Around the city; around the globe

Around the horn today.

From International:

Chicago has pulled something of an upset, being selected as the USOC's official entrant into the 2016 Summer Olympic bouillabaisse. It just goes to show, the door was wide open for San Francisco.


Will Chicago win the IOC bid? In a word, no. Chicago ain't exactly a breezy slab of beach, and despite an impressive downtown Renaissance, has little of the caché of America's coastal cities. What's more, practically all the major venues will be temporary, which runs contrary to the IOC's goals.


Forced to bet, and given that Rio has practically locked up the '14 World Cup, leaving them uninterested in the '16 Games, where would I place my money? How about Tokyo?

From National:

Bill Clinton came to San Francisco ("I jump at any chance to come back to San Francisco," he intimated; in seven-plus years, his successor has never been.) The former president, in a talk about health care, pointed out that the U.S. spends over $800 billion (a very hard amount to fathom, indeed) more than Canada or Switzerland on health care every year, yet insures fewer of its citizens, and ranks just 37th in the world in overall health care.

Said Clinton, "We are great about treating sickness, but we are lousy at keeping people well." It's an excellent point, and one you Sport Managers would also be wise to heed. Assuming, that is, that "free market" logic, which implies that this need will soon be met, holds true.

From Local:

In another free market battle, the S. F. Chronicle reports that San Francisco MUNI drivers are automatically -- it's in their contract -- the highest or second-highest paid drivers in the nation. Does this handcuff the City, and decrease the drivers' incentives to perform? Their union leader doesn't think so.

It's reminiscent of state-level problems, where decades of voter-approved ballot measures hogtie legislators every year before they even show up for duty. But that's okay. California, like San Francisco, is doing just fine.

And, From Sports:

Live in Oakland, Eric Chavez steals the unstealoffable Andy Pettitte blind. You love seeing stuff like that.

The A's are squaring off in another war against the Yanks... Warriors roaring towards the playoffs!.. Sharkeys already battling in the postseason... And the Giants... snowed-out doubleheader in Pittsburgh. And Barry Zito is said to be dating Hilary Duff.

Which is at least a little ironic, given that his honeymoon in San Francisco is officially over.


By the way, happy Jackie Robinson Day around baseball. There's a great article here, among the glut of Jackie Robinson anniversary pieces. Baseball failing to market its players as well as the other leagues? Absolutely.

You'll notice, every particularly clever or high-end commercial featuring a Derek Jeter, is actually done by Nike, or some such. Meanwhile, if Dontrelle Willis faces C. C. Sabathia in interleague play, there's the slimmest of chances that any black pitcher will start a game anywhere else on the continent.

Let's hope that Inner Cities program you keep hearing about -- in Compton -- is as good as advertised. The next three, so we're told, are already being built.

Percentage of African-American players in MLB in 1975: 27.5%. In 2007: 8.4%.

Let's keep working, folks. That Mays kid could play.

-Zed

"Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be."
-Kurt Vonnegut