Random Media Thoughts

10.) Lou Dobbs leaves CNN. A suprise to no one, Dobbs seemed to go off the rails promulgating the Obama birthers story long-after his own network dropped it.

9.) Normally straight-down-the middle Brian Williams really made me cringe by closing his broadcast with a softball interview with Jon Bon Jovi as someone who made a difference. Please. So the singer gives of his time and money to the unfortunates. Know what that makes him? It makes him sleep better at night.

8.) David Spade must really need the money. Why else would he appear on a DirecTV ad with the image of the late Chris Farley? When Farley died, Spade was supposedly so distraught he skipped Farley's wake and funeral. No problems there but don't appear on a TV commercial with him.

7.) That the NY Post had everything, and I mean everything, from the Steve Phillips affair, was certainly chilling and should be required reading for cheaters everywhere.

6.) MTV News puported to have landed a sit-down with Chris Brown, the singer/thug/Ike Turner wannabe who beat up his girlfriend, the pop star Rihanna. Only Brown wouldn't discuss details of the night in question. Disgusting. MTV gave Brown a forum for image rehabilitation. Where's Kurt Loder when you need him? Does Tabitha Soren still work for MTV?

5.) The more you hear regarding the Letterman case, sounds like ol' Dave isn't as innocent as once believed.

4.) That Leno is struggling at 10:00 really saddens me. HAHAHAHA!

3.) I've said it before, for as much as Fox's Joe Buck is on the air, he's as solid
as they come.

2.) Glad to see Bob Costas make Bud Selig squirm a bit on MLB's Baseball Network--too bad only six people saw it. Costas is great especially if you're able to overlook his self-appointed Lord of Baseball attitude.

1.) Suzyn Waldman's performance during the Yankee parade made for great morning radio fodder. Was she drinking? And what's with that voice? Not since Maddog Russo has someone gotten so far with less-than-stellar pipes.

Time to get off my Snackwells ass and start writing. I went up to the attic and rediscovered my baseball card collection. I have more common cards than any one person should be allowed. And I have tens of thousands. I can remember buying a Topps wax pack for $0.27 cents in 1979. I've never thrown them out nor has my mother (thanks Mom). Much of what I've collected, however, is worthless. Perhaps worthless is too strong. I have some nice cards from the 50s, 60s and early 70s. It's just that Mickey Mantles, Ted Williams' and Honus Wagners have eluded me. Perhaps it's worthy deeper self-analysis to why I'm so emotional invested to collect the cardboard of journeyman pitchers such as Joe Coleman.

Ten Things You Didn't Know About the Stanley Cup

10.)Each player on the winning team gets one day with the Stanley Cup.

9.)Th ere are two Cups: a house Cup, which resides at the Hockey Hall of Fame and a presentation Cup awarded to the players.

8.)Here's how you can tell the difference: to prevent damage the presentation Cup given to the players was augmented with nickel which is sturdier than the all-silver house Cup. Nickel also gives the Cup its shimmer recognizable on television.

7.) The Stanley Cup has room for seven more years worth of engravings. When the bottom ring is filled, the Hockey Hall of Fame will add another ring to the bottom. The top ring, which now lists the 1960s winners, will be put in a vault for safe-keeping.

6.)Sadly, the lockout of 1994-1995 is notated on the Cup. Another reminder of those dark days.

5.) The player whose name appears the most? Henri Richard.

4.) The presentation also contains a few typos. For example, the Boston Bruins inscription for 1967-1968 Stanley Cup winner contains "Q"s where the "O"s should be.

3.) The only man to win a Super Bowl and have his name on the Cup? Owner Edward Debartolo, Jr. who won Super Bowls with San Francisco and Cups with Pittsburgh in the 90s.

2.) The Red Wings Cups of late include the names of pizza mogul Mike Ilitch and his children, each of whom were given menial team tasks--thereby satisfying the requirement that names appearing on the Cup were those employed by the team in some capacity.

1.) The same could not be said of Oilers owner Peter Pocklington, who was rebuffed by the Hall of Fame after attempting to have his father's name on the Cup.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

Some highs and lows from the broadcast weekend.

The Good. Last night's retrospective on 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt did not disappoint. However, there were a few surprises. Morely Safer fronted the open and called his old boss a pain-in-the-ass. From there, I knew we were in store for some good stuff. There was plenty of historical footage and Hewitt at work in the editing studio. The special left me with some questions, such as why wasn't Mike Wallace featured more? Is the nonagenarian ailing? And the people 60 Minutes interviewed about Hewitt was strange...although it was interesting to learn that actor Alan Alda was Don's best friend. But why the quotes from former CBS president Sir Howard Stringer? And the quotes from CBS president Les Moonves...what else is he going to say. I have a feeling Hewitt himself might have left the last two interviews on the cutting room floor.

The Bad. From the what-happens-when-you're-15-games-out file. Sunday on WFAN, whilst killing time in another loss, the usually reliable Howie Ross became fixated on a reference from the Odd Couple sitcom. To his credit, Rose immediately knew the reference was tortured at best couldn't stop it. He kept trying to make it funny. Wasn't going to happen at least yesterday.

The Ugly. Regular readers of the Daily Del Franco know of my
fondness for Yankee radiocaster John Sterling. But when he and Suzyn Waldman began making excuses for CC Sabathia (the Yankee defense let him down again) I began screaming at the radio. "How do you like that?" Sterling asks, "another seeing eye flyball falls for a basehit." Twhich prompts Waldman to come to sabathia defense. "CC will get out of this. He's durable. He's not going to wilt out there, John," which prompted a "shut-up Suzyn" response.

Hewitt, Patron Saint of TV News, Dies

Don Hewitt, the legendary television news pioneer who created "60 Minutes" and spanned Edward R. Murrow to Walter Cronkite to Mike Wallace, died this morning at the age of 86.

For you Philistines who don't know Hewitt, here are ten reasons you should know him:

10.) He originated cue cards for news readers.

9.) He was the first to superimpose words on a television screen for a news show.

8.) Hewitt was producer for the famous Kennedy/Nixon debate in 1960. He urged Nixon to apply makeup. Nixon refused. The rest is history.

7.) Would infuriate journalists, such as Mike Wallace, who often accused Hewitt of gutting his pieces during the editing process: "C'mon Don, you're gutting the piece!"

6.) As executive producer, it was Hewitt's call as to what pieces aired weekly on 60 Minutes.

5.) Was mentioned in movies such as Good Night and Good Luck and The Insider, which painted an unflattering portrait of Hewitt as caving to CBS lawyers.

4.) During Hewitt's run, "60 Minutes" won an incredible 73 Emmy Awards, 13 Dupont /Columbia University Awards and 9 Peabodies. Damn.

3.) His coverage not only freed innocent people from prison but laws were actually changed.

2.) Under Hewitt's watch, "60 Minutes" was the top-rated show an amazing four times.

1.) Like Johnny Carson and Les Paul, I hope you got a chance to see Hewitt's work because we won't ever see another like him.

CBS News announced shorty after Hewitt's passing, that this Sunday's "60 Minutes" will devote the entire hour to Hewitt's life and legacy. I think he's earned it.

Tuesday Musings...

Some Tuesday musings:

Brett Favre unretires. C'mon dude. Stay away. You get the feeling that Favre was one of these college freshman who used to frequently return to his high school to get some love. At any rate, it looks the INT record will grow larger.

When will the ax come down on Roger Clemens? If only for the decades long affair he had with country singer Mindy McCready, while she was 15. Slice it anyway you want, the Rocket is a grade A creep. And not a Hall of Famer.

Has anyone else been paying attention to the Cy Young type season of St. Louis' Cris Carpenter? This guy's record is 13-3! I'd say he's all the way back from arm problems, no?

U.S. Supreme Court judge John Paul Stevens is nearing 90 years of age. Ruth Ginsburg is 76 and ailing. While Anthony Kennedy and Antonin Scalia are both 73. Assuming BHO gets eight years, he will possibly pick the next four judges to the U.S. Supreme Court in addition to Justice Sotomayor. Talk about living your dreams. Whilst in Harvard, BHO was a Supreme Court scholar. If my thesis is correct, BHO will have had a hand in choosing 55% of the Supreme Court. That will be BHO's lasting legacy. Only no one is talking about it.

I tried to watch Mad Men Season III on Sunday night. I wanted to love it. I hated it and didn't see what all the buzz is about.

Fantasy football is coming back. Krist. The pressure. Who's the goal-line back in Jacksonville? I must prepare and read my preseason periodicals. And no more Tom Brady with the first pick. I learned that lesson real fast last year.

Interesting addendum to my baseball card post of last week. Two of my avid baseball card cronies, Joe D'Angelis and Tommy Gooch, inform me that Mickey Mantle is not part of last year's 6600-card Yankee Stadium Legacy set by Upper Deck. Imagine all those game cards from the 1950s and 1960s and not a single Mickey Mantle. Why? Because Topps owns the rights to Mantle's likeness.

Kate Sullivan of WCBS-TV in New York is good enough reason to wake up at 6 am.

Let me get this straight: Kate Gosselin is complaining about papparazzi taking photos of her family. Wasn't she the one who whored herself out to TLC with the television show? Am I missing something? From my humble opinion, if you invite the cameras to roll 24/7 in your home, don't you pretty much waive your right to privacy? And (we watched last night) when she goes off with a day trip with some of the kids, who watches the other brats? Couldn't have been Jon because he was with two of the daughters--so that leaves three unaccounted for. How's my math?

What I Learned Friday

Busy week.



Regardless of your political affiliation, you can't knock the good deeds done by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died this week at the age of 88. Kennedy founded the Special Olympics and instantly gave hope to millions who lost the genetic lottery. I could do without, however, seeing Oprah at the church. Apparently Oprah and Eunice's daughter, Maria, worked at the same Baltimore TV station.

Speaking of lives well lived...Les Paul, the inventor of the guitar bearing his name, passed away at 94. A source of mine told me that Paul played every Monday night at the Irideum Jazz Club in New York City. I kept meaning to go see the legend. I never got there. The Irideum Jazz club says it will pay homage each Monday night to Paul's night and legacy. Nice touch.

Screw Twitter, Facebook and Craig's List. There. All that in less than 140 characters.

CBS' James Brown (no, not the singer) landed the sitdown interview with Michael Vick upon his return to pro football. Only Brown will be guesting on 60 Minutes. No matter what questions Brown asks, some in the audience will think Brown soft-tossed queries to Vick; some will see Brpown as too tough. Don't believe me? See the Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin, supposedly hand-picked by the Palin/McCain camp because they assumed 'Ol Katie was sympathetic. And look how that turned out. Vick did Brown no favors.

For all I care, Joba Chamberlain, his rules and fist pumps, can go down to Columbus and learn how to be a starter in . No need to worry about innings limits then. And I say that as a 30-year Yankees fan.

Few things in television are more tedious than Olbermann/O'Reilly feud. Two more egomaniacal wind bags do not exist. I'd like to see both of them in an Undertaker/Mankind "Hell in a Cell" match.

Can Eisner Save Topps?

The 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card is an iconic card in the card collecting game. It is also an example of the kind of card Topps used to produce. Like the Mantle of 1952, those days are long gone.

Last week, Major League Baseball Properties signed an exclusive agreement with the Topps Company to be its exclusive supplier partner of baseball cards. That means that beginning next February, only Topps can manufacture baseball cards with the player and the MLB team uniform. And that's bad news for collectors because it means less choice and fewer options.

The Topps news is like a death knell to the Upper Deck Card Company, a Topps competitor that produces a better product. That's right, the photos are vibrant, intersting and depicting action.

When I collected as a kid, it was as if Topps waited for the players to pass through New York--so all the shots are in the in Yankee Stadium taken during batting practice or long-toss.

Topps was bought by Michael Eisner's Torante Company and Madison Dearborn Partners in 2007. Eisner, the former executive who once led the Mickey Mouse's turnaround in the mid 80s only to be later forced out by the Disney board, is filming a movie about his new business called, Back on Topps. Great.

I have a bad feeling about this. It only took one statement from the press release. "We are looking forward to working closely with MLB Properties and Clubs to invest in innovation and creativity to bring baseball cards and other collectible items to new audiences for many years to come," Eisner said in a statement.

So Mr. Eisner, Michael, Mike. (Can I call you Mike?) Yes, I urge Topps to innovate. Make a product that kids and the card collectors will buy. People cursed Upper Deck for having the audacity to chop up a Joe DiMaggio uniform into a thousand tiny swatches--the insert cards were then included in the regular wax packs. Clever idea.

Say what you want: Upper Deck makes better cards. The Upper Deck photography is topnotch and last year's Yankee Stadium Legacy set (one card produced for each game played at Yankee Stadium) was a stroke of genius. These are the kinds of innovative ideas Topps should have been owning since 1938--when Topps was founded. Instead, "innovation" for kids and collectors of the 1970s meant mini-baseball cards. Save for the popular Heritage sets, Topps too often comes up short on innovation IMHO.

Like I said, I have a bad feeling about this. Hopefully, the Upper Deck lawyers are drafting an anti-trust case as we speak.

The Legend Is Always Better...

Something is rankling me:

In Marty Appel's Thurman Munson biography, he reveals that Orioles pitcher Tippy Martinez grooved a fastball to Bobby Murcer in the "Eulogy" game won by the Yankees 5-4.

You know that game: It's curently in heavy rotation on YES and was originally broadcast on Monday Night Baseball which means a heavy dose of Howard Cosell. Here's the situation: The entire New York Yankee contingent travels to Canton, Ohio for Munson's funeral. Bobby Murcer and Lou Piniella are the eulogists. Emotionally spent, some players don't want to play that night's game against Baltimore. But owner George Steinbrenner proclaims, "that's what Yankees do." So they travel back to New York and play.

Bobby Murcer is up at bat in ninth already having hit a three-run homer. For some reason, Yankee manager Billy Martin leaves the lefty Murcer in to face the lefty Tippy Martinez, a former Yankee and Munson devotee.

Tippy gets two quick strikes on Murcer but then Tipppy's mind wanders back to a game years ago when Detroit speedster Ron Leflore had a 30-game hitting streak on the line. Munson, Tippy recalls, visited Tippy on the mound and instructed Tippy to give him a fastball to see if Leflore could extend the hitting streak. Fast forward to the Murcer at-bat. Tippy, who claims he could have blown away Murcer with three pitches, has Thurman in mind. Tippy grooves a fastball to Murcer who lines down the right field line. Yankees win.

Cosell breaks into high drama ("Bobby Murcer, who buried his friend this morning" ). As Appel writes in the book ABC-TV cameras showed Tippy walking off the mound, looking skyward, as if to say, 'That's for you Thurman.' ABC didn't know what they had, writes Appel.

Granted Murcer still had to hit the fastball with the game on the line. Great anecdote. But aren't some things better left unexposed? Must we know everything? The legend is ALWAYS better.

Sox-Yanks coverage...

The Yankees complete a four-game sweep of the Red Sox. It just goes to show what's possible when you wisely spend half a billion dollars. While the Yankees were giving the Red Sox a beat-down over four days, the broadcasters following the team were less successful. Here's but a small sample:

1.) I hate to be Ned Negative here but why does the NY media consistently give Joba and his on-the-field antics a pass? Case in point was Thursday night when Joba was life and death to get through five innings. A Jpba strikeout ends the fifth and what do we get? A closeup of Joba acting all Tiger-draining-a-30-footer-at-Augusta ensues. Dude, relax. You were lucky to get the win. Be quiet, walk back to the dugout and look at your plate.

2.) Though he doesn't have the big league resume or shtick of his YES counterparts, analyst John Flaherty is consistently on point and insightful. I'd listen to the guy call the phone book. No corn-ball antics just straight ahead analysis.

3.) YES' Paul O'Neill is rapidly becoming this generation's Bobby Murcer: the beloved former ballplayer coming back as broadcaster. And O'Neill is also Murcer-like in the following: the next time he says something insightful or intelligent will be the first time.

4.) Shut-up-Suzyn moment: Saturday on WCBS-880, radiocasters John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman squeled in delight that the Yankees are undefeated on YES' Yankee Classics. Clever line. Only it was used by the YES crew the night before. I'm not sure if it's the tickle in her voice, but invariably I yell 'Shut-up-Suzyn' withing ten minutes of tuning in. Mrs. Del Franco Daily thinks I'm crazy.

5.) Speaking of the Friday night telecast, play-by-player Michael Kay was building the drama. Only it came off as forced and faked: "When we come back, Derek Jeter, who one won a game in November, will try to win one in August." Please. You get the feeling that some of the guys think they are never far away from their Al Michaels "Do-You-Believe-in-Miracles?" moment. Like pitching a perfect game, a great radio call maybe happens once in a career. Most guys don't have one.

Coming soon....

the return of the Daily Del Franco from a self-imposed slumber....

A Few Thoughts About My New York Trip...

Just returned back from a FANTASTIC weekend in New York with my wife. A few thoughts:

Rarely have I encountered a more overrated pizza joint than Lombardi's on Spring St in New York's SoHo. If one were to rank tri-state pizza joints, the first six would easily reside in the New Haven area. Even the pizza place along Arden Ave. in Staten Island is better.

Sadly, Ground Zero today resembles an orderly construction site. Interestingly, pamphleteers around the site demanding a re-investigation of the 9/11 Commission. Far-fetched but interesting.

Here's the golden rule regarding souveniers: Two of shit is shit. If a vendor really wanted to screw you, he'd give you the third one for free. How many NYC emblazoned Statues of Liberty does one truly need?

If you have the means, I highly recommend taking in an opera at Lincoln Center. A grand hall built in the 1950s, the Metropolitan Opera House is the Yankee Stadium of opera halls. All the great ones played here...

The famed Waldorf-Astoria hotel was actually the merging of two New York hotels built by the dynastic Astors. Hence the hyphen.

Waiting for a seat at any crowded restaurant, I have two words: What Recession?

If you're taking the train into NYC from Connecticut, avoid doing it the day of a Yankee day game.

I don't know what it is but there's something about a well-played saxophone in the Subway that really gets to me.

How star-crossed are hockey's Rangers? Before Saturday's victory, it had been almost 70 years before the Rangers won a playoff game 1-0.

Rangers Getting Routed

Have you ever walked up to a roulette table and witnessed a sick run of reds or blacks? So you put your money and instantly the run ends? That's the case with tonight's Rangers game. It's 3-0 Washington in the third period. What happened? Playing on the road in Washington, the Rangers rode brilliant goaltending and clutch scoring to take a 2-0 lead in the playoff series...So what changed playing at the Garden? The answer is simple: I tuned in. Either that or they began running around in their own end and taking too many penalties against Ovechkin & Co. Without support,even King Henrik can seem like a jester. I guess it was too much to ask to take a 3-0 lead.

What I've Learned--the No Context Version

Some nights it's choosing between blogging, watching sports or sleeping. Sports has been winning lately.

NBC's John Madden retires. It was time.

The Yankees should fire Joe Girardi like the Corleones got rid of Pauley..."Grab the connolis, drop the gun."

I've been watching baseball for 30 years. This Yankee bullpen, save for Mariano, is probably the worst version I've seen. Even during the Stump Merrill years, the bullpen of Steve Howe, John Habyan and Steve Farr, was the strength of the team.

Although two starts does not a Cy Young make, I have to admit: I was wrong about A.J. Burnett.

Are they still playing the college basketball playoffs?

It's hard to believe that pirates still exist outside of Pittsburgh. But that captain proved courageous...That's the guy we all should emulate. He and that Sullenberger fellow--you know the Hudson River pilot.

CBS's Masters Leader Board went seven screens deep on Sunday apparently trying to fool casual golf fans that Tiger still had a chance. While we're on the subject, don't you just hate the hushed tones and reverence thrown at the feet of Augusta National? Come on people. It's a golf course. Nothing more.

The Washington Capitals are scary offensively with their sharp breakout passes and fancy stick-handling. Alex Ovechkin is just a great hockey player--although I can live without his hysterionics everytime the Capitals score. Enough Alex. Act like you been there before.

Jose Theodore's soft goals last night are bound to stay with him at least the rest of this playoff series. Surrendering those soft-goals in the playoffs? They have a way of staying with you like luggage. Go ask Detroit netminder Chris Osgood who tarnished his reputation after surrendering bad playoff goals.

Rangers color-man Joe Micheletti sure sounded awfully prescient when he said that the Capitals power play corps might get tired if they continued to log the full two minutes each power play. Sure enough, on his third period goal, Brandon Dubinsky went by his man who at this moment in time is stil looking for his jock.

Visit the new Yankee Stadium? I'd love to...after BHO approves me for bailout funds.

It took one inning of one baseball game...

The Yankees are back. That's the good news. The bad news? They brought last year's bullpen with them. I know. It's one game. One awful, excruciating game where the starter sucked and the bullpen was even worse. And manager Girardi in all his wisdom was hell-bent on running out the entire bullpen. How else can you explain why Girardi had Edwar Ramirez up and throwing as Marte was luckily getting the last out. And what the hell happened to Marte? Guy was worse than John Edwards during the debate. Yankees are in trouble when the lefty Marte can't get lefties out.
Still it's one game. The only Yankee on notice should be Girardi.

Elsewhere in New York sports, the Rangers got a big win in regulation against Montreal and likely did enough to secure a playoff spot. They can get as high as sixth. The eighth spot likely draws top-seeded Boston.

Live Blogging: Rangers vs. Canadiens in OT

The New York Rangers gave up the tying goal and settled for overtime in Montreal against the Canadiens in Montreal. There was a time when OT and the Rangers usually meant a loss. Having already gained a point, the Rangers are as close to tenth place as they are to fourth. It's that tight. Nearly two minutes into OT, the Rangers had their chances, most notably on new arrival Nik Antropov.

Good to see Alex Kovalev has not changed. He still thinks he can beat the entire defense on his way to the net. Former Ranger Matheiu Schneider just had a shot from the point. Good save Lundqvist. Drury had one last point shot that Canadien goalie Carey Price turned away easily as time ran down. Now the shootout: edge Rangers

Canadiens: Kostytsen: missed with a wrister up high
Rangers Naslund: Great fake on the forehand and put it in on the backhand
Canadiens: Kovalev: Great goal scorer's goal on the backhand. Tucked it under the crossbar
Rangers: Antropov: Faked, delayed, and scored stick side
Canadiens: Markov: Goal
Rangers: Drury scored with a wrister that Carey Price missed. Game over...

BTW, the usually steady Sam Rosen seemed confused during the shoot-out: He called a Rangers victory after the Antropov goal not realizing that the Canadiens had a skater remaining. Big win by the Blueshirts though...

Coming Soon: BHO and a Media Outlet Near You

Don't look now but President Obama is coming to a media outlet near you. Tomorrow, he'll be the first sitting president to appear in late night. He'll go on Jay Leno. Safe choice. I've said it many times, give me a choice I'll always take David Letterman. But BHO is is own man.

Obama has also has agreed to sit down with "60 Minutes" and Steve Kroft for an interview that will air Sunday (Thank you Howard Kurtz for the scoop). Kroft who gets all the great intervies will no doubt ask him about the economy, the AIG bonuses, the vetting of his cabinet, and the like. Many of you will recall Kroft interviewed BHO and Mrs BHO shortly after the nomination.

You can't blame BHO for playing to his strengths but someone close to His Almighty might remind him that he's no longer campaigning. Yo Barack, you got the job. Now it's time to govern. Stay the hell in D.C.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Baseball Memorabilia

Seen, discussed or overheard at the National Card Show in Fort Washington, PA...

10.) Should you be lucky enough to find a mint condition 1952 Topps Andy Pafko (Card #1)keep it close. Because almost none exist. The reason? Back in the day, kids would keep their cards together with a rubber band with Pafko's #1 on top. Either this really did happen or this is the most common misconception in the hobby.

9.) All of the certified Joe DiMaggio signed baseballs? They're genuine. No problems there. However, in what has to be the most creepy and low-rent money-grabs of all time are the baseballs signed--and released into circulation--by the Yankee Clipper on his death bed. Dubbed "death bed" DiMaggio balls, you'd have to have some set yourself to shell out money for these.

Cain/Palin bumper stickers. Seems the gun-folk are thrilled with BHO. Inside the card show featured Punter Sean Landeta (the long-time Giant wearing an Eagles cap) an 80-year-old Robin Roberts and softball queen Jennie Finch. Walking the aisles in near anonymity: famed 1970's hockey goon Dave "the Hammer" Schultz. And we're in Philadelphia and no one recognizes him. Another good reason to wear a helmet: No one recognizes you.

5.) The 1914 Cracker Jack find that we reported last year fetched an unbelievable amount of money...more than $150,000. Separate from that auction, a 1914 "Cracker Jack" Joe Jackson was graded a 10 out of 10. One dealer told me, that once that's gone, you'll never seen another in better condition. Today's grading system of cards takes the guesswork out of a card's value...Much like buying a diamond, baseball cards carry color, cut and clarity as well.

4.) Sadly, baseball cards in the 1980s are virtually worthless save for a few cards. Those were my salad days. By 1981, Topps was no longer the only game in town and rival card companies such as Fleer and Donruss entered the market and produced set after set after set to the point where you can longer keep track of the sets.


3.) Two collectors thus far have completed the massive 6,661 Yankee Stadium Legacy series from Upper Deck—the card company carried over last season’s games to the 2009 set as well.

2.) Not baseball related but I saw some cashed bank checks from Moe Howard, Curly Howard, and Larry Fine—The Three Stooges.

1.) Quick Story: Going back to DiMaggio. He had few friends and mostly kept to himself, expect apparently when there was appearance money involved. A long-time business partner of DiMaggio’s got wind of Carl Yastrzemski’s charity event. DiMaggio was asked to attend but declined the invite. The business partner said, “Joe, it’s for charity.” To which DiMaggio motioned to his heart as if to explain, “Charity begins at home.” Now we can remember him as “The Yankee Gypper.”

Mastro Folds House of Cards

Memorabilia king Bill Mastro was one of the central figures in the book "The Card," the book detailing the mystery surrounding the T206 Honus Wagner, the Mona Lisa of baseball cards. Some believe it was Mastro who cut the card, giving it its funny shape. Can you imagine? At any rate, here's one more added to the unemployment rolls. Perhaps he can get the cell next to Madoff's.

Bill Mastro folds sports memorabilia's largest auction house amid FBI probe
BY Michael O'Keeffe
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER


Mastro auctions chairman Bill Mastro boasted in a Jan. 21 article in the Chicago Daily Herald that his auction house would not be damaged by the recession because it caters to high-end clients.

"When we do our big auctions we're typically dealing with well-heeled guys, and this is what gives them pleasure," Mastro said. "If anything, I think guys are getting more choosy and discriminating about what they buy and how they buy it. But at the end of the day a Mercedes is a Mercedes, and if you want and have the means, you'll pay for it."

Less than two months later, Mastro Auctions is apparently out of business.

Sports memorabilia's largest auction house is at the center of an FBI investigation into shill bidding, card doctoring and other allegations of fraud that have damaged the company's Mercedes image. While Bill Mastro said in the January interview that the company would continue to generate $50 million in annual sales, industry sources say it had crippling credit-line and cash-flow problems. Consignors have complained that they were not paid for items sold at Mastro's December auction.

Three Mastro executives, including president Doug Allen, have purchased Mastro Auction's assets and will launch a new company called Legendary Auctions. The new business has taken possession of computer software and client lists, sources told the Daily News. Allen did not return phone calls for comment, but in a press release, the new company said all outstanding Mastro Auctions business will be "seamlessly facilitated, processed and completed through Legendary Auctions." Industry sources told the Daily News they expect Mastro's consignors will all eventually be paid.

Allen had told potential investors that he is not a target of the FBI probe, according to sources, but the new company appears to be taking steps to avoid shill-bidding allegations and other problems that damaged Mastro's credibility with collectors.

"The principals employed by Legendary Auctions will put their own collecting interests aside and concentrate solely on providing opportunities for our customers," Allen said in the press release. "There will be no mixing of business and pleasure at Legendary Auctions in terms of our own collecting pursuits. This will really be all about our customers."

The Daily News reported last year that sports-memorabilia officials have testified before a grand jury in Chicago that is investigating Mastro Auctions and fraud in the collectibles business.

The grand jury deliberations are part of an investigation into memorabilia fraud initiated last year by the Chicago division of the FBI, whose "Operation Foul Ball" smashed a multistate autograph forgery ring in the 1990s. Other sports-memorabilia businesses and individuals may also be under investigation.

Bill Mastro will not be associated with Legendary Auctions. "Circumstances make it clear to me that the business needs to move in a different direction at this time, and Legendary Auctions is a positive step that allows everyone to be taken care of, especially our customers who have been so loyal," Mastro said in the press release. "I am looking forward to taking some time off for now, and wish Legendary Auctions only the best as they move forward."

New York Islanders Modern Day Mickey Mouse Operation

After a 13-4 drubbing of the New Jersey Devils in 1984 a game in which the Edmonton Oilers scored at will, Wayne Gretzky famously labeled the Devils a "Mickey Mouse operation on ice." But judging from a recent visit to Nassau Coliseum, the Great One could apply the tag to the modern day New York Islanders. Here are 10 reason why the Islanders could be considered Mickey Mouse.

10.) Ice Girls cleaning up ice during breaks in the action. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with hot chicks on the ice....but it smacks of minor league hockey

9.) Your team gets booed in its own building, especially when the New York Rangers come to town. Wanna solve the problem? Sell-out your building

8.)Outside of Rick DiPietro, Trent Hunter and Andy Hilbert, the team is devoid of NHL vetereans...Taken further, no stars means fewer dollars devoted to payroll means more dollars in owner's pocket.

7.)Other than the aforementioned Rangers, the team lives off its one glory period, 1979-1983, when it made five consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup finals--winning the first four

6.)Speaking of those Cup winning teams, banners memorializing coach Al Arbour's 1500 game is a joke, so is Bill Torrey's trademark bow-tie. The travesty regarding Arbour is that they brought him back for one game, two days shy of his 75th bithday.

5.)Team executives are more corrupt than government officials in Bridgeport and Rprovidence combined.

4.)After falling behind in the Ranger game, fans serenaded the Islanders with chants of "Kan-sas City, Kan-sas City"--the team's future home if the Wang gets his way

3.)Some Islander braintrust gave golaie Rick DiPietro a 15-year contract. Let that sink in for a minute. A U.S. president gets 8 years max!

2.)Former great Bryan Trottier demands payment for the privilidge of the team retiring his number 19. Imagine the balls of this guy to do it with a straight face.

1.)Incredibly because of short-sighted deals, the Islanders must share revenue from luxury, concessions and parking with Nassau county. The result? a $70 ticket for nose-bleed seats with an obstructed view.

A-Rod and The 5 Stages of Grief....

A-Rod's off-season exploits have been well-documented. But after the latest revelation--that he'll miss more than two months repairing a torn labrum--I feel spent. I don't know how to react anymore. It's always something with this guy.

Whether it's trying to swipe the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove during the 2004 ALCS or yelling "I got it" when running behind Toronto's John MacDonald a few years ago, everything A-Rod does is bush-league and calculated.

Rooting for Alex is like befriending an impossibly hot chick. You're happy that she talks to you but you're disappointed time and again. It's reached that point with Alex. You're just drained emotionally.

So here are the five stages of Grief as seen through the eyes of a Yankee fan.

Denial---What happened? A-Rod took steroids? When? I don't believe it. How can it be? Boy, the media won't leave this guy alone. Maybe Mike Francesa was corret when he said that some guys just can't make it in New York. The witch hunt continues.

Anger (after seeing that BS interview with Gammons)--That little bastard! Can't trust the Dominicans. Bolly? Are we kidding? And why is Madonna's manager insisting he wear that faggy blue v-neck? And who the fuck is going to play third base now? Get me Hank Steinbrenner's number...Can we void A-Roid contract? And who can play third base? Newcomer Nick Swisher? Grrrr. Season's wasted?

Bargaining--Okay Alex admitted it. Now we can go on and concentrate on the baseball season and begin debating important matters such as who's going to play center field. Why manager Joe Giradi should be shitcanned before the season starts...Not to mention who's going to play third base.

Depression I don't care anymore. What does it matter? A-Rod's hurt and will miss two months. The Yankees lost their best hitter and third baseman. Boston looked strong and Tampa and Toronto look better this year too. What's the use?

Acceptance I'm ready for whatever comes my way. Perhaps the Yankees will be a better team in the early going and get back to the teamwork during the 1996-2001 era. We don't miss A-Rod..we got Mark Teixera!

Ah, that little bit of Yankee rehab worked wonders..Thank goodness baseball season is around the corner and A-ROD successfully surgically repaired his torn labrum. Only every Yankee fans knows Alex is all thumbs.

Fallon in Train Wreck TV

I don't want to say I told you so....

Jimmy Fallon was very uncomfortable right from the opening monologue last night. Was the hands-in-the-pockets delivery during the monologue an homage to Johnny Carson? I hope so and I hope they tell him to stop that tonight. And the jokes....very tepid.

Now there are worse things in life than sucking at your own heavily hyped talk show. But was it a good idea to impersonate Robert DeNiro in front of Robert DeNiro? What's the best result here? Is DeNiro going to laugh at Fallon....like he's a clown? Like DeNiro's here to amuse Fallon...like's he's a clown? (Sorry couldn't resist)

And this deliberate attempt to make it all technological and hip came across as lame and stupid. "Jimmy on Facebook!" Who cares? NBC wanted this apparent "pushing the envelope" to be in the same style as Letterman circa 1982. Who tune in...you never what's going to happen! Please.

Yes, this will be a work in progress for NBC. All talk shows musyt given a puncher's chance to smooth out the kinks. But seriously who made the decisionto cast Fallon? Is it the ssme guy who put Celelbrity Apprentice on Sunday nights at 9?

You get the feeling that NBC has totally lost its way? Memo to Jeff "Zippy" Zucker...You have to get involved here.

Tina Fey tonight--She should give him some good material. Or at least make him a little more comfortable.

Snowbound Monday!

Some random thoughts on a snowbound Monday: Twelve inches in CT. Snow in March is gay.

Call me crazy but I think Jimmy Fallon's new talk show (which debuts tonight) has a good chance of being Train Wreck TV. I saw Fallon guesting for Letterman during Dave's heart attack hiatus and he sucked. Visibly nervous. Don't get me wrong--I liked him on Weekend Update but some can't make the jump to carrying their own show. See Chase, Chevy. DeNiro--who rarely does television interviews--is Jimmy's first guest. I'll be sure to tune in ---at 12:30. CMON.

I'm watching the Baseball Network and they're in the middle of previewing the 30 baseball teams. Today? The Houston Astros. They are actually talking about Mike Hampton making 30 starts. Mike Hampton....If I wasn't doubled over in laughter, I'd actually explain it here.

Anyone catch Steve Kroft interviewing Harry Markopoulos last night on 60 Minutes? For those of you dumbasses who don't know, Markopoulos was the would-be Madoff whistleblower who sent five letters to the SEC urging the investigation into Madoff's firm. The SEC did nothing. Markopoulos told Kroft (I swear Kroft gets the best stories. Guy is Aces. Love Kroft.) the investigators at the SEC couldn't spot fraud, even if you instructed where to look. The SEC investigators simply don't have the sophistication. That's a damn strong statement. But then Markopoulos should know. He figured out the Madoff scheme in less than five hours. Great piece.

While we're at it, can we cut the shit with penciling in stats for certain players. Last year, some people who should know better, figured Yankee pitcher Phil Hughes was good for 18 wins. He finished the 2008 season with exactly zero wins. This year's hot rookie is Mark Melancon--who's being touted as Mariano's replacement in waiting. Can I at least see Melancon close out the Tampa Rays first? Already he's the Yankee closer? Only in baseball do you see such lofty statements.

Giants signed Cowboys defensive end Chris Canty...That will hurt Dallas next year.

Sean Avery will return to the Rangers this week. Will it help? Well, it couldn't hurt. They're fucked. The NHL trade deadline is tomorrow. Can the Rangers swing a big deal?

The Dow saw 6,999 today. What the fuck is going on?

Top 10 Reasons To Fire Glen Sather

10.) Gave Bryan Trottier a coaching gig after being pitched the job on a coacktail napkin

9.) Bitched and moaned whilst in small-market Edmonton. Then spent like drunken sailor in NY. (And sucks managing today's salary cap)

8.) Short of hiring Osama bin Laden, Sather's creepy realtionship with Garden boss Jim Dolan provides him the Teflon-status not seen since Fredo Coreleone when his mother still alive

7.) Maneuvers NHL Drafts with all the dexterity and finesse as did Dick Clark last New Year's Eve. Don't beleive me? In 2003, for example, the Rangers used the 12th overall choice to select Dartmouth College forward Hugh Jessiman. In doing so, they passed on Dustin Brown (13th), Brent Seabrook (14th), Zach Parise (17th), Ryan Getzlaf (19th), Brent Burns (20th), Ryan Kesler (23rd), Mike Richards (24th), Loui Eriksson (33rd), and Patrice Bergeron (45th)..Jessiman is no longer with the team

6.) Let Jagr, Shanahan and Avery walk and replaced them with Nik Zherdev (the modern day Alex Kovalev) past-his-prime Markus Naslund and Aaron Voros.

5.) By compiling too many of the same player (Callahan, Dubinsky, Dawes) he's seems to be taking a page from true genius Lou Lamoriello.

4.)He had Gretzky, Messier, & Coffey in their prime and mistakenly thought his a birthright to drink from the Cup

3.) Slats is gay nickname for a grown man

2.) Two words: Wade Redden.

1.) Since he got to 33rd and 7th nine years ago, Sather's won exactly TWO playoff rounds

Separated at Birth

New York Gov. David Paterson


Rangers coach John Tortorella

NY Rangers Fire Renney, Hire Tortorella

Tom Renney deserved better. The New York Rangers apparently thinking they can still save the season fired coach Tom Renney today. Unfortunately, Jim Dolan fired the wrong guy. It should have been Glen Sather. Renney deserved better than he got. After all, was it Renney who brought in past their prime free agents in Markus Naslund and Wade Redden? Nope. Was it Renney who let Jagr, Shanahan and Avery walk? Nope. This team is Sather's mess to fix. Michael Obernaur of the Daily News remarked that Sather is on his fifth coach on nine years which "borders on Isiah territory."

John Tortorella, a former Rangers assistant who won a Stanley Cup with Tampa in 2004, was named as coach. Apparently "Torts" is something of a hard-ass, which is directly opposite of the laid-back Renney. Good. Maybe it'll sink in to pay attention to the little things, such as taking too many men on the ice penalties (that happened twice yesterday). Maybe it'll sink in that on the Power Play, you shouldn't give up goals while on two-man adventage.

It'll be interesting to see if the Rangers are buyers or sellers at next week's trade deadline. Although in this day and age, who's going to take on bad contracts such as Redden's. Just when you thought the NHL lockout wiped the slate clean on big contracts, the Rangers go right up to the salary cap limit.

At least the Rangers are saying the right things about Renney on the way out. Too bad their play couldn't speak loud enough while he was here. After all, he deserved better.

What I Learned Friday

Does anyone miss Bush?

Conan O'Brien last NBC Late Night show is Friday Night. Can you believe he's been doing that show for 16 years? When he started as a nobody, NBC only would commit to him for three months stints at a time. I bet Letterman makes an appearance. Would be appropriate. Friggin Leno on a 10 pm? Just leave Jay--just leave.

There looks like lots of great bargains in the stock market. Knowing which stocks are headed up is the hard part.

Now that the apparent transfer of wealth has begun, when will I begin getting an extra $13 in my paycheck from BHO?

In reporting the attacking chimp story, the NY Daily News, I kid you not, actually got a quote from actress Morgan Fairchild, who worked with the beast. C'Mon! Can you imagine being the reporter getting this assignment from the City Editor?

Gotta love the acting skills of one Alex Rodriguez...Looking wistfully at his teammates during the fake, phony, press conference, the Lightning Rod was supposed to produce a tear. A-Rod, however, much like October performances, choked. And the people who expected Corporate Jeter to say something remotely controversial, well they were disappointed weren't they?

The Philadelphia Sports Card Show & Exhibition is rapidly approaching. The lead guest? Willie Mays who is charging $269 for the privilige of signing a baseball card. Signing a shirt or a hat will set you back hundreds more. To further drive home the point, Mr. Mays, the Website describes, will sign "Say Hey" but not "Say Hey Kid" For nearly three hundred smackers, Ol' Willie ought to be giving me a rubdown or shining my shoes.

Saw "The Wrestler"...loved it. I must see "Frost Vs. Nixon" before Sunday night...BY the way, I'll be blogging the Oscars live for those scoring at home.

That Tom Renney's job is on the line is one of the biggest jokes this or any sports season. Can he help it if he must replace Jaromir Jagr with Bradon Dubinsky or Ryan Callahan? I love Chris Drury but maybe this is not his year.

Rangers Really Testing My Patience

Every year about this time, I say the same thing: This team isn't so good. This year is no different.

Currently, the Rangers are fighting it out for the eight and final spot in the Eatsern conference.

Yesterday's thrashing at the hands of the Flyers produced something I hadn't seen in a long time. Rangers on a 5-3 power play--yup two-man advantage--and try to tie the game at 1. A turnover is picked up by the Flyers and deposited in the Ranger net for a crushing 2-0 lead. Lundqvist was awful. He gets yanked after he yields two more goals. On the NBC telecast, studio hosts Mike Milbury and Pierre McGuire are killing the Rangers saying ostensibly, "this is how you get your coach fired." Strong statement. I didn't realize Renney's job may be in question here. Perhaps Slats can go too?

Can I just add that I'd listen to Mike Emrick call a grocery list? They guy is brilliant with the imagery. Hockey's Vin Scully.

Tonight in St. Louis--the Rangers fall again. 2-1 loss. Listless. Except for the really cool fights. Colton Orr decked his opponent while Aaron Voros gamely fought Cam Jansen, who get this--threw punches lefty and righty! Never saw that before either. Hockey players are tough dudes.

Rangers need a spark. Calling Sean Avery. That would be step one.
Ugh. Why did I have to throw in with this team? Maddening!

A-Very Ranger Return

All indications point to Sean Avery coming back to the New York Rangers via Hartford. Will it help or did NHL commissioner Gary Bettman take the bounce out of Tigger? Let's hope it's the former because the Rangers need a spark. Losers of three straight, the Rangers have fallen to third in the division and sixth in the division--three points out of the eighth and final playoff spot. Why does it seem the Rangers are always in this position year after year regardless of the roster?

The Rangers just tied the game with Washington at 3 by Markus Naslund crashing the net. Perhaps Avery's Impending return is already paying dividends. Whatever happens with Avery does not help address the lack of scoring, the disappearance of Wade Redden, Chris Drury, and Scott Gomez.

I just loked at the standings. There's the Devils--without Marty Brodeur--rolling along. They were supposed to tank when their goaltender went down. Yet they are in first. How did that happen?

Oh my goodness....Defenseman Paul Mara just scored the fourth Ranger goal--and a power play to boot. What an embarrasment of riches!

The Press Reveals Its Ugly Side

Anyone wanting to know about the state of the country, or the press for that matter, need only to have witnessed President Obama's question and answer session with the White House press corps following his first press conference as President.

Would you believe some well-minded journalist actually asked BHO's thoughts on Alex Rodriguez. That's right. A-Rod's foibles have been lifted into the same discussion as economic stimulus and avoiding another Great Depression. I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. Seriously. And this is what our country has come to...Almost as remarkable was the fact that BHO adressed it! Although being the adroit performer, BHO used it as public service about children and lessons learned. Blah Blah Blah.
Can you imagine Helen Thomas asking Ronald Reagan back in the day about the demise of one Lyle Alzado?

And keeping on all things A-Rod, what happened to Peter Gammons? This guy was once an earnest reporter. Then he throws in with ESPN and that's where the trouble starts.

He gets the interview of the sports year---no doubt handpicked by the evil Scott Boras. But what does Gammons do? He serves as the chief softball tosser to A-Rod. C'Mon Pete. Suzyn "Goodness Gracious" Waldman might have been tougher. At no time, does Gammons ask an intelligent follow-up or do some deductive reasoning. Instead we're forced to take in more spin and more deception. Ugly. If A-Rod besmirched a careerby taking steroids, than Gammons did equal damage to his by playing the part of A-Rod's hostess. Presumably Gammons can resume his career as a stand-in to Andrew Jackson--a.k.a the guy on the $20 bill.

Don't believe me? Check this out:

Super Bowl Post Mortem

Great game. Pittsburgh wins in the game's waning moments. But for three-quarters of the game, it was a ho-hum affair. I don't know if it was because I was trying to match the world's worst Super Bowl square numbers or trying to outfunny everyone. I have that tendancy you know. At any rate, it seemed that Madden and Michaels were at sea. Madden was Madden. But Michaels seems to over-dramatize things. For instance, replays clearly showed Santonio Holmes' catch being legal Michaels gets all fired up. At any moment, I thought I was going to hear, "Do you believe in toes?"

I will pass over in silence the fact that Pittsburgh's Jeff Reed cost me $500 for his extra point.

And NBC had waaay to many commentators present. Perhaps this was the reason that guest commentator Mike Holmgren seemed overly pissed on the set? Only reason I can tell. Patrick and Olbermann are awful as is Tiki Barber. Normally, I like Costas but this was overkill. For my money, I'd like to throw a shoe at Olbermann. And why were the announcers wearing bankers striped suits yesterday? Was NBC's Dick Ebersol trying to tell us something?

Halftime? Bruce and the E Street Band. Sucked. Disagreed with all the song choices. Granted 12 minutes is 12 minutes. But when the pseudo referee comes out and declares Boss Time? I vomited in my mouth. Hokey. Bruce just say no next time. That's what happens when you let President Obama dictate your set list. Oh, he didn't?

Color Me Converted...

I must share something. I wasn't a fan of the President...until now. I had no idea the guy was left-handed. And check out the crook of the arc--the tell-tale sign of left-handedness. The only thing BHO is missing here is the Charlie Brown-style tongue hanging out of the mouth. Not very presidential I guess.

Torre's Book Blasts Former Players

When you follow a team, it's usually a one-dimensional view. You glean snippets of a player's personality from interviews and dugout shots and you try to read body language. But that's about it. Rarely do you know team chemistry and who hates whom--unless a tell-all book is written. So thank you Joe Torre. I'm making a beeline for the bookstore on 2/2. Although there's probably zero chance that Torre takes a pop at phoney baloney Derek Jeter--otherwise we would have heard it by now. Some guys, such as Wells, you knew Torre disliked. Others, such as A-Rod, we finally get confirmation.

ON ALEX RODRIGUEZ: 'Alex is all about the game. He needs the game. He needs all of those statistics. He needs every record imaginable. And he needs people to make a fuss over him.'

ON KEVIN BROWN AND DAVID WELLS: 'The difference between Kevin Brown and David Wells is that both make your life miserable, but David Wells meant to.'

ON RANDY JOHNSON: 'It was sad more than frustrating when we got him, because I thought we finally had someone you could hook your wagon to, and that wasn't the case.'

ON CARL PAVANO: 'The players all hated him. It was no secret.'

Amen, Joe. Amen.

A few thoughts on Andy Pettitte

So the Yankees brought back Andy Pettitte for another season. Good for them. He should solidify the backhalf of therotation. Funny thing about Pettitte though. I don't really trust him in a big spot. Don't get me wrong...he's pitched well in a number of big games. Pettitte's 1-0 Game 5 in the 1996 World Series when he outdueled Atlanta's John Smoltz is at the top of the list. However, for my money Pettitte has had his share of post-season stinkers.

I recall a Friday Night in October 1998 when Cleveland really lit him up. I can still hear Michael Kay's radio call "And Andy Pettitte is getting rocked..." This game set up El Duque's gem when he ostensibly saved the Yankee season the next game. Then there's the 2001 World Series when Arizona forced a Game 7 by pounding Pettitte for six runs in two innings in Game 6.

(A less meaningful--and equally horrendous--start by Pettitte last year lends itself to a quick story. The game against the Kansas City Royals last July...hottest day of the year. Great seats. I'm keeping score and willing Pettitte to get through five, maybe six innings. Didn't happen. Pettitte proceeds to give up 12 earned runs, the last four courtesy of a Jose Guillen Grand Slam. Pissed beyond belief, I leave the Stadium in time to listen to John Sterling's call of a Yankee comeback win in the car on Johnny Damon's sixth hit of the game. This story summed up my entire 2008.)

Personally, I like Pettite. Always have. But I always trusted David Cone, David Wells, even Mike Mussina, before Pettitte in a big game. I will pass over in silence the hatchet job of Game 7 against Kevin Brown and Javier Vazquez in 2004 because, well, why should I get upset? Still bothers me.

My comments on Pettitte aside, his post-season numbers look better than I remember: Pettitte is 14–5 with a 3.96 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 35 postseason games (1995–2003, 2005, 2007). Pettitte has pitched 218.1 innings in the postseason.

Maybe its me. I remember the bad more than the good. It's like that way with gamblers too: You don't remember the wins with nearly the same vigor and emotion. The losses? Most players can recall them with stunning alacrity.

Biff Destroys the Economy. But He's Hardly to Blame

By Michael DiMarco

If I tried to sell you a steaming pile of shit, would you pay me? A filthy, hulking, noxious lump of dung; in a paper bag for ease of transport. You’d appreciate that I bagged it, wouldn’t you? I mean, I could’ve just left it on your stoop, per our hypothetical agreement, and let you rummage through twenty years of garage surplus to pull out that rusty wheelbarrow, or hand truck, or pitchfork, all while fighting the swarm of flies now festering on my extraordinary gift. I’ll bet with a firm handshake and solid eye contact, you’d take this off my ass, excuse the pun. Look at me, for goodness sake; I’m not wearing a red and green checkered suit like that shifty maniac at the used car lot, or the vagrant that’s been making eyes at your wife from behind the gas pump. And you know what, because I like you, I’ll wrap this in cellophane and place it in a gift basket with a few colorful party favors and a sack of tasty nuts. My nuts score the highest marks in the ratings, you know. Consistently. Hell, everyone loves my nuts. Your wife loves my nuts. OK, now you’re sold.

Sound crazy? It’s a near mirror analogy to this Wall Street housing debacle cum economic implosion. When your buddy took out his 5-year option ARM interest-only embarrassment of a home loan, or when you locked in that 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.75%, there’s a very good change the lending institution sold the loan to be packaged into a pool of mortgages with similar terms. In the glory days of housing flips, these loan packages were peddled on Wall Street as investment securities. Much like stocks and bonds change hands over the course of daily trading, pools of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) were bought and sold like any other financial instrument. The interest payments distributed to investors were collateralized by the underlying mortgages. So long as homeowners continued making regular monthly payments to their bank, the securities could make regular interest payments to their holders. This worked great, until eventually, it didn’t.



Over the course of the past decade, Uncle Sam relaxed mortgage lending rules tremendously. For a while this was constructive, as it dropped the American Dream into the laps of countless, hardworking individuals. When combined with low interest rates, your boy Biff at the car wash could qualify for home loans at an obscene multiple of his yearly after-tax income. To the disbelief of more educated brethren, income documentation was nary a requirement. Of course, the terms of Biff’s mortgage weren’t quite so stellar once you read the fine print. But Biff doesn’t read because he was too busy crushing skulls before he dropped out of high school and failed his GED. To add insult to injury, Biff’s loan was packaged into a mortgage pool as well. True, it was a lower quality product, as anyone with half a brain could see, but perhaps there was a way to jam these low-rent loans under the same umbrella as the nobler ones. Surely some MBA pencil-neck could structure that complex instrument to afford it the highest score from the bond rating companies, namely “AAA.” And these polished triple-A securities were held by the billions, on the balance sheets of staid (and no longer so staid) institutions from Goldman Sachs to (*cough*) Lehman Brothers.

Well, eventually Biff realized that his insanely low teaser rate was going to balloon like an unloved housewife. Refinancing would be difficult because his credit score was an abomination. Likewise, income requirements were more stringent now, as the recession bit hard. So Biff defaulted, and the bank foreclosed on his expansive home in South Beach, or Scottsdale, or Riverside, or some other overbuilt sunbelt tract lacking character. In fact, foreclosures swept across the country like a tidal wave, decimating neighborhoods while bankrupting some of the largest holders of MBS. And suddenly that triple-A security has plummeted in price. Because it’s toxic, and because no one will touch it. The next morning, the AAA is a B. How long can a bank weather these losses before having to commit enormous write-downs on its books? How long can a firm survive when its peers on the Street have pulled their credit lines and shuttered their trading activities, for fear that said firm is burning through cash faster than Charlie Sheen in a whorehouse. Ask Dick Fuld of Lehman, or Jimmy Cayne of Bear Stearns (assuming he wasn’t toking up with his geriatric Bridge club when you caught his ear). They know the answer. And so do the hundreds of thousands of Americans losing their jobs in the midst of this fallout. Economists call this a negative feedback loop: Crippled banks institute layoffs. Layoffs curb spending and propagate defaults. Lower spending hurts retailers. Retailers close stores. Defaults hurt banks. The stock market plummets. Banks lose more money and institute additional lay-offs. And so on and so on.



What? You think this doesn’t affect you because you work at your old man’s tire shop in downtown fucking Des Moines? Vote against the bailout plan, right? Those money hungry crooks on Wall Street don’t deserve billions after they defrauded and defrocked the masses, then escaped with the spoils of guerilla ambush! And you got nothing! Well, relax for a second, cowboy. Do you have a retirement plan? A 401k? Have you checked your statement recently? Have you checked the Dow Jones average? Think you’ll make back that 30% shortfall if, say, Morgan Stanley blows up tomorrow? So the next time I come knocking on your door with my blistering bundle of crap, maybe you shouldn’t be so eager to open that wallet, even if I’ve got a few Tupperware containers to mask the smell and nuts to sweeten the deal.

Either that or take a ride to Sleepy’s, buy a big mattress, and start saving for the future. You’re still young. Right?

This is Michael DiMarco's first piece for TDD. For more on DiMarco, check out his blog at http://www.essentialbastard.blogspot.com

Inside Flight 1549...An Aviator's Perspective

By Len Roberto

An aviation buff comments on the skill and complexity of the pilot who safely crash landed in the Hudson River. Quite simply it was nothing short of a miracle.

You might feel like scoffing at all the praise heaped on Sully-the Captain of the Airbus who landed his stricken airliner in the Hudson River …unless you were piloting the thing.

But think about it this way:

Still in the climb, the part of the flight where you have the fewest options in case of a problem, the pilot loses not 1 but BOTH engines-meaning the plane all the power of a glider.

In a few seconds, the pilot must think about all of this:

Decide where to go- can I make nearby Teterboro Airport?

Declare an emergency. Inform the crew and passengers, while he is flying a real heavy GLIDER now, yet he does all this as cool as the other side of the pillow.

He quickly realizes and understands his only choice besides 5th Avenue & 42nd St is a water landing in the Hudson. If he fails, he knows the frigid waters are likely going to kill people within three minutes so he needs to land near help (ferries) and he needs to set the thing down as softly as possible to allow max float from wings…if it broke up-trouble. So he did all this in seconds and greased a landing that saved them all…

There's an old pilot saying: Any landing you walk away from was a good one. Sierra Hotel Sully!

Len Roberto is a recreation pilot and aviation enthusiast living in Connecticut. This is his first piece for the Daily Del Franco

Some Interesting Numbers for Jim Rice

Congrats to Jim Rice who finally made the Hall of Fame on his last year of eligibility. Someone got something right. If you look at Rice's career numbers, there's no question: He is a Hall of Famer.

Besides the 382 homers and all those RBIs (1451), Rice was a career .298 hitter.

Jim Rice was one of the best hitters of the 1970s and the early part of the 1980 decade. His stats also match up favorably with Orlando Cepeda who made the Hall of Fame. Cepeda finished his career with a .297 career average, 379 home runs and 1365 RBIs. Accordingly, Cepeda finished with a lower batting average, fewer total home runs, and fewer RBIs than Jim Rice had during his career. In addition, Jim Rice played one less year than Cepeda did, meaning his individual yearly averages were higher than Cepeda's.

Jim Rice's statistics also compare favorably to Duke Snider who is also in the Hall of Fame. Snider had a career .295 average, 407 home runs, and 1333 RBIs. Billy Williams also made the Hall of Fame with totals of a .290 batting average, 426 home runs, and 1475 RBIs.

The next name on the list of players comparable to Rice is believe it or not, Ellis Burks. Maybe it's because I remember Burks coming up as a skinny outfielder in Boston but I would never compare him to Rice. But look it up:

Burks hit .291, 352 homers, and had 1206 RBI. Just judging on numbers alone, Burks warrants consideration, right? Wrong. And that's where baseball, which relies on its statistics as a measurement tool more than any other sport, got it wrong. How can you judge players in the steroid era against their predecessors? At least the voters continue to punish McGwire: He got about 20% of the necessary 75% to get in.

Here's a few other Rice numbers to consider:

--Rice never drew more than 63 walks in a season
--During his 1978 MVP year Rice whiffed 126 times and still hit .315
--That same year, Rice hit 15 triples although Red Sox fans of the early-to-mid 1980s might recall Rice as Mr. 6-4-3 as the slugger routinely grounded into 30-plus double plays a year.

Just writing about baseball adds another 15 degrees outside. Pitchers and catchers report in 35 days.

We Talking About Practice...

Just Because. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUYjD7A75HQ

And that's why they play the games...

Nothing pleased me more than watching the Plax-less Giants go down in a home playoff game to the Eagles. It reminded me a lot of last year's Giant/Dallas game. Third game of the season between NFC East rivals with the road team beating a 13-win team. Wasn't everybody rubber-stamping the Giants into the SuperBowl? One know-it-all radio host said as much during his Sunday morning chat with Phil Simms. "The Titans, Phil, presented the most difficult matchup for the Giants," said Francesa in one of those I know the answer before I ask the question. It wasn't only Francesa. Others did the same thing. And John Carney picked a bad game to be bad.

I had an enjoyable listen on Westwood One with Ian Eagle/Dennis Green doing Pittsburgh/San Diego. Who'd have thought former coach Dennis Green ("The Bears were who we thought they were.")would have been so informative, concise, and entertaining. This guy should be doing more color. Very refreshing. When a third quarter punt glanced off a San Diego player and picked up by Pittsburgh, Ian Eagle went into full celebratory mode with an emphatic Touchdown Pittsburgh! Coach Green though, knew better. He calmly told the audience that the ball, in that scenario, could not be advanced. No Steeler touchdown but Pittsburgh would take possession at the spot of the foul. Correct call, Coach Green.

The Media Interview: Jerry Dunklee

Jerry Dunklee, professor of journalism at Southern Connecticut State University, was gracious enough to answer a few questions about the current state of media and journalism. And by "media" I'm not talking about Access Hollywood. The line is indeed getting blurred...


Daily Del Franco: Do you recognize blogs as a legitimate source of news gathering or is it a tool for the lazy?

Dunklee: It depends on the blogger. The huge majority of bloggers are not news gatherers. They are simply opinionating on what is happening the the field they are writing about. Most of the “facts” they use come from mainstream news organizations who have professional reporters in the field. A few bloggers actually dig and find news that is not being covered by other reporters.

TDD: The national press coverage on Obama...was it fair?
Dunklee: Yeah, I think the coverage was fair. He, like most newer faces on the political scene, went through a long process of getting known. There was, according to some organizations who research such things, more positive than negative coverage. That is not unusual actually. There was more positive than negative coverage of Pres. Bush when he was running the first time also. And Obama is a very different kind of figure on the scene. It’s not only that he is bi-racial but that he is unusually articulate. Now, we’ll see how the press deals with him once he has the power of the presidency.


TDD: In the age of the 24/7 news cycle, some cable news shows (i.e. "Countdown") are so biased it's frightening. Do you think viewers notice? or even care for that matter? Should they?

Dunklee: It depends on the viewer. I think many people choose a show like “Countdown” or “The O’ Reilly Factor” because it’s biased. That is: People who have strong political opinions often choose news and commentary outlets that agree with their views. That said, I think many people...according to quite good research...don’t separate quality news sources from those with high levels of slant...or entertainment shows, like “Access Hollywood” from legitimate news operations. That is a problem. I think better education about what real journalists do can help...but I’m not holding my breath on the great bulk of our citizens becoming more sophisticated. Perhaps this economic downturn will help them focus on higher quality news.


TDD: Was the biggest misconception of student journalists entering the business?
Dunklee: That it’s glamorous. Or high paying. The truth is the best reporters would do what they do for nothing. (though obviously it’s nice to eat and pay the rent.) They are curious, skeptical of authority and willing to dig. And most of the good ones care deeply about making a difference. They believe that when people have good, accurate information they will usually make good decisions about public issues. We try to give students a sense of the First Amendment mission and hope they will be good citizens.


TDD: What's right about the media today? (We know what's wrong about it)....
Dunklee: With all of the warts...economic and otherwise...there is very good journalism being committed every day in this country. We are going through a very difficult time. I hope we will come out on the other side with broader ways to communicate news to the public and figured out an economic model that will pay for it. And I hope the public will understand that without an independent and strong news media a quality democracy becomes almost impossible.

1869 Baseball card found

An antique collector found a baseball card from 1869 while rummaging through a box of antiques. The 70-year-old woman wanted to sell it on Ebay for $10--the card is going to go for six figures easy. Can you imagine hitting that kind of jackpot? (Oh she did that too! Read on.)

With my luck, I'd come across a 1979 Topps Cliff Johnson. Here's the story. Thanks Fresno Bee.

By Mike Osegueda

Bernice Gallego sat down one day this summer, as she does pretty much every day, and began listing items on eBay.

She dug into a box and pulled out a baseball card. She stopped for a moment and admired the picture. "Red Stocking B.B. Club of Cincinnati," the card read, under a sepia tone photo of 10 men with their socks pulled up to their knees. The card itself was dirty and wrinkled in a few places.

It was definitely old, Gallego thought. As a collector and seller, it's her job to spot old items that might have value today, to find the gems among the junk.

It's what Bernice, 72, and her husband, Al Gallego, 80, have been doing since 1974 at Collectique, their Tower District antique store full of old jukeboxes, slot machines and records.

This card, she figured, was worth selling on eBay.

She did what she does with most items: Took a picture, wrote a description and put it up for auction. She put a $10 price tag on it, deciding against $15 because it would have cost her an extra 20 cents.

Later that night she got a few odd inquiries -- someone wanting to know whether the card was authentic, someone wanting her to end the auction and sell him the card immediately.

Hmm, she thought, this could be something special. It could be worth $50, or even $100.

Or, as Bernice Gallego came to find out in the following weeks, it could be worth a lot more.

The card is actually 139 years old. It, and a handful of others like it, are considered the first baseball cards.

Sports card collectors call the find "extremely rare" and estimate the card could fetch five, or perhaps, six figures at auction.

And Bernice was worried about 20 cents.

Instead, just like that, she is the least likely protagonist ever for a rare-baseball card story.

"I didn't even know baseball existed that far back," Gallego says, between puffs on her cigarette. "I don't think that I've ever been to a baseball game."

Spooked with all the questions she was getting on eBay, she picked up the phone at 9:30 that night and called her good friend George Huddleston and asked his opinion.

"I never make phone calls after 8 o'clock at night," Gallego says. "My mother taught me never to do things like that."

Huddleston's answer was simple: End the auction now. Figure out what you have and what it's worth before selling it. Her husband, Al, agreed: "Get this thing off the Internet."

So the next morning -- with no bids yet on the card -- she canceled the auction. She wanted to find out more about the card.

Huddleston directed Gallego to a friend who would know what to do: Rick Mirigian, a local concert promoter and card trader who sold a rare basketball card in 2004 for $62,100.

In the meantime, Gallego didn't want the card to get lost, so she put it in a sandwich bag and push-pinned it to her laundry room wall.

"If it fell off the wall, the cat would have ate it," Gallego says. "Well, or the dog."

When she met with Mirigian, she found out what the card was -- an 1869 advertisement with a picture of the first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

"When I came to meet her and she took it out of a sandwich Baggie and she was smoking a cigarette, I almost fainted," Mirigian says.

"They've uncovered a piece of history that few people will ever be able to imagine or comprehend. And it comes out of Fresno," he says. "That card is history. It's like unearthing a Mona Lisa or a Picasso."

The adventure begins

Mirigian's first question to Bernice was what you might expect: Where did you get this?

To this day, the details are sketchy.

"We really don't know where we got it," Gallego says. "We don't even know how long we owned this thing."

Makes sense when you consider the Gallegos are a couple of pack-rats who have been married 45 years and whose antique store overflows into their house.


The theory is that the card came out of a storage space they bought a few years back. It's not uncommon in their line of work to buy the entire contents of storage units, usually from a relative of a recently deceased person, for about $200.

That's what the Gallegos think happened here.

Before this, the Gallegos' biggest eBay sale was a John F. Kennedy autograph from 1939 that brought in $1,000.

Since baseball cards were new to them, Mirigian laid out a plan for the Gallegos. They had to get the card authenticated, store it in something better than a plastic bag and put it in a safe place.

So the Gallegos headed south to Los Angeles, bound for the headquarters of PSA, the leading sports card grading and authenticating company, which has graded 12 million items since 1991.

Most people mail their cards off to PSA. The Gallegos decided that for their almost 140-year-old card, they'd rather drive it down. They picked the one day a month that PSA opens its doors to the public, dropped the card off at 9 a.m. and picked it up at 3 p.m., encapsulated and authenticated.

It was all a little much for a dumbstruck Bernice who still says, "It's a little card I found in a bunch of stuff."

They chose not to have the card graded, the process of judging the mintness on a 1-10 scale. It's PSA's most popular service, but in the case of this card, being real and in one piece is the most important thing.

"It does have some pretty significant discoloration and creasing," says Joe Orlando, the president of PSA. "The good news is that the sepia tone photo that is mounted on the front is, relatively speaking, unscathed. The clarity of the photo is still there. If this were graded, it would be near the bottom. But even for a card that low on the grading scale, it does have some eye appeal to it. It still presents fairly well, and that's the more important thing."

And perhaps even more important is the story it tells.

'A Time Capsule'

Before the Cincinnati Red Stockings, there were no professional baseball teams.

Formed in 1868, the team set the foundation for what we know today as Major League Baseball.

"To borrow a term from rock 'n' roll, they were a kind of supergroup," says Tim Wiles, the director of research at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"They brought in some of the best baseball players from around the country. They went around and challenged all comers. They barnstormed around the country and were undefeated."

The Red Stockings won games by as many as 30, 40 and 50 runs, Wiles says.

"They were kind of an all-star team before that concept really existed," he says. "In 1871, what the Red Stockings started would evolve into the first baseball league and the first sports league."

In 1869, the team's picture ended up on the front of a card advertising Peck & Snyder, a company that sold baseball equipment. Unlike modern baseball cards, the Peck & Snyder card was larger and focused on the whole team, not individual players.

"It really provides a time capsule for the game," says Orlando of PSA. "You look at the picture and the guys are wearing boots. They don't use gloves at that point. The classic uniforms. It was a completely different game at that time."

To Bernice -- who, let's remember, has never been to a baseball game -- it was the history, not the sport that meant something.

"Because I love history, the thing that really got to me was that it's a photo, a real photo of real people, basically taken right after the Civil War," Gallego says. "That's what got to me. I don't know much about them. Who are they? What are they thinking? Those kind of questions go through my mind."

Next is the big question: How much is this card worth?

Mirigian says he expects six figures.

The Gallegos are content to put it on eBay and "let it fly."

Orlando offers: "The last one that I'm aware, it sold about a year to a year and a half ago, and it sold for well into five figures. You have to let the market decide what it's worth when you're dealing with something this scarce, because there's just not the market history to determine it."

But who would pay that kind of money for a baseball card?

"A lot of people use sports memorabilia and sports cards as conversation pieces," Orlando says. "And what a conversation piece this is."

That could mean anybody from a businessman who is a baseball fan to a baseball executive. That's the kind of stuff that Mirigian and Gallego sit around talking about.

"You might have George Steinbrenner wanting to buy this," Mirigian told her one day, referring to the longtime New York Yankees owner.

"Who's George Steinberg?" she asked.

Plans are to put the card back on eBay, though the auction is expected to draw a little more attention this time, thanks to Mirigian, who is already plotting marketing schemes and sales tactics. He'll get a percentage of the sale for his part.

"I find it so hard to believe that this little card is worth so much," Bernice says. "Neither one of us count chickens before they hatch. We don't want to expect the world out of this find. It's good enough that we've found it, and have been able to enjoy it and share it with a few of our friends. That for us is more of where it's at."

It's not the first time Bernice has unexpectedly walked into a windfall. She hit a $250,000 jackpot playing quarter slots at Harrah's in Lake Tahoe.

"She's a very lucky lady," Al Gallego says.

That was 10 years ago. Now this. Next? Who knows.

"We gotta live at least another 10 years for the next one," Bernice says.

Sarah Palin redux???

I'm not saying there's a double standard here (or maybe I am) but where's the outrage over Caroline Kennedy's "youknow" fest with the editorial board of the New York Times? And where's good 'ol Katie Couric now?

Sarah Palin, like her or hate her, was destroyed by the mainstream media. Where's the Charlie Gibson sitdown with ol' Caroline? Is it because Caroline has the deep political bloodlines?

Upon McCain's announcement picking Palin Obama's people quipped that Palin, a former mayor of Wasilla (pop. 8,000) was a heartbeat away from the presidency. What did Caroline Kennedy ever do?

We'll see how Caroline holds up under the white hot spotlight and media frenzy---and it will be.

What I Learned in 2008....

I can go another twenty years without equating "Wall Street" to "Main Street." Ditto for bailout, and Joe the Plumber and Change. Yes we can? Now go do so. There's a lot of pressure for BHO to lead us. There's bound to be backlash. But call me Ned Negative.

When you accidentally lock both of your children in the car--with the engine running--as I did on Christmas Eve...remain calm.

I'm fired up for Eastwood's "Gran Torino" and "Frost vs. Nixon." Lots of Oscar talk surrounding these movies.

I'm rooting for Caroline Kennedy in her Senate quest. Yup. Ums and all. If she wins, she'll eventually have to run again in two years. And that means opening the Kennedy
financial records. Let's see where all that money comes from. Kennedy money trumps all...including Trump.

The people who thought Bernie Madoff could deliver 8% - 12% annual gains,regardless of the market, were as delusional as ol' Bernie. Call it the chickens coming home to roost

Memo to Dick Clark....Please. Please. Please. Stop appearing on camera on New Year's Eve. Dude, it's over. I understand you own the show and you are the executive producer, so you're the boss. I get it. But you have to stop.

Yout think the NHL would have at least ordered some snow for its Winter Classic. It just wasn't the same this year without the near blizzard as was the case last year in Buffalo. Commissioner Gary Bettman continues to do the wrong thing. Islanders/Rangers at Yankee Stadium would have been my choice.

The Dallas Cowboys went from America's Most Wanted Badasses at the beginning of the season to the team that couldn't take a punch. Glass-jawed fools. The 2008 finale at Philadelphia was reminsicent of Mike Tyson at the end of his career. Sad.

Same old Jets. Wildly entertaining. Only a gift touvhdown by the Buffalo Bills prevented the Jets fom losing the last five games of the season.

Jay Leno on at 10:00 every night? Great financial move by NBC. But don't you think this hurts Conan taking over the Tonight Show. It's like dating a chick after her ex moved out...across the hall.