Tag: business

Categories
MLB General

Obama T-shirt guy, you’re outta here!


Major League Baseball bends for nobody. Not even Senator Barack Obama…or the dude selling Obama T-Shirts.

MLB shut down an online business called Obama Of Dreams because it was using team logos and tweaking them slightly to promote Obama. They must be Hillary supporters.

We sent a cease-and-desist letter for violating our trademark,” baseball spokesman Rich Levin said Tuesday.

Morris Levin, a supporter of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, operated www.obamaofdreams.com and said he shut down the site March 4. He said he stopped sales on that date.

“I started the site as a fun way to show support for Sen. Obama, and I’m a big Phillies fan,” he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. “I did not make any profit on this, and I think that Major League Baseball has a fantastic product of which I am a big consumer.

So, this guy gets shut down for printing Obama shirts using MLB typefaces, but we allow countless retards to sport tees that say “Vote for Pedro” and “Jesus is my Homeboy”?!? What is this world coming to?

Links:

[NewsObserver.com]: Obama supporter whiffs
[The Smoking Gun]: Obama Business Strikes Out

Categories
NBA General

Kevin McHale is the best GM in Sports?

 

The authors of this Forbes study are just messing with us right? Kevin McHale?  Arguably one of the 5 worst GMs in the NBA?  

We’ve always thought that the best measure of a GM is the number of wins he can muster with the payroll that he has. (It’s actually something we track for baseball called the MLB Cost Index.) However, the authors of this Forbes article are using criteria where they compare wins and payroll but relative to the current GM’s predecessor.  And that’s where the flaw is.  It’s all about how good you are relative to the person who had the job before you.  That’s like saying Steve McNair was the best QB in the NFL last year because of his drastic improvement over Kyle Boller.

Listen, when you have Kevin McHale and Billy King as your #1 and #3 GMs in sports, you have to go back and really look at your methodology.  Kevin McHale has done nothing with that franchise except retard Kevin Garnett and make dumb trades with his buddy Danny Ainge.  Billy King on the other hand has managed to throw money away at guys like Chris Webber, Samuel Dalembert, and numerous head coaches.   Meanwhile his “high winning percentage” is relative to a guy named Brad Greenberg who lasted one year and was what Pat Croce called his biggest mistake as a rookie owner.  And on top of that, Larry Brown was calling the shots when Billy King “won” those games.

Oh and it’s probably a good idea to remove Bobby Clarke from your list. Sorry Forbes, back to the drawing board.

Links:
[Forbes]: Best General Managers In Sports

Categories
NBA General

Knicks are still the most valuable franchise in the NBA


Even Isiah Thomas couldn’t ruin the Knicks, at least on the asset sheet. Despite having the league’s highest payroll at $125M and only 23 wins last year, the Knicks are the most valuable franchise in the NBA according to a list released by Forbes. The reason? They luxury suites at MSG run upwards of $400k each. Still, the Knicks lost $39 in operating profit last year. (As everyone knows, paying Larry Brown to go away costs money.)

In case you don’t want to sit through the Forbes slideshow, here are the 2006 NBA Franchise valuations.

1. New York Knicks: $592M
2. LA Lakers: $568M
3. Dallas Mavericks: $463M
4. Chicago Bulls: $461M
5. Houston Rockets: $439M
6. Detroit Pistons: $429M
7. Phoenix Suns: $410M
8. Miami Heat: $409M
9. San Antonio Spurs: $390M
10. Cleveland Cavaliers: $380M
11. Sacramento Kings: $379M
12. Philadelphia 76ers: $375M
13. Boston Celtics: $367M
14. Indiana Pacers: $340M
15. Washington Wizards: $334M
16. New Jersey nets: $325M
17. Toronto Raptors: $315M
18. Memphis Grizzlies: $313M
19. Denver Nuggets: $309M
20. Minnesota Timberwolves: $308M
21. Utah Jazz: $297M
22. LA Clippers: $285M
23. Orlando Magic: $283M
24. Charlotte Bobcats: $277M
25. Atlanta Hawks: $275M
26. Seattle Supersonics: $268M
27. Golden State Warriors: $267M
28. Milwaukee Bucks: $260M
29. New Orleans Hornets: $248M
30. Portland Trailblazers: $230M

Links:
[Forbes.com]: The Business of Basketball

Categories
San Francisco 49ers

Everyone relax… it’s still the San Francisco 49ers



Hello Santa Clara!

Everyone is up in arms today because the 49ers have announced that they’re going to build their next stadium in Santa Clara instead of the current site at Candlestick Point. Let us fill you in on something, it’s all just one big suburb of San Francisco anyway. If you can drag yourself to freezing ass cold (by SF standards) Candlestick, you can drag yourself to Santa Clara.

Yes, technically the closest big city is San Jose but there’s no way that the name of the team is going to change from the San Francisco 49ers to the Santa Clara 49ers or the San Jose 49ers. The team’s headquarters are already in Santa Clara, what’s the difference if they play their games there.

As owner John York said:


Nothing will persuade us to change the name of the San Francisco 49ers, one of the most storied brands in the world of sports.

And by “storied” he means “marketable”.

Now, let’s just hope the new stadium has a better name than Dick’s Stadium or the short (never?) lived Pink Taco.

Links:

[SFGate.com]: 49ers seek new stadium in Santa Clara
[SFist]: It’s Thursday– Do You Know Where Your Sports Team is Playing?

Categories
All Other Sports

Odds and Ends for Tues May 23 2006: You know what the problem with old people is?



Perfect game… whatever. His
turn signal is still on.

They’re making the rest of us look bad. Rex Cooper, an 81 year old, bowled a perfect game at the Simi Valley’s Brunswick Valley Bowl. Why are there so many stories of old guys bowling perfect games and hitting holes in one? It’s probably God’s way of rewarding them for living so long.

In other news…

[NY Post] Speaking of old guys… Larry Brown goes to work.

[Miami Herald]: FSU rescinds basketball scholarship from recruit who was arrested for having cocaine “in the crack of his buttocks”.

[YAY Sports]: Why does Dirk Nowitzki have shaved pits?

[NOLA]: NBA awards New Orleans All-Star Game for 2008

[Jes Gobez]: Edmonton fans drinking up all the beer

[The Baseball Journals]: How the $450 million sale of the Nationals equals $100 million

Categories
General Sports

Odds and Ends for Thur Apr 27 2006: The most whipped athletes

Maxim has named the 5 most whipped athletes in professional sports. These are the guys whose wives make more headlines than they do for controlling their careers or basically just saying too much in the press. To no one’s surprise, Doug Christie made the top of the list, followed by Kris Benson, Nick Harper, Antonio Davis, and Kurt Warner. The Nick Harper listing is a little harsh. The guy can’t help it if his wife is pyscho, stabbed him in the leg, and cost the Colts a playoff game.

In other news…

[Sydney Morning Herald]: Quick! Someone call and tell them Barry Bonds is doping.

[Fox Sports]: USC backup QB suspended after being charged with sexual assault.

[Twin Cities.com]: Onterrio “Whizzinator” Smith is released by the Vikings

[Yahoo]: This is why the media sucks. Must Favre get credit for everything?

[Off Wing Opinion]: Family who bought the St. Louis Blues in 1999 have lost $200M on their investment.

Real Odd of the Day: 3 to 1 that Colin Finnerty will be found guilty in Duke lacrosse trial.