Mr. Met beats out Phillie Phanatic to top Forbes' list of America's top sports mascots. Because that's way better than actually beating the Mets!

For two straight years, the New York Mets have been edged out of the National League playoffs by the rival Philadelphia Phillies. But frustrated Mets fans can take heart in this: Their beloved Mr. Met has returned the favor by nosing out the Phillie Phanatic atop our annual list of America's Top Sports Mascots. Perhaps it's an omen that things will improve for New York in 2009. Even if they don't, Mr. Met's sustained success over 45 years shows one thing: The Mets' family friendly image continues to be strong, a successful differentiation from the corporate, humorless Yankees across town (what mascot could anyone imagine the Yankees employing? Pinstripe--the hedge fund billionaire?).

But even the furriest on-field friends are all business now. Once a fun gimmick used to entertain fans between breaks in the action, mascots morphed into an important marketing tool, chiefly to bolster franchises' appeal to kids. There's nothing like adding a Muppet character to a sporting event to hook a young fan for life.

A 6-year-old would rather see a mascot than a player," says Andy Appleby of Rochester, Mich.-based General Sports & Entertainment, an industry consultant. To see which score best with the public, market research firm the Marketing Arm measured awareness, appeal and likability among sports mascots. Through its Davie Brown Index, the firm gathered data on nearly 100 mascots of professional and major college sports teams, gauging reactions from a cross section of people that demographically represent the U. S. population.

This year, Forbes included college mascots for the first time, many of which are adding fans far beyond the schools they entertain. They dominate the rankings, snapping up six of the top 10 slots. Among the highest scoring: the University of Georgia Bulldogs' Hairy Dawg, Michigan State University's Sparty (as in Spartan) and the University of Minnesota's Goldy the Gopher, who is hugely popular with local fans despite looking like a squirrel.

Start spreadin' the news..........

The baseball world (and New York) is buzzing about the new book, “The Yankee Years” co-written by Joe Torre and SI baseball writer Tom Verducci. This week Sports Illustrated will publish an excerpt from the book, which you can read here.
Verducci spoke to Dan Patrick Monday and basically asked people to read the book, not the New York tabloid headlines. Verducci said Torre never used the words “A-Fraud” about Alex Rodriguez, claiming the papers took things out of context and even made some things up.

Sales of Chicago White Sox hats have gone up 25% since Barack Obama was elected.

Another Boston D-Bag: Red Sox Buy “Fan” Loyalty

You think you hate the Red Sox? You don’t know about hate. Read this post and you’ll know hate.......

Tim was a “life-long fan” of the Padres, but became increasingly disillusioned with the team’s direction. So he put his loyalty on the market. He sent letters to the 29 other teams, offering his fandom. Nothing is more despicable than a bandwagon fan, right? What team would lower themselves to accept this mercenary, who’s after nothing more than publicity and some free gear.
If I hadn’t told you it was Boston who jumped at the chance, you would have known anyway. Tim’s letter, and the Sox’s response, after the jump.
You can read Tim’s full letter here, but these are the pertinent bits:
To whom it may concern:
I would like to start off by saying that I am a die-hard baseball fan. Until recently, I considered myself a life-long fan of the San Diego Padres. Some of my earliest memories are going to Padres games and to spring training with my family. I am writing to you today to inform you that my loyalty as a fan is officially for sale. It was, perhaps, foolish of me to have been giving it away freely for so long. I want to throw my support behind a team that has a commitment to winning. I will buy a jersey (perhaps you can recommend one), go out of my way to attend as many games as possible, including spring training. I will watch what games I cannot attend on television. I will vigorously defend your franchise to my friends, family, colleagues, and on the internet.
In exchange for my loyalty, I ask only two things. First, an explanation of why I should choose the [insert team name here] over other Major League teams? Second, a New Era team baseball cap (size 7 5/8) – to help me get started on my journey.
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you,
Tim

Pretty f’ing shameless, huh? All the respectable franchises ignored him, preferring to keep their real fans. Then Tim received a letter postmarked Yawkey Way. ”You would have the chance to join a prestigious nation known as Red Sox Nation the largest nation of fans in professional sports” is how the letter began. Included with the letter was a bag of infield dirt from Fenway, and some stickers and player photos. And the Red Sox have another fan with no connection to Boston, no sense of the team’s history, and another reason for the rest of the country to hate them.
Here’s Tim’s Q and A for an online community for his “favorite team ever!”
Q: Who is your Favorite Red Sox player?
A: Dustin Pedroia
(AKA the only Red Sox player he’s heard of.)
Q: What was your Favorite Red Sox season?
A: 04, nothing beats coming back from 3-0 to beat the Yankees and sweep the Cards.
(That was quite rewarding for real fans like him who stuck with the team in its lean years.)
Q: What is your most memorable Red Sox moment?
A: The All Star game with Ted Williams on the mound and all the All-Stars talking to him.
(Not a Red Sox moment.)
Q: The Yankees are…
A: a disease.
(I didn’t know the Padres and Yankees had such a passionate rivalry.)
Q: Your Favorite Ball Park besides Fenway is?
A: Petco Park
(AKA the only park he’s ever been to.)
Q: If you were the owner of the Red Sox you would?
A: Make sure the team never left Fenway Park.
(So he can actually see it one day.)
Q: If you could ask any former or current player/coach/owner a question it would be, and to whom?
A: Grady Little, should you have pulled Pedro?
(Oh yeah, that really must have hurt him badly, back when he was rooting for the Padres.)
Like many members of Red Sox Nation, the team to him might as well have not existed prior to 2004

Significant MLB Rule Changes for the 09 Season

Two significant rule changes affecting the postseason and one-game tiebreakers were approved by the 30 Major League Baseball owners at their first joint meeting of the year on Thursday.
The first involved one-game tiebreakers, where coin flips will no longer determine host teams. Instead, now that host will be decided by a series of on-field tiebreakers, beginning with head-to-head records. If that's tied, the next is highest winning percentage within a team's division, followed by the highest winning percentage for each team in intraleague play during the second half of the season.
Baseball's general managers had been down on coin flips, and at the GM Meetings in November they asked Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's executive vice president of baseball operations, to propose an alternative. Solomon did, and presented the change at the Winter Meetings to the GMs, who approved it. "That was a general managers' recommendation as you guys know," Commissioner Bud Selig said after the four-hour meeting on Thursday, "and it was a good one."
The custom had always been to flip a coin several weeks before the possible game to determine which team might host. The rule now becomes the same as the one that determines postseason seedings if two teams finish tied for the division title and both are going to the playoffs, one as the division winner and the other as the Wild Card winner.
There have been only eight one-game tiebreakers for a postseason spot in Major League history and seven of them since 1969 when the multitiered playoff format went into existence. Home teams are 4-4 in those games.
Two of them have been the past two seasons. In 2007, the Padres lost the flip and had to travel to Colorado where they lost the National League's Wild Card berth to the Rockies, 9-8, in 13 innings. In 2008, the Twins lost the flip and went to Chicago where the White Sox defeated them, 1-0, to win the American League Central title.

The White Sox had to play a game rained out earlier in September at home against the Tigers on the Monday after the last day of the regular season to force the tiebreaker against the Twins. Chicago won, and then defeated the Twins at U.S. Cellular Field on Tuesday night.
The White Sox had a 9-10 record against the Twins this past season and would've had to go to Minneapolis to play that game had head-to-head records been the first criteria.
The Twins voiced their displeasure that they had to travel after winning the season series.
The other rule change approved by owners is that all postseason games suspended by bad weather will be played to their conclusions.
"I'm delighted [with the change] given my experience during Game 5 in Philadelphia," Selig said. "It's important to have the rule clarified. The rule is now clarified the way I had interpreted it anyway."
Selig wouldn't let pouring rain end Game 5 of the World Series between the Rays and Phillies at Citizens Bank Park this past October. Just after the Rays tied the score, 2-2, in the top of the sixth, umpires halted play and the game ultimately was suspended for 46 hours. The Phillies won the game, 3-2, and the series after it resumed in the bottom of the sixth two days later.
Under regular-season baseball rules, which remain the same, games are supposed to be official as soon the team trailing records 15 outs. If the game is canceled by weather after a prescribed waiting period, the team in the lead at or after that juncture is declared the winner.
Selig used rules governing suspended games at the time, but he said had it been stopped with the Phillies leading, 2-1, in the fifth, the game would have gone into a rain delay until it was safe to resume. "We'll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here," he said.
The new rule won't apply to All-Star Games, said Selig, who became concerned again last year when the Midsummer Classic at old Yankee Stadium went 15 innings before the American League won it. But that had nothing to do with inclement weather.
Selig had to end the 2002 All-Star Game at Milwaukee in a tie after 11 innings because both teams ran out of pitchers.
"We talked a lot about that and I certainly wouldn't have minded it," he said. "We left the Commissioner with a little more flexibility in that area given that you play [regular season] games 24 hours later. Hopefully we'll just have nine-inning normal [All-Star] games, or at most 11 or 12 innings."

Why NY Yankees Can Sign Players Like Tex, C.C., and A.J.

Add up Mark Teixeira's contract along with the offseason signings of A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia and you have $423.5 million in guaranteed contracts. Pretty amazing, huh?
Sure, the Yankees have contracts that come off the books, but that's not the reason why the Yankees can do this. The reason the Yankees can do this is because their owners, the Steinbrenners, have no other primary business besides the Yankees.
What am I talking about? Think about all the other owners who have gotten pounded this year in the sector of the economy that they might still have their money in.
Think about the New York Mets, whose owners not only lost money from the Madoff mess, but are in the real estate investment business. So too is Theodore Lerner, the owner of the Washington Nationals, who were hoping to land Teixeira. The Chicago Cubs are being sold by an entity that is bankrupt.
Go down the list and you can see that there's a lot of people that lost money this year in other businesses. I have no idea where the Yankees are investing their personal money, but the bottom line is that their business is only the New York Yankees.
What does that mean? It means that as long as the Steinbrenners believe that the business of the Yankees will be good, they are not as affected as the others are. Will people still go to games? If not, will they watch the YES Network. It's a pretty simple equation.
Here's a quote from an owner: "One of the challenges I have is buying into a falling market," he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "When you buy into a rising market, you can't move fast enough. The challenge here is that, look, any investment you made in 2008 on Wall Street, 12 months ago, 12 weeks ago, 12 days ago, even 12 hours ago, you are down. We have to be careful with what is going on here."
That owner was Mark Attanasio. He is the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. He gave up C.C. Sabathia. And you have to believe that some of that has to do with the fact that he's an investment banker. Hank and Hal Steinbrenner are not.

Top 10 Highlights of My Hall of Fame Baseball Career, by Jim Rice and Rickey Henderson (as seen on David Letterman)

"Winning the MVP in 1978, and a Tony in 1983"(Jim Rice)
"I designed the first vibrating jockstrap"(Rickey Henderson)
"During the 1981 season I lost my glove and played an entire west coast trip using a small box"(Jim Rice)
"All the free gum"(Rickey Henderson)
"I caught a squirrel in the outfield and the umps let me eat it"(Jim Rice)
"Being a Met, a Blue Jay, a Padre, a Dodger...Hell, even I can't remember all the teams I played for"(Rickey Henderson)
"Before every game, I ate the same meal: pancakes smothered in pine tar"(Jim Rice)
"Sleeping with Madonna"(Rickey Henderson)
"Sleeping with Madonna"(Jim Rice)
"I played with Jose Canseco and never got to inject anything in his ass"(Rickey Henderson)