2006-The Year in Review

At the end of the year, the media is replete with end of year retrospectives. This is because most of their staffs are home for the holidays, and it helps to have all that shit in the can to run in their absence.Here at Charlie's Blog, we don't do that. Fuck no. That's because we have a staff of one, and I only get to write on vacation. But you'll still get an end of year retro from me.2006 was one of the happiest years of my life. I shit you not. I had a lot of drama happen to me. I've been sick for damn near two months. I had a flare up of Achilles...

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The Ford Legacy

Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States, died this week. He was 93.Ford was not president long. He was the only president to never be elected to the office. He was a decent man as far as presidents and politicians go. But his presidency was overshadowed and undone by Watergate and his pardon of Richard Nixon. That pardon would cost him the election.There are a lot of laudatory remarks about Ford this week and a bit of historical revisionism. Many people who were critical of Nixon's pardon such as Ted Kennedy reversed themselves and...

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Popularity from Sports to Politics and Back

This Bush-for-Baseball-Commissioner thing is taking me in a bunch of different directions. Not bad for a random thought hatched over Christmas-Day Chinese food with my family.One commenter questions my suggestion that Bush's unpopularity would not necessarily bother people or cause them to stop watching baseball. He raises a really interesting question about contextual popularity or unpopularity of public figures that is beyond the scope of this forum. But sports links are everywhere, so I thought I would respond:George W. Bush, the President,...

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More on Bush as Commisssioner: Someone is Reading

Jonathan Weiler at Sports Media Review responds to my earlier post about George W. Bush being the next Commissioner of Major League Baseball.Weiler suggests this will not happen (or at least should not happen) for three reasons: 1) Baseball commissioner no longer can be a celebrity/figurehead position. The big-time-business nature of modern professional sport requires a saavy, hands-on, somewhat visionary, detail-oriented, technocrat/manager, all things we can agree (whatever one's politics) Bush is not. 2) Bush is wildly unpopular and divisive,...

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Ninth Circuit Ruling Isn't Just About Steroids in Baseball

The Ninth Circuit's ruling, as discussed by Howard Wasserman earlier today, has broad implications regarding the ability of the government to seize evidence in all criminal investigations that go beyond just a few baseball players alleged to have taken steroids. While the opinion is 115 pages long, here are some of the pertinent facts taken directly from the opinion:1. On April 7 and April 8 of 2004, search warrants were issued authorizing the seizure of drug test records and specimens for ten named Balco-connected players. The warrants authorized...

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Federal Government May Review MLB Player Drug Tests

In a lengthy 2-1 opinion in United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the federal government could keep and review (under direction and supervision of a Magistrate Judge) records of drug- tests from more than one hundred Major League Baseball players. As part of its BALCO investigation, the government issued grand-jury subpoenas and obtained search warrants for computer files and paper information held by CDT and another company, Quest Diagnostics; both companies had performed...

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Sports Prediction for the New Year

A random prediction for the new year: George W. Bush will be the next Commissioner of Major League Baseball.Current Commissioner Bud Selig announced earlier this month that he will retire when his contract expires at the end of 2009 (although apparently, back in in 2003 he said the same thing about retiring in 2006, so stay tuned). Bush will be out of a job at 12:01 p.m. on January 20, 2009. And he will need something to do, since one cannot imagine him monitoring foreign elections and fighting world health battles.Baseball commissioner always...

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Bah Humbug

I hate Christmas.I spent Saturday fighting people in Wal-Mart to get my last minute Christmas shopping done. I have to buy for people for Christmas because they have bought for me. I would feel bad if I didn't get them something. But I'd rather the entire custom of gift giving would disappear altogether.I'm not one of those types that laments the commercialization of an essentially religious holiday. I'm an atheist, and I could give a shit about all that. I just hate the hassle. I hate all the car wrecks that happened in Columbia on Friday as fools...

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Titans Sued for Mascot's Behavior

This story isn't as interesting as Tara Conner, but last Friday, ex-Saints fourth string quarterback Adrian McPherson filed a lawsuit against the Tennessee Titans because their mascot hit him with a golf cart while he was warming up on the sidelines before the second half of an August exhibition game. The short 4-page complaint (actually three because the fourth page contains...

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DVD-Some Kind of Monster

Once upon a time, there was this hard rocking band that came out of the bay area of San Francisco and took the world by storm. Then, they got rich, started pissing off their fans by suing them over file sharing, hired a therapist at $40K per month, started navel gazing and sharing their feelings, and made a suck ass album. Some Kind of Monster is the chronicle of the demise of this once great band.Metallica got together to record the album that would become St. Anger. Bassist Jason Newstead quit the band, and he comes off looking like the smart...

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Random Thoughts on Various Subjects

1. Governor Sanford is asking for a tax hike on cigarettes. This is to pay for a corresponding decrease in the income tax. Governor Sanford is a piece of shit for doing this. I'm all for a tax decrease especially on the taxes I pay. I don't smoke, so the tax hike wouldn't directly affect me. But I think this proposed tax hike is a violation of principle. Sanford should just call for tax cuts across the board and quit trying to "compromise" on this shit. It's like letting yourself get ass raped because there might be a reacharound in it for you....

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Money for the Blind

A judge's recent ruling that American currency represents a discriminatory hurdle against the blind is something I can agree with. Naturally, the federal government is balking about changing the current system. Nevermind that this is the same federal government that mandates all sorts of byzantine laws and regulations for everyone else concerning the handicapped and "reasonable" accomodation. Uncle Sam should be given a pass because it will cost about $300 million to change the current currency. It just boggles the mind.I'm a weird type, but I...

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John Rocker and Free Speech (Again)

John Rocker is back. Rocker, remember, is the former reliever who went on an anti-homosexual, anti-immigrant, anti-grunge, anti-unwed-mother, anti-New York, anti-7-Train diatribe in a 1999 Sports Illustrated article. This got him a one-year (later reduced by an arbitrator) suspension from Major League Baseball, made him a pariah among fans, and was the first step in a strangely precipitous decline in his pitching ability that had him out of baseball a few years later. Rocker was the subject of a lengthy interview on Deadspin.com, apparently triggered...

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Leaking Information: National Security and Sports Security

Bobby Chesney, Heidi Kitrosser, Jalk Balkin, and Marty Lederman all blogged recently about a case brewing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York involving a federal subpoena issued to the ACLU seeking confiscation of "any and all copies" of secret government documents leaked to the organization. The ACLU this week moved to quash the subpoena. The crux of its argument is that a subpoena to seize all copies of these documents is the functional equivalent of an injunction against publication of the contents of the...

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Does Baseball Need to Broaden its "Other Activities Clause" to Include the Nintendo Wii?

Out of Detroit today comes the news that star pitcher Joel Zumaya's playoff sputter may have been due to excessively enthusiastic strumming of the Playstation video game "Guitar Hero." According to the Free PressThe Tigers are satisfied they won't see a recurrence of the right wrist and forearm inflammation that sidelined Joel Zumaya for three games of the American League...

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Lamar Hunt: A Sports Law Memorial

With the passing of Lamar Hunt, it seems appropriate to reflect upon some of the great cases and moments in sports law in which he was involved. Some of the more memorable published opinions:American Football League v. National Football League, 205 F.Supp. 60 (D.Md. 1962), aff'd 323 F.2d 124 (3rd Cir. 1963)Hunt was the owner of the AFL Dallas Texans; the AFL sued the NFL, claiming "monopolization, attempted monopolization and conspiracy to monopolize major league professional football." According to the court,Among others who applied for NFL...

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Did Daisuke Matsuzaka "Overrule" Scott Boras?

The Boston Red Sox have signed Daisuke Matsuzaka, the 26-year-old Japanese pitcher whose agent, Scott Boras, had adamantly contended was worth between $15 million and $20 million a year. During the 30-day-window in which the Sox could negotiate with Matsuzaka, Boras repeatedly threatened that Matsuzaka would return to Japan unless he signed a deal worth in excess of $100...

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Nepotism and the Andy Roddick Foundation?

American tennis star Andy Roddick, who is ranked 6th on the ATP tour, has a charitable foundation called the Andy Roddick Foundation. It focuses on raising money for programs designed to treat abused children (specifically in the Southeastern Florida and Austin Texas), as well as raising money for programs that combat childhood diseases, childhood illiteracy, and truancy....

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The Dark Side

Once upon a time, I had a piece of shit friend named Danny. He was a scumbag, but my opinion of him has improved considerably since that time.Danny taught me about the Dark Side. This was his term for it not mine. I don't see anything dark about it at all. And what is the Dark Side? It is the world of sex without love. It is fucking without commitment. It is a beautiful thing.Danny started out like a lot of guys wanting love. He married young. He got a good job. He bought a house and had a kid. Then the wife went on a drug and sex spree that cost...

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My Friend Tiff

I have this friend named Tiff that I absolutely adore. She hates my guts right now, but I love her to death.I am a cynic on the topic of love and all of that. That's because I have a lifetime of getting scorched by females. I am the nice guy that always gets treated bad. I'm not looking for sympathy points here. I'm just telling you what happens to me, and why I am the way I am. Hopefully, you'll get a laugh out of it.Tiff is a different story. She is something special to me, and though I am being a dick to her right now, she is the finest woman...

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Lawyers in Demand at University Athletic Departments?

Last week at the Street & Smith's Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, when NCAA president Myles Brand and other panelists were asked what they thought would be the most important story to follow in the upcoming year, Brand said "Coaches' contracts," and added that "agents have the upper hand" now and schools may need outside help negotiating these deals. [Jodi Upton, USA Today, Colleges troubled by coaches' rising salaries] Brand told Upton in an interview: "Negotiations have become tougher, and there's a lot of competition for the best coaches....

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David Stern Drops New Basketball Crusade

According to ESPN, NBA Commissioner David Stern will announce tomorrow that on January 1, 2007, the league will drop its new "microfiber balls" and bring back the traditional leather ball. The ball has drawn widespread rebuke from players as being uncomfortable and difficult to grasp, and Steve Nash and Jason Kidd even say that it cuts their hands. These complaints over both...

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New Sports Law Scholarship

New this week:Suzanne Wilhelm, “Is someone riding around a golf course from shot to shot really a golfer?” The Supreme Court determines the essence of the game of golf--and what the decision could mean for learning disabled students in higher education, 32 JOURNAL OF COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY LAW 579 (20...

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Trying to Have it Both Ways (A Wasteland Reprise)

Every so often, I get involved with a chick who wants to have it both ways. This is how the scenario plays itself out. I take her out on a few dates, hang out with her, etc. She decides that she likes me but not enough to nail down any kind of commitment. I am then relegated to the status of "friend." This means I have to meet the parents, change my hair and lifestyle, be available all the time, continue with dates, etc. And do I get to go out with other women? No. In other words, I have to be a boyfriend while not having a girlfriend in the hope...

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Scott Boras and the Lack of Good Faith in Matsuzaka-Red Sox Negotiations?

Last month, Rick blogged on the posting system that enabled the Red Sox to obtain the right to exclusively negotiate with Japanese star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Red Sox paid the Seibu Lions $51 million for a one-month window to negotiate with the 26-year-old Matsuzaka, who is under contract with the Lions. The window expires this Thursday. If no deal is reached, the...

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Luminescent Basketball Uniforms Coming to an Arena Near You?

Tom Simonite from New Scientist Magazine has an interesting article on new basketball uniforms being developed that will indicate a player's statistics and other game information through luminescent bars:The simple, coloured display panels are attached to each vest and connected to a small computer, about the size of an iPod, strapped to each player's body. These computers...

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Revenge of the Groupies, 46 years later

The type of story you don't see everyday:An 81-year-old Texas woman named Ruby Y. Young was arrested last week on federal charges relating to letters she had sent to Hall-of-Fame Packers Quarterback Bart Starr (HT: Deadspin). According to a criminal affidavit, Young sent Starr, now 72, several letters demanding that he pay her $ 2 million or she would go to the media with reports of an "encounter" that they had in 1960.From Deadspin, one letter reads, in part:"And now, the time has come for you to pay -- to pay for the many injuries you caused...

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Tom Brady [insert football pun here in place of the word "sues"] Yahoo

First he slammed BCS-championship-game-bound Florida. Now, Tom Brady is suing Yahoo over use of his image without permission, as reported by the Smoking Gun. The core of Brady's lawsuit, according to his complaint:In September 2006, defendant Yahoo ran a full page color advertisement for its Fantasy Football goods and services in Sports Illustrated featuring Tom Brady's...

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How Would Reinstituting the Military Draft Affect Sports?

The incoming Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, U.S. Rep. Charles (Charlie) Rangel (D-NY), has proposed that the United States renew the military draft, which has been suspended since 1973. Rangel sponsors a bill that would require military or civilian service for all American citizens ages 18 to 26. Many nations have similar laws, including Israel, South Korea,...

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