Thursday, March 30, 2006

Opening day soon........

spring is in the air. the treers are starting to turn green again, birds are singing and soon baseball will be throwing out the first subpeona (i stole that line fair and square). its true baseball is starting an investigation into steroid use. they even went as far as to hire george mitchell to head the investigation. this is just another caase of baseballs kneejerk reaction to a controversy that they didnt mind at all. steroids have been running rampant for years now but baseball didnt care when the homerun records were falling. that saved baseball after the last strike. mcgwire and sosa should get a special room at cooperstown for that. on the other hand nobody like that surly jackass...barry bonds. baseball, in its defense, has a long history of reacting instead of proacting. they investigated because of cansecos book. they investigated after congress got involved. now they are starting after another book. is it hypocritical? sure. do i care? no. am i a hypocrite. yes. normally i would be up in arms over something like this but because it might screw barry bonds....i dont care. i hope to god he doesnt break hank aarons record. i have prayed for my god to give him a debilitating knee injury and even though god didnt come through with that....yet, i'll accept this as answering my prayer as long as it stops him. the real reason i suspect this is going to happen is because the corporate sponsors are worried that this will tarnish their reputation and are therefore worried about how they want their names used in relation to baseball. worries = less money. you do the math.

along with other math worries pittsburgh is having a bit of a problem with a new arena here in the city. pennsylvania is allowing slots and the slots license is up for grabs. isle of capri has said that they will give 290 million to pittsburgh to build a new arena if they get the license. harrahs has said that they will give a percentage of their revenue if they get the license. the democrat governor has backed harrahs after getting some campaign contributions. the republican candidate, lynn swann (former steeler and super bowl mvp) backs the isle of capri. the isle of capri paln is the better of the two. they have said they would give 290 million regardless of the revenue. harrahs has promised more money based on their projections. heres the problem. for harrahs to acheive their numbers the slot machines in pittsburgh would have to bring in more money per machine than any slot machines in the entire country......by 40 percent. that bears repeating. not only would pittsburgh slot machines have to do more money than any slots in the country they would have do 40 percent better than the best of the rest. now i know pittsburgh is screwed up but unless i've read people here completely wrong i'm not banking on them to have that much of a gambling problem. we gave the pirates a stadium that might get used 90 days a year. we gave the steelers a new stadium that might get used 25 times a year. this arena would get used over 220 nights per year. it would keep the penguins here but would also allow pittsburgh to get an arena football team, get concerts that have bypassed the city because of the outdated arena....etc. if harrahs gets the license thewn we all know the fix is in.

get on with your thursday everyone.

2 comments:

BAC said...

I didn't realize Pa. passed the slots legislation. I must of been too busy reading your insightful blogs! They are my main connection to what's happening. Even tho I disagree with you at least 50% of the time, I still enjoy them.

shoes said...

50%. i must be slipping