Archive for March 7th, 2008
Continue Reading March 7th, 2008
The Cape Cod League is one of the minor leagues’ most beloved and historic treasures, if you’re into the whole “treasure” thing. The league was founded in 1885, which makes it as old as Yogi Berra. It also happens to have some of the same team names as Major League Baseball franchises, including the Harwich Mariners, which are actually older than the Seattle Mariners. But they won’t be keeping those team names for long: Major League Baseball is making them change the names.
Well, kind of: They’re threatening to take away the grant that allows the league to exist. No more Hyannis Mets.
A year ago, MLBP sent out a notice to the Cape League that six of its franchises were violating copyrights of Major League Baseball Properties, namely the six franchises that share names with current MLB teams. The six Cape Cod Baseball League franchises that currently share nicknames with Major League Baseball teams are: the Bourne Braves, Harwich Mariners, Orleans Cardinals, Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, Chatham Athletics (A’s), and Hyannis Mets. All six of those clubs have held their current nicknames for at least 20 years, with both Orleans and Chatham having had theirs in place for more than 40. In Harwich’s case, the local Mariners’ name predates the existing Seattle MLB team’s name.
MLBP allowed the Cape League to continue to do business as usual for the whole of last year, but last week renewed its interest in settling any dispute with the CCBL. According to an e-mail circulated throughout the Cape League on Wednesday, the CCBL had 48 hours to come to a decision as to whether they would agree to MLBP’s terms. A formal response has not yet been decided upon by the Cape League.
We look forward to continued aggressive trademark protection maneuvers from MLB, including running these copyright pirates out of business.
Cape League In Copyright Dispute With MLB [Cape Cod Now]
Continue Reading March 7th, 2008
For the third consecutive season, we are proud to introduce the Deadspin Baseball Season Previews. Yes, baseball is awfully close now; it’s spring training, after all.
Every weekday until the start of the season, a different writer will preview his/her team. We asked a gaggle of writers, from the Web, from print, from books, to tell us, in as many or as little words as they need, Where Their Team Stands. This is not meant to be factual, or dispassionate, or even logical: We just asked them to riff on why they love their team so much, or what their team means to them, or whatever.
Today: The Cincinnati Reds. Your author is Clay Travis.
Clay Travis writes the ClayNation column for CBS Sportsline. His words are after the jump.
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Let’s be honest, the Cincinnati Reds are not going to win anything this year. They’re going to lose. Probably by late July you’ll realize that you have no real reason to go to the games. The last time the Reds were in the postseason was 1995. Yep, 13 long years ago. That was back when finding pictures of naked women required real work and cyber sex was still just two fat men from Troy, Michigan’s wildest dream.
So if you go to Cincinnati you’re going to need something to do to keep yourself occupied when the Reds aren’t trying to scrape together their first winning reason since 2000. With that in mind I’ve alternated a painstaking analysis of the 2008 season with things you can do in Cincinnati when you’re lamenting another losing season.
1. 2008 will be the first season since 1944 that the recently deceased Joe Nuxhall has not been associated with the Cincinnati Reds. Before I start taking shots at everyone, Joe Nuxhall was the reason I ended up a Reds fan. The Reds games were broadcast on our local Fox affiliate in Nashville and on my first trip to Cincinnati at the age of 8, I met Nuxhall in the lobby of the downtown Hyatt (where the Reds gift shop was.) Nuxhall was sitting a table wearing a polo shirt, plaid shorts and white socks up to his knees. After much prodding from my dad I shook Nuxhall’s hand and said we enjoyed watching the Reds games he and Marty Brennaman called. Nuxhall looked at me and said, “Hell, son I didn’t know we were on in Nashville.” He’ll be missed.
2. Visit Kentucky. At some point you’ll be wondering around in downtown Cincinnati at 8 at night and think you’re in Pyongyang and Kim Jong-Il has just been assassinated. Every cab driver you meet will sing the praises of night life in Kentucky. You’ll go to Kentucky. This says volumes about Cincinnati.
3. Dusty Baker is now the Reds manager. Hooray. I’ve always felt what every major league city needs is an old man who still wears batting gloves and wristbands. Fortunately for Baker he’ll likely have five right-handed starting pitchers to run into the ground by the All-Star break. Seriously, five starting right handers?
4. Take a riverboat cruise on the Ohio River. Because, trust me, there’s much more to the Ohio River than the murky brown water you can see from the shores of Ohio and Kentucky. For instance you might get lucky and see Joe Morgan on the bow of the boat and get to hear him say, “Clay, did you know that Pete Rose told me that rivers such as the Ohio used to be really important to our nation’s commerce? Because, you see, there were no interstates back in the 1800’s. People couldn’t even drive their cars anywhere. They kept them in barns…or sometimes large silos.”
5. Franciso Cordero is the latest Reds savior having been recently signed as a closer to a 4 year, $46 million dollar deal. Using the same math that brought Ken Griffey, Jr. such big money success on the banks of the Ohio, this roughly equates to $4 million dollars per save. Or to make the analogy clearer, what Rob Dibble spent on transvestite hookers each year in the Nasty Boys era. Cordero is also listed at 32 and from the Dominican Republic. This means he’s actually older than Jack Armstrong.
6. Pretend you are a native Cincinnatian and participate in a race riot.
7. Brandon Phillips, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Adam Dunn each hit 30 home runs last year. Phillips and Dunn are 26 and 28, respectively. This is very promising. And Philips at four years for $27 million is either going to turn out to be a tremendous steal for the Reds or one of those deals that other teams in the NL Central laugh about for the next half-decade. There will be no middle ground.
8. Go to the Underground Railroad Museum next door to the Reds Stadium. Just for fun keep asking Joe Morgan where to buy your ticket.
9. Joey Votto is rumored to be the next great thing at first base for the Reds. Formerly rumored great Reds first baseman Hal Morris thinks Joey Votto isn’t smart enough to play basketball for the Bearcats. This is an ominous sign.
10. Head to the zoo. I hate to say it’s an indictment of a city when the zoo is a top tourist attraction. But…it’s an indictment of a city when the zoo is a top tourist attraction.
11. Ryan Freel has an imaginary voice in his head he calls Farney. This is the man who replaced Ken Griffey, Jr. in center field because “it gives us a stronger defense up the middle.” Baseball stars die slow and cruel deaths.
12. Eat Skyline Chili. Or just stick your finger in your asshole and rub it on ramen noodles. Bingo, you’ve experienced Cincinnati’s finest cuisine.
Continue Reading March 7th, 2008
All media junkies have either Poynter or Romenesko bookmarked in their Internet browsers. Those who barely pay attention to the media, let alone stories about the media, the Poynter Institute’s website basically acts as a cheerleader for the state of journalism, offering helpful advice yet trying to stay positive in the face of dwindling circulation numbers. Kind of like the Timberwolves dance team.
So don’t fret, newspaper editors! Just be more like Brett Favre, and everything will be okay!
1. Favre loved the job. He brought joy to work every day and let it show. He dared to grin on the field and whoop when whooping was called for and get knocked down and pop back up laughing. There was almost always a smile behind the bars of his helmet, even when he was losing.
Editors: When was the last time you worked with unabashed joy, or made the job fun? In today’s troubled newsrooms, imagine the transformative power that would have.
Oh, this is delightful. Just about every CEO in the world could apply these Brett Favre lessons to their own industry and save their business. At least until scientists devise a way to extract a small amount of Fun from Brett Favre and convert it into a topical balm that will cure all illness, without any side effects or foul odors.
Let’s go down some of the other lessons, and see who they can help:
4. He didn’t make excuses or lay blame - even when he had due cause.
Veterinarians: When you accidentally injected little Scruffles not with a rabies shot, but instead your heroin needle from last night, did you blame it on the fact that the label fell off, or did you dust yourself off and bring in the next pet?
6. He knew how to call an audible. When the script failed, he improvised.
Exotic dancers: When the song you wanted the DJ to play, “I’m A Slave For You,” never came through the loudspeaker and was replaced by C.W. McCall’s “Convoy,” did you make the best of it and let the patrons beckon you over with their make-believe CB radios?
8. He wasn’t afraid to be real - on the field or off. When he got addicted to pain pills, he fessed up. When his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer, he admitted his fear. When his father died, he cried. When he finally decided to retire, he didn’t spout some blather about more time with the family, or pursuing other interests. He just said it like it was: “I’m tired.”
Highway Patrolmen: Don’t you think you guys should ease up and reveal what kind of person you … no, there’s nothing in the trunk, officer. It always makes that clank sound.
How Brett Favre Could Save Journalism, If Only We Would Pay Attention [Poynter Online]
Continue Reading March 7th, 2008
The NBA Closer is written by Matt McHale, who wishes you all a happy freaking Friday. When he’s not celebrating the weekend, he can be found playing Texas Hold ‘Em at Basketbawful. Enjoy!
• We now have an answer to one of life’s great mysteries. The Yao Ming-less Rockets are indeed better than the Dirk Nowitzki-less Mavericks…113-98 better if you want an exact, scientific measure. Tracy McGrady continued his own personal renaissance - minus the jaunty hat and smashing tights - with 31 points and 9 assists, and Rafer Alston used Jason Kidd as a prop/poster boy on his way to a season-high 24 points. And voila! Just like that the Rockets have a franchise-best 17-game winning streak. Said T-Mac: “We all believe, man. When you’ve got a roster full of guys that really believe in themselves, great chemistry among the team, and we go out and play extremely hard every night, I’m not surprised.” Well, everybody else is, Tracy. Meanwhile, Jason Terry, who scored 17 points on 6-for-15 shooting, is having a little trouble facing reality after the Mavs’ current stretch of four wins and five losses in nine games. “They’re playing well together right now, but at the same time there’s not a team we can’t beat.” Oh yeah, Jason? What about the A-Team…can you beat them? I think we all know the answer to that question.
• Bulls use Jordan Rules. On LeBron. After watching King James drop 26 points on them in the first half, the Bulls tugged, bumped, and harassed him into 3-for-12 shooting over the course of the final two quarters. And I know this is going to shock you to your very core, but Bron Bron’s teammates didn’t pick up the slack: Chicago 107, Cleveland 96. Of course, James is never going to admit that a team actually managed to put the clamps on him, so while he admitted the Bulls got “a little more aggressive” with him, he also implied that only LeBron James can stop LeBron James. “I took some shots that I know I can make, but I missed.” The Bulls got a double-barreled attack from Ben Gordan and Luol Deng (23 points each), Joakim Noah was twice the man Ben Wallace was (13 points, 20 boards), and Larry Hughes had a case of Cavalier-itis (4-for-12 shooting). Meanwhile, LeBron finished with 39, Andy Varejao and Wallace had 10 boards apiece, and Wally Szczerbiak continued his Larry Hughes impersonation with 14 points on 4-for-11 shooting. Eric snow did not play.
• Los Spurs ganar…nosotros bostezo. The Spurs’ bandwagon is so empty you that could probably see a tumble weed blow across it. Assuming you were anywhere within a thousand feet of it, that is. Tim Duncan must have wrapped the team in his +5 invisibility cloak or something, because nobody seems to notice - or even care - that San Antonio has won 11 straight games and, despite a host of early-season injuries and flat-out boredom, currently sits atop the ultra-competitive Western Conference standings. El Contusione led San Antonio - whose jerseys read “Los Spurs” in honor of Noche Latina (”Latin Night”) at the AT&T center - with 28 points. Tony Parker added 19, and Tim Duncan contributed 12 boards and some podrido shooting (3-for-11), and Gregg Popovich showed his first signs of human emotion by getting ejected for arguing a call in the second quarter. Meanwhile, the Pacers’ main hombre was Danny Granger, who scored 22 points.
• Birdmen in the news. The newly reinstated Chris Andersen is sporting some newly dried ink these days. Although he did admit to “crying like a little girl” when he got his freaky new tats. “It hurt like a son of a bean mother fredo pie.” Admit it. You missed the Birdman. We all did.
