LeBron, looking for suggestions

LeBron James is apparently looking for suggestions. LeBron utilizes the methodology of communication between icon and the masses that has become the norm in post-post modern society, the commercial. It transcends the press conference because of the limitless opportunities for staging and setting that a commercial presents. Moreover, it is a one-way channel of communication, no nagging questions from the fourth estate can be heard...

LeBron himself asks the only question, over and over, "What should I do?" and despite all the options the Nike marketing people have offered him, it appears quite clear, LeBron does not quite know what he should do.





Here, in one societal reply to the once and former King James, Eric Cartman asks himself the same question.

Mysterion Rises
Tags: SOUTH
PARKEric Cartman,Mysterion,more...

Brilliant NHL All-Star game revamp

Shanahan was an eight time All-Star himself.

As we tweeted just a few minutes ago, the Toronto Star is reporting that the NHL All-Star game has a brilliant new wrinkle. They have eliminated the standard, old, passionless conference versus conference battle and are going to implement, this year, a radical suggestion from former player, now NHL VP, Brendan Shanahan.

They are going to nominate captains and pick teams like they were playing pick-up. The captains will still be selecting from a pool of players voted on by the fans. Reportedly, the NHL's All-Star weekend will kick off with the captains picking the teams, playground style, on live television.

Should be captivating stuff. Great innovation, NHL, you go!

The NHL All-Star game is North Carolina this season.

56 years!

What does it feel and look like when your team, a franchise that has not won a title in your lifetime, in multiple lifetimes, finally wins? Something like this!!!



All those of us New York Ranger fans, like the Clarion Content's sports editor, who remember the "1940" chants of our youth, the generations of fans who rooted and rooted without a Cup, know the feeling. Mark Messier, we are eternally grateful.

Congratulations, Giants fans!

Cleveland Indians fans, we hope, some day, this is you.

Favre on Favre

"

Brett Favre's comments in the lockerroom after Sunday's Vikings game with the New England Patriots, "I was shocked that I was able to play and move around the way I was. My prayers were answered. I wanted the chance to play. I wanted the chance to play and play at a high-enough level to give us a chance to win. I didn’t want to play just to play. I didn’t want to come in for one play to get a start; I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to come in and help this team win. It was touch-and-go even before the game today."

Wait a minute. Brett? Brett? You guys lost the game, didn't you?

Ahhh, the narcissism. As the Vikings season goes down the drain, Favre is focused on one thing, and one thing only, himself. It is a delight to see him end his wildly overrated career this way. All that is left is for him to throw that pick six, that taint, on his final pass of the season, and it will be a Grimm's fairy tale ending.

Dodgers raising ticket prices

Like Snoop once said, the McCourts got the mind on the money and the money on the mind...

The Los Angeles Dodgers management must not have been reading the Clarion Content lately. Because despite all we have written about sports comeuppance and the arrogance of ticket pricing in this era and especially in the current economic environment, the Dodgers are raising tickets prices. They are jacking their ticket prices after a losing season.

According to the LA Times, the average single-game ticket will go up to $44.68 next year, from $44.28 this year. A team spokesman, Josh Rawitch, estimated that 60% of ticket prices will remain the same and about 35% of single-game tickets and 20% of season tickets will increase in price. But don't worry Dodger fans the price of the rest, the other 5%, will decrease.

Thanks, Mr. & Mrs. McCourt. The LA Times also reports the Dodgers also will charge a premium for the first row tickets of every section. Too bad nobody's running the team while the McCourt's are destroying each other in divorce court.

Rangers rookie opens with a hat trick

The New York Rangers center Derek Stepan scored three goals, a hat trick, in the first game of his career. Stepan, who is twenty, became the fourth player in National Hockey League history to score three goals in his debut. Stepan was captain of the USA gold medal team at the 2010 World Junior Championships, where he led all scorers. The Rangers got a 6-3 win over Buffalo and Vezina Trophy winning goalie Ryan Miller. Read more here in the NY Times sports page.

Baseball playoffs, Round 1

It is the first time in the playoffs for the dominating Doc Halladay...

The Clarion Content was not and is not a fan of the expanded baseball playoffs. It makes no sense to play 162 games and then a five game series. It devalues the regular season, which is baseball's most unique virtue. Why play 162 games to decide the positioning and only give the better squad a one game advantage, in a sport where home field is not nearly as crucial as it is in some of America's other major sports? Why decide the fate of a season that runs from April to October in five days? With 3% worth of the season's games?

Booooooooooo! The expanded playoffs have deflated the pennant races and produced ridiculous, undeserving champions. Yes, 2006 Cardinals, we are talking about you!!!

But enough, ranting, here are our predictions, in brief, for Round 1.

The American League

Texas Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

Despite a near no hitter by Cliff Lee in Game 1, the Rays squeak out a win, as David Price matches him strike for strike. This leaves the pitching poor Rangers so demoralized that the Rays sweep. It is too bad the Rangers star and former Rays draft pick, Josh Hamilton, could not be 100% for this series. The Rays despite the best record in the A.L. do not sell-out any home games for this series, prompting further calls for them to move to Durham.

The Minnesota Twins vs. The New York Yankees

The Yanks have owned the Twinkies in recent years and we see no reason for that not to continue, despite the Bronx Bombers suspect starting pitching. The Twins absolutely must beat C.C. Sabbathia in Game 1. When they come up short, they will be swept out again. The Yanks will shell the goldbricking Carl Pavano and the soft tossing Twins starters. Again, it is too bad the Twins are not 100% healthy, missing MVP first baseman, Justin Morneau. Minnesota has lost nine straight postseason games and hasn't won a playoff series since 2002.

The National League

Atlanta Braves vs. San Francisco Giants

While we both like and respect the Braves future Hall of Fame skipper, Bobby Cox, he has beat the heck out of the Braves bullpen this season. And with the Giants edge in starting pitching, it will be the key difference in a tense low scoring series. The Giants starters are so good, they have an outside shot at winning the whole thing, even with their pop-gun offense. We will delight at watching two terrific rookies, Giants catcher Buster Posey, and the Braves five tool outfielder Jason Heyward.

Cincinnati Reds vs. Philadelphia Phillies

The Phils are prohibitive favorites and for good reason. They have the best starting rotation of any team in the postseason. They have three perennial MVP candidates in their infield; Howard, Utley and Rollins. They have won the last two N.L. Pennants and are looking to be the first N.L. team to make back to back to back World Series since the St. Louis Cardinals during WW II. The underrated and under-appreciated Reds manager Dusty Baker has guided his 3rd N.L. squad to the playoffs. The Reds have a nice infield too, led by this year's MVP Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips, but it says here they take no more than one game from the Phillies juggernaut.


P.S. While this round could conceivably produce four sweeps, the League Championship series should be dynamite.

P.P.S. There is no way King Felix should win the A.L. Cy Young!!! Just because the morons who vote screwed him last year in favor of Zack "who cares if I win, my WHIP is so low" Greinke, does not justify making the same mistake twice in a row. In the immortal words of Coach Herm Edwards, "You play to win the game!" Statistically starstruck writers who never played the game simply don't get it. It is the same folks who deified Billy Beane despite his A's squads' inability to win so much as a pennant, let alone a World Series. We love King Felix, but it would be a joke. And if you haters want to keep the Cy Young out of the hands of a Yankee, fine. Vote for Clay Buchholz who is also more deserving the Hernandez.

Thank you. That is all. See you next round.

Baseball contenders not selling tickets

Yesterday saw a highly publicized flap, Tampa Bay Rays stars David Price and Evan Longoria criticized fans of the team for not showing up to big games. The blowback was intense. Although the team is in first place and near clinching a division title, the Rays turnstiles have seen barely more than a trickle.

Tampa-St. Pete is a terrible baseball market. Transplants to Florida have loyalties to their original teams. The stadium is awful. But the real multiplier effect has been the great economic malaise, which has hit the area with a gut punch. While we hope the Rays move to Durham soon, we recognize that this season, the Rays are not alone.

The New York Times notes several contenders are playing to 4/5ths empty parks; besides the Rays, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds have been playing in front of far less than packed houses down the stretch. Overall baseball attendance is down for a third straight season. As America stumbles into what may be a lost decade, attendance may never again reach its previous heights.

Among the clubs with the most notable attendance declines the New York Mets, who cannot draw despite billions of dollars poured into a new stadium. Also seeing major sales decreases Chicago and Los Angeles, where the Cubs and the Dodgers have had disappointing seasons. Part of the more permanent structural adjustment can be seen in cities like Baltimore, Cleveland and Toronto, where attendance has been slipping for several years. Once home to new marquis parks, those stadiums are now more than ten years old and baseball's revenue model assures these lower income teams endless second-tier status. Rather than try to revive their moribund clubs, these franchises (and the Rays) may opt to follow the model pioneered by Kansas City and Pittsburgh. The model, as Deadspin revealed last month, is permanently putrid franchises whose owners see more profit in losing than attempting to win through increased payroll expenditure on player salary.

The Clarion Content has been arguing that sports' comeuppance will be one of the biggest effects of the collapse of the American economy. The tremors are starting. The richest owners and teams will not want to continue subdividing their profits with those who do not even make a serious effort to compete. We would predict that baseball contraction will see four to six less Major League franchises by the end of this decade.

Streaming hockey

Our local Carolina Hurricanes are leading the N.H.L. into a new 21st century era and model of sports broadcasting delivery. The New York Times reports that the Canes are live-streaming all of their preseason games on broadband this month; by using their in-house video feed and the play-by-play from their radio broadcasts. The NHL has seen the light, the groundswell of positive response from the fanbase, and plans to follow suit. The Canes home market is the technologically savvy triangle between Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill, N.C. The N.H.L.'s chief operating officer, John Collins, says the league is close to an agreement under which many of its 24 U.S. based teams would provide broadband and wireless live-streaming of games in local markets.

Read more here in the Triangle Business Journal.

NFL Ticket follow-up

The Clarion Content, long believers that American sport is in the process of getting its economic comeuppance as part of a larger national economic shudder, saw this note today.

The San Diego Chargers home opener, against the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday, will not be shown on local television after they failed to sell out a home game for the first time since 2004.

Even the NFL is not immune to economic malaise.