Major League Baseball is considering adding a second wildcard team to each league’s playoffs at some point in the not-too-distant future. My initial reaction to this is negative, as I have always appreciated the fact that it is much harder to make the playoffs in baseball than it is in any of the other major sports. There is something to be said for making the regular season count for as much as possible. NBA teams commonly make the playoffs with losing records, which is ludicrous. Flat-out bad hockey teams play in the postseason with regularity. In baseball, though, the teams need to be genuinely good to see action in October. It would be a shame to dilute the playoffs by adding less deserving teams. At the same time, if that leads to more excitement like that which we saw on Wednesday night, I might have to change my mind. [Read more →]

Tags: bad sports, good sports by Alan Spoll
2 Comments »

10. “All of this year’s required textbooks are by L. Ron Hubbard”

9. “We’re working with a local prison this year on a new program called ‘Scared Smart’”

8. “So, over the summer, did that thumb-sucking problem ever clear up?”
[Read more →]

Tags: Bob Sullivan's top ten everything, education by Bob Sullivan
No Comments »

September ends the quarter. Many financial disclosures are made because of that. As we are heading into the Christmas season retailers are ramping up. We have to remember that the term Black Friday, meaning the Friday after Thanksgiving, is not called that because crowds of shoppers descend on poor little cashiers and blot out the sun. Black Friday is when the retailer, whether it is Nordstrom’s or Target, goes from debt for the year into surplus. Yes, for most sellers of paper towels, jewelry and Gameboys, their annual costs of payrolls, rents, medical, insurance, utilities, taxes, fuels and inventories are MORE than they are making until Christmas season begins in earnest and begins well. Those who earn their pay managing this delicate pivoting operation have made their sentiments known. The big retailers have announced their plans for the holiday shopping season just beginning and they will not, repeat not, be adding the usual part time and temporary jobs they need to handle the traditional Christmas rush. While their costs have all gone up the sales projections have all gone down and that is not all. What volume of sales they DO expect will be on much smaller margins, that is to say discounting will be extreme. You love that of course, but absent the profits, what is the point of opening the doors? Many many retailers are teetering on that fulcrum with only a massive spike in overall sales able to save them. Not likely. So Black Friday is destined to come and go leaving retailers AS A SEGMENT OF THE ECONOMY still in the red and mightily imperiled. I hate to be the one to inform the nation but as an economic event, friends, Christmas is canceled. [Read more →]

Tags: money, politics & government by Ken Watson
No Comments »