Ten finalists chosen for Hutch Award
Awardee to be honored at January 27 luncheon
Ten Major League Baseball players have just learned they’re in the running for the 2009 Hutch Award®. A national committee has released a list of 10 players, one of whom will go on to receive the prestigious Hutch Award and visit Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in January. The finalists for the 45th annual Hutch Award are:
– Jonny Gomes, Cincinnati Reds
– Tim Hudson, Atlanta Braves
– Torii Hunter, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
– Mark Lowe, Seattle Mariners
– Mike Lowell, Boston Red Sox
– Nick Markakis, Baltimore Orioles
– Kevin Millwood, Texas Rangers
– Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins
– Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals
– Mark Teahen, Kansas City Royals
This year’s Hutch Award recipient will be selected in November through a vote of all surviving former awardees. A total of 44 players have been honored since 1965, when Mickey Mantle accepted the inaugural award. Hall-of-Famers Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski, Al Kaline, Willie McCovey and Lou Brock all have received the Hutch Award, and in more recent years Jamie Moyer, Trevor Hoffman, Craig Biggio, Mark Loretta, Mike Sweeney and Jon Lester have joined their ranks.
The Hutch Award is given annually to the major league player who best exemplifies the honor, courage and dedication of renowned baseball player and manager Fred Hutchinson (“Hutch”). Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center — which was named in Hutch’s honor by his brother Dr. Bill Hutchinson, a surgeon, after Fred succumbed to cancer at age 45 — is an independent, nonprofit research institution dedicated to the understanding, treatment and prevention of cancer and related diseases.
The award is presented each January in Seattle, Hutch’s hometown and the site of the renowned cancer center that bears his name. The Hutch Award will be presented at a fundraising luncheon honoring the awardee on Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010 at Safeco Field in Seattle.
For more information about the Hutch Award, including a full list of past recipients, or to learn more about the January luncheon, visit www.fhcrc.org/hutchaward.
Source: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Chinas Universities open the door for baseball players
Chinese Baseball Association Hails Historic Announcement
Several of China’s Universities have agreed to add baseball to their list of sports that offer a passport to a tertiary education: a move that baseball insiders have greeted as instantly increasing the People’s Republic’s potential to produce stars in the future.
Shanghai International Studies University, North China University of Technology, and Nanjing University of Technology, East China University of Political Science and Law, Guangzhou Sport University and Tianjin University of Sport have all agreed that they will include baseball among the sports where young talent will be recruited at lower academic admission requirements or exempted them for immediate admission.
“The cooperation of these Universities with CBA is of epoch-making significance. Baseball will become a popular and favorable sport to the young generation now,” Madam SHEN Wei, Secretary-General of the Chinese Baseball Association (CBA) and an Executive Committee Member of International Baseball Federation, the worldwide governing body for the sport of baseball said.
“I’m not sure how easy it is for baseball fans anywhere else in the world to understand the significance of this. It’s a milestone for youth baseball development!” declared Chinese-born financier Kenny HUANG Jian Hua, the chairman of QSL Sports Limited, who earlier this month was unveiled as the CBA’s long-term partner chosen to China Youth Baseball League (“CYBL”).
“This is an enormous step in unlocking the potential of a country of 1.4 billion people. Now baseball is a potential path into the university system it will free hundreds of young players to continue to combine their studies with their sport, instead of being forced to drop baseball completely, and it will inspire thousands more, maybe even tens of thousands children, to give the sport a try! “
Huang’s excitement stems from the enormous importance Chinese parents place in their offspring’s education, a phenomenon that can be traced back to the country’s so-called “one-child policy”.
“For many families there is only one chance, so they plan their child’s education very carefully, almost from the day they are born,” explained Huang, who graduated from Chinese Zhong Shan University, one of the top 10 universities in China before furthering his studies in the United States. Huang has also been involved in a variety of sports deals involving the New York Yankees.
“Naturally, they are reluctant to let anything get in the way of their child’s future. Now, however, baseball can be part of that future. The fact is, overnight, playing baseball has turned into something that can improve the talented child’s chances of getting into a good university!”
Almost all Chinese universities reserve a proportion of places, with slightly lower academic requirements, for talented young athletes with basketball, soccer and volleyball among the most common sports. Earning one of these places is notoriously difficult.
One of the universities entering into the swing of baseball is particularly likely to attract the attention of parents with would-be sluggers or flame-throwing pitchers: The Shanghai International Studies University is one of China’s leading foreign language colleges and part of China’s prestigious “Project 211″ programme aimed at developing its universities into world-class academic establishments.
Meanwhile the CBA has also announced an acceleration in the growth of their sport. Mme SHEN revealed that, through a co-operation with the Ministry of Education, 1,000 schools now have baseball teams, of which 140 are in the tertiary educational institutions. Official statistics now suggest that over 100,000 Chinese are engaged in baseball activities.
Source: QSL Sports Limited
MLB.com Beat the Streak Presented by BURGER KING Launches Mobile Access
Grand prize could reach $1.5 million through progressive $10,000 increases; Free fantasy game buoyed by multi-platform integration on MLB.com and MLB Network
MLB.com “Beat the Streak(R) presented by BURGER KING(R),” a free fantasy game where fans try to surpass one of sports’ most hallowed individual records, has launched additional features as fans continue to pursue the single largest grand prize in fantasy baseball history — at least $1 million. The game, which currently has 153 players with active streaks of at least 20 consecutive games, also is supported by a landmark multi-platform integration through MLB.com and MLB Network.
As of June 1, the $1 million grand prize increases $10,000 every day that a fan does not record a sustained hitting streak that reaches 57 consecutive games. The grand prize will progressively grow until it is capped for the 2009 season at $1.5 million. Also, beginning today, fans can participate in “Beat the Streak(R) Presented by BURGER KING(R)” at wap.mlb.com across select mobile devices for the first time.
MLB.com Beat the Streak(R) Presented by BURGER KING(R)
The King is featured prominently across all three platforms in support of this year’s “Beat the Streak(R) Presented by BURGER KING(R),” including a new weekly offering on MLB.com called “Kings at the Plate.” Fans can use “Kings at the Plate” as a resource to help make their selections, as it contains daily listings of three players who have been tabbed as editors’ choices based on relevant statistical data for that day’s matchups. Players can also go to “The King’s Leaderboard” to see how they’re faring against the current and season leaders.
For the first time as well, fans are participating in “Beat the Streak(R) presented by BURGER KING(R)” via their account on Facebook.com, the social networking platform, as part of a partnership with Citizen Sports, the leading provider of fantasy sports on social networks. An extension of the game at MLB.com, fans communicate daily selections to all of their friends across the network and by linking the Facebook.com account to their personal account on MLB.com they can compete for the grand prize.
“Beat the Streak(R) presented by BURGER KING(R)” is also included twice per week on MLB Network’s signature program, “MLB Tonight.” The segment on MLB Network features current players’ hitting streaks and some of the all-time greatest streaks.
“Extending the Beat the Streak experience with partners such as MLB Network, Citizen Sports and Burger King means this fun and easy way for fans to participate in fantasy baseball is reaching an unprecedented captive audience, so this is an important step,” said Gregg Klayman, vice president, content development, MLB.com.
“We’re always seeking integration opportunities that will resonate with our core demographic,” said Tia Lang, director of interactive and media, Burger King Corp. “It’s one way we bring the HAVE IT YOUR WAY(R) brand philosophy to life, so as baseball season heats up we’re giving fans all the tools they need to beat baseball’s most famed record.”
Working on behalf of Burger King Corp. were its two media buying agencies, Mindshare for television and VML for digital.
How to Play
“Beat the Streak(R) presented by BURGER KING(R)” is a free fantasy game that gives contestants a chance to win at least $1 million if they can sustain a hitting streak of at least 57 games to surpass the legendary all-time mark of 56 games. Each day, contestants choose a Major League player they think will get a hit. If a selected player delivers a hit on that day, the streak continues and the contestant chooses either another player or the same player the following day. If a selected player ever goes hitless for that day, the streak ends.
Since it launched on MLB.com in April 2001, more than 1.8 million contestants have played the free fantasy game, and a select few have been able to come close to reaching the record streak. In 2007, Michael Karatzia of Sea Girt, N.J., established the current all-time mark with a 49-game streak using a variety of the top Major League hitters, including Vladimir Guerrero (9 times), Derek Jeter (8), Magglio Ordonez (5) and Jose Reyes (4).
In addition to competing for the grand prize, fans can create or join individual groups as a separate contest to seek bragging rights over friends, families, co-workers or whomever they choose to play against.
Source: MLB.com
SIRIUS XM Radio Delivers Bountiful Sports Buffet for Memorial Day Weekend
SIRIUS XM offers motorsports tripleheader on Sunday, May 24, with F1(TM) Monaco Grand Prix, Indianapolis 500 and NASCAR Coca-Cola 600
Throughout the weekend listeners nationwide get live play-by-play from the racetrack, diamond, ice, hardwood, golf course and soccer pitch
SIRIUS XM Radio announced that it will offer sports fans a full lineup of sports programming over Memorial Day Weekend, featuring live play-by-play action from IndyCar Series racing, Formula One(TM), NASCAR, Major League Baseball, the NBA and NHL playoffs, PGA TOUR, English Premier League soccer and college baseball.
MOTORSPORTS: On Sunday, May 24, SIRIUS XM will broadcast the ultimate auto racing trifecta, featuring three of the biggest events on the motorsports calendar: the Formula One(TM) Grand Prix de Monaco (8:00 am ET on SIRIUS channel 126 and XM channel 242), the Indianapolis 500 IndyCar Series race (1:00 pm ET, XM channel 145 and SIRIUS channel 211 (“Best of XM”)), and the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (5:45 pm ET, SIRIUS channel 128 and XM channel 128 (“Best of SIRIUS”)).
SIRIUS XM will also broadcast the Carquest Auto Parts 300 NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, May 23 (7:30 pm ET, SIRIUS channel 128 and XM channel 128 (“Best of SIRIUS”)).
NBA: SIRIUS XM will broadcast every game of the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Finals, carrying the team radio broadcasts of the Cavaliers, Magic, Lakers and Nuggets. (XM channels 232 and 233, SIRIUS channels 219 and 220 (“Best of XM”)). Visit www.xmradio.com/nba and www.sirius.com/nba for listings.
NHL: SIRIUS XM will also broadcast every game of the Eastern and Western Conference Finals of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, carrying the team radio broadcasts of the Penguins, Hurricanes, Red Wings and Blackhawks (XM channels 204 and 205, SIRIUS channels 208, 211 and 212 (“Best of XM”)). Visit www.xmradio.com/nhl and www.sirius.com/nhl for listings.
MLB: XM listeners will get every Major League Baseball game from coast-to-coast throughout the weekend on XM channels 175 to 189. (Schedule available at www.xmradio.com/mlb). Fans can also tune in to MLB Home Plate, the only radio channel dedicated to covering MLB seven days a week, 365 days a year, for daily baseball talk and analysis (XM channel 175 and SIRIUS channel 210 (“Best of XM”)).
PGA: SIRIUS XM will offer live hole-by-hole coverage of the HP Byron Nelson Championship PGA TOUR event this Thursday, May 21, through Sunday, May 24, on The PGA TOUR Network (XM channel 146 and SIRIUS channel 209 (“Best of XM”)).
EPL: On Sunday, May 24, SIRIUS XM will broadcast two English Premier League soccer matches: Chelsea v. Sunderland (11:00 am ET, SIRIUS channel 125 and XM channel 102 (“Best of SIRIUS”)) and Newcastle United v. Aston Villa (11:00 am ET, SIRIUS channel 126 and XM channel 103 (“Best of SIRIUS”)).
NCAA Baseball: On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, XM subscribers and SIRIUS subscribers with the “Best of XM” can hear college baseball conference tournament games from the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten and SEC. Visit www.sirius.com/collegesports and www.xmradio.com/collegesports for listings.
Mad Dog Radio: On Memorial Day, May 25, Chris ‘Mad Dog’ Russo, host of Mad Dog Unleashed on SIRIUS XM’s Mad Dog Radio channel (SIRIUS channel 123 and XM channel 144) will host a two-hour special examining baseball’s all-time greatest teams. The program, airing at 8:00 am ET, 1:00 pm ET, 6:00 pm ET and 11:00 pm ET, will determine the greatest all-time team from each of the 30 MLB franchises and will feature interviews with baseball historians and some of the game’s greatest players, including Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer, 9-time all-star catcher and 1971 NL MVP Joe Torre, 16-time Gold Glove-winner Jim Kaat and others. The 30 highlighted teams, plus two wild card teams, will be seeded into a tournament bracket posted at www.sirius.com/maddogbaseball and on Tuesday, May 26, fans can log on and begin casting their votes to determine the greatest baseball team of all-time.
Study of Scholarship Shortfall Numbers Reveal College Athletes Pay to Play
‘Full scholarship’ can leave college athletes with as much as $30,000 in expenses
With the 2009 NCAA men’s basketball tournament heating up, the National College Players Association (NCPA), formerly known as the Collegiate Athletes Coalition (CAC), released results of another significant study revealing the estimated shortfall between college athletes’ full scholarships and the actual cost of attendance at each Division I university.
The NCPA asserts that, by and large, universities have been deceiving recruits, many of whom are under the age of 18 and from disadvantaged backgrounds, into unknowingly being responsible for paying thousands of dollars while on “full” athletic scholarship.
“The fact is, coaches fill high school recruits’ heads with promises of free rides and full scholarships, when in fact no such things exist. The NCAA designs full scholarships to fall short of the advertised price tag of a school, leaving recruits scrambling to make ends meet,” stated United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard.
NCAA rules prohibit universities from providing athletic scholarships that equal the cost of attendance. That means that a full scholarship athlete is expected to pay out of pocket for expenses that are not covered by a full scholarship.
“It’s deceptive to call it a ‘full’ athletics scholarship when it doesn’t fully pay for a university’s estimated price tag. These same universities offer ‘full’ academic scholarships that do cover the price tag of a school. This appears to be a deliberate attempt at misleading young high school student-athletes, their parents, and current college athletes,” stated NCPA President Ramogi Huma.
The NCPA partnered with Ellen J. Staurowsky, a professor of sport management and graduate chair of the department at Ithaca College in New York, to calculate the estimated scholarship shortfall at every Division I university that offers athletic scholarships.
Staurowsky stated, “The mythology that college athletes receive a free education in exchange for their athletic labor is a powerful one, fueled in part, by a public perception that athletes have an easy path to being admitted into college and a privileged path through school once in. The database we’ve compiled begins to debunk this myth and serves as an important public disclosure mechanism to aid athletes as they consider their scholarship offers. Athletes and their families should know that this gap exists and that their expenses will be greater than the promise a free ride suggests.”
The data revealed that NCAA scholarship limitations can leave a full scholarship athlete with expenses ranging from as low as $200 per year up to more than $6,000 per year. That means that, NCAA rules mandate a “full” scholarship athlete to pay up to $30,000 over the course of five years.
The average amount an athlete on “full scholarship” would be required to pay out of pocket amounted to $2,763 per year, or more than $13,800 over the course of five years. Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis had the highest scholarship shortfall, amounting to over $6,000 per year, followed closely by the University of Missouri-Kansas City, East Tennessee State University, Saint Louis University, University of Louisville and Charleston Southern University, all with a greater than $5,000 per year estimated shortfall.
The University of South Carolina Upstate recorded the smallest scholarship shortfall at $200 per year. Other universities with the smallest scholarship shortfalls include: Gardner-Webb University; Colgate University; College of the Holy Cross; Providence College and Tulane University, ranging from a $700 to over $900 per year shortfall.
As a service to high school recruits, their parents, and college athletes, the NCPA made all 336 schools’ estimated scholarship shortfalls available on its web site at www.ncpanow.org.
“Every college athlete, recruit and parent should go to the NCPA web site and look closely at these shortfall numbers. Otherwise, they will find that their ‘full’ scholarship is leaving them buried in unexpected expenses,” said Huma.
With the $6 billion that the NCAA is receiving from CBS alone, there is more than enough new money to eliminate these scholarship shortfalls for the players who generate over $4 billion each year.
NCAA rules mandate a scholarship shortfall at every school that offers athletic scholarships in Divisions I and II. “With hundreds of thousands of athletes participating in NCAA sports, how many athletes have been unfairly burdened with debt in the last few decades due to the misinformation that they have received?” asked Gerard. “How much debt have they put on high interest credit cards that will take many years to pay off?”
Because there is such a wide range of scholarship shortfalls among schools across the nation ($200/yr – $6000/yr), the results from this study give schools with lower scholarship shortfalls an enormous recruiting advantage among recruits who want to avoid higher out-of-pocket expenses.
The NCAA’s position is clear. Although it is supposed to eliminate recruiting advantages, it has fought tooth and nail to subject unsuspecting players to scholarship shortfalls. “If I was a coach or fan of a school with a large scholarship shortfall, I’d be very worried about the future of my athletic program,” Huma stated.
The United Steelworkers have helped back the NCPA since 2001. The NCPA has established itself as the voice for college athletes, and has helped bring forth important reforms including:
- Helped establish a $10 million fund to assist former athletes who wish to complete their undergraduate degree or attend a graduate program
- Elimination of limits on health care for college athletes
- Increase in the NCAA death benefit from $10,000 to $25,000
- Expansion of the NCAA Catastrophic Injury Insurance Policy so that college athletes who suffer permanent, debilitating injuries can receive adequate home health care
- Implementation of key safety guidelines to help prevent deaths during workouts
Complete NCPA study results and additional studies are available on the NCPA web site: www.ncpanow.org
Shortfall estimates are the sum of expenses that cannot be covered in a full grant in aid athletic scholarship per NCAA rules. The data used to calculate shortfall numbers was taken from information published by the schools in the study as well as information made available by the US Department of Education. The NCPA says actual shortfall numbers will vary according to each individual student. The NCPA reached out to all 336 colleges and universities to offer an opportunity to provide any data disputing their school’s scholarship shortfall calculation. Of the 11 athletic programs that contacted the NCPA about their shortfall estimates, four had general inquiries, four had their concerns resolved, two did not respond to NCPA clarifications, and one wrote a letter disagreeing with their school’s estimate without providing any supporting data.
Source: United Steelworkers (USW); National College Players Association