The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty

I just finished reading the book The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness, by Buster Olney. What a great book for a Red Sox fan. First of all, a word to vendors out there: if you want me to buy something, cover it with pictures of despondent Yankees. Most of the narrative weaves around the 2001 world series talking about the players and then leading up to the well known ending of the Yankees losing to the Diamond Backs in game 7. For me, reading it must be similar to what a Yankee fan might feel when watching the movie "Still, We Believe." Side note: I have been avoiding the emotional pain of watching this movie, even though I know the true happy ending of 2004.

One of the interesting points made was that Yankees team of the late 90's was architected by some very clever people that know how to select talented people that play well together, support each other, and can withstand the pressure of New York. These people were finally able to operate freely when Steinbrenner was banned from Baseball preventing him from sacrifice long term success for short term tinkering.

The Epilogue of the book is priceless reading for a Sox fan. It basically talks about how the 2001 loss drove Georgey crazy and he has been throwing money into the team in foolish ways (Contreras), overriding his experts with his own bad baseball decisions (Mondesi), and making Yankees management miserable and less invested in the Yankees program. What is left is a bunch of highly paid mercenaries that are individualists and not so much fun for Torre to coach as the old gang.

Pitchers and catchers report today. I am pumped. It is so on.

PlanetTran

I recently used PlanetTran to get home from Logan after a red-eye from California. PlanetTran is a car service that uses fuel-efficient Toyota Prius Hybrids rather than the usual Crown Vic or other gas guzzling de-commissioned cop cars. The service was great. I booked the trip online and was given an accurate estimate of $43 for the ride. This is almost exactly what I would have paid a cab but the experience was a lot nicer. The car and driver (the founder) were waiting for me right across the street from baggage claim. I chose to sit up front where I could get a good view of the Prius information console that displayed how the car was being powered (gas or battery). I was able to pay by credit card and the transaction was processed through a Dell Windows CE device that recorded my signature.

The founder says he has 4 cars and has a 5th on order. They have been going for about a year and business is picking up as people start hearing about the service.

I highly recommend PlanetTran and will use them again.

What will they call the stadiums?

Now that P&G bought Gillette, and Bank of America bought Fleet, and Manulife bought John Hancock, we are running out of big, Boston based, household name companies. Beyond all the details about jobs and the local economy, what will they call the stadiums? Bank of America gave back naming rights to the Fleet Center (not out of good will, by the way, their contract said they could not rename the stadium again). Here is a list of the following companies that could be in the running:

• Fidelity, my bet.
  
• Citizens Bank, based in Providence, they are bigger now with all the Financial Services M&A. They also took over the Fast Lane advertising from Fleet.
  
• New Balance. Big name but I don't know if they have the budget for this kind of marketing.
  
• EMC. Not consumer facing enough.
  
• TJX. Holding companies are too abstract. They could name a stadium after one of their properties.
  
• State Street Bank.
  
• Staples, but they already have the Staples Center, why is it in LA?
  
• Raytheon, too military.
  
• Genzyme. No one wants to think of Lysosomal Storage Disorders when they are a game.
  
• Biogen. Not so New England any more with the merger with IDEC

BTW, I think "The Razor" is the coolest name for a football stadium. Since the Gillette brand is going to live on, I hope they keep it.