THE ECONOMY'S IMPACT ON SPORTS

You may have no interest in politics or economics, but they have a serious impact on sports in this country. The current economic "crisis" is a perfect example of that.

The financial institutions of this country are facing drastic changes in the status quo. 150 year old companies like Lehman Brothers are going bankrupt, banks are failing; and without something happening (like the "bailout" which is really more of a buyout), it's going to continue (which isn't necesarilly bad, it will simply change the way our economy functions).

The effects of this crapstorm will be felt in many different ways. This post tries to narrow the focus to its effect on the sports world.

Right now, there's no credit available. You want to take out a mortgage, or get a business loan; you'll either be denied or have to pay an extremely high rate of interest. Banks simply lack the cash to give out credit right now.

For huge teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Dodgers, NFL teams, Lakers, Celtics; this doesn't mean much. They have so much cashflow and they're such good investments for banks, that they'll get any loans they need. Hell, the Yankees are getting money from New York to build their new Stadium in return for nothing.



But the KC Royals won't be getting a new ballpark anytime soon (but they're almost done with a major renovation project). The Rays will find it very difficult to get any private financing for their proposed new ballpark. Their owner - Stuart Sternberg - is primarily a Wall Street investor. It's been a rough month for some of those guys.

That leads me to another potential impact. Most of the owners of sports teams are business tycoons who use teams as a toy as well as a business. See: Mark Cuban. A lot of these people have enough personal wealth to absorb a few bad hits in the market. They didn't get rich by not diversifying either. But a few might be forced to sell their teams in order to help their other businesses. God willing, Jeremy Jacobs will be one of those sellers, but I doubt it.



Think about the names of ballparks, stadiums, and arenas: TD BankNorth Garden. Wachovia Center, Progressive Field, Lincoln Financial Field, Quicken Loans Arena, PNC Park, INVESCO Field at Mile High, Scotiabank Place, Chase Field, Bank of America Stadium, Prudential Center, Citizens Bank Park, RBC Center, M&T Bank Stadium, HSBC Arena, BankAtlantic Center, Scottrade Center, Comerica Park, SAFECO Field. These are all in the financial/insurance industries.

When these banks fail, or are purchased, the teams they sponsor might lose their lucrative naming rights deals. SAFECO was just bought by Liberty Mutual, and it will be interesting to see what that does to Seattle's SAFECO Field.



And it's not just naming rights. Through billboards, commercials, and luxury boxes; corporate America provides most of the revenue for sports teams. As credit vanishes, most companies will be focused on survival, rather than expansion (no credit=no expansion). They won't pay huge amounts on advertising. This could also have a domino effect through television. TV stations make money from ads, then they pay the NFL $3.7 billion a year to broadcast football.

You won't be seeing teams declare bankruptcy. You won't see significant declines in attendance. The teams that make money now will continue to make money. The teams that lose money will continue to lose money, but not catastrophically. Things may get a little tighter for many teams. New ballparks/stadiums and major renovations will be rare for a while. Smaller market teams might get a little tighter when it comes to paying players.

Things will change.

DOUBLEHEADER PISSES ME OFF

I just don't get the point of forcing a meaningless doubleheader into the last weekend of the year. I guess the 37,000 fans who have tickets are happy, but they're going to see what amounts to a split-squad spring training game. The regulars and the stars might play a few innings in one game or the other. But don't expect David Ortiz to have 8 at-bats on Sunday.

It's kind of a shame the Red Sox lost Friday night. Tampa Bay has lost three straight. It's frustrating when you come so close to winning the division over a 162 game season. There are countless examples of games the Sox "should have" or "could have" or "would have" won.

Tampa Bay deserves tons of credit, but do they win the AL East if Josh Beckett remains healthy? How about David Ortiz? Mike Lowell? JD Drew? I don't think so. The Rays had injuries of their own, but Beckett and Ortiz are two of the premier players in the game. Lowell is last year's World Series MVP, and nearly regular season MVP.

1:35 this afternoon, Daisuke Matsuzaka goes for win #19, Mike Mussina goes for win #20. 7:35, Sidney Ponson faces Tim Wakefield.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Elise Amendola

VICTORY OVER CLEVELAND KEEPS DIVISIONAL HOPES ALIVE

The Sox are still technically in the AL East race. They trail Tampa Bay by 2 games, with 3 games remaining. That means in order to win the division (and have homefield advantage in the first round), the Sox have to win 3 games against New York, and the Rays have to lose all three of their games in Detroit. Tampa Bay would win in the event of a tie.

This probably won't happen. The Sox will be lucky to even play a game this weekend with all the rain. But the victories were important. The Sox are playing solid baseball at precisely the right time. The 5 runs they put up on Cliff Lee was very promising for the playoffs, where they'll be facing quality pitching every night.

Winning the division is relatively meaningless in the bigger picture of things, but having homefield advantage is not. The Sox are 39-42 (.481) on the road, but 55-23 (.705) in Fenway. And even though the Sox have the 4th best record in all of baseball, they'll be on the road for the ALDS, as well as the ALCS. Unless there's a miracle this weekend.

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Charles Krupa

DEAR DIARY... IT'S ME, PEYTON

Dearest diary,
Sorry I haven't talked to you in a while. Sunday was a very rough day, and it's been a rough week since then. Me, Marvin, and Reggie all had to go to the hospital for dehydration Sunday night. We all cried too much after the game. We even cried at Chuck E. Cheese's. Coach Tony was mad at us for that. "Chuck E. Cheese is a no cry zone" he always says.

I wasn't just crying because we lost. I was crying because I was lied to.

Before the game, Daryl Smith and John Henderson of the Jaguars came up to me.

"Hey, Peyton," Daryl yelled across the field during pregame warm ups. "Can you do us a favor?"

"Sure fellas," I replied with a smile.

"Well, man, some of our DBs have been feeling down lately," John stated.

"Oh, I see. Me too. The end of summer always makes me feel a little low."

"Yeah, man" Daryl agreed. "We were wondering if you could throw them a few interceptions, just to make them feel better."

"I don't know guys, Coach Tony might get upset. I could never hurt him. And we want to win the game too."

"Peyton, we promise to give the ball right back. Garrard will throw a pick or Scobee will fumble or something. Please."

"Well, alrighty then!"

HAHA, I love Ace Ventura! When he talks with his bum (sorry for swearing)it cracks me up. Get it? CRACKs me up? tee hee hee :-) Don't tell my dad I said those words ;-)



But they didn't give the ball back at all! Rashean didn't even let his offense touch the ball! Those Jaguars pretend to be nice, but they're mean guys. I hate them! Adam called them the "F*guars" on the sideline and Coach Tony had to give him a spanking during halftime.

Coach Tony has been really hard on us this week at practice. We only got to watch 101 Dalmatians on film day. Dwight and the guys all wanted to see 102 Dalmatians right after. He says Cruella Deville reminds him of that mean old man who coaches the Patriots.



But Coach Tony wouldn't let us. :-(

Yesterday, we usually have a 90 minute flower picking session before practice. Me, Marvin, Dallas, and Joseph always compete to see who can find the prettiest flower. I like daisies. But Coach Tony only let us pick flowers for 30 minutes. He said we had to get inside and work on "Important stuff." What's more important than daisies? I didn't have enough time to find a single one!

I think losing makes Coach Tony into a mean guy. He never used to yell before. But now he's a sour-puss all the time. I don't like it. Neither do the rest of the fellas.

So guess what me and the guys did this morning to cheer him up? We threw him a surprise birthday party! His birthday isn't until October 6th. "That's the surprise!" Dallas said. That Dallas is such a crazy guy! We decided to make it a Dora the Explorer party. Coach Tony loves Dora, and so do I.



So we had the party, with cake, and ice cream, and orange drink. Coach Tony loved it. We all gave him gift certificates. I gave him one to Blockbuster. And you know what he did with it? He rented 102 Dalmatians and we all watched it! Twice!

Then the clown came. He was hilarious. He made me a balloon unicorn. Unfortunately, Antoine Bethea is afraid of clowns, so he locked himself in the showers. But he came back out when the clown had been gone for an hour.

I love my coach. I'm so lucky to play for a coach like Coach Tony.

And I love you too, diary!

Yours forever,
Peyton

SOX TO RETIRE #6

The Red Sox will retire the number 6 Friday night, on the eve of Johnny Pesky's 89th birthday. In order to do this, the Sox had to change their policy on retired numbers. Doerr, Cronin, Williams, Yastrzemski, and Fisk - the owners of the retired numbers in left field - are all Hall of Famers. Pesky is not.

But, he's been with the team in one capacity or another for almost 60 years.

The number 6 has also worn by Harry Agganis, Joe Cronin (for one season), Rico Petrocelli, and Bill Buckner. Gary Gaeti was the last Sox player to wear it in 2000.

I'm happy about this move. Pesky wasn't a phenomenally great player. He was good, but not Hall of Fame good. But he's been a part of this team for so long. The term "ambassador" of the game gets thrown around too much, but in Pesky's case it fits him like a glove.

And hopefully this opens the door to retiring Tony Conigliaro's #25.

Sources:
Boston.com
Red Sox Diehard.com

RED SOX IN PLAYOFFS!!!

By giving eventual Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee his 3rd loss of the season, the Red Sox clinched at least the AL Wild Card. It's their 5th playoff appearance in 6 years, and 19th in team history.



It's been a very interesting season to say the least. With all the injuries and drama, making the playoffs is a bigger accomplishment than it was last year. Schilling never pitched a game. Colon came and went, then came and went. Beckett wasn't Acelike as he was a year ago, plus he missed some time. Okajima struggled, as did the rest of the bullpen. Ortiz missed time and played with hurt wrists. Lowell's been injured pretty much all season. Drew's missed a lot of time. And of course, there was that Manny Ramirez guy. Remember him?



Last night, the two most valuable players on the team came through for the Sox. Youkilis hit a 2 run homer in the 4th to put the Sox on top. Pedroia hit a 2 run double in the 5th to tie the game at 4-4.

I know Pedroia's been getting the "MVP" chants, but Youkilis had 11 RBI, has played two positions (three if you count his abbreviated outfield stint), and batted everywhere in the top of the lineup.

The Sox can now use the remaining 5 games to get the rotation aligned, give players like Papelbon and Ortiz some rest, and get ready to play some October baseball. There also needs to be some roster decisions for the postseason. More on that later.

Oh, and the Yankees were eliminated from playoff contention last night.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Fausto Carmona vs. Paul Byrd tonight.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credits:
AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

BRUINS CRUSH CANADIENS IN PRESEASON OPENER

Patrice Bergeron suited up for the Bruins for the first time in nearly 11 months last night. He did not disappoint. He tallied a goal and three assists as the Bruins began their preseason campaign against Montreal in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Bruins beat the Habs 8-3. Linemate Marco Sturm had two goals and two assists. Youngster Vladimir Sobotka added two goals of his own.



You can't really take much away from a preseason hockey game, especially when goalies are changed so frequently. But it's still hockey, and it's still the Montreal Canadiens. The 2nd period, for instance, saw 34 penalty minutes given out, including a pair of fighting majors. 54 more penalty minutes were dished out in the 3rd, among them were four fighting majors and a game misconduct for Andrew Ference.

It would have been nice to actually see this game on television, or even hear it on the radio. Not for the score, but for the fights.

The Bruins continue their preseason tonight in New Brunswick as they take on the Islanders.

Sources:
BostonBruins.com
ESPN.com

Photo Credits:
AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Mike Dembeck

SOX FALL SHORT

12 men left on base, 7 men left in scoring position, a 2 out baserunning blunder at 3rd, a rarely seen stretch of wildness from Beckett, and so on. The Red Sox had ample opportunity to win last night's game and clinch a playoff berth. They also would have stayed 1.5 behind Tampa Bay in the division.

Maybe they threw the game so they could clinch Thursday night when I'm there.

Eventual Cy Young winner Cliff Lee takes the mound for Cleveland tonight. He's 22-2 with a 2.41 ERA. He opposes Tim Wakefield, who has struggled mightily in 2 of his last 3 starts.

Source:
ESPN.com

Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Winslow Townson