Recently, Sony launched The Players Clubhouse on VYou featuring Josh Hamilton, Torii Hunter, David Ortiz and Brian Wilson answering questions like Wait, I’m Confused. is this really the Beach Boy’s Brian Wilson?
Wilson, himself, hasn’t answered a question in two days. I just posed the straight-forward inquiry: Care to comment on Cliff Lee coming back to the Phillies and the National League, Brian?
On Saturday, state and local officials raided booths at the [St. Mary's County farmer's] market in Charlotte Hall, Md. and came away with $88,413 worth of merchandise with counterfeit trademarks, authorities said.
Authorities said they hauled away clothing with fake logos from the National Football League, Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association.
There were counterfeit Coach, Gucci and Louis Vuitton purses, too.
St. Mary’s Sheriff’s officials said seven suspects were identified and prosecutors are reviewing the case.
When I first read this, I was confused (probably because I’m terrible at thievery). If it’s all counterfeit, why is the lot worth $80 Grand? Well, as my source @asilentflute asserts: “must have been a sh*tload.”
H/T to Ryan Hudson (Editor, SB Nation) for finding this deep link on the Red Sox website that lists their walk-up music. He especially likes Dice-K taking the mound to Fabolous. Personally, I don’t think it’s gets any better than Jeremy Hermida coming out to N2Deep’s “Back to the Hotel.”
Four different tracks. Artists and titles unknown.
They actually let him get away with that.
Is this something that’s universally listed on every team’s website? It should be. I did some not-great research, and could only find a listing of the 2008 Detroit Tigers entrance music. However, a coworker of mine who was at the Yankee game last night at least confirms that a certain captain comes out to this song…
Oh, old guys and the crazy business ventures as retirees.
Meet Grandpa Woody. He’s collected 2,500+ ticket stubs from Major League games played in by Barry Bonds. And he’ll sell you the whole lot – for the Buy It Now price of $75,000.
No surprise, the ultimate goal is to collect stubs from all 3,047 games of Barry’s MLB career (including post season and All-Star appearances). His listing also includes the 514 stubs he needs to complete the collection.
I’d love to know how many stubs Woody, a Santa Cruz-native, procured the old fashioned way – by going to the ballpark. I’m no Peter Falk, but If he’s seen even a third of Barry’s games, we could be talking about a reliable source in the Bonds investigation. (I’m clearly no Columbo.)
Woody is also working parallel paths and collecting every ticket for Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain’s games. He’s going to come after me for calling him a retiree with a crazy business venture, isn’t he?
A team of crack geniuses from the blog No Mas produced an animated short about the no-hitter that Dock Ellis threw while trippin’ on acid. The audio is taken from an interview Ellis conducted with writer Donnell Alexander.
100 H/Tees to my man @AsilentFlute for sending this to me, because it is just so great.
One time I covered first base, and I caught the ball and tagged the base all in one motion. I said, “OOH, I just made a touchdown.”
If the title of this post in anyway comes off as a slight of Gene Autry, or his prowess as a baseball man, then I apologize, and concede to it being cheap humor at that.*
The OC Register and AP report that Gene Autry is amongst this year’s candidates for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The former and original owner of the Angels is part of a special “executives and pioneers” ballot that includes several other team owners as well.
Autry bought the expansion Angels in 1960, persuaded to do so by the management who were impressed by him buying the exclusive radio rights to the team. The OC Register’s Angels blog writes:
Autry was the Angels’ owner from the franchise’s inception in 1961 until his death in 1998, bringing many star players to Anaheim with his willingness to spend (particularly in the early years of free agency) — but only three division titles and no World Series appearances in that time.
The results of the Angels blog poll question: “Should Autry be in the Hall of Fame” are falling resoundingly in his favor.
Autry also served as Vice President of the Amercian League from ’82 until he died. In ’92, the Angels retired the #26 in his honor – baseball teams keep a 25-man roster, I think you can figure out why they gave Autry 26.
A 12 person committee of Hall of Famers, baseball writers and current and former executives will vote on the nominees, and the results will be released on Dec. 7. Separate voting and different committees decide the players’ and coaches’ ballots. Funny how it took Gene Autry for me to bother to figure out how Hall-of-Fame voting is decided.
*That disclaimer seemed necessary, given the wide readership of metalheads on this site.
Depressed about the prevailing of evil last night? Suggesting cockamamie like: the Phillies should have pulled Pedro with an 0-2 count on Matsui in third? Well, it gets worse.
Before you go into your no-good Yankee-loving boss’s office and try to shatter him by asserting that rooting for that organization lowers him as a businessman, you should unfortunately know that the Yankees haven’t been operating under the commonly failed business practices that some of us assumed all along.
David Goldman, of CNNMoney.com and loyal Red Sox fan, reluctantly reports this morning that the Yankees ran one of the most efficient operations in the league this year:
Adding up the dollars and cents. Applying a Society of Baseball Research metric, the Yankees were actually more efficient with their payroll this past season than were the hapless cross-town Mets, Cleveland Indians and basement-dwelling Washington Nationals.
The World Champs were only slightly less thrifty with their salaries than the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, and Kansas City Royals, all of whom missed the playoffs.
By those calculations, the Yankees paid $3.2 million per “marginal victory.” That’s nearly twice as efficient as the Mets, who only won 70 games despite their $149 million payroll and paid $5.8 million per marginal victory.
In addition, a rough estimate of the team’s revenue in 2009 shows the Yankees cashed in on their success more than any other team. Multiply the number of people coming to games by the average ticket price ($73),and the Yankees took in about $270 million this season, or $69 million more than they shelled out for their payroll.
Sigh. However, if you’re a New Yorker and a Yankee hater – the pinnacle of the unbiased majority in this debate, right? – take solace in an undeniable fact. What primarily helped the Yankees develop this business model are the ticket, food, and merch sales contained within that billion dollar stadium. And, if the stadium doesn’t get built, the Yankees wouldn’t be able to leverage the astronomical price mark up of those items. And if the government subsidies for the stadium that came down don’t, then the stadium don’t get built. Whether you’re a Yankee fan or not, if you’re a New Yorker you’re unwillingly paying down that grant money, and in turn fueling the stadium funds that helped pay player salaries and the luxury taxes attached to those salaries.
And, as Goldman points out, it’s a sad reality and it’s working – but on paper, in no less evil of a fashion than before.
SportsRadioInterviews.com posted the skinny from Joe Girardi’s interview with Mike Francesca on WFAN today. Couple of intriguing thoughts swirling around in the manager’s well-bic’d noggin approaching game time – he’d be willing to throw Mariano for 45 pitches and isn’t ruling out bringing him in in the seventh inning.
“Well yeah you are going to think about that.I mean you think about if you can get him to throw one pitch per batter we could start him too.
Mariano threw 39 pitches and got two innings worth of outs in Game 2, but as Tom Verducci pointed out on SI.com, that was a rare feat:
It was the most pitches he has thrown in a game in two years. Of the 74 times Rivera has pitched in the postseason since he became a closer, he has thrown more than 39 pitches only two times, and both were in potential clinchers: the epic 48-pitch outing in 2003 ALCS Game 7, and the 40 pitches in the Yankees’ ill-fated 2004 ALCS Game 4.
Frankly, for once, I’d like to see it come down to who’s coming up – like say, Utley, Howard, Werth in the top of the seventh? For example, Purist Bleed Pinstripes posted an interesting analysis on Facebook of why Mariano, the best reliever on the team, should have been brought in to face Hunter, Guerrero and Morales in Game 5 of the ALCS. And as an aside, Mo went 2+ in that 13-inning affair that was Game 2 of the ALCS. How great if Chase Utley slithers out of the dugout to face Rivera tonight prior to the beer being shut down? (You then see veins start to exponentially appear on Girardi’s well bic’d temples with every foul ball.)
Only a few hours till we’ll know which way this goes. Personally, I’m just trying to get the word out on this so that whatever he does we can hopefully second guess the guy tomorrow. Enjoy the game, keep it going Phillies!
At the time of me scribing this piece of inconsequence, incarcerated Boston Red Sox fan Randy Aaron Baker is preparing for his temporary release from Van Buren County Jail so that he can attend today Sox game against the Royals in Kansas City.
Randy Aaron Barker is serving a 10-day jail sentence for interference with official acts and violation of a protective order. He is also a big fan of the Boston Red Sox.
According to the Ottumwa Courier story, Barker’s attorney, Margaret E. King, Barker petitioned the court to allow him to attend the Red Sox game in Kansas City with his father and brother. They have had long-term plans to attend, King told Magistrate Judge Benny Waggoner.
Baker is set to return late tonight or tomorrow to the clink – whenever, right? What’s an “official act” anyway?
There’s a word in the quote that seems both appropriate, yet glaringly absurd. Petition. As in, some judge spent the time to hear a petition for a short time criminal to go to a baseball game – and a meaningless one at that. The lawyering time would have been better spent coming up with some sort of fining scale to be levied against people who buy tickets to Royals games in September.
Just goes to show you, for every Midwest magistrate being run roughshod by unbridled serial killers acting out of boredom, there’s lawmen who have too much time on their hands.
Baseball Fan Released From Jail To See Game (KCCI.com)
Leading up to this past weekend’s inception of the 2009-10 NFL season, I polled the sports blogosphere on What’s the Greatest Sports Day of the Year. Thought we’d get a top-10 out of it, but it turns out everybody sort of likes the same days with a few wild cards thrown in. (Actually, just The Indy 500 sort of puzzles me.)
Therefore, here’s my highly arbitrary Top-5 based on the sports blog intelligentsia’s feedback.
Don’t forget to vote at the bottom…
NFL Opening Sunday
Hanging out in a bar or ensconced on a couch with onion dip for 8-12 hours on a Sunday watching pro football is a truly iconic American experience. We wait all Summer for that experience, the whole time left to believe that sort of behavior is inappropriate and lethargic. Then, on a faithful Sunday in September – no matter what level of balmy Indian Summer weather we’re having – all your dreams come true, sloth. And, it’s not just one day, but the start of 5+ months of Sundays like this.
Here is Adam Best’s (Fansided.com) take on NFL opening day…
Not only is the NFL the professional sports league with the best product, it’s the sports league with the best presentation. After waiting for over half a year for the real thing, you get a taste of actual NFL regular season action on opening Thursday. That just wets your appetite for the 13 games on the Sunday slate. From tailgating to fantasy football, there isn’t a sports day that offers this much from start to finish. Christmas in September. Watching the Red Zone Channel for almost 7 hours before you switch over to NBC for the encore, and ESPN and the NFLN for the nightcap recap. From 8 AM until Midnight it’s all NFL. You can’t get non-stop action and highlights like that anywhere else.
The Kentucky Derby
I’ll take the sights at the local OTB on the day of the Kentucky Derby over any exploding fireworks spectacular. If they put an OTB there, even Mayberry would look like public squalor on Derby day. Utterly, fantastic.
But, to quote something The Cincinnati Kid Steve McQueen might have said – it’s not just the gambling, it’s also the drinking. You can muddle fruit everyday of the year, and it’ll never taste as well muddled as in a julep on Derby Day.
Also, you can wear a seersucker suit or a hat shaped like an extra large Triple Meat Italiano from Pizza Hut every day of the year, and people will always look at you with vague condescension, but at least on Derby Day they’ll have formulated an explanation as to why you’re dressed like a doofus.
The NBA Draft
I got more responses that read I know it sounds crazy, but I really enjoy the NBA Draft. Why so ashamed?
Two rounds, five minutes a pick (two minutes in the second round even), and all the wardrobe audacity that you could ask for in under three hours. I don’t think ESPN could get a more efficient display of unintentional comedy if they got Keyshawn, Kruk and Lou Holtz to tri-anchor SportsCenter live from Pamplona at the Running of the Bulls.
Opening Day
Answer: The first day when teams play each other in this sport is commonly referred to as Opening Day.
What is baseball, Alex. This would be a $200 dollar question in Jeopardy round. Under the category: Sports, amateur hour.
There’s a reason it’s Opening Day, and not Opening Sunday in the norms of society. And, the explanation might be that this is actually the greatest sports day of the year.
Hope springs eternal. Dads with their sons playing hookie from school and work, your first smells of the fresh cut infield and outfield grass, grilled ballpark franks, batting practice and ice cold beer…and then you go home that night to watch march madness…perfection.
The first or second day of the NCAA Tournament:
I used to work with a guy who took Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament off every year, and went to Vegas with his buddies for the first round of the tournament. In a world where most of us lose vacation time do to sinister company policies, he’s an inspiration.
Interchangeably known as the least productive day of the corporate year, sports fans might actually be at their best and brightest these two days. There are 13 games on NFL Opening Sunday, and due to mitigating circumstances (spreads, fantasy players, food comas) you’re bound to let the outcome of one or two slip until Sport Center, Monday morning. Also, due to occurrences like Opening Day: Kansas City at Baltimore, you’re likely to not care about the full MLB slate on April 1. 32 teams play on each of the first two days of the tournament, and you will know the fate of every single one (and you won’t need to reference a fistful of sports book tickets to conjure up this knowledge).
Hit the poll to vote for the greatest sports day out of these five, and check out some other bloggers’ takes below…
1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. Opening Day Baseball
3. Game 7 ( MLB or NBA )
4. NFL Championship Sunday NFC AFC
5. The Big Dance Day 1
6. The Big Dance Final 4
7. The Big Dance Sweet 16
8. First Saturday of NCAA Football
The best sports day of the year for me is New Year’s day. I love college football and having it to watch from 11:00 in the morning until after midnight engrooses me every single year. The first two days of the NCAA Basketball Tourney run a close second, and baseball opening day is third.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but one of my favorite days has always been the NBA All-Star game day/weekend. My birthday always happens to fall on that same weekend so I get to celebrate my bday along with my favorite sport’s all-star festivities.
