Buffalonian: You always joke about planting words ("Janet Jackson's breasts" for example) in order to generate page views. How much do certain key words or phrases bump up a page view count? 5% 10% Nothing?

I have no idea, but I think if it's not nothing, it's very, very close to nothing.

Is compensation related (directly or indirectly) to page views?

No. Well, yes. If nobody's reading my column, they'll probably find someone else to give money to, or something else for me to do. But it's not like I get a commission, or page-view bonuses, or anything like that.

If it's not telling secrets out of school, could you fill us in on the inner workings of web publishing?

The inner workings? It's just like newspaper publishing. Which in turn is just like sausage making: You don't want to know the details.

Greg: Surely there is a way to do something like compile the Nielsen ratings, adjust for market size, and prove that this is a bad idea from a financial (let alone fan happiness) standpoint.

I wish someone would do a really smart study about it, but the fact is, it's in the TV networks' best interests to put the games on at the times when the maximum number of people can and do watch them. According to them, that's what they try to do. I don't know if they succeed, but they say so.

They'll never please everyone, but it's hard to argue that the scheduling policy is anti-fan, since what's good for the network is also good for the most number of fans. That is, the most people watching, and therefore, one presumes, the most able to watch.

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As for Buster's picks, I'll try to remember to list them in the Friday column.

try to outguess the red star.

mepex: tell me again how important games in May are for the Yankees?

Very. Ask the Angels. They were one of the best teams in the league for most of the year. But in May they went 11-17. If they'd just played in May the way they played the rest of the year, they'd have gone 16-12, five games better.

They lost the division by four games.

brad lehman But while marketing fails them, they deserve credit for trying an unusual approach to building a fan base: improving the damn game.

Yeah, but only when they were forced to by the lockout, which was a marketing stink-bomb. I'd be more impressed if the NHL had improved the game at any point in the previous decade, when the game sucked and there wasn't an ax over its head.

I can see if you believe that this is a problem with all of these sports (I certainly do), but why single out hockey?

Because hockey played at three-quarter speed is horrible. Basketball at regular-season speed is tolerable. Not exciting, but tolerable.