- The tactic is old, it’s tired and it’s incredibly predictable, but that doesn’t mean it isn't still amusing. Take two rival teams in any major American professional sport, drop a prime free agent into the mix that would benefit both teams but is only a logical fit for one of them and watch the hilarity ensue. The scene played out last offseason when the Boston Red Sox pursued free-agent outfielder Carl Crawford and ended up giving him a bloated, $140 million contract that he promptly failed to live up to by playing one of the worst seasons of his career. But part of that elevated contract price may be directly attributable to Boston’s biggest rival, the New York Yankees. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman admitted to feigning interest in Crawford even though the Bronx Bombers had no real interest in him. They played along to drive up the asking price for the Red Sox - and it worked. Fast-forward to this offseason and its biggest free-agent prize, slugger Albert Pujols. Pujols made it clear to the St. Louis Cardinals that he wouldn’t talk contract once this past season began and sure enough, no talks for a new deal took place. The season ended with a World Series title, but it also ended with Pujols free to sign with any team he wants. And lookee here, the Cardinals’ biggest rival just happens to be among the interested parties. The Chicago Cubs have reached out to the agent for Pujols to express their interest in the three-time Most Valuable Player. Discussions between new Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein and general manager Jed Hoyer and agent Dan Lozano are in the early stages, but the Cubs are doing their best to make it appear that they will join the Cardinals and Miami Marlins in an active pursuit of Pujols. The Cubs are also in the hunt for the other big-name free agent first baseman on the market, former Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder, so they seem to be hoping to add a big bat while dealing a blow to one of their major division rivals in the process. Either that or they are looking to inflate the asking price for one or both players so the Cardinals and Brewers have that much less money to spend on the rest of their rosters even if they do keep their big stars. Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said Tuesday that he supports Epstein fully in whomever his new top baseball executive pursues. "Like I've always said, there is one person responsible for making those decisions, and one person accountable for those results," he said. "So if (Epstein) believes strongly that's what's in the best interests of the team, then he's got my support." Yeah, but the odds of this all being a clever competitive ploy are still fairly high…………
- And America’s billboard oversensitivity continues. Following outrage over a Halloween billboard in Pittsburgh featuring the silhouette of a person hanging and the uproar over a billboard for a law firm in Bridgeport, Ct. that featured the slogan, “Got Drunk?” there is now a feud over a New York billboard carrying the controversial slogan "Christmas quality at Hanukkah pricing" as a way of selling Wódka vodka. The billboard features the image of two dogs, one wearing a Santa hat, the other wearing a yarmulke, topped off with the tagline that has created anger amongst Christians and Jews alike. Well, mostly it has angered the Anti-Defamation League, a group that fights anti-Semitism, but a few actual Christians and Jews are probably offended as well. But let’s hear from the offended parties and see what they have to say. "In a crude and offensive way of trying to make a point that their vodka is high quality and inexpensive, the billboards evoke a Jewish holiday to imply something that is cheap and of lesser value when compared to the higher value of a Christian holiday," said Ron Meier, the ADL's New York Regional Director, in a press release. "Particularly with the long history of anti-Semitic stereotypes about Jews and money, with the age-old notion that Jews are cheap, to use the Jewish holiday in dealing with issues of money is clearly insensitive and inappropriate." The billboard is located in a prominent spot New York City's West Side Highway, said Brian Gordon, the creative leader on the campaign, who is in fact Jewish. "It's important that people understand where we're coming from because we never intended to offend people," Gordon said in a phone interview. "But if we’re actually offending or upsetting people that’s not in the spirit of our marketing so we're taking it down." Wait…..wha…..you’re taking it down? Why? Just because you got exactly what you wanted out of it and don’t need to continue antagonizing people by leaving it up? This is what Wódka does and what Wódka will continue to do. The company is known for controversial marketing approaches, with past ads boasting "Hamptons Quality. Newark Pricing" and "Escort Quality. Hooker Pricing." Two complaints to the ADL about the latest billboard referenced Wódka's past marketing slogans. However, Gordon insisted the point of the campaign was to liken the brand to Hanukkah as the "understated" holiday of the season because Wódka vodka offers equal quality "with less pomp and circumstance." Fair enough, but most people (outside of Russia) aren't looking to get blasted on vodka for the holidays. That’s what eggnog is for……………
- See, there is a great reason why Americans hate soccer and it’s only largely because it’s a slow-moving, low-scoring game played by greasy-haired, ridiculous-goal-celebration-conducting losers who fake the pain and suffering of a gunshot injury every time someone passes within 10 feet of them on the pitch. But another reason to hate soccer has much more to do with health than with it only being a terrible game to watch. According to a new study led by Dr. Michael Lipton, lead researcher and associate director of the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, regular "heading" of soccer balls by amateur players may cause brain damage leading to subtle but serious declines in thinking and coordination skills. That’s right, playing soccer makes you dumber. Lipton and his team used an advanced MRI technique to analyze changes in brain white matter of 32 adult amateur soccer players who headed balls 436 times a year on average. They learned that players who were high-frequency headers -- with 1,000 or more a year -- showed abnormalities similar to traumatic brain injuries suffered in car accidents. "This is the first study to look at the effects of heading on the brain using sophisticated diffusion tensor imaging," Lipton said. "We found the real implication for players isn't from hitting headers once in a while, but repetitively, which can lead to degeneration of brain cells.” Lipton and his team deserve a lot of credit for their work. Paying attention to soccer for more than two seconds is a Herculean feat in and of itself. Sure, they only studied 32 individuals, but does anyone really want to attempt to pay attention to hundreds or thousands of soccer players over a prolonged period of time? Comparing neurological images of 32 study participants should be more than enough. These comparisons found those players with the highest volume of headers had abnormalities in five areas of the brain, responsible for attention, memory, physical mobility and high-level visual functions. Serious negative changes started occurring in the neuro-regions when players surpassed threshold levels of about 1,000 to 1,500 headers a year, according to the study. Its findings will be presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, in Chicago. On the heels of conflicting reports on the so-called "cognitive" consequences of frequently heading soccer balls in the past year, the study should stimulate plenty more research and discussion, if not action. Still, how can this problem be fixed when heading is as inherent a part of soccer as flopping and lame goal celebrations? Most head injury experts recommend proper heading technique - striking the ball with the forehead as the head, neck and torso are set in a solid line without any twisting - to reduce force on the head. Coaches and teammates would have a difficult time observing any effects from too many headers because cognitive problems develop gradually, Lipton said. "There are threshold levels where we don't see brain abnormalities, which means heading is not absolutely bad," Lipton said. "Rules could be developed to alleviate adverse affects by limiting the number of headers allowed for certain age groups or skill levels of play." Or everyone could just stop playing soccer and that would fix the problem………….
- How typical of the pope is this? The guy trots around the globe, arrogantly issues opinions and proclamations and acts as if he runs the world. So when the papal posse rolls into Germany for an appearance, what are the odds that Pope Benedict XVI is going to respect the local traffic laws and act responsibly? Zero, that’s what. Following a recent Germany in which he motored down a street in the city of Freiburg, the pop is now facing a lawsuit from an unidentified citizen for allegedly failing to wear a seatbelt “for more than an hour.” The pope had the gall to motor along in the Popemobile at an average speed of 6 mph while deliberately and blatantly refusing to wear a seatbelt as per national laws. That Pope Benedict XVI is a German native makes his actions all the more appalling. The plaintiff’s lawyer, Johannes Sunderman, defended his client as not being an “anti-clerical fanatic” but someone on “a personal road-safety crusade” who is “concerned about the pope’s safety too.” If a German court finds the video evidence of the incident convincing enough, the pope could be found guilty of a misdemeanor and face a fine between $50 and $4,000. According to the lawsuit, two-high ranking officials will be called as eyewitnesses to the violation, including the Archbishop of Freiburg (Germany’s highest Catholic authority) and the president of the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg. Of course, the Pope is head of state of the Vatican, so he could also skate on all charges simply by hiding behind the cloak of diplomatic immunity. Just another example of papal pomposity at its apex………….
- Considering the critical and industry praise it has received, it seems like Tony-winning hit musical The Book of Mormon should have been turning a profit long before now. But the show, created by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone with Avenue Q’s Robert Lopez, has just now turned the corner and covered all of its production costs and other expenses. The play, which is believed to have cost around $9 million to produce and $600,000 per week to stage, has been raking in an average of $1.1 million weekly since it opened last March. With total earnings now north of $45 million, the show’s producers have finally declared that the project is in the black financially. So far, Mormon has had 310 performances and sold more than 338,000 tickets for those shows. As of Sunday, it has broken 22 house records at the relatively modest-sized Eugene O’Neill Theatre. The theater also hosted fellow Tony winners Nine, Spring Awakening, and The Full Monty, but never a play that has generated quite the financial upswing as Mormon. Still, the size of its home theater has limited the show to being the fourth-highest-grossing Broadway musical this year (behind Wicked, The Lion King, and Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark). At a bigger theater and with the star power of Stone and Parker attached to it, Mormon just might be at the top of that list. Its airline-style differential pricing policy has also played a big role in its financial success based on its ability to charge top dollar for seats based on availability. The average ticket price for the show is a whopping $134.35 and for those looking to score the best seats at choice performances, that cost skyrockets to a thoroughly ridiculous $470………………
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