It's interesting that I chose this week to begin a discussion of stadiums around the league, because this has been a big week for new park news. There will apparently be not one but two new fields in New York City before decade's close, as the Mets have a deal in the works (registration required) for a new park in Queens and the Yankees will announce detailed plans for a new Yankee Stadium right next to the old one tomorrow. Meanwhile the long, strange trip towards a new ballpark in Oakland seems to be making some tentative progress. Interestingly, all three of these new ventures are to be privately funded, with city governments pitching in for help with transportation and area improvements. Bud Selig must be miserable now that there are no obvious cities left into which teams can be relocated.

And as long as we're on the subject, you can see how the new stadium in St. Louis is shaping up over here. The news is less good for the other team passing the hat around for a new playground, as the Marlins and Miami-Dade are still at an impasse when it comes to the $45 million remaining to be accounted for in the budget for a gleaming new Fish Tank adjacent to the Orange Bowl. I don't know where the Marlins think they are going to gain any leverage from; they can't stay at Dolphins Stadium and Vegas is a pipe dream. They should ask the Diamondbacks for some cash, since they seem to have that money press stashed in the bowels of the BOB. It couldn't be a worse investment than Russ Ortiz. Or, like I've suggested before, they could just ask Shaq.