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A screenshot of the Chinese edition of the Wall Street Journal. The website has been blocked in China, according to Greatfire.org. (Screenshot/Epoch ... ...
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Toddler given weeks to live
Toddler given weeks to live
Toddler given weeks to live
Toddler given weeks to live
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
(CNN) -- Dressed in a tan suit and an orange shirt matching his mom's bouquet, 2-year-old Logan looked on as his parents exchanged vows and rings at a back yard wedding.
Guests who gathered under a white arbor in the Jeanette, Pennsylvania, home applauded -- but many with tears in their eyes.
Because this union of Christine Swidorsky and Sean Stevenson was no ordinary wedding.
The couple had planned it for ages, and had penciled July 2014 as their special day. But that was before they learned that their best man -- 2-year-old Logan -- had just weeks to live.
The boy is suffering from leukemia, brought on by a genetic disorder Fanconi anemia.
"We've been waiting for this day for a long time, but under the circumstances with Logan being sick all the time, we just held off," Stevenson told CNN affiliate KDKA. "We always knew he was going to get better."
"But under the circumstances of what the doctors told us, we just decided to go ahead and do it while he was still with us."
Christine Swidorsky carried Logan down the aisle. His grandmother cradled her in his arms, his favorite brown teddy bear by his side.
"This is our dream come true, all our family together, and we're all together celebrating. The celebration of my son's life and the celebration of our marriage," Swidorsky said, as Etta James' "At Last" played in the background.
Fighting since birth
Born on October 22, 2010, Logan weighed just three pounds. Eating troubles kept Logan in the hospital, but he kept fighting, kept growing, and was soon home with his parents and his two older sisters.
And for his first year, he grew, he was healthy, and he made his family unspeakably happy. Even today, as his life nears an end, Swidorsky struggles to find words to say what an amazing little boy he is.
Just after Logan's first birthday, Swidorsky noticed that he wasn't feeling well again, and his lips and fingernails had turned white. Over the course of a month, she took Logan to the pediatrician four times before the head pediatrician tended to him. When he did, he quickly called 911.
Swidorsky said Logan shocked doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. His leukemia had progressed so far, they were surprised he was still alive. Chemotherapy was started right away, taking an extraordinary toll on his body.
The couple learned more devastating news shortly after: Logan has a genetic disorder called Fanconi anemia, which most frequently results in death, most commonly from cancer, between the ages of 25 and 30.
But Logan fought hard, just like he had done as a newborn. He landed in the ICU but pulled through, and by July 13, 2012, doctors were prepared to give him a blood stem cell transplant.
After his stem cell treatment, he was free of leukemia for nine months, eating and acting like any other child. Life started to feel normal for Logan's family.
But Swidorsky's gut feeling returned when she saw Logan acting strange again.
Cancer again
It was cancer again: a mass the size of an orange on Logan's larger and better-functioning kidney. Doctors had no choice but to remove the kidney, just a week before Easter this year.
Life gained a long-sought-after normalcy for Logan and the family, except for the twice-weekly visits to a clinic for his chemotherapy. The therapy, though not a perfect solution for Logan, would hopefully prevent a recurrence of the cancer, despite being a lower dose than average.
Logan's life continued to improve.
"He was eating bowl after bowl" of spaghetti, Swidorsky said. "It was a wonderful feeling."
But then he started getting fevers and throwing up.
Logan's left side swelled as the mass returned, where the kidney once was.
"I thought he was doing so well. It's like you take two steps forward, 15 back," Swidorsky said.
The doctors told Logan's family that they could only do more harm than good.
In June, as the family's fortunes continued to fail, the Make a Wish Foundation treated them to a trip to Disney World.
But after just four hours there, Logan was back in the hospital.
Eight days of torture ensued, as he had developed an infection and eventually needed to be flown home to Jeannette, about 40 minutes from Pittsburgh.
Finally, on July 26, doctors gave Logan one to two weeks to live.
Not giving up
But that doesn't mean Logan's parents are giving up.
"We're just blessed everyday that he's here with us," Stevenson said Saturday, after the ceremony. "We're not going to stop fighting. We have nothing to lose.
"I'm going to try until God says otherwise."
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_mostpopular/~3/lNnRCXed9SE/index.html
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FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2010, file photo, Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Inc., speaks during a meeting in Hong Kong. Dell's board has agreed to an increased offer from founder Michael Dell that would add a special dividend to shareholders. Shareholders were scheduled to vote Friday, Aug. 2, 2013, on a lower offer to buy the company but that vote has been postponed. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - In this Nov. 2, 2010, file photo, Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Inc., speaks during a meeting in Hong Kong. Dell's board has agreed to an increased offer from founder Michael Dell that would add a special dividend to shareholders. Shareholders were scheduled to vote Friday, Aug. 2, 2013, on a lower offer to buy the company but that vote has been postponed. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
ROUND ROCK, Texas (AP) ? Just when it looked as if he might be vanquished, Dell CEO Michael Dell has regained the advantage in a lengthy battle to buy the slumping personal computer maker that he founded nearly 30 years ago. He did it by persuading the company's board to accept a slightly better offer that adds a one-time dividend in exchange for a pivotal change in how shareholders will vote on the deal.
The latest twist in the six-month saga emerged Friday shortly before Dell Inc. was scheduled to hold a shareholder vote on the company's proposed sale to Michael Dell and investment firm Silver Lake Partners for $24.4 billion, or $13.65 per share.
Michael Dell wants to further diversify a company that has had trouble adapting to the growing use of smartphones and tablet computers over the desktops and laptops that Dell Inc. makes. He believes he has a better chance of turning the company around in the long term if it is in private hands, away from the quarter-to-quarter scrutiny of Wall Street.
But the deal to buy out the company appeared destined to fail at that price, which had been skewered as a rip-off by a throng of rebellious shareholders led by billionaire Carl Icahn and a long-time company shareholder, Southeastern Asset Management. The vote had already been delayed twice as Michael Dell's group tried to rally support.
In a Friday statement, Icahn said "the war regarding Dell is far from over." He vowed to keep fighting Michael Dell's takeover attempt. Southeastern Asset said it's "extremely disappointed" with the decision of Dell's board.
Last week, Michael Dell and Silver Lake submitted a higher bid of $24.6 billion, or $13.75 per share, but conditioned that on the company's board revising the voting rules to make passage easier. The board rejected that.
Faced with almost certain defeat on the lower bid price, Michael Dell and Silver Lake struck a new agreement Friday that further sweetens the bid. The new offer was enough to get the board to reconsider and grant the buyers' request for a crucial revision in the voting rules.
Friday's offer will probably be enough to gain support from major mutual funds who hold Dell's stock, as well as recent investors "who are ready to take their dollars and move on," said University of Michigan law and business professor Erik Gordon, who has been following the buyout efforts.
In a sign that investors are confident the deal will get done, Dell's stock climbed 73 cents, or 5.6 percent, to close Friday at $13.68.
Dell Inc. called Friday's meeting to order and quickly adjourned it without a vote. With the third postponement, the vote is now scheduled for Sept. 12 ? five weeks before the company's regular, annual shareholder meeting on Oct. 17.
Icahn is suing in Delaware court to force the company to hold the annual meeting on the same day as the vote on the deal. Icahn wants to oust Dell's board and pursue a complex alternative plan that he says would be worth at least $15.50 per share. In his statement, Icahn blasted the current board for "putting its thumb on the scales in favor of Mr. Dell's offer."
The new arrangement with Michael Dell and Silver Lake pegs the sale price at $13.75 per share, the same offered last week, but stockholders will also receive a special dividend of 13 cents per share under the new arrangement. That would cost about $230 million, based on Dell's outstanding stock of 1.76 billion shares.
The special dividend will be paid from Dell Inc.'s bank account, but Michael Dell will offset that by accepting a lower amount for his nearly 16 percent stake in the company, according to a person with direct knowledge of the arrangement. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms haven't been filed with regulators yet.
Before sweetening the deal, Michael Dell already had agreed to contribute about $4.5 billion in cash and stock toward the purchase price, according to regulatory filings. The rest of the money is coming from Silver Lake and lenders, including a $2 billion loan from longtime partner Microsoft Corp., the maker of the Windows operating system that powers most of Dell Inc.'s PCs.
Michael Dell and Silver Lake also are guaranteeing that existing shareholders will receive the company's regularly scheduled dividend of 8 cents per share for the fiscal third quarter, which ends in November. It was something that hadn't been a certainty if the deal closed before then. That dividend guarantee will distribute about $140 million more to shareholders, including about $20 million owed to Michael Dell as the company's largest shareholder.
Dell Inc. had nearly $11 billion in cash as of May 3.
Although the new deal improves Michael Dell's chances, Icahn could still complicate things, particularly if he can gain a court ruling that forces Dell to hold its annual meeting on Sept. 12 at the same time as the vote on the deal. That would give Icahn a chance to overthrow Dell's board, but there isn't any indication that he has enough votes to pull off the mutiny.
Icahn, who has a long history of challenging the decisions of corporate boards and management, sounded unbowed Friday.
"We are not satisfied," he said in a statement. "We believe that an increase of a mere 13 cents is an insult to shareholders. And promising shareholders an additional 8-cent dividend that we were already entitled to, and pretending that it is some sort of gift, is a further slap in the face."
In exchange for ensuring shareholders will receive the extra money, Michael Dell and Silver Lake received a key concession. Dell's board agreed that the deal can go through as long as it gains support from a majority of votes cast, excluding Michael Dell's nearly 16 percent stake in the company. The original bid required a majority of all outstanding stock excluding Michael Dell's stake, a provision that meant that abstentions counted as a part of the opposition. Last week, Michael Dell estimated that about 27 percent of the shares eligible to vote hadn't submitted ballots leading up to the previously scheduled meetings on the deal. Those would have been counted as "no" had the vote been formally recorded.
Dell's board also changed the voting eligibility. All shareholders holding company stock as of Aug. 13 can cast ballots. Before, the cutoff date was June 3. The change creates a new pool of voters, including many investors who bought the stock in the past few months and stand to profit from the sweetened offer.
Long-time shareholders, though, won't be as fortunate because they bought their stock during better times for Dell. The shares have plunged by more than 40 percent since Michael Dell returned for a second stint as CEO in 2007, largely because the company has had trouble adapting to a technological shift that has caused PC sales to fall as more people use smartphones and tablets to connect to the Internet and handle other common computing tasks.
Vince Dungan is among the Dell shareholders who don't like the idea of selling out to Michael Dell and Silver Lake. A shareholder since 1998, Dungan said after Friday's brief meeting that it makes more sense to reject the buyout offer and benefit from a potential turnaround as the company expands into more profitable areas of technology while lessening its dependence on PCs.
Even under the latest offer, Dungan figures he would lose about $160,000 on his original investment in the company.
"What about the stockholders that have been invested in the company all these years? We're losing money. Lots of money," said Dungan, 66. "I've been holding it for 15 years. What's a few more years?"
Michael Dell is also betting that the company can bounce back, but he doesn't want to try to do it while the stock is being traded publicly. He foresees the company going through a painful transition likely to lower its earnings for several years, something that will be easier to endure if Dell Inc. doesn't have to cater to Wall Street's fixation on short-term results. If the proposed buyout goes through, the company will become privately held for the first time in 25 years.
The latest deal came about a week after Michael Dell described the $13.75 per share offer as his "best and final" proposal. Patrick Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said Michael Dell's willingness to take things a step further shows how badly he wants a chance to revive the company.
"It's his name on the sign, a part of his legacy," Moorhead said. "So, he is going to put everything he has on the table to take control."
___
Liedtke reported from San Francisco. AP Business Writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this story.
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Remember Autonet? The company -- which is best known for providing manufacturers like Chrysler with in-car WiFi hotspot solutions -- is launching a new product designed to replace the key fob and enable low-latency remote vehicle control and diagnostics from any smartphone. Of course, this is nothing new -- car makers have been featuring apps to unlock doors, start the engine and monitor vehicles for some time now. Still, most existing solutions rely on satellite or 2G connectivity and often require the car's computer to be fully booted before responding to commands, which makes for a slow an unreliable experience. Autonet's new system combines in-vehicle hardware, mobile software and cloud services to streamline this process for both manufacturers and owners. More after the break.
Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Software, Mobile
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Simple Entrepreneur ideas for business on the internet really are all around you. It?s very easy to offer goods and services on-line. People sell handbags, sneakers, shoes and boots and clothing. One of the more preposterous ideas is selling things like celebrity hair. It just goes to show that 1 man?s worthless junk is really another human?s bounty.
The products often advertised online are geared towards one thing; generating a sustainable income for the business owner. But some have no idea where to start. And not everyone knows how to accurately assess the business potential of an idea or how to get the ideas themselves.
One way of getting ideas is to look at the problems in the world today. Look at all the challenges facing man, challenges you could profit from. Firms that are usually successful are those who are in business to solve challenges people face in life. Think careful about what things you can help people with. Look out for the periods of time when you stop and think to yourself, ?Why can?t someone else invent something that can help me personally using such and such a device??
Check available organizations online and you will discover true marketing experts in addition to individuals that have conventional corporations, along with some that have websites and also a conventional local storefront. Firms who possess bricks and mortar storefronts commonly know they could produce two times as much profit if they possess an internet domain. This is because the world-wide-web has made it simpler to attract clients.
If you?re getting started then it might be a smart idea to become a seller on auction sites. Or you may run websites or blogs using affiliate links and get paid for each click. Others have made cash by using their ability to design and build internet apps for mobile devices. Undoubtedly, there are several more ideas which are making cash online for people.
One idea that really took off was ?The Zillion Greenback Homepage?, where the founder auctioned off 1 thousand single pixels from their home-page. The starting price for people was a dollar per pixel. The idea became a good world wide web story and made the founder a lot of money. The greatest price that someone paid for just one pixel was $38,100. That only goes to show that the online entrepreneur can really coin it in with one simple idea.
Running an affiliate website is possibly the easiest thing to do as it is free to set-up a blog. However, there is no such thing as an overnight success, it takes hard work. One particular point to remember with regards to internet business concepts is that when compared to anything else they are more or less instantaneous.
Entrepreneur ideas for business can be found almost anywhere. It is staying with these ideas and implementing them which might be hard. The good thing is you can probably start with little or no money online. In the outside world you could need a retail outlet, staff and merchandise. Things can be done instantly online and website stats can be analyzed. The time has possibly arrived to start acting on your plans.
For the latest reliable entrepreneur ideas for business, visit the web pages at www.angelsgate.com today. You can see suggestions and descriptions at http://www.angelsgate.com now.
Source: http://www.papublishing.com/news/2013/08/where-to-find-entrepreneur-ideas-for-business-online/
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Megan Fox Pregnant With Second Child!
Megan Fox and her husband Brian Austin Green are expecting their second child together. The couple, who already have a 10-month-old son named Noah, are said to be “very happy” with the news. A representative for 27-year-old Megan issued a statement confirming the pregnancy saying, “I can confirm Megan is expecting her second child with ...
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August 1, 2013
1. The 1997 Florida Marlins
This is the standard against which all future first-to-worsts will be measured and of which all will fall short. To go from a parade to a 54-108 season, there can't be any invocation of the Plexiglas principle or bad luck or closing windows. It has to be, and it was, a controlled demolition.
Charles Johnson, Jeff Conine, Bobby Bonilla: gone, gone, gone at some point that offseason or early in 1998 when the team got off to starts of 1-11 and 17-44. Kevin Brown and Al Leiter, they were long gone by that point, too. An outfield of Moises Alou, Devon White, and Gary Sheffield became an outfield where Cliff Floyd was joined by Todd Dunwoody and the eternal Mark Kotsay. Young guys got their chances in bulk and with no greater shamelessness than in the pitching rotation that was by far the league's worst.
The 1998 Marlins blew away a record that year, giving 135 starts to pitchers who had yet to see their 24th birthdays. Naturally, they embarrassed themselves. Livan Hernandez was one of them, and he was okay, with a 4.72 ERA in 234 1/3 innings. Ryan Dempster somehow got a shot at age 21 and couldn't keep his ERA under 7.00, while Andy Larkin's 9.64 ERA in 14 starts and three relief outings was the third-highest ever for somebody with that many starts.
The 135 games started by the 23-and-under set was 15 more than any other National League team had in the Play Index era, and no team from either league has come within 30 games since.
The direct effect of the 1998 team on the 2003 World Series champions can be a little overstated. Sure guys got chances, but there were very few holdovers from the dreadful 1998 team when 2003 brought another parade. It was more about the organizational reset that allowed for multiple generations of young players to have a clear pathway.
Oh, and the American League record holder for 23-and-under starts was the 1967 Athletics with 125. They won the World Series five years later too. ?Zachary Levine
2. The 2012 San Francisco Giants
Unlike the 1998 Marlins, the 2013 Giants closely resemble the squad that brought home San Francisco's second championship in three years. In fact, general manager Brian Sabean focused his offseason on keeping the band together. Angel Pagan signed a four-year, $40 million deal to stay with the Giants. Marco Scutaro came back on a three-year, $20 million hitch. Hunter Pence, briefly the subject of non-tender rumors, was retained through his final year of arbitration. And every member of the starting rotation was under contract through at least 2014.
In hindsight, a few fresh faces might have served the Giants well. Barry Zito, whose surprising postseason success was critical to the Giants' run at the pennant, is still winless on the road this season. Matt Cain, a perennially reliable rotation stalwart, also has faltered. Ryan Vogelsong went down with a broken hand, throwing a rotation that was remarkably stable in 2012 into turmoil. And, over the past couple of months, multiple members of Bruce Bochy's lineup fell into a synchronized slump.
Those searching for the turning point in the Giants' 2013 campaign, the moment at which the train began to come off the rails, might rewind to a moment that, at the time, thrilled the fans in attendance at AT&T Park. On May 25, with the Rockies in town and the Giants trailing, 5-4, in the bottom of the 10th, Angel Pagan clubbed a ball deep into the right-center field gap and sprinted around the bases for an inside-the-park, walk-off home run. Unfortunately, while the Giants won that battle, it might have cost them the war.
Pagan suffered a hamstring strain on the play, and his attempt to rest the injury was snapped during his rehab assignment, when he aggravated it running to first and crumbled to the ground. He went under the knife in late June and will not return to the field until 2014. The Giants improved to 27-22 with that walk-off victory, and they won again without Pagan the next day, moving to 28-22, good for a share of first place.
They have not stood atop the National League West since that day, going 19-37 over their last 56 games. That's a .339 winning percentage, for those of you scoring at home, worse than the Astros' .340 mark for the year, and a 55-win pace over a full season. To reiterate: if the Giants played this poorly over 162 games, they would win 55 and lose 107. The injury to Pagan, a 5.2 WARP contributor in 2012, could not have made all the difference. But the last two months would have you believe that it sent the defending champions from the top of the baseball world to the bottom. ?Daniel Rathman
3. The 1914 Philadelphia Athletics
History has taken a nuanced view of Cornelius McGillicuddy, commonly known as Connie Mack. In addition to a number of records for longevity in the baseball business, Mack was known as a shrewd businessman. He famously said, ?It is more profitable for me to have a team that is in contention for most of the season, but finishes about fourth. A team like that will draw well enough during the first part of the season to show a profit for the year and you don't have to give the players raises when they don?t win.?
Part of this cynical view can be explained by the fact that Mack had no source of income besides baseball. Despite winning World Series in 1910, 1911, and 1913, and a pennant in 1914, the Tall Tactician had fallen into debt. The newly formed Federal League began luring MLB stars with higher pay that offseason, which put huge pressure on Mack to meet the market for his stars. But Mack, rather than increase their salaries, let future Hall-of-Famers Chief Bender, Eddie Plank, Home Run Baker, and Eddie Collins walk away. (Bender spent 1915 with the Baltimore Terrapins, Plank with the St. Louis Terriers, Collins with the AL?s White Sox, and Baker sat out the entire season because of the contract dispute!) Mack replaced Collins with a 40-year-old Napoleon Lajoie, who would soon retire.
The 1915 A?s won just 43 games a year after winning 99. The 1916 campaign only got worse, with 37 wins and 116 losses. To this day, it is the most precipitous decline in history of a pennant powerhouse. ?Dan Rozenson
4. The 1992-93 Toronto Blue Jays
Since 1976, only two franchises have won back-to-back World Series. It isn?t hard to recall that the Yankees were one of them, partly because they?re the Yankees and partly because they did it twice (?77-?78, and then three-peating from 1998-2000). Less celebrated are their division mates, the Toronto Blue Jays, who won the Series in 1992 and 1993?the latter year saw three of their players finish 1-2-3 in the batting title race, and Joe Carter?s electrifying, Series-ending, walk-off homer off of Philadelphia?s Mitch Williams in Game Six. That Series also featured the Jays? extraordinary, record-setting, 15-14 comeback win in Game Four, which completely changed the direction of the series.
It might be harder to remember the Jays because they?ve placed better than third in the AL East only once in the last 20 years, a distant second-place finish in 2006. It?s probably a little unfair to judge the 1994 team because that was the strike year, but the 1995 team was a 56-88 disaster. Since then, they?ve been not so much awful as middling and colorless despite having had any number of excellent players over the years. In the extended, two-decade view, this has been one of the most disappointing franchises in baseball. This past winter, the Jays noisily gathered many shiny nest pieces, adding R.A. Dickey, Melky Cabrera, and about half the Marlins, and it was tempting to get on the Toronto-is-back bandwagon. Instead, the team has been plagued by injuries, regression, bad vibes, bad luck, and close-game allergies (they have baseball?s worst record in one-run decisions). They?re in last place in the AL East, a blazing 11-game June winning streak notwithstanding, and they already look rudderless again, doomed to more mediocrity. ?Adam Sobsey
5. The 1933 Washington Senators
In 1933, the Senators won 99 games. A year later, they lost 86 games. There are various reasons for the downfall, including some symbolic?the cash-driven trade of Goose Goslin, Joe Kuhel breaking his ankle midseason, and so on. None stick out more than the downturn in starting pitching performance. The Senators started four pitchers 20-plus times in '33: Earl Whitehill, General Crowder, Lefty Stewart, and Monte Weaver. As a group those four started 124 games, threw 952 1/3 innings, and compiled a 4.02 run average. A year later the same quartet started 97 games, threw 692 innings, and averaged 5.44 runs against; they allowed almost the same amount of runs as they had the year before, despite throwing 260 fewer innings. The Senators found out the hard way that it's tough to win without decent starting pitching. ?R.J. Anderson
6. The 1991 Minnesota Twins
Okay, they didn't completely turn into goo after winning the '91 World Series. They went 90-72 the following year, second behind the A's in the AL West. But the next eight seasons they became fish food for the rest of the American League. There are usually two good signs you have fallen off:
After '92, they suffered eight straight losing seasons (their best showing was .469 in the 1994 abrupt-o-season). Chuck Knoblauch came into his own, but Kent Hrbek and Kirby Puckett didn't have much time left. John Smiley left for free agency, and their pitching rotation turned to an indoor cavalcade of sadness. The team's ERA+ from '91 to '95 went as follows: 116, 109, 92, 86, 84. Once their pitching became league average through the help of Brad Radke, suddenly the offense fell apart. Eventually everybody got frustrated and built an outdoor stadium. ?Matt Sussman
7. The 1998 San Diego Padres
The 1998 season captured the nation's attention, and while most of the audience was tuned in to the McGwire and Sosa show, out in San Diego the Padres were marching toward their third playoff appearance in the 30-year history of the franchise. The '98 Padres had it all: a bona fide ace in Kevin Brown, whose 2.38 ERA in 257 innings netted a third-place finish in the Cy Young voting; a Hall of Fame hitter and face of the franchise in Tony Gwynn, whose isolated power of .180 was the highest of his career; a middle-order masher in Greg Vaughn, whose 50 homers broke the previously-established Padre standard by 10; and a shutdown closer in the form of Trevor Hoffman, whose 53 saves temporarily tied him for the second-highest total in baseball history. The team enjoyed another strong offensive campaign from Ken Caminiti, while right-hander Andy Ashby had the best season of his career, netting a 3.34 ERA in more than 225 frames. The Pads disposed of the Astros and Braves in the playoffs, but San Diego was steamrolled in the '98 World Series by the Yankees in a four-game sweep.
The Padres roster was overturned in the off-season of 1998-99, and the ensuing fallout frustrated a fan base that had already witnessed a fire sale following the 1992 season. Brown, who had arrived the previous off-season via the Marlins' fire sale, turned his big year into a free-agent payday with a nine-digit contract to wear a Dodgers uniform. Vaughn was dealt to the Reds for Reggie Sanders (and change), while Caminiti and outfielder Steve Finley also departed via free agency. Newcomers Sanders and Phil Nevin filled in admirably, but they were the only starters outside of Gwynn to crack a 750 OPS (meanwhile Vaughn tallied another 45 bombs and 118 Ribs for Cincy), and the top-hitting trio of Pads averaged just 124 games between them in the '99 season. The 39-year-old Gwynn battled injuries which limited him to 111 games played, and though Ashby put up a solid follow-up campaign to his '98 breakout (3.83 ERA in 206 innings), he was the only San Diego starter to finish under the 4.00 mark. The Friars slipped to a 74-88 record, 24 games off of their '98 pace, kicking off a five-year run of fourth- and fifth-place finishes out West.
The '98 Pads caught lightning in a bottle, and the combination of regression and roster turnover conspired to send the '99 team below the depths of .500. It would have been cost-prohibitive to retain a roster with so many key players headed to free agency, and in retrospect, the club made the right decisions?Brown was a 34-year-old pitcher who received a seven-year, $105 million deal to play ball into his 40s; the 36-year-old Caminiti would play just 248 games over his final three years in the bigs; and Vaughn's career would nose-dive following the '99 season (while Sanders became a key cog in the trade that brought Bret Boone and Ryan Klesko to San Diego). The '98 squad was an aging team?not one of their regular starters in the lineup or the rotation was under the age of 27, and six of their eight regular position players were on the wrong side of 30?and management stuck to their guns amid this harsh reality, rather than spend lavishly in a veiled attempt to recapture the magic. ?Doug Thorburn
8. The 1964 New York Yankees
Dynasties can be sustained for only so long before the cracks in the core begin to show. Aging stars stick around too long for sentimental or contractual reasons; front offices fail to replenish the team?s young talent, either out of complacency, a reluctance to trust unproven players, or an inability to strike gold again. Eventually enough rust accumulates that the team reaches the tipping point into non-contention.
The Yankees finished over .500 for 39 straight seasons from 1926-1964 not just because they were wealthy, but because they were smart, adept at scouting, and very vigilant about putting succession plans in place. When Lou Gehrig retired, there was Joe DiMaggio; when DiMaggio retired, there was Mickey Mantle. And it was the same with the organization?s complementary players, who unfailingly arose to shore up any area in which the roster seemed to be slipping. (It didn?t hurt that that for a while, the Kansas City Athletics functioned as a Yankees farm team.)
Powered by a bunch of names you know, the Yankees won five consecutive pennants from 1960-1964, but by ?65, those cornerstone players were mostly past their primes. Mantle, an old 33, declined from 6.9 WARP to 2.8. Roger Maris, at 30, fell from 4.3 to 1.0. Elston Howard, at 36, went from 6.1 to 0.3. Tony Kubek went from above average to injured and below replacement, then retired. There were young position players, but even the ones who had some staying power?Joe Pepitone, Horace Clarke, Roger Repoz?weren?t the equals of the ones who went before. (Bobby Murcer and Roy White got cups of coffee but weren?t ready for regular roles.) With the exception of Mel Stottlemyre, who had what would prove to be a career year in his first full season, and a still-effective Whitey Ford, the pitching staff struggled. Jim Bouton blew up, and failings in the field (the team?s defensive efficiency fell from second to 13th) made the pitching look even worse than it was.
Throw in some bad luck?the ?65 Yankees finished five games under their Pythagorean record; the ?66 team finished nine games under theirs, going 15-38 in one-run games?and a manager, Johnny Keane, who wasn?t well suited to the team (?It was like Billy Graham in charge of the Hell?s Angels,? Bouton said), and you had the makings of what for this franchise would be a prolonged dry spell. The Yankees wouldn?t make it back to October until 1976, by which point?with the exception of White?the roster had entirely turned over. ?Ben Lindbergh
Source: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=21378
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Source: http://www.hurricanesports.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=28700&ATCLID=208892660
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It was a little over a year ago when we reported that Vancouver-based HootSuite, the platform that lets enterprises manage social media accounts, was raising a $50 million round at a $500 million valuation.?Fast forward one year later it looks like investors are instead tripling down: HootSuite is today announcing a Series B round of funding of $165 million to take its business to the next level. This latest round -- led by?Insight Venture Partners with participation from Accel Partners and existing investor OMERS Ventures -- is one of the biggest for a startup this year, and brings the total raised by HootSuite to date to nearly $187 million.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/7CfANFPbDac/
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By Rik Sharma
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Hazard, Suarez, RVP... IN. David Silva? Go on then. There's ?100million to spend.
Yes, it's that time again, so start studying the ins and outs, have a peek at the prices and select your team for the coming season (the big kick-off is getting close, after all).
And if your picks pass muster you can once again win big in MailOnline's fantasy football game, including a ?1MILLION jackpot and ?60,000 in other prizes.?
And don't worry if you're one of those fantasy managers who picks your team and then forgets to maintain it. To win the cool million it's all about the XI you pick for the first day of the season.
If your starting line-up on Saturday August 17 proves to be the selection of players who make up the highest scoring (financially possible) team for the season... you're quids in.
Throw in prizes for the overall winner, 10 Manager of the Month prizes and even a 'Golden Boot' award for the team that scores the most goals, and there's plenty of money to go around.
You can also pit your wits against former Liverpool, Tottenham and England midfielder and Sportsmail columnist Jamie Redknapp.
Jamie has picked his side and it will be automatically placed into all mini-leagues for you to compete against... although, he may change it before the big kick-off as everyone has unlimited transfers before August 17.
You can, as usual, create your own mini-leagues for you and your mates, your family or your co-workers, to settle arguments over who knows the most about Premier League football.
Scroll down to watch MailOnline's ?1million Fantasy Football game advert...
Main men: Will you select Eden Hazard or splash the cash on Robin van Persie? The choice is yours...
VIDEO: Watch MailOnline's ?1million Fantasy Football video advert...
Sportsmail will be bringing you a weekly fantasy football column to help guide you throughout the season, with hints, transfer tips and other advice. Plus, players will receive regular emails detailing their weekly scores.
Good luck - and don't forget you can make unlimited changes before the first week deadline on August 17, so even if you pick Gareth Bale now and he ends up going to Real Madrid, you can give him the boot yourself.
**CLICK HERE TO PLAY MAILONLINE ?1MILLION FANTASY FOOTBALL NOW!**
It looks easy, doesn?t it? Jose Mourinho can do it, David Moyes can do it ? Manchester City will be hoping Manuel Pellegrini can, too. We all think we can pick the right team.
So now you can prove it ? and win ?1million if you select the Perfect starting XI!
I?m going to be picking my team in MailOnline?s brilliant new Fantasy Football game ? and you can go head-to-head with me.
But when it comes down to it, do you pick RVP or Luis Suarez? Can you afford Gareth Bale? And what about the new boys coming to the Premier League, like Paulinho or Fernandinho? Do you go for goals with David Luiz in defence, or stay a little more solid with Vincent Kompany?
I?m studying the transfers and the stats to pick my fantasy squad. You can test yourself against me by entering my team in your mini-league. Fancy your chances?
You?ll be able to register and enter up to five teams. Remember you only get one shot at the Perfect 11 though, so make your first team a good one.
As well as the ?1m super prize, there?s a ?40,000 prize for the top manager at the end of the season. Plus there?s a ?1,000 bonus for each Manager of the Month so it?s well worth tinkering through the season.
Get thinking, get researching and register your teams NOW!
Good luck,
JAMIE
Ready for action: Jamie Redknapp will put his team in your mini-league... can you beat him?
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Source: www.timescolonist.com --- Thursday, August 01, 2013
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