December 3, 2015
We’re all Cleveland “Indians” now.
Ross Atkins’ hat for 20 years.
In an announcement that surprised no one, Mark Shapiro (sha-PIE-row), Blue Jays president and former longtime employee of the Cleveland Indians, hired his former number two guy, also a longtime Cleveland employee, Ross Atkins, as the Blue Jays new General Manager, bumping longtime Jays employee, Tony LaCava, to assistant GM and “promoting” him to VP, Baseball Operations. In case you missed it, the Cleveland Indians are a small market team with a payroll of less than $80 million, a homogeneous fan base and the Most Racist Mascot in Major League Baseball™ which, despite repeated protests from Native American groups, the club, while headed by Shapiro, refused to do anything about. In comparison, Toronto bills itself is the most multicultural in the world and Canada is beginning to re-discover its identity as a country that views its diversity as part of its strength. Is there a fit here?
The unwelcome front office moves have ground the Blue Jays championship momentum to a screeching halt. Fans who are still smarting from the exit of Alex Anthopolous expressed a range of reactions in the comments section of Rogers-owned Sportsnet.
dijit44: Cleveland, with a much better field manager, finished 81-80. Toronto, with Gibby as an anchor, finished 93-69. So Toronto decided to import the entire Cleveland front office. Go figure.
Ov3rAchieve Rank 12173: Serious question here; aside from cancelling our Rogers services and going with Bell. Can we please collaborate and determine what process we can put in place get the Shap out of here? He’s such a slimy politician…
Curtbradley Rank 19894: Shapiro = #Buzzkill!
James Cain Rank 30: An uninspiring and depressing offseason beyond my wildest dreams. Thanks, Rogers.
Jaybro; Why don’t they just rename the Jays ‘Cleveland’ and get it over with…?
Not a happy time for Jays fans.
December 2, 2015
The Care of a Prime Minister’s Children of No Concern to Canadians
The Trudeau Family at swearing in.
In a critique of monumental stupidity, the Trudeau family was censured by critics this week for having two nannies as part of the prime minister’s household staff. The daytime nanny makes $15 – $18 an hour and the overnight nanny makes $13 – $15 an hour. Their job is to help ensure the needs of the couple’s three children, who are under the age of eight, are met while their father runs the country, and their mother helps him do that and manage her own responsibilities, which are, admittedly, wooly but exist all the same.
Some analysts and the Conservative Party of Canada cried hypocrite because of Trudeau’s plan to end the universality of the Child Tax Credit.
In reality, it reflects a culture that values trimming roses, cooking meals and vacuuming carpets over the wellbeing, safety and comfort of young children. Yuck.
November 30, 2015
“Eff you, Red Sox. We got Happ.”
David Price in his Blue Jay days.
File this under the general displeasure surrounding the appointment of Mark Shapiro (sha-PIE-row), former longtime employee of the Cleveland Indians, the team with the Most Racist Mascot in Major League Baseball™ to Blue Jays president. The Blue Jays signed pitcher J.A. Happ to a three-year, $36 million deal, signalling the end of anything happening with David Price and the beginning of driving middle of the road, small market deals common to a team like … well … common to a small market team like the Cleveland Indians.
And while most Blue Jays fans thought the team probably couldn’t retain Price for the long-term $200 million deal he was seeking, Shapiro made no effort to reach out to Price at all. As luck or Mark Shapiro would have it, American League East rivals, the Boston Red Sox, managed by former Jays manager and Rogers Centre boo magnet, John Farrell, picked him up.
The Jays current starting pitchers line-up includes Marcus Stroman, R.J. Dickie, Marco Estrada and J.A. Happ. A few weeks ago they traded Liam Hendricks to the Oakland Athletics to bring back pitcher, Jesse Chavez, a former Blue Jay with an 0-2 record and 8.76 ERA in his career at the Rogers Centre. Click here for a refresher.
December 5, 2015
Adele’s New Album ‘25’ Sells 4.9 Million Copies in Two Weeks
Records are being broken. Since its release on November 25th, British-born singer Adele’s 25 sold more than one million copies in two consecutive weeks, the first time ever since Neilson had began tracking point of purchase sales in 1991. Her tally for 25 so far is 4.9 millions. By way of comparison, Taylor Swift sold 8.6 million of her breakthrough album, 1989, since its release in October 2014. And Beyoncé’s self-titled album that was released in December 2013 with all tunes represented by a short film, sold 5 million copies worldwide in 2014.
This triumvirate of songstresses are on top of the record business. By the end of 2014, Beyoncé had sold 118 million albums in her solo career alone, another 60 million if you include what she did with Destiny’s Child, Taylor Swift had sold 40 million and Adele, 30 million.
You go, girls.
That’s it for now and I will see you next week, if not before,
YWG
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Gail Pi
cco is a strategist who has worked in the nonprofit sector for 25 years, most of which as President of Gail Picco Associates. Prior to establishing Gail Picco Associates, she spent eight years working in a shelter for assaulted women and children. She is the author of What the Enemy Thinks, a recent novel set in the nonprofit sector, of Your Working Girl, a blog of memoir and commentary on politics, charity and popular culture, and writes a regular column for Hilborn Charity News. She is a Principal with The Osborne Group in Toronto and Chair of the Regent Park Film Festival.
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