Four Quick Thoughts

-You know what I've had just about enough of? The Home Run Derby. I watched two minutes of it last night and in that time I came to the conclusion that it is time to spice up All-Star weekend with some other kind of event. Much like the NBA's dunk contest, it was fun for a few years, but we've just reached the point that we have seen the best we're going to see. The whole reason that homeruns are so great in a game setting is that you never know when one is coming; someone could go deep on any pitch, so you have to constantly be at the ready. The Derby doesn't just remove that anticipation - it makes homeruns repetitive. Also just like the dunk contest, the star power of the participants has dropped considerably. Instead of players who year after year are near the top of the homerun ranks, you have guys who are just having good first halves and even they only plan to enter it once or twice and after they win it they're never in it again out of fear of screwing up their swing. There should be a new kind of contest that the true stars would be interested in trying out. Then again, this is baseball and this is always how they have done it, so don't expect anyone in the league office to try and bring up some fresh ideas for another 40 years.

-I'm curious: has Mel Gibson had a conversation in the last couple of years that someone wasn't recording? With a third audio tape of him screaming at his baby-mama being released yesterday, it sure doesn't feel like it. Not that I feel sorry for the guy, but if you can't have a normal conversation without the fear that it will end up on the news then perhaps it's time to start looking at the people around you. Then again, you reap what you sow, so this could be simply be karma kicking him in the teeth.

-People in the publishing industry are always saying the magazines will far out-live newspapers because it is a more focused group of consumers who will remain loyal because they are getting just the features they want. While I think this is a good theory in principle, it does give me pause when, just two months after renewing a magazine subscription, I start getting mail from that same company about renewing again. They are always willing to offer me a couple free months down the line in exchange for more money now. I feel like if this keeps up at some point I would have years and years of free magazines subscriptions coming my way and that feels like anything but a solid business model.

-As a Red Sox follower I was obviously never a big George Steinbrenner fan, if for no other reason than the Yankees were always in the Sox way. However, you had to respect him because he was what we fans always say we want in an owner - a guy who is willing to do or spend whatever it takes to win. His detractors will point to the firing of managers and demanding that players get haircuts in keeping with the "Yankee Way" but the simple fact of the matter is that when he bought them the team was worth $10 million and now its value is in the billions. The truth is this: if he currently owned the Pirates and had them in contention every year you would never hear a bad word said.