Best Part of our Sox Lunch.com Bronze Big Papi Day

Can't make it up, right?

Friend just sent me this too. The crowd is alive tonight! pic.twitter.com/MJ1maVaCdQ

— Sox Lunch (@Soxlunch) May 26, 2016

Overall, a good day!  Thanks to The Baseball Tavern and especially Jimmy Rooney, Joe Donovan.

Michael Chiklis: When the Game Stands Tall

(This story is posted on DigitalSportsDesk.com as part of a regular supply of original content, available for sports and entertainment sites worldwide).

By TERRY LYONS (Special to DigitalSPortsDesk)

During these past few lazy days of summer, there's been a lot going on in the New England sports scene. The New England Patriots are firing up their preseason engines with coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady leading the way. The Boston Bruins and Celtics are scouring the earth for some added scoring, as each approach the 2014-15 season on opposite ends of the projected ladder. Over on Yawkey Way, Ben Cherington, the GM of the Boston Red Sox orchestrated a midseason coup, trading pitching ace Jon Lester and a slew of role-playing World Champions for some hope and home runs as a strategic first step in the re-engineering of the BoSox. One of Cherington's bosses, Tom Werner, is on the short list for consideration as Major League Baseball's new Commissioner. And, speaking of Commissioners, over in the western portion of the Commonwealth, the Basketball Hall of Fame is staging its annual tribute and the inductee of honor is former NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Actor Michael Chiklis (Getty Images)

With all of that going on, I thought it was time to step back, maybe escape a bit from the reality that I won't be watching late October baseball at Fenway. So, with that in mind, there was one reliable ole' friend I could reach out to, in order to set my mind on a clear path from the Mass Pike of the depressing local sporting news, so I could look toward the future.

My inside source to all things sports - historical and soon-to-be imagined - provided some fan-friendly perspective as a real New Englander, one with appreciation of the past and the ability to see the future. Fittingly, like Stern, he was someone who had the credentials of a Commissioner but, they were mixed with the passion of a sports fan.

I needed to speak with Michael Chiklis, the actor. 

Chiklis was born in Lowell, Mass, and gained wide notoriety as an actor when, from 1991-96, he played Tony Scali - The Commish. Since that career-breaking role, he went on to star in "The Shield," and even played Curly in "The Three Stooges.” More recently, Chiklis starred in "The Fantastic Four" and he is currently filing FXs "American Horror Story: The Freak" in New Orleans. However, it was Chiklis' previous casting that was the more appropriate subject of discussion when we spoke by phone this past weekend, catching up as though we were old friends sitting in my West Village studio watching his "Commish" reruns, but talking about his soon-to-be-released film role, the portrayal of Terry Eidson an assistant coach to Bob Ladouceur in the true story of (Concord, California’s) De La Salle High School's 151-game winning streak, the backdrop for “When The Game Stands Tall,” a SONY Pictures release, hitting theatres nationwide on August 22.

First, Chiklis was sure to set the record straight when I brazenly asked if he continued to have ample time to follow sports, and in particular, Boston sports while he was so busy with life as a famous actor and jaunts between New Orleans and Los Angeles.

"I still am, and will always be, -- until my last breath -- an avid Boston sports fan," said Chiklis with an emphasis that might've been taught in drama class by Kurt Douglas. "I think one of the single greatest things about my celebrity is that it’s gained me access to my beloved Boston teams."

Where you at Fenway last fall, I asked?

"I was there.  I was at Game 6.  My wife and I went with my dear friend and his wife.  We were there for the celebration, and we ended up going to the owner’s box after the game and had the greatest time in the world.  It’s been wonderful. And, one of the most special things was that I lived out a "Jimmy Fallon moment" (noting the motion picture, Fever Pitch) when Curt Schilling brought me out onto the field right after we won in ’07 in Colorado.  I was right on the field right after the win.  To be that close in proximity to those guys, right there. I was standing there, literally, right with Mike Lowell’s brother while they gave him the MVP trophy on the field, I mean that’s incredibly special, it was insane.  You’re right there, it’s historic stuff that’s happening, and you’re privy to it."

Chiklis then opined on the sport of football, being that the role of assistant coach Eidson was fresh in his mind.  What is it about football, anything with the Patriots that made you particularly insightful to your role in the movie?

"Look," Chilkis said. "I’ve always grown up with the mentality that I’d rather be a good player on a championship team than the "franchise" player on a lousy team.  When you see the way Coach B (his nickname for Belichick) coaches the team and the way he picks players, he’s never been about stars.  One of the goose-bump moments of my life as a Patriots fan was in 2001 at the Superbowl when they introduced the (St. Louis Rams) 'Greatest Show on Turf' player by player.  And then, after all of that fanfare, they went 'introducing the New England Patriots.' and they came out just as the Pats team. Every hair on my body stood up and I thought, 'we are winning this game.' Something about being a New Englander, we love the idea of a team, as opposed to the individual. 

"We don’t like blow hards much."

"It’s about the way we’re raised, I guess," he continued.  "In New England, if you get too far ahead of yourself, you’re going to get brought down to earth really quickly.  When I was growing up, it was really instilled in me that it’s just a better experience in life to be yourself and not be a narcissist, but rather to be a part of a community.  And our teams are like that.  You look right and left of you and you feel that bond between the people. It’s an incredibly special thing, and you’ll get a feel for it in this movie, When The Game Stands Tall.  You’ll see that camaraderie, that brotherhood that happens on a team.  And you can see that in real life with the Patriots and Belichick when he speaks to the players coming into this team he says, 'You want to succeed? You want a ring on your finger? Then, you’re gonna plug into this system, we’ll all pull our weight, we’ll all do this together.'"

Chiklis was quick to put two-and-two together.

"Of course, superstars have emerged (in the New England Patriots' system) due to their level of commitment and play," said the actor. "Tom Brady couldn’t be a better example of a guy who’s all class, who never would say disparaging words about another player.  But, it’s not about the other guy.  It’s about his personal execution as it relates to the guys right and left of him and his commitment to them as a team.  He knows that they can be relied upon.  These guys can rely upon each other.  They have each other’s backs.  And that’s the kind of thing that makes your chest swell when you’re watching this movie.  You can see that in the context of the picture.

"When you’re watching movies like 'Remember the Titans' or 'Rudy' or 'Miracle,' you’re always threatened by that fine line between too corny and something that doesn’t make a mark. But, what I love about this movie is that it's not about 'the cliché version of 'two seconds left on the clock and he scores and the game’s over and we win.'  The film we're so proud of doesn’t take it from that place. The De La Salle high school football team won 151 games in a row in twelve years which for anybody who knows sports, that’s ridiculous.  It just doesn’t happen.

"There’s a reason why their formula was successful and they kept winning," noted Chiklis.  "Sure they want to win their games, but the onus and the focus wasn't on winning games. It’s on making these boys into young men.  They are conscionable, responsible, credible human beings and you rely upon them.

 "I’m very passionate about the movie, I’m a supporting player in this movie, When the Game Stands Tall, but I love what it says."

You will too.

It's Simple Math, Join Us

Marathon starts in Hopkinton, Mass 26.2 miles from Boston (Getty Images)

NEWTON, Massachusetts, April 21, 2014 -- The measurements of sports are etched in our memories so deeply and clearly, we don't need to look them up.

In football, there are three feet to a yard and ten yards for a first down. In basketball, it’s ten feet to the rim and a 15-foot shot for a free throw. The best numbers are the basics of the baseball field where they measure sixty feet, six inches from the pitcher's mound to the back of the plate and 90 feet between the bases.

We just love to measure and compare and the basic concept of "sixty feet, six inches" seems so perfect, it would be unimaginable to suggest a change.

However, let us behold the metric system, far older and far wiser than we care to admit.  So, as the screwed up Americans we truly are, we tend to split the differences and try to make it up as we go along.

If we're at the Pub, we're a-okay with a pint of Guinness. That's 16 ounces of cool suds. Hey, that's still "our way." Grab that quart, half-gallon or gallon of milk at the local Tedeschi's and you are all set, but ask for a liter of Coca-Cola or seek directions from the barkeeper or counterman north of the border and you’ll hear about a few meters or kilometers of distance instead of a country mile and be baffled to the point when out comes the calculator with our smart phone conversion tables.

So with that in mind, today, I present to you - the Marathon.

You see, in 490 BC or before, good old Philippides took off with a message in his hand. He travelled on foot, we believe, from Marathon to Athens and, as fate would have it, old Philly was a very dependable courier and in pretty good shape as he swiftly covered some 42 kilometers of rough, rocky terrain to convey a message that would now be delivered in an e-mail instant. To pay tribute to the noble feat many years later, in 1896, Baron Pierre de Coubertin and the founding fathers of the Modern Olympic games memorialized the great run when they staged the very first "marathon" where runners would travel the full 42 km to win a race.

It beats bobbing for apples, I guess?

As fans of the Olympics, we brought out our calculators and did the math, figuring the distance to be a hefty sum of twenty-six miles three hundred eighty five yards.

About a year later, in 1897, our forefathers in the great city of Boston took out their maps and drew a line out to the small town of Hopkinton, then turned around and ran to Boston. In doing so, they created The Boston Marathon, what is now the oldest, most famous and most prestigious athletic competition in American sport. The race is a test of an athlete's training, determination and endurance. It is run on the third Monday in April, so the conditions can vary greatly from one year or one minute to another. It is a glorious and wonderful event where everyday runners compete on the same playing field as the elite. That is the beauty of the marathon - any marathon, yes - but Boston is special.

If Madison Square Garden is the "Mecca" for hoops, then the streets of Boston are paradise for the long-distance runner.  The great Amby Burfoot, the 1968 winner of Boston, called it "the Carnegie Hall" of races, mainly because of the people who line the streets, the legions of fans, the knowledgeable spectators, the enthusiastic collegians, the families who gather all along the fifty-two plus miles of sidewalk to cheer and encourage the runners. That is what makes the Boston Marathon just a little bit different than any other road race.

It's the people. The difference between Boston and all the other races is in the crowds of fans and volunteers at the starting line way out past I495, it's the small-town New England charm of Ashland, Framingham and Natick where families dust-off the patio furniture and cart it to the curbsides, or the co-eds at Wellesley College, celebrating another Patriots' Day holiday with their better-than-Bill-Raftery 'kiss and signs that light up the faces and spirits of the runners, even though they're only 20 km or barely halfway through the race. It's the front yard and backyard parties all along Commonwealth Ave. in Newton where the down slope from Wellesley turns into a series of four gradual elevations that are truly heartbreaking. It’s the hope gained by the runners when they see Boston College in Chestnut Hill and begin the quad-pounding downhill to bucolic Brookline towards Kenmore Square. The big city is a small community.

How do the runners endure?

One example is a 54-year old runner, John Caron, the proprietor of West End Johnnie's of Boston who was running and raising money for the Boston Bruins foundation. He felt he needed to do something for his community for his city. So, today he found a way to endure a little more pain as a friend of some 20-plus years took out his calculator and figured the miles and kilometers from Hopkinton, past the 5K-mark, then the 10K mark, then consulted the tracker online, calculated the average splits per mile (rather than per kilometer) tossed them all into the old brain, then bee-lined it up to Commonwealth. He intersected and met Johnnie with five minutes to spare, just as his buddy neared the statue of Olympian Johnny Kelley who once ran a record 61 Boston marathons. To see the smile on my friend’s face was priceless, the hug of encouragement passed from one to another worth even more.

"Do you need some sun lotion," I asked?

"Nahh, I'm alright."

"How's the calf muscle," noting the strained leg muscle I learned about when John was fiddling around with a downed tree just last week in his backyard.

Silence.  Then. "We're gonna need to shoot it up tomorrow."

Then, he was off.

"Take it nice and easy, man. You're doing great and you're going to finish. You've got this."

He vanished, first with a few steps walking, then into a nice trot.

A little ways further up Heartbreak Hill, the crowds were out on their front yards, shouting more and more encouragement.

Calling out to Johnny, one fan simply shouted, "You can do it Bruins!"

Shalane Flanagan starts off the 2014 Boston Marathon (Getty Images).

To a fund-raising runner, "Hey there Children's Hospital, you're going to finish the Boston marathon!  How does that sound?"

If there were 36,000 runners, this one fan had to connect with 10,000 athletes just by her self. That's pretty strong.

Then, I stopped in my tracks and did the math. There were over a million spectators lining the course, so every runner in the race had an average of 27.7 fans. Or maybe, like Johnny, they had connected directly with somewhere between one and a million fans.

That is what the Boston marathon was all about in 2014.

It wasn’t about a slogan that makes some people feel a little uneasy. It wasn’t about justice being served up to two crazed idiots who victimized our town a year ago. It was about coming to terms with the fact they killed a little 8-year old boy, a son and brother. It was about mourning, still, for a wonderful Boston-bred friend and colleague to many.  It was remembering that they killed a promising young student who hailed from China and came to our democracy and our schools to study. It was realizing once again, they murdered a brave MIT security man and loyal first responder, on duty as he put in his time and trained to be a police officer in Somerville. The criminals fled to our neighboring town and hid cowardly in our backyards, bringing the crime from our favorite sporting event right into our driveways as we were told to shelter in place.

A million spectators and 36,000 runners today turned the page and brought some closure to this terrible tragedy which lives on in our hearts and souls and comes forth through our tears and broken voices.

Tomorrow, little Jane Richard will fasten prosthesis to the portion of her leg not lost to the shrapnel of the bomb. Jane, and hundreds of other survivors of a cowardly and senseless act of a year ago will start fresh when the sun rises again.

We'll mark the dates and measure the progress as the survivors carry on as we count another 365 days in a year.

Is it possible to heal?

Yes. It's time to move on, carry-on and continue to support our neighbors and fellow Bostonians, all lifetime residents of a wonderful city we love so much. It's a small-town community and you’re all are welcome to participate in any way you choose.

We proudly call this movement, this gradual and important healing process, "Boston Strong."

You are more than welcome to join us as long as you can add it up.

Music Cures

If you are in Boston on March 11th, stop in at West End Johnnie's (138 Portland St), near Boston Garden/North Station, to support a new contribution to the world of music and "Getting Well" sooner....

See: http://musiccures.net/

Beware of Darkness

George Harrison wrote the tune with an attempt to warn his listeners, the multitude of fans of The Beatles, to warn against the many influences which might corrupt our lives and our thinking.  Harrison was a devout follower of the Indian culture and Hinduism.  He died of lung cancer in 2001.

This version of "Beware of Darkness" was performed by Eric Clapton who led "George's Band at the Concert for George.  That band included, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Billy Preston, Jools Holland, Albert Lee, Sam Brown, Gary Booker, Joe Brown, Ray Cooper, Andy Fairweather-Low, Marc Mann, Klaus Voormann and George's son, Dhani.

Harrison's song and its message and lyrics seem appropriate this week:

TL

BCN benefit - BOSTON

So, HofB does a benefit show last night, right? Boston's "BCN" is the Michael Jordan of radio stations and they started a KICKSTARTER program to help create a documentary film to be called, The American Revolution. Well before this benefit, but only after moving here to Boston, I "got" the fact that BCN was something special and I understood it a little better after attending the benefit (for a whopping $25.00 (after the show, I felt guilty and donated another $20 since most attendees had ponied up $104.00). ... So the show goes on. I saddle up in my usual spot, posted up at the right hand of the sound board guy. But, because of the rather sparse crowd, at times, I wandered right up front, stage left, so close that I could place a cold one right on the stage to applaud.

Now, I grew up with the "Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain" of radio stations in that of WNEW-FM and WLIR (92 on LI), so again, I know the AOR drill pretty well.

BCN is in another category, though. TREMENDOUS. The honest to goodness love of that station by the 50-60-somethings in the HofB was apparent. But, THE MUSICANS took it further. You could just feel the respect the musicians of Boston had for that station. Every one of them said the station either:

1.) Saved their Lives
2). Inspired them
3). Or, best yet, simply guided them along in their lives.

I concur (probably on all three points in regard to NEW and LIR), and I expect, many of you do too. Music can do that and more.

So, now, everything is going along fine. Music, great slide show on a big screen (although the photo of John and Yoko walking on 72nd St in front of the Dakota sort of funked me out for about 30 minutes). 

Then, it happened. They appeared on the stage - sans Brad, obviously, as I had stepped to the men's room. so I RAN back to my spot. And listened to this.  BOSTON

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEDmFIUb83A

It brought back memories of this:

Boston: My Kind of Town

Pretty cool, eh?  Click here for full photo and some info from NASA.

Ramble On ...

While most of Boston and New England provide for postcard perfect settings during all four seasons of the year, there are a few - 'circa 1970 - buildings that leave a lot to be desired in terms of architectural decency.  I sarcastically refer to one of the buildings, near Government Center, as the "Berlin Wall."

Boston has plans to tear down the "Berlin Wall" which stands as the government center parking structure to open up the skies of the West End much the way the city did by tearing down the old "Elevated" train tracks above Causeway Street, adjacent to Boston Garden to form Rose Kennedy GreenWay.

The Boston Globe posted this photo essay to show the "ugly" buildings -  See:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/gallery/in_praise_of_ugly_buildings/#/1

***

A noted Boston veteran of politics, mostly local and not national, had this to say about last Tuesday's Senate election of Scott Brown:

"Yesterday was much more about really well run campaign prevailing over a horribly bungled campaign and a charismatic candidate who believeably articulated a message over a boring, complacent candidate who tried to coast to victory until it was too latethan the earth shaking political statement many are making it out to be. Losing almost 40 seats in... See More Congess and the White House over the course of just 2 years is a call for change, the better candidate winning a single seat is not no matter what party they represent. Politics by it's very nature is to play and spin every small victory as a monumental one and that will be the case with this special election victory for a while but I'm going to wait for some more movement in that direction, maybe another 10 seats or so to start predicting a Republican rise from the ashes of 14 month ago." - he posted earlier in the week on FB.

I thought it was pretty well put.  I would add:  The national media attention on the "lone" and "slow" media day on the special election added to the frenzy.  All networks sent reporters and dedicated their shows to the single election result and it magnified the outcome.  That, combined with the AMAZING result, upset, "Teddy's" seat and the obvious Democratic stronghold on prior Senate seats, then added to the media blitz.

Martha Coakley did nothing for me and that is a fact.  That was the prevailing viewpoint statewide.

Mike Capuano was a much better candidate but fell short in the primary.  I wish Steve Pagliuca had put his $ towards Capuano's campaign fund, rather than running for the seat himself.  It would have been money well spent.

Too late.

I wish Scott Brown the very best and I look forward to his proposal to fix a health care system that has been and continues to be broken.  Let's hear the better ideas.

***

Marc Spears of Yahoo reports:

The 1992 Olympic Dream Team is expected to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Aug. 13. Two of its members, Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen, are also expected to be inducted individually, but if the Hall gets its wish, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and the rest of the original Dream Team will be in attendance.

“It was an honor to represent your country in one of the greatest times of your life,” Charles Barkley said.

The current U.S. national team will be training in New York for the upcoming World Championships and USA Basketball officials are hoping the players can take a break to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony.

“It has the makings of an incredible night,” said Jerry Colangelo, who is chairman of both USA Basketball and the Hall of Fame. It’s way too early to talk about it, but to get that history and legend together for both teams … it could be really big.”

USA Basketball is expected to name a pool of 20 to 25 candidates for its roster before the All-Star game. Colangelo is expected to meet with potential members during the All-Star break. He’s already met with some players to assess their interest and has a meeting with Kobe Bryant scheduled in New York.

***

Monday Morning Maniac Music ... the Fab Faux Coming to Boston.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, I've regularly posted some music clips on Monday morning with the famous Grace Slick mantra of some Monday morning maniac music which was said then to describe the National Anthem by Jimi and the set by Jeferson Airplane.

Here today, is some Monday morning maniac music featuring four of the five members of the Fab Faux, minus Jack at the keyboards.

This song, a rendition of Penny Lane, was played at BB Kings in NY during a benefit for Mike Smith at Paul Shaeffer's Brit Invasion tour.

Say no more, here is the Fab Faux:

The Ships Be Sailin'

Ah yes, the Boston Mayor and Mass Gov are taking credit for 'allowing' the Tall Ships to set sail in Boston as they agreed to cover security costs. Seems a bit strange to me, as events like this are the lifeblood of a place like Boston. Cutting them off because of 'security costs' seems VERY short-sighted. The return to the e-"gone"-omy via hotel room rentals and their attached high taxes, booming boosts to restaurants and local shops, stores, etc and the taxes derived from all the related spending and liquor sales at events such as these, make it a no-brainer. What kind of government would risk losing an event like this to the likes of the St. Lawrence River and Canada? See the (nearly late but still great) Boston Globe:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Governor Deval Patrick, ending weeks of anxiety for local businesses and disappointment among the public, have brokered a deal that will bring the Tall Ships to Boston this summer with $1 million in state funding to cover security costs, according to officials.

But it will be a muted exhibition compared to years past, with no fireworks and no line of ships under full sail coming through the harbor in a grand parade, typically the most watched event of the festival. The schooners, barques, and other sailing ships will instead arrive and depart at staggered intervals, the officials said.

A total of 49 ships are to arrive beginning July 8 and will remain until the July 13. The public will be welcomed aboard several ships free of charge, officials said.

Scott Ferson, a spokesman for Sail Boston, hailed the agreement and said the festival will still be one to remember, now that the public will be able to climb aboard the historic vessels.

“It’s a very rich experience and an important part of the event,’’ he said. “Sail Boston will do everything to make sure that experience is as rich as possible.’’

Under the deal, the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority agreed to put up the $1 million, alleviating Menino’s concerns that the city would be stuck with the bill for public safety costs for the event, according to two officials briefed on the negotiations and another involved in them.

“It took a lot of work on both the state and the city’s parts for the public to have access to these ships,’’ said one official briefed on the talks.

The officials spoke about the agreement on condition of anonymity because they said board members of the Convention Center Authority had not yet been briefed on the plan. The authority is expected to take the money from a fund supported by hotel excise taxes and rental car surcharges. The governor has discretion over the fund and has approved the money for the event, the officials said.

“These ships are coming, and if they are coming, we wanted to work something out,’’ said the other official briefed on the plan.

Patrick and Menino personally hammered out some details of the agreement, including when they saw each other over the weekend at Boston’s gay pride parade.

The resolution has ended a contentious months-long dispute between Sail Boston organizers and the mayor. Menino had at various times threatened to bar spectators from reaching the docks and vowed to ask the Coast Guard to ban the Tall Ships from sailing into the harbor at all, unless organizers submitted a funding plan for public safety and paid the city upfront for security and preparation costs.

The dispute had its roots in a $1.6 million bill that the city says it was left with when the ships came to Boston in 2000. City officials said they were forced to absorb public safety costs that year because the state failed to provide any reimbursement. The parade of sails alone that year drew an estimated crowd of 8 million. The mayor, according to two city officials, was also upset in 2000 because he felt the event’s lead organizer, Dusty Rhodes of the event planning firm Conventures, had made a profit without helping the city.

Sail Boston organizers acknowledged earlier this year that security costs were a burden on the city that they would seek to avoid this time. But until this week, organizers did not have a way to pay the city in advance.

Neither Menino nor the governor was available for comment last night.

When the mayor first dug in his heels in April, many Sail Boston boosters were deeply disappointed that the city had decided not to support what they called a major opportunity to boost the local economy, by filling hotel rooms and restaurants that have languished in the recession.

The mayor’s opposition also dismayed fans of the festival and hotel and restaurant owners banking on the windfall.

The event, part of an international regatta that begins in Vigo, Spain, and ends in Belfast, is expected to include historic sailing ships from 20 countries, many of them century-old naval training vessels sailing from as far away as Russia, Bermuda, and Argentina.

The public will be allowed to board the ships on the evenings of July 9 and 10 and during the day on July 11 and 12.

Of the $1 million from provided by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the city will receive $750,000.

The remainder will go to State Police and the state Department of Conservation and Recreation. The Massachusetts Port Authority will cover all the costs of hosting the ships at state docks, the officials said.

Ramble On ... The Globe

Some serious food for thought this Easter Sunday morning:

Whaat weent wrongg?
Secure in their profits, Globe and other newspapers underestimated the impact of the Web

By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | April 12, 2009

Months before The Boston Globe launched its own website in 1995, a brash young entrepreneur named Jeff Taylor visited the newspaper's headquarters in Dorchester to offer its executives another foothold in the emerging digital world.

Taylor sat across the table from a team of Globe executives, including members of an unrelated Taylor family, the one that had run and held a controlling interest in New England's dominant newspaper for more than a century before selling it to The New York Times Co. in 1993.

He described Monster Board, his fledgling venture in Maynard that sold help-wanted ads online. Jeff Taylor proposed the Globe put up $1 million for an ownership stake that would give the paper a chance to put its lucrative classified advertising business on the Web - a step that might have cut into its revenue in the short term, but offered a chance to take the franchise national.

The answer was no. Sharing the newspaper's nearly $100 million a year in help-wanted advertising didn't make sense. "Our grandfathers would roll over in their graves," Jeff Taylor recalled being told. Soon after, he sold his business to the advertising giant TMP Worldwide. It expanded into Monster.com, a website that in 2000 generated more than $500 million, marking the beginning of the end of newspapers' near-monopoly on classified ads.

What happened that day highlights the predicament the Globe and other papers have faced over the past 15 years as changes in technology and consumer habits upended their business model.

For decades, advertisers relied on newspapers to post job openings, sell homes, and unload cars because the medium reached a broad audience. But as more people migrated to the Internet, websites like Monster.com, Craigslist, and Cars.com popped up to specifically target those customers. Newspapers were slow to recognize the power of the Internet to erode, then splinter their familiar and almost effortlessly profitable business model. And though they've now built a significant Web presence, newspapers' online ad sales haven't grown nearly fast enough to offset the precipitous drop in print advertising. Nor do online ads command as much money as ads in the paper.

The dilemma came into sharp focus on April 2 when the Times Co. told Globe union employees it is seeking $20 million in concessions, including pay and benefits, within 30 days or it may shut down the paper. The Globe has reported it lost an estimated $50 million in 2008 and is projected to lose $85 million this year. While the recession has hit the company hard, and it is no longer generating enough revenue to cover its costs, the biggest factor may be a shift of advertising to the Internet, which has accelerated in the past two years.

Newspapers were "spectacularly slow" to capitalize on the changing trends in technology and advertising, said media analyst Alan Mutter, a former editor and widely quoted commentator who now blogs on the industry's woes.

"The newspaper business was a victim of its enormous success," Mutter said. "Because their revenues continued to grow up to 2005, about 10 years after most people heard about the Internet, they put very little effort and energy into trying to imagine how the world might change and what their position would be in a changed world."

Such changes have taken hold most rapidly in high-tech hubs, like Boston, San Francisco, and Seattle, which have been quick to embrace the Internet, mobile technology, and websites like Google and Facebook. Sixty-one percent of adults in the Boston area live in households with broadband access, the second-highest penetration rate in the United States after the San Francisco Bay Area, according to a recent Scarborough Research analysis. People with broadband access spend more time online, and look to the Internet for news - and advertising.

A missed chance
Asked about the mid-1990s rebuff to Monster.com, Steve Taylor, who was executive vice president of the Globe during those discussions, said, "I'm sorry to tell you that's an absolutely true story."

Taylor family members in Globe management at the time recall the episode as a missed investment opportunity, something that might have given the company a financial cushion though certainly not slowed the Internet's rise or the erosion of the print classified ad base. "The Globe just didn't want to cannibalize itself," Steve Taylor said.

Ben Taylor, the last member of his family to serve as publisher of the Globe, also remembered the paper's decision to pass up an investment in Monster.com. "Getting a piece of Monster might have been a quantum leap into the digital world," he acknowledged. "But it may have been a leap we weren't prepared to take."

There were other fateful decisions in the early years of the Internet era. The Globe was one of the nation's first newspapers to set up a website, launching Boston.com in 1995. But like papers across the country, it opted to post stories online without charge, accustoming a new generation of readers to expect news would be free. Mutter has called that decision the "original sin" of newspapers in the digital age.

But others disagree that a pay-model, like The Wall Street Journal's wsj.com, is the industry's silver bullet. Some believe that if papers keep their sites free, they will make more money because of the higher number of online readers and ads that follow.

On the decision to make Boston.com free, Steve Taylor, who was then president of Boston Globe Electronic Publishing, which started Boston.com, said: "I'm not sure it wasn't a mistake. That's still a burning question, but it's not clear to me there's a right or wrong answer. It's a very difficult, complicated problem."

Printing money
Readers may view newspapers as a source of news, information, and entertainment. But papers are a business, and up until this decade a hugely profitable one. Investors - among them financial guru Warren Buffett - often scooped up shares of publicly traded newspaper companies because they were viewed as firms with steady cash flow and high profit margins. Fidelity Investments, the Boston mutual fund giant, even owned a chain of Massachusetts community newspapers during the 1990s.

Advertising - big display ads from retailers and smaller classified ads for jobs, homes, and cars - has always been the biggest revenue driver. And classified ads were long the crown jewels in the Globe's franchise, helping to cement its regional dominance and pay for the news that built its national reputation.

With a strong subscription base, it became a classified advertising powerhouse. When area veterans returned home from World War II, the Globe offered special sections, fat with classified, on how to find jobs. "It was the right thing to do from a patriotic viewpoint, and it was a smart business move," said former publisher Ben Taylor.

During the boom years of the 1980s and 1990s, classified accounted for about half of all Globe advertising, and help wanted about half of classified ads, Taylor recalled. "On peak weekends, there were help-wanted sections that were over 100 pages at $40,000 to $50,000 a page," he said. "We're talking $5 million newspapers for those Sundays. These were big, healthy newspapers."

The rollicking success of the Globe and other newspapers in the first years of the Internet age made it harder to anticipate the threat from upstart websites like Monster.com, Craigslist, and Google, which links advertising to its popular search engine. The Globe's annual profits reached about $100 million for several years in the late 1990s, according to a former executive. Among their best-paying advertising customers until the Internet bubble burst in 2001, ironically, were dot-com start-ups buying brand advertising to raise their profile.

The decline
But in recent years the Globe's advertising revenues have sagged. With the recession exacerbating the decline, total advertising revenue at the Globe is projected to fall more than 25 percent this year, while advertising at Boston.com is expected to remain flat, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. Classified advertising is projected to plummet 50 percent this year, these people say.

Nationally, the picture is much the same. Financial analysts from Barclays Capital project US newspaper advertising will decline 22 percent in 2009 and another 10 percent in 2010.

The migration to the Internet hasn't been the only factor driving down advertising sales. Another has been consolidation in the retail, banking, and real estate sectors. Locally owned department stores that had long bought full-page ads, like Jordan Marsh and Filene's, were acquired or closed, and other retail advertisers such as Tweeter and Circuit City shut down. Several ad-buying banks and real estate brokers, like Fleet Financial and DeWolfe Cos., were also acquired.

"It's a very difficult economy for newspapers," said Jack Connors, a veteran Boston advertising executive and business leader who at one time was interested in buying the Globe. "Advertisers still have to advertise, but the Internet has allowed them to be much more targeted and cherry-pick customers. If they're selling Volvos, they're able to reach just the people who own Volvos."

Ernie Boch Jr., president of Boch Enterprises in Norwood, whose auto dealerships have advertised in the Globe for more than 50 years and still do, said an increasing share of his spending has been redeployed to television, radio, and the Internet - including Boston.com - in recent years. Boch, who has reduced his advertising in the Globe by 40 percent in the past year, said he is following his customers.

"The newspaper at one point was a very powerful tool for selling automobiles," he said. "And the Globe had a stranglehold over advertising because they were the only game in town."

When the economy recovers, few expect newspapers to regain much of the lost classified ad revenue. For Globe executives, the growth of niche-oriented websites has required a new approach and new attention to customers.

"There were better days," acknowledged Sam Martin, the Globe's chief advertising officer. "Customers thought about newspapers first, and they called us. Now we have to work harder to prove our value to customers because they can go elsewhere."

Diverse ventures
The Globe has moved to diversify in recent years, launching niche publications like FB, a glossy fashion insert; Lola, a free magazine aimed at women; and Design New England, an upscale home magazine.

Different publications give advertisers more opportunities. "Today, the Globe is the foundation, but we sell a multiplatform approach," Martin said. "We want to give customers the strength of the Globe, but also the reach of Boston.com, our direct mail company Globe Direct, and our niche publications."

A paradox of the Internet age is that the Globe and other newspapers enjoy more readers than ever through their papers and websites combined, but fewer readers pay for the news. Boston.com was a pioneer in creating a regional website that did more than simply post news from the paper. While the Globe is the nation's 14th-largest newspaper, Boston.com today is the sixth most visited newspaper website, with 5.6 million unique visitors in February, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Globe executives are optimistic that the new ventures will bear fruit, and that Boston.com will become a much bigger revenue engine. "We are very much at the beginning of the game," said Susan Hunt-Stevens, a Globe senior vice president who oversees the company's digital operations. "Boston.com has got to grow. We clearly need to develop ways to grow revenue. How we do that is something we're looking into closely."

Newspapers haven't been the only businesses blindsided in the Internet era. In recent years, Monster.com itself has had its share of setbacks as online competitors like Craigslist have let people place classified ads for free. That's eaten into Monster's help-wanted advertising sales and forced the website to again look to alliances with newspapers. In 2006, the website partnered with Boston.com.

Jeff Taylor, the Monster founder, recalled being introduced as a "franchise killer" when he addressed a newspaper convention in 2001. Taylor went on to start Eons Inc., a website catering to aging baby boomers. And he recently launched Tributes.com, an online venture that is targeting another staple of newspapers: obituaries.

Taylor said he was saddened to learn the Times Co. was threatening to close the Globe. "I grew up in Needham," he said. "The Globe is as important to me as anyone. I never created this business with any malicious intent."
From the cross-town rival Herald:

Boston Globe unions are showing signs of digging in against management as frustrated labor leaders say their members have already given up enough in the effort to keep the struggling broadsheet afloat.

“The general attitude is, ‘When is this going to stop?’ ” a top Globe union official said yesterday. “The unions are going to tell management, ‘We’ve worked with you as much as we can. Now you are taking it too far.’ ”

“We’ve already given up enough,” echoed the frustrated leader of another Globe union, who added that even if the unions agree to the $20 million in concessions demanded now, management “will soon be coming back around again.”

Last week, managers at the New York Times [NYT] Co., which owns the Boston Globe, told officials who represent the paper’s 10-plus labor unions that they need to cut costs by $20 million by May 1.

If they fail to do so, managers told union leaders, the paper will be shut down.

“The New York Times Company is threatening to shut down the Boston Globe while also bullying the workers who have made it one of the premier newspapers in America,” Boston Newspaper Guild President Daniel Totten said yesterday in an e-mail statement.

The Guild represents some 732 Boston Globe reporters, editors and business-side workers.

In the past year, the guild has lost 80 members to layoffs and buyouts, and members have not received a raise in four years.

Other unions have made concessions, too.

Six months ago, Times Co. managers asked the Globe’s truck drivers and press operators to cut $10 million from their payroll.

After the unions’ accountants reviewed the beleaguered broadsheet’s books, Teamsters Local 259, which represents the paper’s 200 union drivers, agreed to cut wages by 5 percent and to eliminate 10 holidays.

(In contrast, when Times Co. managers took a 5 percent pay cut earlier this year, they got 10 days leave in exchange.)

The newspaper’s unionized pressmen reportedly accepted a 10 percent reduction in wages.

This time around, the Times Co. has refused to open its books for the unions, a potential sticking point that could make any cuts very hard for union officials and their members to swallow.

In the months after unions made those concessions, Times managers received bonuses in the form of stock options. When they are eventually cashed in over the next three years, executives could make hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s in addition to million-dollar plus salaries.

The stock options were awarded even as the value of company stock plummeted and the Globe newsroom braced for a round of layoffs.

Earlier this week, after the Times Co.’s ultimatum, Ralph Giallenella of Teamsters Local 259, which represents Globe drivers, said: “There’s nothing left to take out of anyone’s contract.”

Red should have his... "Auerbach Way" ...

This from a Boston.com post late last week. I stashed it in a file during our busy time in Boston but wanted to be sure everyone saw it today.


Letting Red have his way
By Kevin Cullen, Globe Columnist | March 27, 2008

So I'm sitting in one of the city's finest establishments, C.F. Donovan's of Savin Hill, enjoying perhaps the greatest shepherd's pie ever prepared, when one Thomas M. Menino passes and pauses just long enough to ask, "Did you hear that some people want to change the name of Causeway Street to Red Auerbach Way?"

No, Mr. Mayor, I had not, but now that you mention it, I think it's a grand idea.

Changing street names, especially in a town like this one, which professes to care deeply about history, is a slippery slope.

But if we really care about history, then we need a street named after the late Arnold Jacob Auerbach.

Before anyone suggested creating a Red Auerbach Way, there was a Red Auerbach way. It produced a series of championships for the Boston Celtics that was unprecedented and, given the nature of free agency and the business that is pro sports today, probably will not be duplicated by any franchise, in any city anytime in the future.

The Patriots win three Super Bowls in four years, and we talk about dynasty. The Red Sox win two World Series in four years, and we talk about dynasty.

But with Red as coach, the Celtics won nine of the 10 NBA titles between 1957 and 1966. That's a dynasty. He was in the front office for seven more championships after that.

Beyond winning, it was the way his teams won. We have enjoyed the recent success of the Red Sox and Patriots especially because of the chemistry that is at the heart of them.

Long before, Red elevated the concept to an art form. Red stressed team over individual accomplishment. He emphasized the substance of defense over the flash of offense. After Bill Russell, the great Celtics center, won his first MVP award in 1958, Red pulled him aside to warn him that he was going to rip him at practice so none of the other players would think he would get preferential treatment.

Last night, as they have almost every game this season, the Celtics started five players who happen to be black. No one bats an eye.

But on the day after Christmas in 1964, Red put out a starting five that consisted of Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, Tom Sanders, Sam Jones, and Willie Naulls. History records that as a great moment in the civil rights movement, especially in a town like Boston, when for the first time an NBA starting lineup was made up of five black men. But Red wasn't looking to make history. Tommy Heinsohn usually started, but he was hurt, so when Red looked down the bench he selected Naulls, not because he was black, but because he was the best forward available.

When it came to race, Red was ahead of his time. He drafted the first black player, Chuck Cooper in 1950, and in 1966 handpicked as his successor Russell, the NBA's first African-American head coach. Red made the issue of race relevant by treating people's race as irrelevant when judging them.

For a guy who emphasized team over individual, Red got the most out of his players because he treated them as individuals. And so what worked for Bob Cousy didn't work for Bill Sharman. What Red said to Big Russ was not what he said to John Havlicek.

The guy was a genius, and how many streets do we have named for geniuses?

There are reasons this might not fly. Some will say we shouldn't be renaming streets rich in history like Causeway. Others will say Red was really a Washington guy, not a Boston guy. And, let's face it, we're talking about renaming the street that runs in front of a building owned by the Bruins for a guy who bled Celtic green.

But there is an overarching reason why Causeway Street should become Red Auerbach Way, and it's the same reasoning that guided Red Auerbach through a tumultuous era that challenged our country, and our city and eventually brought out the best in most of us: It's the right thing to do.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.

Ramble On ... Are you Worthy?

BIG GAME, JAMES...

When the LA Lakers were winning championships in the '80s, I was always a HUGE James Worthy fan.

While Earvin Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were the cornerstones of the LA championship teams, I always marveled at the speed, agility and all-around game of Worthy. "James" earned the nickname "Big Game James" because he always rose to the occasion to play 'even bigger' when the Lakers played a pivotal game in a series or a "Game Seven."

When the Dream Team was named in circa 1991-92, everyone made a big deal about Isiah Thomas being left off the squad. I wondered aloud why Worthy wasn't named to the team, possibly as a starter. Without a doubt, the powers that be (in the NCAA) should have checked their egos at the door and left NCAA rep/Duke center-forward Christian Laettner home and added Worthy. (Dominique Wilkins would have been another possible choice).

Anyway, why do I bring this up now?

An ESPN the Mag article on David Stern reminded me of Worthy's greatness. Here is the clip:

The Mag: You have said the league has gotten beyond race as an issue. Did that happen during the Jordan years?

Stern: I think it started before Jordan, with Magic and Dr. J and Kareem and James Worthy and Robert Parish. The conventional wisdom was a black athlete wouldn't do well as a pitchman, but Magic chipped away at that. Dr. J chipped away at that, Kareem, Isiah, Jordan, Barkley, Pippen. It became a non-issue. Look at what you just saw during the Super Bowl. Shaq, Charles Barkley, Dwyane Wade, footage of the NBA in a Coke spot and an ad for Semi-Pro, a basketball movie.

Stern included Worthy with Magic, Doc, Kareem and The Chief. How great is that?

He is right on the money. Worthy was named to the NBA's Greatest 50 Players. I would name him to the NBA's Greatest 25. (Of all-time). He was THAT good. And, as much as I loved James' big game dunks on the break, his uncanny ability to make a 15-footer, his hustle and rebounding, I just marveled at his work against the likes of Larry Bird on the defensive end. Michael Cooper had the media portraying him as the defensive specialist. Worthy played tough "D" as well.

The next thing you know, we'll be having a similar discussion about my "Second" favorite NBA under-rated player....

Andrew Toney.

***

Candace Parker = Spencer Haywood = Curt Flood


KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Candace Parker, the Tennessee All-America forward who made dunking in women's basketball almost commonplace, ended all the speculation.

Parker, the first woman to win a national slam dunk contest, will skip her final season at Tennessee for the chance to play professionally.

"This was the most difficult decision I've ever had to make, but my family and I think this is the best choice for me," Parker said Wednesday.

Candace Parker, with an eye on the Olympics and the pros, is one of six women to have dunked in a college game.

"I've been blessed with great coaches and teammates, an outstanding education and the best women's basketball crowd support in the country. I will miss Tennessee, but I am eager to take this next step in my career."

The redshirt junior will graduate at the end of this season and plans to participate in the summer Olympics and pursue a professional career, Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. Parker redshirted her freshman season to recover from surgeries to repair a torn knee ligament.

Parker will be honored as part of the third-ranked Lady Volunteers' senior night activities before the Feb. 28 game against Florida.

"Obviously we'd love to have her another year," Summitt said. "Who wouldn't?"
The 6-foot-4 Naperville, Ill., native leads the team in scoring with 20.6 points per game and rebounds with 8.8 and is one of six women to have dunked in the college game.
Kara Lawson, a Sacramento Monarchs guard and former Lady Vols star, said Parker's experience at Tennessee has prepared her to play at the professional level.

"Playing for coach Summitt, the opportunity to play with the players they have there, the tough non-conference schedule all gets you ready," she said. "You look at the success of the players who have gone there and what they've done at the next level."
In 2004 Parker beat five male competitors to win the slam dunk contest as part of the McDonald's High School All-American Game.

Since then she has dunked seven times, becoming the first women's player to go above the rim twice during a game and in a NCAA tournament game.

After leading the Lady Volunteers to their seventh national championship last season, Parker played with the U.S. national team during her summer break as the team earned its 2008 Olympic bid.

"Candace was ready for the pros two years ago," U.S. team coach Anne Donovan said. "I think it's an exciting day. Tennessee's had her long enough."
Parker also earned the women's 2007 John R. Wooden Award.

***

The Navy PR campaign on pin-pointing and shooting down an old, out-of-whack satellite with a missile was made out to be a gem of precision and military science. It got more publicity than the Wright Brothers' first flight. Please? Wasn't it like shooting a duck on a still pond?

A missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean hit an out-of-control spy satellite falling toward Earth last night, Pentagon officials said.

They said that a single SM-3 missile fired from the USS Lake Erie hit the satellite at 10:26 p.m. Eastern time. The missile struck the dead satellite about 150 miles above Earth as it traveled in orbit at more than 17,000 mph.

Military officials had hoped to rupture the satellite's fuel tank to prevent 1,000 pounds of hydrazine from crashing to Earth, a situation they depicted as potentially hazardous for people on the ground.

***

Looking ahead to St. Patrick's Day, there seems to be a bit of a collision of calendar items in the works. Boston.com explained it in an artcile posted last Thursday:

Calendar collision for Irish Catholics
St. Pat's Day vs. Holy Week

By John C. Drake, Globe Staff

The 2008 calendar presents a rare clash between St. Patrick's Day and Holy Week, with parade organizers across the country and in some Massachusetts communities yielding to the Catholic Church.

But the fiercely independent South Boston organizers of one of the nation's largest St. Patrick's Day parades say the parade will roll on during the afternoon of March 16, Palm Sunday.

Chicago and Philadelphia have pushed their parades up to March 9, a week ahead of the start of Holy Week, which begins on Palm Sunday and ends a week later with Easter celebrations.

Organizers in Worcester and Holyoke also preferred not to hand Catholics a conflict, scheduling their parades for March 9 and March 29, respectively.

But not so in Boston.

"We aren't scared to do things that aren't fitting to, say, 'peace on earth' and all that," said John "Wacko" Hurley, who organizes the parade for the Allied War Veterans of South Boston. "We all want peace, but our obligation is supporting the armed forces. So, nope, we don't have any problems with that."

State Representative Brian Wallace, who represents South Boston, said the parade should not interfere with any church services.

The parade is set to start at 1 p.m. at the Broadway T station. By the time it passes St. Brigid Church on East Broadway, the noon Sunday Mass should be over, Wallace said.

Worcester parade organizers decided last year that they did not want the parade bumping into Easter or Palm Sunday, said organizer Leo Quinn.

"A good part of us are Irish Catholics, so that had some bearing on it," said Quinn, who has been involved with parade planning for about 25 years.

This is the first year since 1940 that St. Patrick's Day will fall during Holy Week, and it won't happen again until 2160.

***

Jason Whitlock writes a column for the Kansas City Star a few times each and every week. However, his writings on or about NBA All-Star Weekend seem to get the most national attention.

Here's what he had to say about the event in New Orleans:

It's a tame All-Star Weekend

NEW ORLEANS | There’s nothing to see here, other than a modest, dignified contingent of NBA All-Star Weekend diehards, a few locals trying to glimpse a celebrity and a bunch of seasoned cops who have patrolled far bigger and rowdier crowds.
I was wrong. The Big Easy appears to be swallowing All-Star Weekend like it’s a bingo convention for sanctified grandmothers.

Whatever happens the rest of the weekend, we can accurately chalk it up to typical French Quarter madness, the normal revelry and criminality that go along with partying in a city that takes pride in its dirtiness and corruption and is struggling to heal from Mother Nature’s wounds.

I’ve been coming to New Orleans for Final Fours, Super Bowls, gumbo and hurricanes since 1993, since Chris Webber called a timeout the Michigan Wolverines didn’t have. This All-Star Weekend crowd is the tamest and thinnest I’ve ever seen. Friday night, as I strolled the French Quarter a little past midnight, a cop on horseback estimated the crowd was one-fourth of what the Quarter gets for the Bayou Classic, a traditional football game between Grambling and Southern.

“Nobody came,” said my buddy Branson Wright, who covers the Cavaliers for the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper.

“My only regret,” Players Association president Billy Hunter said, summarizing his All-Star feelings, “is we don’t have the kind of crowds we usually get.”

There’s a theory that people skipped this weekend because they feared post-Katrina New Orleans, its exacerbated economic crisis and desperate citizen survivors. The theory doesn’t hold up when you consider the relatively strong crowds that attended the 2007 Bayou Classic and Essence Festival.

People were afraid of the kind of crowd ASW attracts. That fear multiplied after Las Vegas last year. It’s a terrible, factual generalization, but Vegas’ proximity to Los Angeles made it way too easy for LA gang members to drive to The Strip and hang out in hotel lobbies for three straight days.

From what I can see, there is a totally different crowd in New Orleans than Vegas. There are more sports coats than white T-shirts, more smiling, laughing faces than mean mugs. The Las Vegas air of hostility has been replaced by an air of good times.

Now, it is a bit more difficult to find that good time because the crowd is so small.

TNT broadcaster Kenny Smith has traditionally thrown one of the biggest, baddest parties of All-Star Weekend. A year ago in Vegas, there were nearly as many people waiting to get inside Smith’s party as there were partying inside.

Friday night, I walked over to Smith’s party at the House of Blues with Lincoln Prep grad and Washington Post NBA writer Michael Lee, and we glided right inside to an empty party. It was just before midnight, and the place was dead. Warren Sapp was the only celebrity we saw.

Lee had earlier stopped by Michael Jordan’s party and said it was much better.

“Jordan’s party was real nice, real classy,” Lee described. “Probably more laid back than other All-Star affairs I’ve been to. This is my sixth All-Star Weekend. But there were a lot of women at Jordan’s party and a lot of former and current players.”

Just my luck, I wormed my way into the wrong party. ESPN also threw a hot party, featuring a live performance from positive rapper Common.

“Common put on a good show,” my boy J.A. Adande reported. “He didn’t just do a couple of songs and break out. He did a full, legit set with a live drummer and keyboard player.”

I ended my night at Harrah’s Casino, another mistake. The cheapest craps table I could find had a $25 minimum. You start taking full odds on those bets and it’s real easy to leave New Orleans broke, especially when the Marriott on Canal Street is charging $4 for 16-ounce bottles of Evian water.

Unless something wild happens at the Players Association party Saturday night — Maze (featuring Frankie Beverly) and Snoop Dogg are the scheduled performers — I’m going to turn my attention for the rest of my time here to basketball and what is shaping up as a terrific NBA season.

Note to self: "T, you better start getting 'cool' or whatever, as all those years of working the NBA All-Star Weekend and being happy with a minute or two to get a cold beer in the media hospitality room never allowed you to network to the likes of MJ's party, the ESPN party, etc... who has all these tickets, anyway?

This year, we made a run over to the EA Sports party and a good friend at the NBA dropped a pair of tickets to Kenny Smith's House of Blues affair.

***

This in from the NYT:

MORE AMERICANS GIVING UP GOLF...

By PAUL VITELLO
Published: February 21, 2008

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. — The men gathered in a new golf clubhouse here a couple of weeks ago circled the problem from every angle, like caddies lining up a shot out of the rough.

“We have to change our mentality,” said Richard Rocchio, a public relations consultant.

“The problem is time,” offered Walter Hurney, a real estate developer. “There just isn’t enough time. Men won’t spend a whole day away from their family anymore.”

Over the past decade, the leisure activity most closely associated with corporate success in America has been in a kind of recession.

The total number of people who play has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million, according to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

More troubling to golf boosters, the number of people who play 25 times a year or more fell to 4.6 million in 2005 from 6.9 million in 2000, a loss of about a third.

The industry now counts its core players as those who golf eight or more times a year. That number, too, has fallen, but more slowly: to 15 million in 2006 from 17.7 million in 2000, according to the National Golf Foundation.

The five men who met here at the Wind Watch Golf Club a couple of weeks ago, golf aficionados all, wondered out loud about the reasons. Was it the economy? Changing family dynamics? A glut of golf courses? A surfeit of etiquette rules — like not letting people use their cellphones for the four hours it typically takes to play a round of 18 holes?

Or was it just the four hours?