And I'm glad he did it.  I'm in the middle of a paper, so I'm going to just cut quotes and skimp on the analysis, but its one of those rare times in which I 100% agree with Justice (except the part about the Peavy deal, we just can't make it...so like 98%).

Why can't Drayton McLane just be honest with us about his finances? Does he think we're dumb? Back when he was losing money and needed public cash for a new stadium, he had no problem talking about how Houston had to pony up to keep its baseball team.

He even promised to open his books after the 2002 labor agreement was finished. He now says he can't do that because Bud Selig won't be happy about it. It's always something.

Good, Richard, good.

Instead of taking a short-sighted, we-must-meet-the-budget, McLane ought to consider another option.

He should call a news conference, or better yet, summon me to his office and tell me to open my notebook.

At that point, he'd have two options. One would be to say, ''Listen, here's where we are and here's what we're going to do about it. I can't increase the payroll at this time because of the country's economic crisis. I had $193 million in revenues last season. Here's a chart showing where the money went. When you look at it, you'll understand why we have to keep the payroll at $100 million.''

The entire sport would be better off if some owner would just have the stones to do this.  Of course, then the public would become fully aware of the ludicrous profit margins that exist in the sport (see: any work by Andrew Zimbaltist).  I'm sure Drayton has the revenue stream, to float $120 million, and even he doesn't, I'm sure he's got the profits he's made over the years to nurse the organization through these tough times.  But thank you Richard Justice for using your large soap box to call Drayton McLane on his crap.