Former Player Sues Anaheim Ducks for Anti-Semitism

Jason Bailey, formerly a forward for the Bakersfield Condors, the then ECHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks. has filed suit against the Ducks alleging that he was the victim of anti-Semitic treatment while he was a member of the Condors.  The complaint, filed in Orange County, California, names the Ducks, the Condors, Martin Raymond and Mark Pederson, the then head coach and assistant coach of the Condors as defendants and seeks unspecified damages.

The complaint alleges that Bailey was the victim of a "barrage of anti-Semitic, offensive and degrading verbal attacks regarding his Jewish faith" from both Raymond and Pederson.  In addition, the complaint alleges that Bailey was deprived of the resources necessary to become a better hockey player.  He was denied ice team, was not given the proper practice drills, was often left undressed for games and even was left behind on the team's first road trip and instructed to catch up with the team in a few days.

When Bailey complained to the Ducks about his treatment, the complaints were ignored and then he was sent to the Iowa Chops for two months where he was not given any playing time.  The coaches were instructed to write apology letters to him, which were self-serving and made light of the situation.  At the end of the season, Bailey asked to be traded and he was shipped to the Ottawa Senators who sent him to their AHL affiliate, the Binghamton Senators.  His numbers in Binghamton have not been overwhelming: appeared in 17 games, a healthy scratch in 29.   He is  -1 with no points and 11 penalty minutes.

This is the first time I can recall a professional sports franchise, particularly a major league franchise, being sued for anti-Semitism.  If Bailey's lawyers can prove in court the allegations in the complaint, then I think the Ducks have a real problem on their hands.  I suspect that the Ducks know as much and this will get settled before it goes to trial.  That is assuming, of course, that Bailey is not looking to make a public spectacle of the Ducks organization for the way he was treated; an assumption that is certainly no guarantee.

Super Bowl 2011: Wall Street Bulls Hopes for New York Jets Loss

You would think that the Jets would have a lot of fans on Wall Street.  After all, they're a brash, trash talking, media hogging perpetual underdog team that should remind traders of themselves, and well they might.  However, no matter how many Wall Street denizens are actually fans of the Jets, there will be a part of them that will be secretly rooting for the Steelers; and if you have money in the market, you should become a gold and black fan for the day too.

The Super Bowl stock market predictor has had uncanny accuracy over the years, hitting at a rate of 79.5% since the Super Bowl began.  What is the predictor?  If a team that is an original NFL team, dating from before the merger with the AFL wins the Super Bowl, the market goes up for the year.  As the Jets are the only AFL team left in the playoffs, investors should be rooting for the Steelers tomorrow to ensure an all NFL Super Bowl.  As a little bonus incentive to root for the Steelers, in the nine years that two original NFL teams made it to the Super Bowl, the S&P 500 was up 17.71% compared to only 10.43% in the other 21 years in which only one original NFL team made it and won. So, everyone should get out their yellow towels and prepare to root for Big Ben tomorrow so we can continue to see our portfolios recover from the Great Recession.

New Jersey is West of What Exactly?

The great conference realignment that college athletics has been undergoing over the last five or six years, triggered first by the ACC raid on the Big East and most recently by the Big Ten's decision to expand to twelve, has led to some interesting geographic permutations.  A legacy of earlier conference shuffling left the WAC stretching from Hawai'i to that decidedly western state of Louisiana, home of Louisiana Tech.  Similarly, the Sun Belt includes those noted warm weather locales of Denver and Bowling Green, Kentucky (OK, Kentucky is a southern state but Denver?).

However, some of the latest conference memberships really stretch the idea of geography to its limits.  With TCU's move from the Mountain West (you've seen the mountains in Ft. Worth right) to the Big East, we're now supposed to believe that Texas is in the east.  However, no school more represents the absurdity of certain conference memberships, and how far removed we are from the days when conferences represented regional associations, than the relatively new Division I Great West Conference.

The Great West is basically a collection of schools around the country who recently upgraded their programs to Division I and consists of schools located in California, Texas, Utah, the Dakotas, Chicago and New Jersey.  It began life as a football conference and now has ten members, three of whom are football only members.  All of the schools have relatively small athletic department budgets which are strained by the travel costs associated with playing in a conference that is not only this spread-out but also includes several cities not regularly served by nonstop airline routes.  It's college athletics' version of the high school losers table, and until one of the cool kids takes pity on them, the member schools are stuck with each other, absurd travel costs and all.  Such is the price of admission to the pot of gold associated with March Madness.

Lieberman, a True Original and First Woman Coach in the D League

When the farm team of the Dallas Mavericks was in a start-up this past year, co-owner Donnie Nelson was looking for ways to stand out in the Dallas/Frisco Texas market.  The Texas Legends began play in the NBDL this season in Frisco, a suburb of Dallas, about 30 miles north and previously known primarily as the home of the MLS Cup runner-up FC Dallas.

So, as Nelson was building his team he was also looking for ways to differentiate the Legends.  What better way to do that than hire a woman as your coach?  Who better to be that woman than a legend in the game and a woman who has never backed down from any basketball challenge, including playing with and against men, both in organized ball and, even more impressively, on the New York playgrounds?  Enter Nancy Lieberman,  Lieberman, a member of the Hall of Fame had a spectacular playing career, winning two national championships at Old Dominion, a silver medal at the Olympics and a professional championship. Playing with men?  Throughout the 80s she played on the Lakers'  and Jazz's summer league teams, played two years in the long defunct USBL and even toured with the Globetrotters for a time, playing on the Washington Generals and reliving in some ways her childhood at Harlem's Rucker Park.


When the WNBA rolled around, she played and coached in it.  Then, she went to work for ESPN, but when Donnie Nelson offered her a job coaching the Legends the lure was too strong to resist.  She took the job and by all accounts has been accepted for what she is - the coach of a team in the D League, albeit one who hugs her players and tells them that she loves them.

Here's an interview with Cheryl Miller where Nancy discusses coaching the Legends:




Cross-posted to SportsYids.

Rose Parade as Economic Indicator

This year's Rose Bowl was memorable for a variety reasons, not the least of which was the win by TCU, at least for this year a representative of non-automatic BCS qualifying schools.  Of course, TCU is joining the Big East, so its representation of the non AQ will be short-lived.

The game was also memorable for the still inexplicable call made by Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema on the potential game tying two point conversion attempt by the Badgers with less than two minutes remaining.  Disregarding the Badgers superior size and the results of the just concluded touchdown drive in which the Badgers ran nine out of ten plays, Bielema calls for a pass play out of the shotgun.  Wisconsin is not known for its passing game and perhaps Bielema was attempting to surprise TCU, but why he would decide to try something with the game on the line which the Badgers have not shown would work all game, when the team had shown its massive offensive line was capable of moving TCU's defense off the line enough to gain two yards will forever be a mystery.  Nevertheless, congratulations to TCU on the win and the undefeated season; they certainly demonstrated that they earned their top five ranking.

For 122 years, Pasadena has sponsored a spectacular tribute to flowers and Southern California in the early morning Rose Parade which annually precedes the Rose Bowl.  I can tell you that if you have never had the chance to see the parade in person, go the first chance you get.  Television doesn't do it justice, even in high definition. 

The Rose Parade also has another economic distinction that I bet you haven't heard: it is used as an economic indicator, just like unemployment figures, housing sales and who wins the Super Bowl.  The indicator this year points toward a continuation of the recovery as more companies participated in the parade.  There were 47 floats this year, up from 41 last year, which at anywhere from $100,000 to $450,000 a float is not an insignificant increase.  The Tournament of Roses Committee, the sponsor of the parade and the Rose Bowl has found that companies are investing in floats as alternatives to higher priced television ads for events like the Super Bowl.  The cost per impression is more favorable for the parade and companies are better able to tell their stories through the float.  The parade was seen this year in 127 countries versus 106 for the Super Bowl, and the parade is often seen on multiple networks at the same time, and repeated at various times throughout the next month.