Golf Quiz: Name the five golfers to shoot 59 in a PGA Tour event. Answer below.
Ballantine Beer Quiz: What do the three rings stand for? Answer below.
Green Bay 31 Pittsburgh 25
Yeah, Jim, I agree. Fergie was her usual Fergilicious self, but I just wish her boots had gone a little over the knee, know what I’m sayin’? And that Teleflora ad was pretty funny. Can’t believe the guy said that line….
Oh, hi…just talking to a friend about the Super Bowl. Not for nuthin’ but I made the following prediction before the season started.
“Your Exclusive Bar Chat Pick to Click, as compiled by our crack staff over mega cans of domestic….
“Kids, you can bet the ranch, or rather your piggy bank (and trust fund) on this one. And tell your parents to sell the house, go to Vegas, bet on the Packers and, err, rent.”
I didn’t get the Colts part right, but many of you are no doubt very rich. Your parents were also better off renting as it turned out.
As for the game, nothing to add except Aaron Rodgers officially joins the ranks of the greats. Look what he did despite those horrible drops. And when it comes to Pittsburgh, you just don’t win when you turn the ball over three times.
But one guy I have renewed respect for is Steelers coach Mike Tomlin…as classy as they come.
On the commercials front, I loved the Eminem one for Chrysler. Actually, this was as good a year as we’ve had for all the spots.
Then there was Christina Aguilera. She was supposed to sing, “O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming,” but instead repeated an earlier line with a slight variation.
“What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last gleaming,” which is the same line from earlier in the song but with the word ‘watched’ instead of the word ‘hailed.’” [AP]
I don’t have time to check it myself but some say she got the wrong line from Wikipedia, which would be too funny.
–Having no cheerleaders really sucked. And the six NFL teams that refuse to field squads are:
Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Giants, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland; all deserving of the Hall of Shame, though Green Bay would hasten to add they borrow cheerleaders from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and St. Norbert College for regular season games. They just didn’t invite them for the Super Bowl. Plus they’re co-ed squads! I mean for crying out loud. This country is goin’ to hell, I tell ya.
How the 2010 Packers were built
First-rounders (7)
Second-rounders (8)
Third-rounders (4)
Fourth-rounders (3)
Fifth-rounders (3)
Sixth-rounders (6)
Seventh-rounders (7)
Free agents (20)
Unrestricted free agents (3)
Trades (3)
Waivers (4)
How the 2010 Steelers were built
First-rounders (8)
Second-rounders (3)
Third-rounders (7)
Fourth-rounders (5)
Fifth-rounders (5)
Sixth-rounders (4)
Seventh-rounders (2)
Free agents (18)
Unrestricted free agents (4)
Trades (2)
The Packers have 15 players on injured reserve; the Steelers have five.
–Entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame…Deion Sanders, Marshall Faulk, Richard Dent, Shannon Sharpe, NFL Films founder Ed Sabol (about time) and “seniors picks” Chris Hanburger (remember his football card) and Lee Richter. Among those not getting in this go ‘round are Curtis Martin, Jerome Bettis, Cris Carter, Andre Reed and Tim Brown. But while all five of this last group are deserving, it’s not going to be easy. Only five current nominees can get in each year.
As for Jets favorite Martin, Mike Sielski of the Wall Street Journal had this observation.
“He was an accomplished if unspectacular back, piling up yardage without the balletic grace of Gale Sayers or the brutal power of Earl Campbell. In that sense, Mr. Martin may not pass the ‘eyeball test’ for some voters.”
Sielski wrote this before the vote and it will be interesting to see how things proceed for Martin in future years.
–As for the looming lockout, March 4 (collective bargaining agreement ends March 3), the two sides are now talking and the players’ union is urging its members to save their money, because they will not receive salary advances and signing and roster bonuses, nor will free agents obviously be able to sign contracts. Plus, they have to pay for their own healthcare. Talk about pre-existing conditions.
–Looks like we have a real “Jerk of the Year” entry, in the truest sense of the award, with Phil Simms threatening ESPN college football analyst Desmond Howard at the NFL Experience on Saturday at the Super Bowl. During the college football season, Howard criticized Simms’ son Matt, a quarterback at Tennessee, with Howard saying of a Tennessee-LSU contest that “u will see 3 of the worse QBs in the SEC.” Simms took exception and police had to step in between the two. Simms, of all people, should know a journalist is just doing their job.
–And here’s another jerk. According to Deadspin.com a 17-year-old high school senior is claiming she had a relationship with Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez, which if it was consenual would be legal in New Jersey, where Sanchez lives. The girl’s a jerk because she first allegedly sent Deadspin pictures she took in his bedroom, but then she had her attorney contact Deadspin saying the allegations were false. Supposedly the two met at a nightclub a few weeks ago, which means the girl had fake ID, etc. Deadspin said they would publish more details on Tuesday. [Yeah, that’s right…the girl’s the jerk in this one, given what we know, not Sanchez.]
Fred Wilpon and the New York Mess, Part Trois
When we last left our story, a New York Times investigative report had Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz in big when it came to Bernie Madoff. “Bernie was part of the business plan for the Mets,” a former employee of the club told the Times. Bernie’s former secretary, Eleanor Squillari, said she saw Wilpon and Katz constantly in Bernie’s office. I filed this story on Wednesday. On Thursday it turned into a war of words between the New York Daily News and the Times, with the News’ Mike Lupica defending Fred Wilpon and son Jeff.
“This is what you are supposed to believe now, as the trustee for the victims of Bernie Madoff, a lawyer named Irving Picard, tries to shake down Fred Wilpon, his family, his partners.
“That after all these years in New York, so many of them on the public stage as an owner of the Mets, that Wilpon at the end was nothing more than some kind of stooge for Madoff.
“It turns out that it wasn’t the SEC that was supposed to throw a penalty flag at Madoff, figure out what kind of thief he was even as he became a superstar of Wall Street and even the chairman of Nasdaq. It was the Mets.
“Picard has gone after some big names in business and some big banks. But now he has his hooks into a high-profile family that owns a New York baseball team, and all of a sudden, even though Picard is supposed to be under a protective order and not talking about his lawsuit against the Wilpons in the New York Times or anywhere else, he has been doing some job on Fred Wilpon in the Times all week long….
“This isn’t about whether I like Fred and Jeff Wilpon or you don’t. Or what you think about what has happened to the Mets over the past two years. And nobody is ever going to have to run a benefit for Fred Wilpon whether he reaches an agreement with Picard – for whom nobody is ever going to run a benefit, either – or not.
“But if you have been following the outrageously one-sided coverage the last few days, you can’t possibly think this is a fair fight.”
I read this and thought back to the original story we were first told by the Wilpons, that they were victims! I referred you the other day to a piece Mike Vaccaro wrote in the New York Post, in 2009, where there were rumors the Wilpons had lost as much as $750 million. But now we’re learning they made money, at a bare minimum $50 million. So ‘screw you, Lupica,’ was what I was thinking. The New York Times’ reporters were just doing their job. And what was the bottom line for us Mets fans is the fact this whole Madoff disaster has greatly impacted the team’s ability to go after the kind of talent the Mets need to return to respectability.
The Wilpons’ attorneys fought back through the Daily News. But then talks between the two sides, broke off and a once sealed lawsuit was ripped open for the world to see.
“Whenever the New York Mets needed money its owners could always turn to someone who could help them out – Bernie Madoff. The notorious swindler let his long-time clients, the Wilpon family, withdraw funds so their team had ample cash, according to a lawsuit filed by the trustee for the victims of Mr. Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme.
“The Wilpons’ numerous accounts with Mr. Madoff were ‘important to the smooth operations of the Mets’ and helped fund the team’s day-to-day operations, said the suit.
“The Wilpons denied the charges and said the suit…was a ‘flagrant abuse’ of the trustee’s power.
“The 365-page document, unsealed Friday, provides stunning detail about the relationships between Mr. Madoff and the Wilpons and their business entities, which go by a variety of names often beginning with Sterling. The suit alleges that the Wilpons, their associates and businesses withdrew $300 million in ‘fictitious profits’ from Mr. Madoff, including $90 million by the Mets. It says that a ‘cycle of dependency’ grew between Sterling and Mr. Madoff.
“ ‘Madoff money flowed through every aspect of Sterling business,’ alleged trustee Irving Picard… ‘Be it real estate, professional baseball or private equity, every part of Sterling’s business held investments with Madoff.’
“The relationship between the Wilpons and Mr. Madoff dates back to 1985, when Sterling made an initial $3 million investment. The Wilpon family, its trusts, businesses, friends, acquaintances and employees eventually held 483 accounts. But the relationship went much deeper than just money management. Mr. Madoff’s firm was even based in the Lipstick Building on Third Avenue, a tower Sterling developed. Mr. Madoff also invested millions in Sterling’s real estate investment funds, most of it his clients’ money rather than his own, the suit said….
“Sterling’s reliance on Mr. Madoff became a ‘cycle of dependency,’ the trustee alleged, as the profits from the bogus investments were deployed to build other Sterling business. Those profits, in turn, were re-invested with Mr. Madoff. When Mr. Madoff’s scheme was exposed in late 2008, Sterling faced a liquidity crisis, the trustee said, prompting a ‘complete and comprehensive restructuring’ of over half a billion dollars in debt.”
“We should not be made victims twice over – the first time by Madoff, and again by the Trustee’s actions. Why should we have known, when the SEC and other government agencies did not know? In fact, the SEC reported that Madoff was above board and legitimate…Madoff was not a hedge fund but an SEC-regulated broker-dealer and like millions of other Americans, we trusted the brokerage statements we received.”
But Picard’s suit says Wilpon and his partners ignored plenty of warnings:
“Merrill Lynch warned the Mets owners about Madoff in 2007, when the bank acquired a 50% share in Sterling Stamos, a hedge fund Picard says Wilpon and his group set up to shield themselves financially from a Madoff collapse. According to the suit, Merrill Lynch told them, ‘Madoff would not pass Merrill Lynch’s due diligence protocols.’
“Another firm, Ivy Asset Management, ‘strongly suspected fraud or illegality’ at Madoff’s firm by 2002, when Sterling approached Ivy Asset Management to help generate funding, and a consultant to Sterling Stamos told Katz in 2003 that he ‘couldn’t make Bernie’s math work.’ The Mets’ owners dispute those claims, too.” [Daily News]
“The owners of the Mets keep saying they did not have a clue what was going on in the matter of Bernard L. Madoff.
“This raises a question about the once-charming Metsies.
“Not having a glimmer has been a repetitive experience in the Mets’ clubhouse and front office over the last generation. A lot of strange things happened that ownership discovered very late in the game. There is a pattern here….
“Wilpon issued a statement Friday saying he had entrusted millions of dollars to Madoff and felt betrayed by a family friend. He undoubtedly does. But how much common sense, innate wisdom, due diligence and scruples would it have taken to notice that Madoff was as phony as a $300 million bill walking around in a blue and orange Mets Jacket?
“Good grief, the owners even offered Madoff a piece of the Mets in 2002 when they bought out Nelson Doubleday, according to page 144 of the complaint.
“On a personal level, I have been around Wilpon and Katz just enough to maintain the belief they did not make the conscious equation that Madoff was cheating but would take care of them.
“On the other hand, I have been around Wilpon and Katz just enough to know they are smart people. If they disregarded 10 percent of the warnings the trustee, Picard, says were out there, then they were not watching the store. They will settle this thing; no way they want this to get close to court.
“According to the lawsuit, some individuals and companies would not go anywhere near Madoff, and tried to warn Wilpon and Katz.
“Wilpon said Friday that it was not his fault Madoff was not caught sooner; it was the job of the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies. That is a laugh, since we commoners all know how willfully incompetent American banks, investment firms, regulatory agencies and government have been in the past generation….
“The trustee’s complaint says Wilpon and Katz set up approximately 305 separate legal entities in their Sterling empire, to keep each stash under $500,000 for tax purposes. Wow. No wonder the tickets and the hot dogs cost so much at the new ballpark that taxpayers subsidized to some degree.
“These guys were busy, so busy, according to the complaint, that they ignored suggestions by two savvy executives of the Sterling Stamos hedge fund, Peter Stamos and Ashok Chachra, that Madoff’s tactics did not add up. At the very best, the owners were not watching the store.
“But then again: in the past generation, top management did not seem to know that a general manager, Steve Phillips, was having an inappropriate relationship with a woman during spring training. Likewise, ownership did not seem to know about an assistant clubhouse man, Kirk Radomski, who became one of the major sources of steroids during baseball’s drug generation.
“Last fall, the Mets fired their longtime clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels for gambling and stealing. He had been a fixture in the clubhouse for 25 years.
“And in 2009, the vice president for player development, Tony Bernazard, was poisoning the clubhouse, undermining Manager Willie Randolph and General Manager Omar Minaya. Bernazard was ultimately fired when he began to act out, but his toxic legacy remains in the bad attitude and stunted growth of some players, particularly Jose Reyes, as the team plummeted downward in spirit and performance.
“Bernazard apparently operated as a liaison for the club’s chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, Fred Wilpon’s son, who has not yet demonstrated the personality or skill to run a baseball team. When the owners discuss the future of the team, some reporter usually asks whether the new general manager, Sandy Alderson, will have the freedom to work without overt interference. This is a coded question.
“The owners are currently seeking somebody willing to be a minority partner, without sharing in the profits of the separate SNY network. And good luck with that. If Wilpon and Katz emerge from their Madoff problem still in control of the Mets, they need to figure out, just exactly who is running this store?”
“Fred Wilpon’s ability to hold onto the Mets was cast into more doubt Friday when a lawsuit filed by the trustee in the Bernard L. Madoff fraud case was unsealed and revealed in vivid detail the depth of Madoff’s involvement in nearly every aspect of Wilpon’s empire, particularly his team.
“The financial pressure on Wilpon will now continue to mount, and his preference to sell 20 to 25 percent of the Mets to alleviate the strain, a plan that he announced a week ago, may not turn out to be enough of a remedy.
“Some sports executives and analysts said Friday that they believed Wilpon would most likely have to sell the team in the face of demands by the trustee, Irving H. Picard….
“David Sheehan, the lead lawyer for Picard, said ‘the entire Katz-Wilpon enterprise’ was being looked at as assets that could be used to resolve the lawsuit.
“ ‘What the trustee is looking for here is a payment in cash,’ Sheehan said. ‘So whether they utilize the Mets, SNY, Sterling properties or any other resource is of no moment to us. What we’re looking for is a billion dollars, and unless we settle for less than that, which we’re not inclined to do, where they get the money is of no moment to us.’”
“ ‘It looks like a very messy situation for Fred,’ said Fay Vincent, a former baseball commissioner who is friendly with Wilpon and Picard. ‘I know Picard and he’s a serious and solid lawyer, and what he’s doing has to be taken seriously.’
“Vincent said he did not want it to appear as if he were advising Wilpon on what to do, but added, ‘It’s important for anyone in a situation this treacherous to consider whether he can run his main business and defend himself simultaneously.’
“Michael Ozanian, the executive editor of Forbes, which valued the Mets at $858 million last year, said, ‘I think the Mets have been a franchise that for many years relied on borrowed money.’ He said Wilpon would have to sell the team and the SNY television network ‘to get out of this mess.’….
“The team, the stadium and the SNY network have considerable debt – about $1.5 billion in all by some estimates – and two analysts said there might not be enough money available to Wilpon to settle with Picard and make bond payments, including $52 million a year for the stadium.
“The Mets also have hit their limit on borrowing from Major League Baseball’s credit line.
“How baseball views the Mets’ situation is unclear. Wilpon and Saul Katz…met with Commissioner Bud Selig this week. Selig and Wilpon are close friends, which might lead Selig to work diligently to help him keep the team.
“But their meeting occurred before Picard’s complaint was unsealed and the full extent of Madoff’s links to the team was shown.
“According to the lawsuit, Wilpon and Katz used their Madoff money to convince lenders of their creditworthiness when they were seeking to refinance the loans that enabled them to buy out Nelson Doubleday in 2002.
“In some ways, Madoff was the team’s personal banker, making sure that the Mets could withdraw cash, when needed, to cover the team’s day-to-day operations. That ever-ready honey pot helped the team’s owners meet payroll, pay for stadium operations and provide for deferred compensation to players, according to the lawsuit.
“The Mets owners also seemed to benefit from the consistently high and steady nature of the returns they appeared to be enjoying from Madoff when they refinanced the team’s lending arrangements in 2004.
“It was then that the owners represented to banks that Madoff provided ‘a safe alternative to unattractive money market yields’ and that over the previous 25-year period, Madoff’s average returns were 18 percent, with a standard deviation of 4 percent.
“ ‘The direct connection between the Madoff Ponzi scheme and the Mets’ revenues is something that was unexpected,’ said Marc Ganis, a sports-industry consultant. ‘Selig could demand that the team be sold because of the team’s connection to one of the biggest Ponzi schemes ever.’
“Baseball last faced a financial crisis with one of its teams when Thomas Hicks, then the owner of the Texas Rangers, defaulted on $525 million in loans, which pushed the team into bankruptcy. Last summer, the Rangers were sold in a court auction for $593 million to a group led by the Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg.
“ ‘What we learned from the Rangers involves an owner who owed a great deal of money and could not pay,’ Ganis said. ‘If Picard is successful, then it’s likely to be the same with Wilpon.’”
Sandomir and Alison Leigh Cowan collaborated on a separate piece for the New York Times. In part:
“Mr. Wilpon and Mr. Katz’s Madoff accounts were, in a sense, a ready source of cash, and were regularly used by Mr. Wilpon as collateral for loans, as his real estate dealings multiplied, his ownership of the team grew – Madoff accounts were used as backing to secure the loans used to buy Nelson Doubleday’s 50 percent stake in the team in 2002 – and a new ballpark was built in Queens. For instance, the suit says, Mr. Wilpon and his partners took out loans from banks simply to use the money to open new accounts with Mr. Madoff.
“But a lawyer for the trustee said Friday that Mr. Wilpon’s use of Mr. Madoff and his money went further.
“ ‘When Fred would have certain cash needs, what we’re alleging is he’d go to Bernie and Bernie on paper would make an investment into one of the Sterling Equities properties or some other vehicle that Fred was offering and then Fred would get the use of that capital,’ said David Sheehan, (the above noted lawyer) advising Mr. Picard. ‘And after Fred had no use for the money, he’d return it and the investment was rescinded.’
“ ‘So rather than going to conventional banking channels and disclosing he needed additional capital, what he’d do is obtain the funds from Bernie under the guise of an investment rather than as a loan,’ Mr. Sheehan said, ‘because if he took it as a loan he’d have to disclose it as a loan to the bank from which he already borrowed money.’”
Folks, this last bit I find the most damning. If I’m the prosecution I just hone in on it and then leave Wilpon crying on the floor for his mother.
But when you talk about the debt the Wilpons have, I brought it up last time but check out this further bit from Josh Kosman and Chuck Bennett of the New York Post.
“Sources with direct knowledge of the 74-year-old Wilpon’s finances said that even if an angel investor took the embattled owner up on his offer to buy 25 percent of the team for $200 million, it wouldn’t put a dent in his potential Madoff liabilities.
“The actual Met team – including ticket sales, broadcast rights and branding rights – is worth $860 million. But the team owes a staggering $430 million in debt. Last year, the Mets lost another $30 million, mainly from interest payments on that massive debt.
“Citi Field, managed by Wilpon’s Sterling Equities, is another financial drain.
“Wilpon owes $700 million for construction. And under a deal structured with the city, the stadium – controlled by a Sterling entity called Queens Ballpark Corp. – must pay $50 million in annual ‘payments in lieu of taxes.’
“The debt interest and stadium payments leave Sterling about $80 million in the red each year, sources with direct knowledge of the Mets’ financials said.
“Likewise, Sterling Equities’ 65 percent stake in SportsNet NY is choked with debt.
“The network generates about $100 million a year in profit after paying $20 million in interest on $450 million in loans.
“Of that profit, Wilpon only keeps $65 million because he has other partners.
“So add all this debt – around $1.58 billion – to the near $1 billion he could owe Madoff investors, and there’s no way he can keep the team.”
“The more you read the unsealed lawsuit yesterday, the more it became apparent that the Mets – and that still means Fred Wilpon – are guilty of either one of two things:
“And either way, the Wilpons allowed Bernie Madoff to put them in a hell of a pickle, only a few years after they were forced to settle another Ponzi scheme that now seems like a nickel poker game compared to the varsity mess Madoff made for them.
“I happen to think Fred Wilpon is an honorable man, and so it is hard for me to believe that he had anything to do with the fraud Madoff perpetrated. But he has also spent his lifetime building an enviable fortune, and he was the president of the baseball team the second time they won a World Series. You can understand how the poor victims who invested their modest life savings in Madoff could be swayed that Madoff was simply smarter than the markets.
“But Fred Wilpon, babe in the woods? And if that’s the case, do you really believe this is a mess whose cleanup he’s capable of overseeing?
“ ‘New York deserves – baseball deserves – a National League franchise in New York that is successful every year, that’s the envy of every other club in baseball,’ Fred Wilpon said on Jan. 25, 1980, standing inside the Diamond Club at old Shea Stadium. ‘We will do whatever is necessary to bring a winning team to New York, and soon.’
“In 1980, that meant Fred Wilpon needed to roll up his sleeves and get to work.
“In 2011, it means he needs to close up his briefcase and move out of the way.
“Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz recruited family members to invest with scammer Bernie Madoff – and then used some of their wives’ megamillions to help pay off business bills, court papers show.
“Iris Katz earned $35 million in profit from six Madoff accounts since December 1986, while Judy Wilpon took in nearly $25 million from her six accounts over the same time, documents said….
“The lawsuit filed against the Mets co-owners alleges that Wilpon, Katz and their colleagues at Sterling Partners freely dipped into their wives accounts as if they were their own.
“They ‘counted the purported equity in their wives’ accounts toward their own total net worth, and also used funds withdrawn from their wives’ accounts to meet their personal and/or business financial obligations,’ the documents said.”
Again, the idea was to use the more than $300 million in profits from Madoff investments to get hundreds of millions in business loans and lines of credit.
Finally, there is only one buyer for the Mets, should it come to that. Mark Cuban. And were that to happen, I’d be all for changing the name…reverting to the past…the New York Cubans.
“If they want to sit down and sell me on it [take an interest], I can be a willing buyer and a willing customer,” Cuban said the other day. “But I’m not going to be a bidder on anything.”
No, no, Mark. We want you to take the whole team! And there will be no competitive bidding, my buddies and I will make sure of that. It’s yours! And we’re naming the team after you! Just sign here….
College Basketball Review
–Look who is on top of the Ivy League after a long absence…Princeton. Nice to see.
–In losing to UCLA 66-59 in his homecoming, St. John’s coach Steve Lavin, head coach at UCLA from 1991-2003, saw his Johnnies go to the free throw line seven times, while the Bruins shot 41 free throws, including 33 in the second half.
–Your Bar Chat “Pick to Click” to win it all, San Diego State, was unimpressive in a 60-53 win over TCU at home, but earlier in the week, point guard D.J. Gay nailed a game-winner on the road at tough Colorado State. Gay is not the best player on the Aztecs, he’s just the most important, and has not had more than two turnovers directing the attack in any of the last 13 games. Not bad, not bad at all.
Back to baseball…
Bill Madden / New York Daily News…on the job Commissioner Bud Selig faces, as in “he’s now got four clubs in extreme duress, including two of baseball’s signature franchises, the Mets and the Dodgers,” plus major venue issues in Tampa Bay and Oakland. “These are about as serious as they come: The Mets, with the cloud of Bernie Madoff threatening the Wilpons’ ability to operate the team; the Dodgers, with the battling McCourts’ divorce case similarly draining their financial resources and reducing them to the laughingstock of baseball; and the Rays and A’s heading toward baseball oblivion if they are unable to find new ballparks.”
It turns out Wilpon is Selig’s closest friend among owners. Well that’s just great. As one lawyer told Bill Madden, best case, “the legal fees alone for the Mets owners are going to strangle them” if the process takes years, as certainly seems likely. “Can baseball afford that – to have the specter of Madoff hanging over the Mets franchise like this, with the owners severely shackled financially? There is nobody who can devote the time and financial resources it’s going to take to defend this and still manage a major league ballclub,” said the lawyer.
Meanwhile, the McCourts aren’t expected back in court for another year, but as Madden writes:
“According to sources familiar with Selig’s thinking, it isn’t going to matter who winds up as Dodger owner, Frank or wife, Jamie. Selig wants them both out and, the sources added, the commissioner already has more than a half-dozen prospective local buyers lined up to liberate the Dodgers from the hideous McCourts.” But it’s really the judicial courts that will decide.
Then you have Tampa Bay. I didn’t realize the Rays are tied to a long-term lease at Tropicana Field until 2027! The City Fathers are adamant there will be no new stadium.
As for the A’s, their owner, Lew Wolff, wanted a new stadium in Oakland, but that’s not happening so now he wants to move to San Jose, which is certainly viable, but the San Francisco Giants are claiming territorial rights, even though it’s 50 miles from San Fran (as opposed to being just 15 from Oakland).
So Madden believes that what Selig should do is put both Tampa Bay and Oakland out of their misery and contract.
“Selig would be doing a positive service to the game. The very fact the Yankees had to resort to Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia as prospective starting pitchers to fill out their rotation is clear enough evidence as to how thin the talent level in baseball has become.”
–Speaking of the Yankees’ pitching situation, Andy Pettitte announced his retirement, though hinted he might just be sitting out one year. He is 240-138 with a 3.88 ERA in 16 major league seasons, plus his superb 19-10, 3.83, in postseason play. Hall of Famer? Maybe. He made only three All-Star teams, though. At least he handled his steroids involvement as well as he could, given the circumstances, though the Roger Clemens trial might contain some evidence that Andy won’t be particularly happy about. I also can’t respect the way Pettitte jerked the Yankees around the last few off-seasons in waiting so long to decide whether he wanted to pitch again.
So now the Yankees have C.C. Sabathia, Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and then a bunch of big-time question marks to fill the 4th and 5th slots in the starting rotation. Of course Burnett is a huge question mark in his own right.
But Michael Salfino looked at the last five American League champions on what each fifth-starter gave the club and it’s not much; an average 31.6 starts, 164 innings, and a 5.09 ERA.
–The Baltimore Orioles made a great move in signing Vladimir Guerrero for one year. He’ll DH after hitting .300 with 29 home runs and 115 RBI for Texas last season, though his production fell way off in the second half. Guerrero joins newcomers Derek Lee, J.J. Hardy and slugger Mark Reynolds. If you want a sleeper team this year, it’s Baltimore.
—USA TODAY College Baseball Poll
1. UCLA
2. TCU
3. Florida
4. Vanderbilt
5. Clemson
6. Oklahoma
7. Texas
8. South Carolina
9. Cal State-Fullerton
10. Oregon
20. Coastal Carolina…I have my Chanticleerwear in a key drawer, ready to whip out when spring finally arrives.
This is pretty amazing…or maybe not. “Five of the eight schools that advanced to Omaha [and the College World Series] in 2010 ranked in the top 10 in home attendance.”
LSU is tops in the nation, averaging 10,655 per home game! Good gawd. Arkansas is second at 7,704.
—The Cleveland Cavaliers are now the proud holders of one of the greatest records of all time, the longest losing streak in NBA history, 24 straight, after losing to Portland the other night. The previous holders were the 1995-96 Grizzlies and 1997-98 Denver Nuggets. Cleveland, after a 7-9 start, has gone 1-31 since. Staggering.
–As expected, the LPGA has scrubbed the event scheduled for April in Morelia, Mexico, due to security concerns.
–This I find hard to believe. “Belgian runner Stefaan Engels set a Guinness World Record after crossing the finish line of his 365th consecutive marathon on Saturday. Engels, dubbed the ‘Marathon Man,’ began the extreme physical challenge a year ago in Barcelona. He competed a race a day in seven countries: Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, the U.K. and the U.S….The 49-year-old Engels ran a total of 9,569 miles. He said the key was a slow pace over the 26.2 miles….Engels averaged around 4 hours to complete a marathon.” [AP]
One of Engels’ sponsors said “He ran every race, he never walked.” It’s not that I don’t believe he ran this amount, I just have a hard time understanding who holds marathons outside weekends?
New Orleans Saints RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season: “I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first.”
Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann: “Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”
Chuck Nevitt, North Carolina State basketball player, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice: “My sister’s expecting a baby, and I don’t know if I’m going to be an uncle or an aunt.”
Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting what he told a player who received four F’s and one D: “Son, looks to me like you’re spending too much time on one subject.”
In the words of N.C. State great Charles Shackelford: “I can go to my left or right. I am amphibious.”
[The sourcing for the above is ‘various,’ as in there are all sorts of versions of the list on the Web as I just found out. Of course you could pull out the Michael Ray Richardson quote for this one, too.]
–We note the passing of French actress Maria Schneider, 58, who is best known for a single role, that of a young Parisian woman who has an affair with an American businessman, played by Marlon Brando, in the explicit 1972 film, “Last Tango in Paris.” She was paid only $4,000 for the role and said later that Brando treated her terribly, which was par for the course when it came to this total a-hole.
–This sucks…35 zoo animals froze to death at a facility in northern Mexico, including two crocodiles, due to the fact power failures cut off electrical heating. The crocs’ last words were, “Geezuz, would you turn the freakin’ heat up!”
–How much do the stars of “Jersey Shore” earn in appearance fees? According to the New York Post’s Page Six, “The Situation” and “Snooki” get about $15,000 for a regular club or event appearance. “JWoww” and “Pauly D” pick up about $12,000, as does Vinny Guadagnino, who I wouldn’t know from Adam. The others earn $5,000-$8,000. [I’ll appear for $250, plus unlimited ‘premium’ and a ride home. Just sayin’.]
–I like Rolling Stone magazine. It certainly has had some good stuff with writer Matt Taibbi the last few years, but I’ve had major issues with founder/publisher Jann Wenner and his dirty tricks concerning the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame voting process. That said, Rolling Stone is the bible for the rock and roll set and thus I was startled to see a pitifully small obituary for Don Kirshner. Truly pathetic. So Wenner clearly had a bug up his ass in his relationship with Kirshner to treat the latter’s legacy with such disrespect.
–And this just in…rock guitarist Gary Moore died while on holiday in Spain. Moore, originally from Belfast, was a former member of the great Irish group Thin Lizzy. Gary Moore was just 58.
Top 3 songs for the week 2/8/75: #1 “Fire” (Ohio Players) #2 “You’re No Good” (Linda Ronstadt) #3 “Boogie On Reggae Woman” (Stevie Wonder)…and…#4 “Pick Up The Pieces” (AWB) #5 “Best Of My Love” (The Eagles) #6 “Some Kind Of Wonderful” (Grand Funk) #7 “Black Water” (The Doobie Brothers) #8 “Laughter In The Rain” (Neil Sedaka…might be in my all-time top 50) #9 “Lonely People” (America…story of Mets fans these days…very depressing…very, very depressing…we’re all alone, no hope…43-119 season heading straight towards us and there is nothing we can do about it…) #10 “Get Dancin’” (Disco Tex & His Sex-O-Lettes…the last thing I want to do now is go dancing…I just want to mope…)
Golf Quiz Answer: Five who shot 59…Al Geiberger, 1977; Chip Beck, ’91; David Duval, ’99; Paul Goydos, 7/2010; Stuart Appleby, 8/2010. [Last year, Ryo Ishikawa shot 58 in a tourney on the Japanese PGA Tour.]
Ballantine Beer Quiz Answer: The three rings stand for “Purity, Body, Flavor.” I’m getting all choked up just writing this….excuse me, I need a moment here…Chloe, where did I put the Kleenex?
[The Wall Street Journal highlighted a new book, “Beer: A Genuine Collection of Cans” by Dan Backer and Lance Wilson that looks terrific. [Just grabbed a bunch of copies from Amazon…act fast, sports fans!] For example, I didn’t realize that Gablinger’s, introduced in 1967, was the first light beer. Named after Swiss chemist Hersch Gablinger, who helped develop the formula, it was a flop, due to poor marketing as a “diet beer.” The first to sell beer in a can was the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co., 1935.]
