Your reputation is at the mercy of anyone with a mou...
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Baseball's "Secret Police" as Unfair Labor Practice?
The Umpires' union is upset about Major League Baseball's agressive background investigations of its members. According to ESPN, MLB began to conduct checks on umpires in the wake of the Tim Donaghy scandal in the NBA.The union has not decided whether or not to pursue legal action. Although members have characterized the questions asked as "defamatory" (for instance, "Is umpire __ a member of the KKK?"), it doesn't seem like a tort claim would have legs. Intead, the issue would likely be whether an employer can unilaterally implement background...
Salary Arbitration - Most Deals Are Below the Midpoint
It has been a quiet few days on the arbitration front. Since my last posting, two $1 million deals were signed (Esteban German - Kansas City Royals and Todd Wellemeyer - St. Louis Cardinals). Wellemeyer’s deal includes $100,000 in performance bonuses.A number of reporters have written that the midpoint is a common settlement point. My research covering the past four years placed 45% of the deals below the midpoint while 22% were actually at the midpoint. For the purposes of my analysis, I am using the base salary. In some instances, the parties...
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Seinfeld the Greatest Sitcom Ever?
What made Seinfeld so good? What made it head and shoulders above any other comedy of the 90's putting it in the same League as Mash or The Office and Extras. Was it the fact that they touch on Issues no other Sitcom would touch, in a brilliantly beautifully written Ambiguous style.Was it the fact that there were no sentimental moments that would touch the Heart Strings? Was it they played on People's stereotypes of the ethnic makeup of NewYork, Was it the Underrated timing of Julia Louis Dreyfus, the Physical Comedy of Michael Richards or Jerry...
NCAA Convention Session Videos On-Line
Anyone with an interest in the regulation of college athletics may want to check out the NCAA's web site, which now includes videos from the NCAA Convention earlier this month. There are a number of panels of potential sports law interest, including Sports Wagering and Legal, Medical and Treatment Aspects of Student-Athlete Pregnan...
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
TF Megan (Meg) & Kingcroft Tickled Pink (Twinkle)
Meg is now a yearling and Twinkle a two year old. They are the best of friends as photo number two probably shows. Bottom photo shows Maude, now aged 19, and in foal to Reilly (due September). She's looking pretty good I thi...
Fox News
The Fox News Network in the United States is either Loved or Hated, depending on your political View. Those that hate it, say "Its nothing but a mouthpiece for the GOP" and those that love it, say "Its fair and balanced unlike the Liberal Media" Fox News is Unique in one way, unlike CNN which has three different versions, one for America, one for Europe and One for the Asia/Pacific region, or BBC News that has a Feed for Europe and a Feed for the rest of the world, Fox News broadcasts its USA feed to the entire Planet.So is it Fair and Balance?...
The Strange New Offering from the Clemens Team
Yesterday, in an effort to undercut suggestions that the longevity of Roger Clemens could only have been the product of steroid use, Clemens's agents released the "Roger Clemens Report." According to the New York Times:His agents, Hendricks Sports Management, issued a 45-page statistical analysis Monday arguing that Clemens prolonged his career by making adjustment in his...
Monday, January 28, 2008
Why is Good bad? My Question to the Media
The Media never ceases to Amaze me. Take the Entertainment Media for example, if an Artist smashes up a Hotel Room, the Media applauds it and says the Artist is living the life of a Rock star, if an artist beats up his Girlfriend/Wife in a drug induced rage, the media says "the artist needs helps in balancing his awesome music with his private life. If an artist in their mid 20's has sex with someone underaged, its celebrated and put on the Internet.If an artist and mother of two chooses to go out and do the party rounds instead of looking after...
Baseball Salary Arbitration - Second Post - With a Particular Emphasis on the Houston Astros
After a little over a week since 48 players exchanged numbers with their teams, and according to my research 13 players have signed if you include the Robinson Cano deal with the Yankees. The recent discussion about a trade involving Erik Bedard puts one of the players who exchanged numbers with his team in a position of negotiating with a different general manager.Six of the deals are multiyear contracts with 1 above the midpoint, 3 at the midpoint, and 3 below the midpoint. The multiyear deals went to Rafael Betancourt (Indians/2-years), Cano...
TF MacKenzie - 14 Weeks
This little girl is growing up FAST! We're very proud of her, she is definitely another one out of the box! We have had just enough rain this summer to keep things ticking along and although most of the horses are grazing standing hay, summer is being kind and everyone is doing well. Deb is only on one feed a day which is much better than the three feeds and hay she was getting...
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Tribute to Harvard Law School Professor Paul Weiler
I was recently asked by Harvard Law School to write a tribute for Professor Paul Weiler, my former sports law professor who is retiring from teaching this year. I was deeply honored by the request. My tribute appears in the most recent issue of the Harvard Law Bulletin and I have excerpted it below.Passion in His Playbook If there’s ever a Hall of Fame...
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Shane Bond Your Out
Bond, Shane Bond, has decided to take the money and run, and leave the New Zealand Cricket team in the lurch. Now if your a New Zealand cricket player and your employer is only offering you around 400 thousand a year and someone else offers you more than that for 44 days work, you would be a fool not to take the other offer, right?Well yes, in Normal situations, but this not a normal situation. You see, Shane Bond has been plagued by injuries his whole career, and year after year after year, even though he wasn't playing, the NewZealand Cricket...
Psycho Paranoid Schizophrenic
If you were insane, would you know it?If everyone was insane and you were normal, would you be the crazy person?If you think everyone else is crazy, could it be that you are the nutcase?What is normal?Is there anyone in the world that is not fucked up in one way or another?How do psycho fuckheads like Idi Amin or Pol Pot get into power? Are they nuts? Or are the people nuts for following them?What is the difference between cocaine and prozac?Is normal merely what the majority thinks?Why are believers in the virgin birth of Christ considered normal...
Florida Coastal Database of College Coaches Contracts
In December of 2006, I wrote a post titled, "Lawyers in Demand at University Athletic Departments?" At the 2006 Street & Smith's Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, NCAA president Myles Brand and other panelists were asked what they thought would be the most important story to follow in 2007, and they said "coaches' contracts". Brand added that "agents have the upper hand" now. In a separate interview, Brand also said the following: "Negotiations have become tougher, and there's a lot of competition for the best coaches. It might make sense...
Friday, January 25, 2008
A Catholic Perspective on Rick Majerus
Rick Garnett at Notre Dame, who blogs at the Catholic-legal-theory site Mirror of Justice, offers some thoughts on the Majerus matter.Two points on Rick's post. First, he wonders whether the reaction from SLU or much of the sports-media world would have been different if Majerus had "appeared at a Tom Tancredo rally and complained about immigration, or at a League of the South rally and complained about Emancipation." A similar point was raised in the Comments to my earlier post here. I agree with Rick that, unfortunately, the reaction probably...
The Substance of WVU v. Rodriguez
In an interview yesterday about West Virginia's suit against Rich Rodriguez, I made two points to a reporter (prior posts here and here). First, I think the case is going to end up back in state court--the university is an arm of the state and not subject to diversity jurisdiction in federal district court, not to mention the uncertainty about where Rodriguez was living on December 27. Second, I think this controversy could have significant future effects on the relationship between coaches and schools, the mobility of coaches, and the ability...
Agent-Author Ron Shapiro at Toledo Law on Monday
For anyone within driving distance, I'll be introducing famed Baltimore baseball agent and author Ron Shapiro on Monday, January 28 (at 11:55 am) at a public event at the University of Toledo College of Law. Known for his books and instruction on negotiation ( The Power of Nice: How to Negotiate So Everyone Wins, Especially You; Bullies, Tyrants & Impossible People: How...
Baseball Salary Arbitration
I am pleased to have the opportunity to share with Sports Law Blog readers some of my insights and research concerning baseball salary arbitration. Going back to my time teaching a seminar on the regulation of the sports and entertainment industries at Loyola New Orleans in the 1990's, I have been interested in the arbitration process. In particular, I was interested in researching the decisions of individual arbitrators to determine their team-player record. It was oft asserted that in order to remain an arbitrator you needed to maintain a...
Thursday, January 24, 2008
More on Rick Majerus
The story, first mentioned here, of Saint Louis University Men's Basketball Coach Rick Majerus' comments at a Hillary Clinton rally supporting reproductive choice and stem-cell research, and the calls by St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke for university sanctions against Majerus, is becoming a national controversy. Majerus today defends himself in a very thoughtful interview with Bernie Miklasz, a sports columnist from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, that is worth reading. He obviously has spent some time considering and forming his views and beliefs...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Proposed Three-Prong Anti-Steriod Strategy for Baseball
University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt has a good post over on Freakonomics that discusses a plan by Aaron Zelinsky (who last week on our blog wrote a guest piece on steroids in baseball) for a three-prong anti-steroid strategy for Major League Baseball. Here is an excerpt from Professor Levitt's post discussing Aaron's idea;Aaron Zelinsky, a student at Yale Law School, recently proposed an interesting three-prong anti-steroid strategy for Major League Baseball: 1) An independent laboratory stores urine and blood samples for all players,...
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
T Bag for President 2008
I have announced my support for TBag to become President in 2008, now I personally cant vote because I'm not an American and he is a fictional person, I would still like to see him become President of the USA in 2008.Tbag will make a great President, take a look at actions on Prison Break, he takes no crap from that Pretty Boy Michael, he wouldn't let the corporation walk over him, he knows what people he needs beside him to make it.He wont let anyone boss him around unless he can come out a winner. Let's face it who would you rather have negotiating...
Pintado Indiana
Pintado Indiana Pintado IndianaIndiana and Hamish Pintado Indiana is a crossbred mare by Pintado Desperado (sire of Mark Todd's 'come out of retirement' mount, Gandalf) who has been retired due to soundness problems and, like her sire, she is a grey pinto. She has a lovely nature and I cannot wait to see what she and Hamish can produ...
Sports Mixing With Religion and Politics: Majerus, Abortion, Basketball Arenas, and Tax Abatements
This morning at the March of Life in Washington, D.C., St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke criticized Majerus' support of Hillary Clinton, publicly stating that he supports stem cell research and abortion rights (Majerus was interviewed by KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis on Saturday night). Burke's issue is that Majerus, a practicing Roman Catholic, is the head men's basketball...
More on WVU v. Rodriguez
Last week I talked about West Virginia University's lawsuit against former football coach Rich Rodriguez. Rodriguez removed the case to federal court based on diversity-of-citizenship jurisdiction, arguing that he became a citizen of Michigan prior to the filing of the lawsuit on December 27.Last Friday, WVU filed a motion to remand to state court. It hit both of the points I discussed in the earlier post. First, the university is an arm of the State of West Virginia and not a citizen of West Virginia for diversity purposes. Second, Rodriguez was...
BlackCaps Versus England
The most Important cricket series in years for New Zealand is coming up, we are playing England in 20/20 matches, One Dayers and most importantly, Test Matches. So what's going happen? It all depends on a Player who may or not be playing. Bond, Shane Bond.In the 20/20's and One Dayers, the Blackcaps can beat any team on any day, in that form of the game, the Batsmen are King, we have the heavy hitters so even if the bowlers give up 300+ runs in the 50 over version and 200 runs in the 20/20 it might not matter because of our batting strength down...
Monday, January 21, 2008
A Kiwi's Take on This Years Superbowl
In 1986, a friend of the family came back to NewZealand with some videos of the NFL, to this NewZealander, it was a strange game, for people in this part of the world who like Rugby League and Rugby Union. The Game in the 80's was called Gridiron here.Over the next few years, I kept an eye out on all the results and then in 1992, NewZealand finally caught up with the times and got Satellite TV and I could watch the games. In my visits to the States I have always tried to catch some games, for myself the only sport I get more enjoyment out of...
ESPN Relies (in part) on CDM Fantasy League Case to Renegotiate Licensing Fees
In today's edition of Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal (subscription required), John Ourand and Eric Fisher report that ESPN is renegotiating its digital rights deal with MLB Advanced Media, looking to pay a significantly lower fee after finding several pieces of the original agreement it signed in 2005 no longer cost effective ("ESPN Seeks Better MLBAM Terms"). According to the authors, ESPN is exercising an out-clause three years into the seven-year agreement worth $20 million a year that provided ESPN with numerous digital and fantasy...
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Attorneys for Gabbibo Respond
Last month, I blogged about an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by Western University University in an Italian court against Mediaset, an Italian company, for trademark and copyright infringement, claiming that Gabibbo, the mascot for the satirical show "Striscia la Notizia," is a carbon copy of Big Red, the Western Kentucky mascot since 1979, and which is depicted to the left....
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Ron Paul, the GOP, and the LP
I voted today in the SC GOP primary. I voted for Ron Paul. It will be the last time I vote as a Republican.Ron Paul can't win and won't win. This has not dissuaded me from voting for him because I believe he is the best candidate the Republican Party has to offer. But the bottom line is that our government will not change until a substantial mass of the electorate changes.The American people are idiots. We can blame the politicians and the system all we want, but the American people have gotten the government they deserve. Ultimately, the American...
Gangsta Rappers from NewZealand with myspace pages
If you go on to myspace, you will a lot of young people between the ages of 14-25 from Christchurch, NewZealand, who call themselves Gangsta Rappers. Now these people aren't saying they love the Rap genre, they are saying, that they, themselves are Gangsta Rappers.You kinda guess that they aren't because not many Gangsta Rappers have their mothers buy shirts for them from Hallenstines Department Store. Gangsta Rappers also don't talk about how they can get Giggy with their Wiggy, I don't really want to picture what that means.But hey, according...
Friday, January 18, 2008
Playing for the Coach or Playing for the School? A Modest Proposal
While I recognize that college sports are a corrupt and unfair sewer in many ways, I never have been on the bandwagon for radical changes such as paying players. But I would support the proposal that NPR's Frank Deford makes in this NPR commentary arguing that student-athletes should be able to transfer freely, without having to sit out a year, if the coach who recruited them leaves mid-contract to go to another school or to coach in the pros. (H/T: Civil Procedure Prof Blog, which linked to my post about the Rich Rodriguez lawsuit).The argument...
Not Exactly Nostradamus
In December 2006, I predicted in this space that George W. Bush would be the next commissioner of baseball. Bud Selig had just signed a new contract but basically had promised to step down in 2009--right about when W would be out of his current job.So much for accuracy. On Thursday, MLB owners extended Selig's contract another three years, until 2012. Bruce Reed at Slate says this development means Bush "just lost the job he has always wanted much more than the one he's in." Reed adds two considerations to the mix.First, he relays a comment from...
Aaron Zelinsky's "Three Strikes for the National Labor Relations Act"
We received an excellent submission from Aaron Zelinsky, a 1L at Yale Law School, concerning the National Labor Relations Act and the steroids scandal in baseball. Without further adieu . . .* * * Three Strikes for the National Labor Relations Act It’s baseball season again in Washington. Representative Henry Waxman is calling everyone from Roger Clemens to Bud Selig to testify about performance enhancing substances in Major League Baseball. For all the hype, these hearings are less likely to curb steroid use than the Nationals are to win the...
Golf Week and the Noose: Context Matters
Dre Cummings discusses the new wrinkle in the Kelly Tilghman/Lynching controversy--the Golf Week magazine cover featuring a photograph of a noose and the headline "Caught in a Noose." Dre asks whether this "represent[s] a collosal lapse in judgment on the part of Golfweek editor Dave Seanor or is this a merely a nefarious attempt to grab attention . . ."Let me propose a third choice: This was a legitimate and effective visual representation (after all, one picture is worth 1000 words) of the essence of a genuine public controversy that Golf Week...
golfweek magazine and judgment
As the Kelly Tilghman maelstrom had begun to abate in connection with her Tiger Woods "lynch him in a back alley" blunder, Golfweek has just published the image of a noose in connection to Tilghman's ignorant commentary in this weeks edition of its magazine.Does this represent a collosal lapse in judgment on the part of Golfweek editor Dave Seanor or is this a merely a nefarious...
What we Need is a Really Great Day to Make the Most of Every Moment
That was the start of the theme to an ad of McDonald's in the early 90's. Tonight's Blog was going to be about, white teenagers in Christchurch, New Zealand who have myspace pages, who for some reason call themselves Gangsta Rappers.But I read a story today, that is quite disturbing, The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has ordered a Blogger to stop writing about his time at McDonald's. Now I can understand, a Lawyer for Macca's suing this kid for writing whats in the secret sauce or giving details of Pay Rates.But What right has the ERA...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Randy Moss Hit With Temporary Restraining Order
Last night, I wrote a piece on SI.com concerning New England Patriots' wide receiver Randy Moss' newfound legal troubles. I hope you have a chance to check it o...
Why Do Socialists think Free Speech only applies to them?
Why do Socialists think Free Speech only applies to them? There was a protest by an extreme left wing group of Socialists here in New Zealand a few weeks ago. As usual they were protesting against the Police, they thought Police didn't have the right to Tazer violent criminals and the Police should just walk away when confronted by these losers.Well they were marching, and screaming, "Stand up, Not Shut Up", when a member of the Public made a comment that he supports the Police use of tazers.Well that is when the Sh*t really hit the fan. About...
