Gibbs and the possibility of winning a Super Bowl.

Some highlights of the interview include:

-Snyder proclaiming Ryan O'Halloran to be "the greatest sportswriter I've ever met from a state ending in 'Dakota.' "

-The 'Skins owner revealing that FedEx will now pay its stadium naming rights fee in the form of an annuity that can't be cashed until he turns 60.

-News that the team will shed its controversial mascot and will now be known simply as "GEICO."

-Snyder acknowledging that he ordered the use of video cameras on the sidelines at FedEx Field, but only to make a home movie of Katie Holmes.

The game between the Redskins and Eagles was the most-watched program on any channel on Monday night and was the highest-rated program on ESPN this year.

The contest was seen in an average of 8.75 million homes, trailing only "High School Musical 2" as the top broadcast on cable in 2007.

Content related to the game at ESPN.com and on mobile devices generated 53 million page views, an increase of 25 percent over the comparable period last year.

Locally, about one-third of all people with televisions in the D.C. area tuned into the game on either ESPN or WDCA Channel 20.

After enduring a summer with a dearth of live sports programming, Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic is launching a special overflow channel to accommodate the abundance of games it plans to carry this fall and winter.

The network will unveil CSN+ on Friday, Oct. 5, with the game between D.C. United and the Kansas City Wizards. The Washington Capitals home opener will air on CSN's main channel.

CSN+ is not a full-time channel, but will be available when CSN's partner team's are playing at identical times.

You may recall that the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network launched a similar overflow channel, MASN2, to accommodate coverage of the Nationals and Orioles. In most instances, CSN+ will replace MASN2 on your channel lineup. You can find out for sure by typing in your zip code at CSN's Web site, comcastsportsnet.com.

“With such an abundant programming schedule to accommodate a diverse viewership, Comcast SportsNet must create an additional channel that supports all of our live sports content,” said Rebecca O’Sullivan-Schulte, senior vice president and general manager of Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. “With the 78 Wizards games, 75 Capitals games and numerous collegiate football and basketball matchups we will carry this year, Comcast SportsNet couldn’t fit it all on only one network."

-- Tim Lemke

BusinessWeek will release its first-ever listing of the Top 100 most powerful people in sports in its Oct. 8 edition, and Michael Vick tops the list.

OK, no he doesn't. The top honor actually went to Vick's best friend and business associate, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.

I wonder how long it took to determine that Goodell was the most powerful man in sports. I can imagine the conversation among writers and editors going something like this:

BusinessWeek editor: "What's the most popular and powerful sports league?"

Poorly paid editorial assistant: "The NFL"

Editor: "Who's the head of the NFL?"

PPEA: "Roger Goodell."

Editor: "Ok, 99 more to go."

The BusinessWeek "Power 100" was put together in conjunction with ESPN the Magazine and (surprise!) there are FIVE execs from ESPN on the list. The list has most of the big names you'd expect; I can't think of any terrible glaring omissions, though I might have included MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Indy driver Danica Patrick and Jimmie Lee Solomon from Major League Baseball. I take issue with few inclusions (three ESPN execs would have sufficed. And why is Omar Minaya on here?) but it's a good list, overall.

Tiger Woods is No. 2 on the "Power 100," NBA Commissioner David Stern is No. 3 and ESPN head honcho George Bodenheimer is No. 4. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig rounds out the top five.

The top five athletes on the list are Woods, followed by Michael Jordan (11), Peyton Manning (13), David Beckham (17) and LeBron James (19.) The top-ranked woman is Katie Bayne, a vice president with Coca-Cola.

Redskins owner Daniel Snyder is ranked 40th, sandwiched in between fellow media-hater Barry Bonds and Derek Jeter. 'Skins coach and NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs is 93rd, right in between Yankees general manager Brian Cashman and NBA executive Heidi Ueberroth. (Amazingly, Gibbs is the 93rd-most powerful man in sports and he can't figure out how to score on a first and goal from the one yard line.)

BusinessWeek won't release their methodology until the issue comes out. I'm curious to see it, because I wonder how one actually determines that Dale Earnhardt Jr. is more powerful than George Steinbrenner.

-- Tim Lemke

The Wizards today began their celebration of the 10th anniversary of Verizon Center by volunteering to help spruce up Spingarn High School off Benning Road in Northeast.

The "Community Day Service Makeover" featured a half-dozen Wizards players as well as a busload of employees from the team and Verizon Center.

Some had landscaping duties, while others helped paint "green waves" -- the school's logo -- on the walls of the school's gymnasium.

Wizards Andray Blatche and Nick Young chose to paint, and they appeared at first to get more paint on themselves than on the walls. Blatche wrote "I am Nick" on Young's shirt, while Young retaliated with "I am a nerd." It was horseplay of the most sophisticated nature.

"I'm just keeping it professional ... you know, I'm a professional out here," Young said.

Blatche, meanwhile, apparently will not be pursuing a post-NBA career in in landscaping.

"They wanted me to cut trees, but they didn't give me no water, so I decided to come in here and paint," Blatche said. "So far, the only thing I've painted was Nick's shirt. But I'm having a good time, it's fun."

I asked Young, a rookie out of USC, when the last time he set foot in a high school gym without a basketball.

"Aw, man, it's been a long time," he said. "Like five years. I was just talking to my niece, who's in 11th grade, and she brought up homecoming. I felt really old."

The Wizards will be holding two more school-sprucing events this fall at Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in Southeast. Team officials said kicking off the Verizon Center's 10th anniversary with community service was appropriate, given the arena's reputation for helping spur redevelopment of the downtown area.

"It's fitting for the Pollin family to start off the celebration with community service," Wizards Chief Marketing Office Jane Taylor said. "This is one of Mr. Pollin's passions."

Mystics guard Monique Currey, a D.C. native, also helped paint yesterday and recalled growing up in the city when the Wizards played in Maryland.

"I grew up going to games at Verizon Center and back when it was MCI Center and it's nice to know it's still there and thriving," Currey said. "So much has happened around that area and it's nice that they continue to develop it. It's just great for the city."

Ward 5 councilman Harry Thomas Jr. stopped by the high school to chat with some of the players and coach Eddie Jordan. He was smart enough to wear a nice suit, thus avoiding getting the paint treatment from Blatche and Co. According to Thomas, Spingarn High School is the only school in the nation that can boast of graduating two players named among the NBA's Greatest 50 players: Elgin Baylor and Dave Bing. (I looked this up, and Thomas is right. Although Baylor first attended Phelps Vocational.)

"To bring these younger guys in to paint this school, that's history to the NBA and to see that the NBA still cares, what more could I ask for?" Thomas said.

(Quick aside: at the front of the school, there is a sign that reads "Home of the Green Wave. Where Learning is A Priority." Imagine if the Wizards had a similar slogan: "The Washington Wizards: Scoring More Points Than the Other Team is Our Priority.")

-- Tim Lemke

I attended a speech Wednesday night by Sonny Vaccaro, the former top NBA guru for Nike, Adidas and Reebok. Vaccaro is best known for negotiating multi-million dollar shoe deals with top NBA stars including Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. In essence, he's the man that many people say is responsible for the almost inseparable relationship between NBA players and their shoes.

But Vaccaro no longer works for the shoe companies. At 68, he's making a series of speeches at colleges around the country to speak out against what he perceives as discriminatory and possibly illegal policies by the NBA and NCAA.

Vaccaro spoke for about 75 minutes before about 200 students of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Many of the students are enrolled in a new sports management program tied to the school's Undergraduate Fellows Program.
Vaccaro's speech basically had two parts: a summation of his professional life and a harsh criticism of the NCAA and NBA.

Some highlights:

- Vaccaro reiterated his arguments against the NBA's new age limit, calling it "arbitrary and unlawful. ... It's pathetic that we would deprive an individual from earning a living."

- Vaccaro called the NCAA "the most fraudulent organization that ever lived." He got particularly animated when speaking about the NCAA's broadcasting of old game footage without compensating players for using their likeness. "What gives them the to use my image forever?" he asked.

- He says that when working for Nike in 1984, he convinced company executives to throw all of their money at Michael Jordan, rather than spread it around to three or more players who were turning pro. (The 1984 draft also featured Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley, among others.) "I said, 'you're missing it. You're supposed to give it all to Jordan."

- Early on in his Nike career, Vaccaro came up with the idea of outfitting coaches and teams. Nike executives told him to give it a try, but to "try it out with someone he trusted." He quickly signed a deal with Jerry Tarkanian.

- Vaccaro called Kobe Bryant "the most dedicated, most gifted athlete I've ever seen" and "the most driven sucker I've ever seen."

- Vaccaro was with Adidas when LeBron James turned pro, and knew that Nike would offer an enormous amount to the much-hyped star. Adidas, he said, didn't believe James was worth that much. "Adidas didn't want to push the envelope," he said. Vaccaro quit Adidas after James signed with Nike for $90 million.

I had the chance to meet Vaccaro briefly after his speech and conducted this Q&A:

Q: So how come you're here in this lecture hall instead of over at Comcast Center talking to Gary Williams and his team? I imagine you wouldn't be here if you were still working for Nike.
A: No, I wouldn't. That's why I quit. Because I wanted to be in this position. I went to Harvard and I went to Yale before this, and I'm going ot other business schools and law schools. And I did that because I wanted to do this. Because I wanted to tell the students and the public that this is the world, and these kids have to know about it. Because they are the ones that will be making the decisions. I wanted to show them the big business of sports, college sports. Athletes, they just participate in it. It wouldn't mean anything and they couldn't make change anyway. These kids (pointing to the students in the room) are going to have a different perspective. If I'm going to get after the league on the age thing, or get after the NCAA and their right to keep selling these game forever and ever. These kids can best get my message out. You wouldn't have come if I was talking to the basketball team, and I knew that.

Q: There are two high-profile guys drafted this year that spent one year in college last year though they probably could have been drafted out of high school, Kevin Durant and Greg Oden. They've been drafted and got big money. Some might ask, what was the harm in them going to school, since everything worked out okay for them?
A: Only because you can say everything worked out okay for them. What if it hadn't worked out ok for them? Now, I'm not saying that isn't true, but I'm saying no one else had the right to make that decision.

Q: Is it tough to argue against the age limit when the union actually agreed to it?
A: Sure, they did. I can't fight it, so what I'm trying to get done is that at the next collective bargaining agreement they give second though to it. I'm talking about the future, I'm talking about the kid that doesn't even know we're talking about it.

Q: You talked a lot about how much money these schools are pulling in from athletics while the athletes aren't seeing any of it. What would you advocate..some sort of compensation program for these players? Would you eliminate the concept of amateur athletics altogether?
A: My basic premise is that at the top level, it's not amateurism. Take the BCS...it's basically a lottery for playing for $14 million in the National Championship game. When they made it a lottery, I said to them "it's nothing more than a business." Why don't they have 50 schools playing and give them all $25? And the very fact that they spread it out over 14 games, and then saying 'we can't have a tournament because of the academic schedule,' that's bull****. And it's fraudulent, because six people from six schools basically control the BCS. Morgan State can't make it. Appalachian State, even they went undefeated, would have been precluded from even having a chance to win the lottery. And that's not fair."

Q: So if I'm a athlete, what's the future? Will I eventually get paid to play?
A: No, I don't advocate just paying someone $1,000 a week. What I advocate now is that if a kid makes it through your school and he plays on one of your revenue-producing sports--and I'm talking about revenue-producing sports, ok? I'm very cold-blooded about that--then if he graduates we give the kid a stipend. Maybe $20,00, I don't know. But it's like "thank you, this will help you in your first year. This will help you get started in your new life. I'm more worried about the guys that don't go pro. It's not like I'm going to give Greg Oden any money if he goes to the pros, but I might give it to that guy on the football team. Those guys don't get anything. They practice just as hard. They do all the hard things the other guys do and they get nothing. And some of them aren't even on scholarships.

Q: Are you personally a fan of college sports?
A: All my life. I still root for Joe Paterno. I'm a Pittsburgh italian kid. I enjoy it, yes I do. I love Southern Cal football. I love the purity of sport. Sport is good.

Q: Who's your favorite athlete?
A: I don't want to go there because there's so many kids, but I'll you the one who I think is the most naturally gifted is Tracy McGrady. Tracy doesn't work as hard--and you should put this in your story--as some of the others. Tracy was given more ability than anybody. He didn't always use it.

Q: Do you still lose sleep over not getting LeBron James for Adidas?
A: No. I've been able to accept that. That's why I quit. Once I didn't get him, I thought 'it's over.' But if you ask if lost sleep, no, but Adidas should never be able to sleep for the rest of their life. You can quote me on that.

Q: Was there ever a guy who you dealt with on any level who you told to go to college?
A: No. If he had the opportunity to be drafted I never said that. He might have gone, but I've advocated putting money in your pocket.

- Tim Lemke

Interviewing coaches and players is not typically included in my day-to-day duties. I do it occasionally when necessary, but I prefer to leave the "hey, coach how would you assess the performance of the defense" questions to our beat writers and columnists.

This morning, however, I found myself across a table from Wizards coach Eddie Jordan as he made his first remarks in anticipation of next week's team training camp. Why? Because our Wizards beat writer, John Mitchell, was occupied following Gilbert Arenas all over town.

Apparently in Wizards-land, the team's star guard kind of runs his own show when it comes to dealing with the media. And today he decided to let reporters follow him around as he worked out at Cardozo High School, biked back to Verizon Center, ran the stairs, shot baskets, lifted weights and rehabbed his left knee. While Mr. Mitchell went and dealt with that, I attended Eddie's media roundtable, which had been scheduled by the Wizards long before Gilbert decided to do his thing.

One hopes that this concept of parallel media availabilities does not become a common thing. I saw many reporters rushing in to hear Jordan speak about midway through his remarks. Being in two places at once is not possible, unless you're Michael Keaton from that movie "Multiplicity." In which case, you should be doing much more exciting things with your time.

Goodness knows why Gilbert or Eddie couldn't have moved their availability, but the general feeling is that the two men are a few hugs short of being best buddies. Eddie basically lets GIlbert do his thing as long as he puts in the work and performs.

"I've always said I've been a very fortunate coach to have someone play like Gilbert Arenas," Eddie said. "I've said it for years and months and weeks. He's a highly motivated player and a terrific young man. He's got this different personality that has been very good for his professionalism on the court as well as off the court. He's done some really terrific things for himself. We're all lucky to have a dynamic guy with so many dimensions personality-wise and on the floor."

-- Tim Lemke