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| Thursday, January 8, 2009 |
 Longtime Atlanta Braves pitcher John Smoltz has snubbed the team and signed with the Red Sox. ESPN:
John Smoltz has pitched his entire major league career with the Atlanta Braves, but he is on the verge of a deal with the Boston Red Sox, according to sources.
Smoltz, 41, has pitched in 708 games for the Braves, winning 210 games and earning 154 saves. He has been been rehabilitating his shoulder since having surgery last season, and there have been reports that the has made excellent progress.
Smoltz’s departure from Atlanta would come in a winter in which the Braves have struggled to fill holes in their rotation; Atlanta was unable to land Jake Peavy, after extensive trade talks, and was unable to sign free agent A.J. Burnett.
Despite the qualifiers, AJC is reporting it as a done deal. The Braves are shocked.
John Smoltz’s career with the Braves is ending. The iconic Atlanta pitcher, who’s recovering from June shoulder surgery, has agreed to a contract to pitch for the Boston Red Sox and will likely inform the Braves of his decision today, a person familiar with the situation confirmed.
[...]
Smoltz, who contacted Braves players Wednesday night to inform them of his decision, has said many times in the past year that he wanted to finish his career with the Braves. However, the team had not offered a major league contract to Smoltz that was anywhere near the amount that the Red Sox have reportedly guaranteed him. The Braves were expected to go no higher than $3 million guaranteed, regardless of other offers he got.
“John is a great guy. He follows his own head, and I just don’t know what’s going on with him right now,†Braves Chairman and CEO Terry McGuirk said today. “We’ve offered less of a guarantee, but we’ve offered a substantial guarantee. Coming off an injury like this, we feel like it’s the right thing that we should be doing (in regards to our offer).
“We’ve offered him a package that would get him in the $10 million range, if he were to pitch a full season and pitch well. For him to walk away from that and to go to another place, I’m just shocked and surprised.
“I read today in something that his agent said the other set of incentives (from the Red Sox) were “more attainable.†If John Smoltz pitches like John Smoltz pitches, I think (what we offered) is attainable. If he’s not healthy, it’s not going to happen.â€
According to a person familiar with the situation, Smoltz would have been required to pitch 200 innings next season to reach the maximum incentives in the Braves’ offer. Incentives in the Red Sox proposal are more easily attainable.
One can’t blame the Braves, who have a much more limited payroll than the Sox, for hedging their bets on a player who has been constantly injured in recent years. Nor, really, can fans blame Smoltz for preferring $5.5 million to $3 million as his career winds down. Still, it’s a shame to see him play in another uniform.
There is a precedent for the league to take over the financially troubled franchise. From ESPN-
The NHL hasn’t taken over control of the Phoenix Coyotes, but it is taking an active role in trying to find new investors or ownership for the financially strapped franchise and is being kept apprised of any “significant” financial decisions the team makes, ESPN.com has learned from team and league sources.
The league also is trying to help broker changes to the existing lease with the city of Glendale in the hopes of making the situation more attractive to new investors or owners.
Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes is in dire financial straights, with his outside business interests — most notably Swift Transportation, a large trucking firm — having been hammered by high gasoline costs, followed by the dramatic downturn in the economy.
And although team officials say the club has never relied on Swift revenues to run the team, the Coyotes aren’t in much better shape and are expected to lose another $30 million or more this season, on top of the more than $60 million they are reported to have lost the past two years.
With money tight because of the economic downturn, finding a new investor is going to prove difficult to impossible. Can Phoenix maintain a NHL team? Ice Hockey in an area that sometimes sees temperatures in the 110 degree range during does seem out of place.
No I’m not talking about some middle aged man propelling a ball at some objects at the end of a lane, but the games that climax every college football season. Bowl season officially starts this Saturday, here are the matchups for all the college football fanatics out there.
Dec 20
Eaglebank Bowl- Wake Forest vs Navy
New Mexico Bowl- Colorado State vs Fresno St
MAGICJACK ST. PETERSBURG BOWL- Memphis vs. South Florida
PIONEER LAS VEGAS BOWL- Brigham Young vs Arizona
Dec 21
R+L CARRIERS NEW ORLEANS BOWL- Southern Miss vs. Troy
Dec 23
SAN DIEGO COUNTY CREDIT UNION POINSETTIA BOWL- Boise St vs TCU
Dec 24
SHERATON HAWAII BOWL- Hawaii vs Notre Dame
Dec 26
MOTOR CITY BOWL- Florida Atlantic vs. Central Michigan
Saturday, December 27
MEINEKE CAR CARE BOWL- West Virginia vs. North Carolina
Champs Sports Bowl- Wisconsin vs. Florida State
Emerald Bowl- Miami (FL) vs. California
December 28
Independence Bowl- Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech
PAPAJOHNS.COM BOWL- North Carolina State vs. Rutgers
Valero Alamo Bowl- Missouri vs. No. 23 Northwestern
Tuesday, December 30
ROADY’S HUMANITARIAN BOWL- Maryland vs. Nevada
PACIFIC LIFE HOLIDAY BOWL- Oklahoma State vs. No. 17 Oregon
Texas Bowl- Western Michigan vs. Rice
Wednesday, December 31
BELL HELICOPTER ARMED FORCES BOWL- Houston vs. Air Force
Sun Bowl- Oregon State vs. Pittsburgh
GAYLORD HOTELS MUSIC CITY BOWL- Boston College vs. Vanderbilt
Insight Bowl- Kansas vs. Minnesota
CHICK-FIL-A BOWL- LSU vs. Georgia Tech
Thursday, January 1
OUTBACK BOWL- South Carolina vs. Iowa
CAPITAL ONE BOWL- Georgia vs. Michigan State
Gator Bowl- Nebraska vs. Clemson
Rose Bowl- Penn State vs. USC
Fedex Orange Bowl- Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech
Friday, January 2
Cotton Bowl- Mississippi vs. Texas Tech
AUTOZONE LIBERTY BOWL- Kentucky vs. East Carolina
ALLSTATE SUGAR BOWL- Utah vs. Alabama
January 3
INTERNATIONAL BOWL- Buffalo vs. Connecticut
January 5
TOSTITOS FIESTA BOWL- Ohio State vs. Texas
January 6
GMAC Bowl- Ball State vs. Tulsa*
January 8
FEDEX BCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME- Florida vs. Oklahoma
That’s 34 games, 68 schools spread over a period of 20 days for those of you keeping score at home. An ample supply of college football for any fanatics out there.
A few notes
*- There are a few bowl games remaining without corporate names in their title. Gator, Sun, Texas, Independence. Were these games unable to find sponsors?
*- Will Oklahoma St. and Oregon combine for 70 pts or more in the Holiday Bowl? This annually has been of the most high scoring affairs.
*- Oh how has the Orange Bowl dropped. A game that featured early triumphs of Joe Paterno led Penn State, Nebraska and Oklahoma in their glory days, the first major bowl appearance of Florida State, and the all time classic 84 battle between Nebraska and Miami, has Cincinnati and Virginia Tech playing this year. I’m sure they are talented football teams, but how many people are drooling to see them play in a prime-time network slot?
*- Arizona and BYU meet in a bowl 30 years after the former left the WAC conference for the higher profile Pac Eight(Now Ten, Arizona State joined also)
*- Vanderbilt makes a rare bowl appearance. Congratulations to Commodore fans, but this is a sign of how bowls are grown way out of proportion. 6-6 college teams get bids. When I was growing up I could remember Florida State going without a bowl in 1978 even though they finished the season 8-3.
It is my humble opinion that bowl season has gotten out of hand. Someone may say what’s the big deal? If someone wants to start a bowl game and there are two schools willing to play in it, does their records matter. A good football isn’t only a contest between stars at big name schools.
All true, but how much public money is spent on these affairs? Many of the teams are state universities who get funded by taxpayers. Then there is the game itself where police have to be taken from other tasks to work the day or night of the game or paid over-time.
With the economic downturn right now, you have to wonder if there will be less bowls in the near future. That would depend on how long a deal a corporate sponsor signed on for. I wonder how many fans of some schools plan to make a bowl trip. Are there 1,000 or more FAU Owls willing to journey from Florida to Michigan in December to watch the team play? Even if I were a Owl fan and had money, I’d stay home.
Enjoy the games.
Talk about losing investments. From AP-
General Motors’ financial problems are spilling over to another entity that is losing a lot, the Pittsburgh Pirates.
General Motors, currently seeking a bailout worth billions of dollars from the federal government, is not renewing a sponsorship arrangement with the Pirates that expired at the end of last season.
Pittsburgh went 67-95 to tie a major league record with its 16th consecutive losing season.
The Pirates would not estimate Wednesday how much the GM sponsorship was worth, but emphasized the carmaker is ending such deals with other major league teams, not only the Pirates.
I think we’ll see more ripple effects in professional sports from the economic downturn. As of yet, it hasn’t decreased the salaries involved in big name signings.
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Dodd | Thursday, August 21, 2008 |
 Gene Upshaw, Hall of Fame offensive lineman and executive director of the NFLPA, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 63.
Upshaw played for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders from 1967 through 1981. He was a seven-time Pro Bowl selection and an 11-time All-Pro, playing on two Super Bowl-winning teams with the Raiders. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1987, but has been better known for the past 25 years as the executive director of the NFL Players Association.
From his involvement with the NFLPA as a player through his tenure as executive director, Upshaw took part in negotiations of the 1977, 1982 and 1993 Collective Bargaining Agreements between the NFL and NFLPA, and extensions of the CBA in 1998, 2002 and 2006.
Upshaw was born on Aug. 15, 1945, in Robstown, Texas, and played collegiately at Texas A&M. He was a first-round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders in 1967 and became the starting left guard as a rookie. He quickly became part of one of the NFL’s most dominant offensive lines, lining up between fellow Hall of Famers Art Shell at tackle and Jim Otto at center. Upshaw became the first player who was exclusively a guard to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
It is no exaggeration to say that Upshaw had as much of an impact on the shape and success of the modern NFL as any owner or group of owners. His influence on the game and his advocacy for and on behalf of players (past and present) was a major factor in making football such a popular sport. R.I.P.
UPDATE (James Joyner): Truly a sad and unexpected loss. Driving in this morning, I heard the news on Sirius NFL Radio. They were stunned that Upshaw hadn’t told anyone but, as it turns out, he only learned of his illness this past weekend.
I started watching the NFL on a serious basis with the 1979 season, during which I also collected the Topps player cards. Here’s the front and back of Upshaw’s card from that year (via Milo’s Cards):
 
I should note, too, that when I tuned into the middle of the Sirius discussion about how the upcoming labor talks would go without Upshaw, I presumed he had been fired. In recent months, there was a movement within the union seeking to replace Upshaw because he was perceived as too cozy with ownership. They’ll soon find out, to their chagrin, how good they had it.
Another horseracing track in dire straits. From the Baltimore Sun-
CAMBRIDGE – The Maryland Racing Commission declared Rosecroft Raceway to be in an emergency situation yesterday and approved the track’s request to discontinue live racing for perhaps as long as two years while allowing it to simulcast races at the Prince George’s County facility.
Yesterday, at the commission’s monthly meeting, held at the off-track betting facility in Cambridge, the track’s new chief executive officer, Edward “Ted” Snell, and Kelley Rogers, president of Cloverleaf Enterprises Inc., presented the track’s business plan for the next two years and asked for the declaration of emergency status in order to continue being open for simulcasting.
“Economically, it’s not feasible to have the type of purses necessary to run,” Snell said after the meeting. “Simulcasting [revenue] will allow us to meet our debts and pay our bills.”
Said commission chairman John Franzone: “This is another sad day for Maryland racing. Without Rosecroft – we need that [slots] referendum. We have to realize how close we are to losing everything. Without the referendum, there is no Rosecroft and thoroughbred racing will be what Charles Town was 20 years ago – racing donkeys. Almost all of our proud history is almost out the windows. All it will be is memories.”.
That is what I think horseracing in the United States will be in 50 years, memories. Besides Rosecroft in the state of Maryland, Laurel and Pimlico are having financial difficulty. Pimlico is host to one of the sports biggest races, The Preakness.
CEI, which closed the Rosecroft doors to live racing June28, has a yearly $5.9million obligation to the thoroughbred industry as part of the 15-year Cross-Breed Agreement that was signed two years ago and a $7.2million mortgage on the racetrack. Rosecroft management has seen its yearly betting handle fall from $110million in 2005 to a projected $80million this year, according to Thomas Cooke, president of the Cloverleaf Standardbred Owners Association.
Rosecroft will save $500,000 through the end of the year by not paying purses for live racing and is saving an additional $1million through salary cuts and layoffs, Cooke said. By discontinuing live racing, he said, the track should be in the black by “a couple hundred thousand” this year.
I think Cooke is being extremely optimistic. Businesses that cut hours, or events to save money, give less incentive at the same time for people to return as customers. It’s a catch 22, and I’ll be surprised if Rosecroft has any live non-stakes racing at sometime in the future.
The Orioles have an awful record on Sundays.
With Sunday’s come from ahead loss, the O’s have now dropped 12 straight Sunday games.
I don’t know if it will work, but the team is instituting a “We win, you win” promotion. If the Orioles win this coming Sunday against Texas, fans will be offered limited free tickets to a future game:
Here’s the deal: If the Orioles win, all fans who attend the game get a complimentary ticket in the same seating category to any future non-prime game (there would be 33 of those during the rest of the schedule). The offer is good for paid tickets only to the July 6 game. If the O’s win, the ticket office will stay open after the game so that fans can get their free tickets. Redemption can be made through Aug. 31.
A contributing factor to the Orioles woeful Sunday performance this year, is their performance during day games. When the sun is shining the O’s have the second worst offense with a .681 OPS, scoring 100 runs in 26 games. That’s less than 4 runs per game. (Only Cleveland is worse with a .650 OPS and 79 runs scored in 24 games.)
The culprits are (regulars with sub .700 OPS) Jay Payton .637, Kevin Millar .479, Adam Jones .554, Ramon Hernandez .495, Melvin Mora .474 plus assorted shortstops.
The pitching overall is fine with a 4.02 ERA in the daytime so far. The one exception is George Sherrill who is carrying a worrisome 9.39 ERA and has a WHIP of over 2 during the day.
What’s going on? Could it be that these players need some sort of vision correction?
(The Orioles offensive output in games in a domed stadium isn’t much better. In 11 games they’ve got a .696 OPS indoors and are scoring a little more than 3 runs a game. That would argue that the problem isn’t the sun.)
Maybe the Orioles haven’t solved their daytime problem, but they did come up with a good promotion out of it.
Crossposted at Soccer Dad.
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The late May tournament could be in danger. Caddy blogger Larry writes-
This is not a good sign: The down turn in the economy may be hitting our sponsor pretty hard. Rumor has it there was a meeting earlier this week concerning the Ginn Tribute to be held in Charleston. To cut costs, Ginn offered to forfeit the purse money and forego the event but was convinced otherwise. In gambler lingo, they were “pot committed†so it made sense not to cancel.
Also, another piece of the puzzle that is difficult to comprehend is Ginn’s willingness to move the Orlando event to major status if things don’t fall into place once McDonald’s departs the scene. Somehow this doesn’t make much sense. We’ll see what shakes out after a little time passes.
Ginn Resorts began sponsoring LPGA events in 2006, the Ginn Open in Orlando being the first, then the Ginn Tribute beginning last year. I agree with Larry, that this rumor(if true) isn’t a good sign. Two LPGA events could be hanging in the balance, and as Hound Dog wrote last month, there are almost ten other events in various forms of danger.
What makes this worse, is the Ginn Tribute took away the dates of a long-time LPGA tournament, The Shoprite Classic. Shoprite, not liking the new dates being offered them after the LPGA gave them away to the Ginn, ended its 15 year sponsorship of the Atlantic City tour stop. I thought the LPGA, namely Commissioner Carolyn Bivens, handled this terribly at the time. If Ginn does pull out, my concerns of 2006 look to be coming to roost. Ladies Professional golf in the USA could be in serious trouble.
Note- Yes what Larry is reporting is just rumors, but this article makes a brief mention of Ginn Resorts having financial troubles.
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| Sunday, April 13, 2008 |
The Dallas Cowboys are close to a deal that would name their new stadium, opening in 2009, “AT&T Field,” Mac Engel and Andrea Ahles report.
 The Dallas Cowboys are in serious discussions with AT&T Corp. to name their new $1 billion stadium AT&T Field, according to a document obtained by the Star-Telegram. The deal would include “media rights,” which would allow the Cowboys and AT&T to almost exclusively distribute Cowboys content on local television, radio, Internet and wireless devices, according to the document. The dollar value and length of a potential deal were not specified.
Dallas Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels said the team does not have a naming-rights deal in place and declined to comment on specific negotiations. “Our organization has never had a naming-rights partner, and because of that, this is one of the most important things the Dallas Cowboys franchise has ever undertaken,” Daniels said. AT&T spokeswoman Sarah Andreani said the company could not comment on negotiations, but did say the company is regularly approached about naming rights. “Officially, we do not have a naming-rights agreement with the Cowboys,” she said.
Sports marketing experts have estimated that the Cowboys could generate $10 million to $18 million per year for a 30-year agreement. As part of the team’s lease with the city of Arlington, the city will receive 5 percent of any naming-rights deal, up to $500,000 a year.
[...]
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who is the chair of the NFL’s television committee, has made it no secret that he wants to expand the Cowboys’ revenues into electronic media. “Only an infinitesimal number of people will ever come to this stadium,” Jones said at a Texas Tech alumni event held at the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas on Wednesday. “The millions that will know this stadium will have seen it by mass communications.”
In an ideal world, a stadium would be named for Tom Landry. But stadium naming rights are one of the few ways that an owner can generate revenue without sharing it with the rest of the League or the players, so “selling out” in this way just makes sense. Indeed, I’m shocked that Jones hasn’t renamed Texas Stadium in all these years; it may be that he’s contractually precluded.
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| Friday, April 4, 2008 |
Mike Hampton, who has missed the last two seasons with various injuries, hurt himself warming up for his first start of 2008 and will go back on the disabled list.
Mike Hampton’s return to the mound is once again in a holding pattern. Or a disabled pattern. The Braves pitcher landed on the 15-day disabled list once again, this time for a strained pectoral muscle in the left side of his chest, which flared during his pregame warmup Thursday night. The left-hander was scratched minutes before his scheduled start against Pittsburgh, which was to have been his first regular-season game in 31 1/2 months.
“It’s unbelievable that something else could pop up like that,” said manager Bobby Cox, who announced that left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes would be brought up temporarily from Class AAA Richmond and that lefty Chuck James would join the rotation in Hampton’s place before his next scheduled turn.
James (shoulder) will be activated from the DL on Sunday. He was scheduled to begin the season in the Richmond rotation, but that plan changed abruptly with Hampton’s latest injury.
“Nobody’s more disappointed than I am,” said Hampton, who missed the past two seasons recovering from two left-elbow surgeries 16 months apart. “I worked pretty hard to get to this point. “I hate it for Bobby and the team, and I hate it for myself. … I don’t know if snake-bitten is the word for it.” Hampton said he and Braves doctors believe the injury is minor. He added, “I hope that’s all it is.”
Cox and the pitcher said Hampton felt some discomfort in his chest when he threw a bullpen session Monday, but that it was better when he threw Wednesday in the outfield. About 20 pitches into his warmup session Thursday, Hampton said the muscle began to “grab” and he decided he shouldn’t risk more serious injury by making the start. He said it was hard to step off the bullpen mound and tell pitching coach Roger McDowell that he wouldn’t be able to start.
I feel bad for the guy, because I’m sure he’s working hard to get back. At the same time, it’s frustrating from a fan’s perspective that he’s eating so much of the Braves’ salary allocation without contributing. He’s been a giant liability to the club’s success.
Baseball’s guaranteed conracts are a joke. At least in the NFL, if a player goes down, the team can give him an injury settlement and cut ties. In baseball, guys like Hampton are an anchor on a team.
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