June 21, 2009
On June 14, 2009 The Los Angeles Lakers became NBA champions for the 15th time in franchise history. During their victory parade, they proudly showed off their shiny golden trophy. Manufactured by the Tiffany & Co. Sliver Shop, the trophy is composed of 14.5 pounds of sterling silver and is coated in 24 carat gold. Cash4Gold, a popular place to sell unwanted gold items suggested that the team send in the coveted prize in exchange for funds which could off-set the cost of the multi-million dollar parade. It has been said that it may fetch only a paltry $3,500. Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson understands that the Lakers may not take him up on his offer . . . and they didn’t.
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June 2, 2009
With its history steeped in nobility and grand traditions, the game of tennis maintains its reputation of being a refined sport. Over the past few decades, players have developed habits of yelling or grunting as they exert energy into their swings. Last Friday in the French Open, sixteen-year-old Portuguese phenomenon Michelle Larcher de Brito gained attention with her long-lasting shrieks as she played. The noises were so disturbing, the crowd began to jeer her and officials convened courtside to consider their options-though no action was taken. Watch this video and at the 2:30 mark you will hear an example of De Brito’s “shriek heard ’round the world” and her response to the official’s request to quiet down.
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May 27, 2009
Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan made an appearance at Game 3 of the Western Conference finals between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. Jordan wore a Blackhawks jersey with his name and the number 23 on the back. During his heyday in the National Basketball Association and in the years following, Jordan held a lucrative contract with Nike where he appeared in advertising campaigns including the “Just Do It” and “Be Like Mike” series. As part of his contract, Jordan wore Nike apparel off the court and had product lines inspired by him including the “Air Jordan” shoe line. Jordan’s appearance at Friday’s game was not as simple as slipping on a jersey-as National Hockey League jerseys are made by Reebok. To resolve the situation, a red patch was sewn over the Reebok logo. In his Yahoo! Sports blog Greg Wyshynski chronicles the lengths Jordan has taken to conceal competitor logos in athletic events.
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May 16, 2009
Earlier this week a man was arraigned in a Queens courtroom for “interfering with a major sporting event”. Craig Coakley jumped onto the baseball field during a recent Mets game, completely naked except for a stuffed monkey tied around his waist and “Let’s Go Mets” painted on his back. After he was arrested, Coakley, a plumber, commented he did the stunt to win a bet from his employer. If convicted Coakley could face up to one year in a jail and a fine as high as $5,000.
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May 14, 2009
In recent years allegations of steroid use has loomed large over all professional sports teams including major league baseball. At the end of 2007 the “Mitchell Report” was released detailing a 20-month long investigation into baseball’s use of steroids and human growth hormones. This report also listed 89 former and current players who are alleged to have used steroids or drugs at least one time in their career. In the past week Manny Ramirez, formerly of the Boston Red Sox and currently the star player of the Los Angeles Dodgers, tested positive for a banned substance. While the substance found was not a steroid, it is widely used after a steroid cycle to return testosterone levels back to normal. On NBCSports.com, contributor Mike Celizic, posed the question, are top sports agents such as Scott Boras and Michael Nicotera encouraging steroid use since it also pumps up their profits?
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April 30, 2009
Even though the Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series Title in 101 years, Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago, IL unveiled its “Fans Forever” section. A red brick wall, designed to look like the one at Wrigley Field, contains 288 “skyboxes” to hold the cremated remains of dearly departed Cubs fans. Of course the ashes can be stored inside $800 Cubbie blue and white urns. Included in the “Fans Forever” section are four seats from Wrigley and a small patch of lawn for a quiet game of catch.
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April 19, 2009
This week, the New York Yankees opened their new $1.5 billion baseball stadium. The former stadium was affectionately referred to as, “The House That Ruth Built” in honor of Babe Ruth. On opening day, April 18, 1923, Ruth hit a 3-run homerun against his former team, the Boston Red Sox to win the game. On opening day in 2009, that bat was laid across home plate to bless the new stadium. It did not help as the Yankees lost that game 10-2. On Saturday, April 18, 2009, during the 3rd game at the new stadium, the Cleveland Indians scored 14 runs in the second inning and won the game by a score of 22-4. In roughly 193,000 major league baseball games, a 14-run second inning has not occurred . . . until now.
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April 12, 2009
On Monday, April 6, 2009, as the Boston Red Sox prepared for their home opener at Fenway Park, they noticed something was missing – Heinz Ketchup. The delivery they expected that morning, 996 bottles, valued at $43,000 had not arrived. When the distributor was notified, the police were brought in and they discovered the truck stashed at a truck stop in Baxter, TN. The driver, Christopher G. Kindle, stated he was disgruntled with the management of the trucking company. In the end, Mother Nature took care of the situation by causing the home opener to be rained out and allowing enough time for the delivery to “catch up”.
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April 7, 2009
Nikki Allen, director of women’s volleyball operations for the University of Southern California, fainted during a live interview with WMBB in Panama City, Florida. Standing next to her is Dan Rowe, executive director of Panama City’s Tourist Development Council. Allen shows signs of trouble stuttering over her words before stumbling and fainting to the ground while Rowe awkwardly stands there with his hands in his pockets. Rowe continues to stand there while the interviewer, Wayne Gentry, goes to aid Allen. We later learned that Allen was exhausted from the red-eye flight just prior to the interview and was nervous because it was her first time on television.
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March 25, 2009
On Tuesday, March 24, 2009, President Obama held a primetime news conference with the primary topic the economy and his administration’s recovery plans. Obama defended the current strategies stating “We’ll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience . . .” and that everyone “will attack this crisis from all fronts.” It is at times like this that our country’s leader and his top aides need to analyze this situation at hand and make the tough choices leading to a final, successful strategy. Case in point, earlier in the month President Obama completed a bracket for his NCAA basketball predictions. At first he looked off his game after several of his teams were eliminated. His picks rebounded over the weekend and fourteen of the “Sweet Sixteen” teams are his selections. Let’s hope this ability carries over to the economic sphere!
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