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Fun & Games for Thursday, July 24, 2008 |
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July 24, 2008 |
≡ Fun & Games ≡
 Don't like it? Doesn't matter 'cause it's not changing! |
= To Our Readers =
You can now find us in two different places on the Web: in addition to The Sports Examiner, we now write three times a week on Olympic sports for the World Championship Sports Network site, WCSN.com in a column called “Inside the Rings.”
Here at The Sports Examiner, we have changed our format to include a weekly intelligence briefing, with commentary, for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and a bonus posting called “Fun & Games” during the week. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= The Top Story =
>> Greensboro, Ga.: Atlantic Coast Conference commissioner John Swofford, who also serves as the coordinator of the Bowl Championship Series, said during the conference’s football media day that the BCS will likely stay the way it is.
Swofford told reporters that he expects to begin working on a four-year extension of the current deal with the Fox television network, which expires after the 2009 season (January 2010 games). He said that despite plenty of talk to the contrary, he believes that the BCS will “remain fundamentally as it is in the next cycle.”
Meaningful reform of the BCS cannot really be considered until the end of the next contract, following the January 2014 bowl games. At that time, both the BCS and the separate Rose Bowl television agreement with ABC, will be up for renewal . . . or change.
= The National Pastime =
>> New York, N.Y.: There’s little doubt that the Yankees expected Joba Chamberlain to have more than a 1-1 record after nine starts. But they shouldn’t be too upset: the team is 6-3 in those nine games.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Lowell, Ma.: Never underestimate the ability of minor-league baseball to come up with unusual promotions.
At Wednesday night’s game in Lowell, the hometown Spinners hosted “Political Correctness Night” in which no one was to be offended. For example, the foul lines were called “fair lines”; players who commit an error will not be identified because it might hurt their feelings; bases won’t be numbered but treated equally without rankings and so on.
That’s to be followed on Thursday by “Political Incorrectness Night” which will feature “Men Only” entrances; only men will be able to participate in between-innings promotions; only women will work the two main concession stands and “napping” areas with cots will be available for use by those 60 and older.
There was no mention when “Ladies’ Night” was scheduled.
= The NBA =
>> Orlando, Fl.: What’s the most important thing in a trade deal between NBA teams these days? Players? No. Draft picks? Forget it.
It’s a trade exception!
Two deals in the last week demonstrated the importance teams place on these exemptions, which allow a club to acquire a player for just draft picks instead of having to roughly match the salaries of the players being moved. In the case of center Marcus Camby, Denver was willing to let him go and eliminated a reported $20 million from its long-term salary obligations as well as acquire a $10 million trade exemption from the Clippers. Oh yes, there was also a draft pick thrown in.
Now, Orlando is letting guard Keyon Dooling go to New Jersey in return for cash and a $3.3 million trade exception it obtained in the Jason Kidd-to-Dallas deal. No way that deal gets done without the exception, which Orlando will use to try and find more help in the free-agent market.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Athens, Greece: What’s a 6-8 reserve forward who averaged 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds in 30 minutes a game worth on the open market?
A cool $20 million to Euroleague power Olympiakos, which has reportedly signed ex-Stanford star Josh Childress to a three-year deal worth more than $20 million deal to play for them. Childress has been with Atlanta for all four years in the NBA and is a restricted free agent, but was unable to work out a deal with the Hawks for the future. According to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Childress’s contract allows him to opt out at the end of each season.
= College Football =
>> Newark, N.J.; The Newark Star-Ledger reported that while Rutgers coach Greg Schiano has a $500,000 buyout in his contract, that obligation disappears if the school does not complete a 14,000-seat expansion of Rutgers Stadium by 2009.
Rutgers president Richard McCormick told the newspaper of the exception to the buyout amount and there is concern that the expansion may not be done in time. An additional 1,000 seats have been added to the facility in time for the 2008 season, but the plan to add the other 13,000 seats will cost about $18 million more than anticipated. If the project is delayed, Schiano could leave without penalty.
In addition, the Star-Ledger uncovered considerable additional compensation being paid to Schiano beyond his $1.6 million salary. It turns out that he is also receiving another $250,000 through the school’s contracted sports marketing firm, received bonuses of $205,000 for reaching a bowl game, a school ticket-sales record and academic program and has an $800,000, interest-free home loan, which is being “forgiven” at the rate of $100,000 per year as long as he stays at Rutgers.
There’s no doubt that Rutgers is enjoying the best period of football success in decades, but in Schiano’s seven seasons, they’ve finished in the top three in the Big East twice and have been to the Insight, Texas and International Bowls in the last three seasons (26-14 record in those seasons). This is worth $2 million a year?
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Dallas, Tx.: Mike Leach may not be the best college football coach in the country. But he may have the shortest distance between his brain and his mouth.
At the Big 12's pre-season football media session on Monday, Leach told reporters that if they wanted to interview quarterback Graham Harrell or star wide receiver Michael Crabtree, they should use Love Field in Dallas to get to Lubbock, because Dallas-Ft. Worth International (DFW) “can be a confusing mess.”
DFW chief executive Jeff Fagan immediately dispatched a letter to Leach in which he invited him and his family for a “guided airport tour and a great Texas steak.” American Airlines, which has a major hub operation at DFW, offered free transport for Leach and his family from Lubbock.
Leach, for his part, said “I am sincerely appreciative of your thoughtful gesture and may take you up on it,” but added since the season is coming soon, “I may not have time to accept your invitation until December.”
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Lawrence, Ks.: There’s no mistaking Kansas football coach Mark Mangino, whose girth is becoming legendary. One T-shirt seen on the Kansas campus proclaims, “Our Coach Beat Anorexia.”
Said Jayhawk linebacker Mike Rivera, “Some things are funny to some people.” Obviously, not to him.
= Golf =
>> New York, N.Y.: If you feel sorry for 18-year-old Michelle Wie, who lost a chance for her first LPGA Tour win after not signing her scorecard after the second round of the State Farm Classic, consider this: according to Forbes, she earned $12 million last year.
Maybe she can turn her misfortune into another sponsorship? Can’t Day-Timers use her to endorse their task-management journals and software?
= Soccer =
>> New York, N.Y.: Lost in all the hoopla over the 46,754 who attended the MLS game at Giants Stadium last week between the New York Red Bulls and the David Beckham-led Los Angeles Galaxy is that the attendance was actually down almost 30%.
Last season’s Red Bulls-Galaxy match featuring Beckham for the first time drew 66,237. Now you know.
= Track & Field =
>> Des Moines, Ia.: If you want to be considered in the same light as the legendary Jesse Owens, winning gold medals in the Olympic Games is a good place to start. Or you can race a horse.
Owens did just that in exhibitions after his four-gold-medal performance in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, but this time it may be American hurdler Lolo Jones who lines up against an equine opponent.
Jones, who attended Roosevelt High in Des Moines suggested the idea to the Prairie Meadows race track for a promotion after the Olympics in Beijing next month. The distance isn’t set and there’s the problem of a track surface for Jones to run on compared to the loose earth used for horse racing. But Jones is already under contract with the track for a personal appearance for $4,000, which she is using to send her family to see her in Beijing.
The Des Moines Register reported that one possibility is to have a portion of the home straightaway compacted with a steamroller to allow Jones a firm surface to run on. The distance has also not been agreed; shorter will be better for Jones if she and the horse run from an equal starting line. But even at 100 yards, horses are much faster; the Prairie Meadows record is 6.21 while the fastest men in history have run 9.0.
The Register noted that Owens “often won” in his 100-yard dashes against horses, “but with help. He had the starter’s pistol fired near the horse’s head to startle the animal, and Owens would be off and running.”
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Beijing, China: In what amount to a cruel joke that Olympic city hotels play on themselves every time, hoteliers are slashing prices as they try to fill their rooms for the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing.
“Even if the price is down to the bottom, it’s no use became nobody is coming,” said Liu Liping, sales manager of the three-star Beijing Ziyu Hotel in an interview with Bloomberg News. The news service reported that instead of the normal 80% occupancy rate in August, the Beijing Ziyu only has bookings for 10% of its rooms next month. Rates have been reduced by nearly half to the equivalent of $173 per night.
“We are feeling the influence of the visa restrictions,” said Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. Chief operating officer Simon Cooper. “We’ve lost some occupancy.”
Wu Lide, the spokesman for the largest tour agency in China, said that “Travel numbers are dropping with surging air ticket prices and more expensive hotels, some of which are costing three or four times more than a year before.”
Comment: This is no surprise and happens at virtually every Olympic Games. Hoteliers look at the Games as a cash cow and overprice their rooms, only to have to scramble at the last moment. There is no Games in memory at which this has not happened.
The winners might end up being Chinese nationals who decide – at the last moment – to head to Beijing for the Games. They have, obviously, no visa issues to deal with and will have their pick of accommodations with many tickets still available.
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Beijing, China: “This is worse than my worst fears,” said World Anti-Doping Agency Director-General David Howman, in response to a documentary shown on Germany’s ARD network that shows a Chinese physician offering gene therapy to strengthen a swimmer’s lungs for $24,000 U.S.
According to the program, the physician told a man posing as an American swimming coach “We have no experience with sportspeople here, but the treatment is safe and we can help you.
“It strengthens lung function and stem cells go into the bloodsteam and reach the organs. It takes two weeks. I recommend four intravenous injections . . . 40 million stem cells or double that, the more the better. We also use human growth hormones, but you have to be careful because they are on the doping list.”
In addition, a former swimming silver medalist for China at age 18 in 1988 said on the program that she had been given steroids during her teenage years. Now a coach in South Korea, Huang Xiaomin said “I had lots of health problems later on. It totally transformed me. It was as if I was ill. I had no will to live.”
Comment: Now the International Olympic Committee has another doping case from 1988, but this time not involving the East Germans. When is this going to get fixed; it certainly won’t happen during the Beijing Games, but when?
≡ ¶ ≡
>> Lausanne, Switzerland: International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said he will make his decision on whether to stand for re-election in 2009 based in part on the level of success achieved by the Beijing organizers of the 2008 Olympic Games.
No IOC member has indicated that they would stand against Rogge in any case; the Belgian surgeon is eligible for a four-year second term after serving an eight-year first term that began with his election in 2001. Unless the rules are changed (always possible with the IOC), he will have to step down, at the latest, in 2013.
Rogge told the Deutsche Presse Agentur news service that “Beijing is a criterion whether or not I stand again.” He also noted, as did his predecessor Juan Antonio Samaranch, that he is in favor of successor IOC Presidents receiving a salary, since the work is now full-time and requires almost continuous travel. Rogge receives no salary, but his expenses – which are considerable given the travel – are covered by the IOC.
Comment: Rogge’s comments indicate he is ready to be the “fall guy” if there are significant problems in Beijing. While major problems are unlikely, anything could happen and players like Puerto Rico’s Richard Carrion could be in the mix as a new president.
However, Rogge’s idea of paying the IOC President a salary is a needed and important reform. There are talented IOC members who could not even think of standing for the office because of the financial burden it would impose on them for at least eight years. Considering the IOC’s income, a salary of $500-750,000 (plus expenses) is not out of line, especially for a European company.
~ Rich Perelman
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