AN
08
THE UNIVERSITY OF DARRY GANSAN
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2008
SPORTS
5B
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Boston Red Sox's Coco Crisp watches the flight of his RBI single off Texas Rangers Tommy Hunter in the second inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston in August. The Boston Red Sox have traded outfielder Coco Crisp to the Kansas City Royals for reliever Ramon Ramirez. A baseball official confirmed the trade Wednesday on condition of anonymity because it had not yet been officially announced.
Royals obtain leadoff hitter, trade reliever to Red Sox
BY JOHN MARSHALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals picked up the leadoff hitter they had been seeking, acquiring center fielder Coco Crisp from the Boston Red Sox for reliever Ramon Ramirez on Wednesday
K an s a s
City was 12th
among 14 AL
teams in runs
last season and
added power
last month,
obtaining first
baseman Mike
Jacobs from
Florida.
"He played through injuries. He played hard."
The switch-hitting Crisp gives the Royals speed at the top of the lineup and a superb defender in center field who has World Series experience.
The 29-year-old was the subject of trade rumors for much of last season following the emergence of rookie Jacoby Ellsbury.
"The speed aspect of it was very important," Royals general manager Dayton Moore said. "I've talked many times about the importance of a balanced lineup, speed at the top and the bottom, and Coco certainly gives us that."
The two split time in center, with Crisp hitting .283 with seven homers and 41 RBIs in 98 games. He also stole 20 bases in 27 attempts, the third straight season he reached the 20-stalk mark.
THEO EPSTEIN Red Sox gerneral manager
lion club option for 2010 with a $500,000 buyout.
Ellsbury hit .280 with nine homers and 47 RBIs last season, proving to the Red Sox that he's ready to be an everyday player. Boston also gains financial savings by trading Crisp, who's due to make $5.75 million next season in a deal that includes an $8 mil-
"He played through injuries. He played hard," Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said of Crisp. "With the emergence of Jacoby Ellsbury, we felt like we would be able to find a (backup) outfielder on the market easier than
we would find
we wounded a valuable member of the bullpen."
The Royals got Ramirez, a 27-year-old righty, in a trade with Colorado before last sea.
son. They were so impressed with his stuff that they projected him to be their closer.
With a fastball that reaches the mid-90s mph, Ramirez is a power pitcher who seems suited for the late innings. He was one of the primary setup men for closer Joakim Soria and flourished in that spot, going 3-2 with a 2.64 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 71 2-3 innings.
Masterson was 6-5 with a 3.16 ERA in 36 games as a rookie last season — 4-3 with a 3.67 ERA in nine starts. As a reliever, he was 2-2 with a 2.36 ERA and worked nine postseason games with a 1.86 ERA and no decisions.
Ramirez figures to play a setup role for closer Jonathan Papelbon and could send Justin Masterson back to the rotation, where he feels more comfortable.
"He's very quietly had a tremendous amount of success in the major leagues over the last 2½ years," Epstein said.
("He) gives us the flexibility to start Masterson," Epstein said. "Ramirez potentially could replace Masterson in the 'pen."
Boston traded for Crisp after his breakout season — 333,15 homers, 69 RBIs — with Cleveland in 2005. But a broken finger derailed Crisp's first year in Boston and Epstein said his offense never fully recovered.
Crisp has always been a superb fielder and picked up his offence the last half of 2008, hitting .315. He also hit .417 (10-for-24) in the playoffs, driving in the tying run in the eighth inning to complete Boston's comeback from a 7-0 deficit in Game 5 of the AL championship series against Tampa Bay.
"I play hard and pretty much stay within myself," said Crisp, a career .280 hitter. "I know what I can and cannot do, and with that I think it makes me a pretty good ballplayer. And to help the team, besides stepping on the field, I can hopefully bring a presence into the clubhouse that will help us win, the attitude of winning."
Epstein said the Red Sox hope to replace Crisp with a right-handed fourth outfielder who can play center. He probably will look outside the organization.
The addition of Crisp could signify more moves for the Royals, as well.
Crisp is expected to be the starter in center and Jose Guillen, the highest-paid player in franchise history, is locked in at right. That means Kansas City will have to find a way to get enough playing time for David Dejesus and Mark Teahen.
"I think it's safe to assume there's possible changes, but if we have to begin the season with the core group we finished the season with, it can be managed easily," Moore said.
The loss of Ramirez also creates a hole in the middle of the bullpen that will likely need to be filled from outside the organization.
BY RALPH D. RUSSO ASSOCIATED PRESS
Economic woes endanger second-tier postseason bowls
NEW YORK — After years of relentless expansion, college football's nearly monthlong holiday party — the bowl season — finally seems to have maxed out.
There are a lot of second-tier bowls to choose from.
Those involved in the bowl business say that, with the national economy flailing, events which are as much about tourism and corporate sponsorship as football now are staring at a set of challenges that will level off the number of second-tier bowls if not reduce them.
"We're talking about disposable income and that's drying up as fast as water in the desert," said Paul Hoolahan, chairman of the Football Bowl Association and CEO of the Sugar Bowl.
Licenses may be harder to get when money is sparse
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Workers pause to study their work as they paint the logo for the BCS Championship football game on the field at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans in January. The seemingly endless ender of college bowl games might finally be maxed out. With the economy flailing, a business that combines tourism, college football and corporate sponsors is not likely to expand.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The bowl roster now stands at 34, giving 68 teams the opportunity to play a nationally televised game and be pampered by host the community. That's more than half of the 119 schools playing college football at its highest level.
The NCAA has been liberally licensing new bowls in recent years. Since 2002, 11 new bowl games have been established, while only three have closed up shop. Two games will debut this season, the EagleBank Bowl in Washington D.C., and the St. Petersburg Bowl in central Florida.
To get a license, organizers need a stadium, sponsorship, an agreement with two major college football conferences to put teams in the game and a network willing to televise the show.
People in the industry suspect that getting licensed and keeping that license will be tougher because of the economic crisis.
"As they are evaluated on an annual basis, I think a stricter criteria would probably be implemented to establish the fiscal viability of the business model," Hoolahan said.
"That's the reason we do a bowl game," said Scott Ramsey, executive director of the Music City Bowl in Nashville. "We want people to come to Nashville and spend money and to get 3½ hours of television time for our sponsors and city."
Hoolahan runs a game with little to worry about. The Sugar Bowl is part of the Bowl Championship Series, along with the Rose.
Ramsey said he was seeing
In other we enough money to pull this off?
"We're talking about disposable income and that's drying up as fast as water in the desert."
PAUL HOOLAHAN CEO of the Sugar Bowl
The Sugar and the other BCS games pay about $17 million to each participating team, and the school splits that money with the rest of its conference.
With all that TV money, plus insurance giant Allstate as the title sponsor, the Sugar Bowl will have no problem paying its bills. Holahan expects another sellout crowd — or close to it — at the 72,000-seat Superdome on Jan. 2.
Bowls attract thousands of fans/tourists and media members, who fill hotels and restaurants and boost local businesses. Whether they'll be as big a financial bonanza this year is uncertain.
Orange and Fiesta bowls, and the national championship game.
ESPN agreed this week to a pay the BCS $125 million per year over four years, starting in 2010, to televise its games, excluding the Rose Bowl, which has its own lucrative TV deal. That's up about $40 million a year from the current deal the BCS has with Fox.
on the hook for between 10,000 and 15,000 tickets. While the numbers vary, every school that plays in a bowl is obliged to buy tickets and do its best to get them in the hands of its fans.
Ramsey said the Music City Bowl is already close to its local ticket sales target.
an uptick in local ticket sales. Usually, the Music City Bowl's goal is to sell about 20,000 tickets locally, before a matchup is set in early December. Each team is
"I don't know if that's more people staying home for the holidays and we're creating a local option for fans." Ramsey speculated.
Ramsey said the Music City Bowl builds its budget around 55,000-57,000 tickets sold to LP Field, which seats 67,000. So it, like many second-tier games, doesn't need a sellout to meet its financial needs.
"We need to raise $5-$5.1 million to break even," said Ramsey, who has also served as the Football Bowl Association chairman.
For the majority of bowl games, breaking even is the goal, Ramsey said.
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