Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Hanes Field??????

Sam Zell is a smart guy, I'm even going to assume he's smarter than me. But selling naming rights to Wrigley Field has to be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard. Do you really think anybody will call it "White Castle Field" or whatever? No. Also, I would argue that a smart company will invest their marketing dollars elsewhere, b/c I know I would think twice about buying a product that the company that slaps their logo on Wrigley makes. If it is Hanes Field, I'll become a Fruit-of-the-Loom guy. If it is Treasures Field, I'll have to go to Centerfolds instead....ok, maybe I'd let Treasures slide--mainly b/c the marketing opportunities are endless. But I digress...message to Zell--sell the team and the stadium, get your money and go about figuring out how to save that dying media (newspapers) that you invested a shitload of money in.

Matter of fact, I've got a great idea. Maybe the Wrigley Company should spend a few bucks for the naming rights and...wait for it...call it Wrigley Field. The public goodwill they would get would be worth the price they paid...of course that's easy for me to say b/c it isn't my money.

Instead of me having to worry about shit like this, I'd like to spend more of my time figuring out of the Cubs will end this "little" drought they've had and finally make it to the World Series this year.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Gene Wojowhateverhisnameis < cake

I figure my first post probably should have been the usual "who I am, what I'll write about, etc, etc"...but I'll get to that at some later point.

My first post is about a subject that is close to my heart--IU basketball. I've caught my fair share of shit lately and it is what it is. My favorite school hired a guy with a less than sparkling rep and it bit them in the proverbial ass. I looked really smart about a month ago when I called Sampson "our Jim Harrick", as I knew that he was a stopgap hire and was likely to do something to get himself fired at some point in his tenure at IU. I didn't know it would be before the end of this season and I'm not sure who IU's "Ben Howland" is that can come in and rescue the program--so maybe the analogy wasn't spot on. Sue me.

So anyway, most of the articles on the Sampson mess have been pretty good, but yesterday ESPN's Gene Wojowhathisface wrote that IU should not only have fired Sampson, but that they should ban themselves from postseason play THIS year. Fuck. That.

For multiple reasons.
Number one: none of the kids on this year's team were involved in the phone call mess.

Number two: IU self-reported these violations, already withheld a scholarship from this year and fired the coach in-season.

Number three: The school hasn't had a violation since 1960--I think they can get a pass--especially considering that they did shitcan the coach.

Number four: This team has a real shot at the final four. Next year's team will be lucky to make the tourney--let's just say what the truth is--we'll take our lumps next year. If we had to sit through Sampson destroying 40+ years of cleanliness in less than 2 years, we should at least get to reap the rewards.

I'm not linking to Gene Wojomacallit b/c the "worldwide leader" gets enough page views...and I'm too lazy to go to the homepage to get the link again.

Looking forward to the love/hate/unrelated posts.

DBDR
PS--Episode 9 of The Wire is an epic moment in TV. Thank (somebody's) God for HBO OnDemand.