One of the things I have used this modest platform for is to raise awareness (and a few dollars) for a few charities that are close to me. My wife had, until recently, worked at American Cancer Society and we did a few “Charity Challenges” to raise a few dollars for ACS and The Jimmy Fund. The other cause I have championed is the Autism Awareness campaign, piggybacking on Maury Brown’s efforts. My nephew is on the low end of the spectrum and if any of these awareness and fundraising campaigns can result in 10 minutes of extra attention that my nephew receives, great.
Before we get to the information: CLICK HERE TO DONATE. If you can confirm a donation of $100 or greater, I will give you the floor here at IIATMS to post whatever you like, so long as it’s profanity-free. I’ve done this before and am happy to do it again.
With that, I am proud to repurpose this information below, from Maury Brown’s site:
(click “view full post” to read more)
It took just a few days, but we got a convert:
As part of the deal, TCM has turned all of his Twins jerseys (Santana, Mauer, and Morneau), as well as his T-shirts, sweatshirts, Crocs, and Underoos over to the good people at St. Vincent DePaul’s and has sent the confirmation receipt of the donation to Jason via first class mail. As soon as Jason receives this confirmation, TCM will be free to post over on IIATMS and reach far broader audiences than he can here.
However, the good news is that The Common Man will now be able to blog daily about how incredible Derek Jeter’s defense is, and how he should have been named MVP last year. Also, together we can explore the depths to which the Red Sox truly suck. Think how much fun you’ll have learning about random Yankees from the past, like Johnny Blanchard and Jack Chesbro. Tuck Stainback and Bill Monbouquette. And how great will it be to talk about which stars deserve to be Yankees this season, next season, and the year after, as though no other team in the league has a rich history or a tradition of success. Indeed, on Tuesday of next week, The Common Man will be live blogging his visit to the tattoo parlor, where he will get a single pinstripe running from his shoulder to his ankle in tribute.
Though, for some reason, I think this has something to do with April Fool’s. Just a hunch!
Today is April 1, one of the most important days on the baseball calendar. On April 1, each of the “poorer” teams in baseball – teams like the Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Florida Marlins – submit a report describing how the team uses its revenue sharing money to improve the team’s on-the-field performance.
What’s that you say? You didn’t know about these reports? Don’t worry. As far as I know, the existence of these reports has never been disclosed to the public — not before now, anyway. (It’s an IIATMS exclusive!)
Some background: major league baseball utilizes a program of revenue sharing where rich teams like the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox transfer local revenues to poor teams like the Twins, Rays and Brewers. Big dollars change hands under revenue sharing: the Marlins have received at least $158 million in revenue sharing payments over the last seven years. As we’ve reported earlier, these payments exceed the amount paid by Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria to buy the team.
Some argue that baseball’s poor teams aren’t doing enough with their revenue sharing money. It is commonly reported that teams are free to use revenue sharing money any way they like. But as it turns out, baseball’s collective bargaining agreement DOES impose certain requirements on revenue sharing recipients. The first requirement has been reported here and elsewhere: any team receiving revenue sharing money must use the money “in an effort to improve its performance on the field”. This requirement is vague to the point of being meaningless.
(click “view full post” to read more)
