Sports, Sports, Sports

October is one of the two best times of the year for Sports.  Why?  Because many of the major sports all converge during this month.  The other great period is late March / early April — the NCAA March Madness, the play-off stretch drive for the NBA and NHL seasons, the start of the MLB season, the Masters, NASCAR, etc.

But, I think I love this time period right now the best — the MLB play-offs and World Series, the NFL season is in full gear as it enters its’ second month of action, the NCAA Football season is getting really good with great match-ups every weekend, the NHL season starts this weekend (DC fans are so excited about the Capitals this year), the NBA exhibition season has started and the regular season will tip off at the end of the month, the riveting and highly popular Ryder Cup matches were just staged (per TV ratings, the third most popular sports event in the world – only trailing the World Cup and the Olympics) and NASCAR is in its’ play-off stretch drive.

Today is the start of a fantastic one-month period for baseball fans … the division and league play-offs over the next couple of weeks – then the World Series.  It’s hard to predict who will it all this year.   There are a number of great match-ups this year.  It’s not wise to predict via the blog since you can’t erase what you wrote but here’s one person’s opinion.  Since I’m a strong proponent of the saying that pitching and defense wins championships, my predictions are that the Rays will defeat the Rangers, the Yankees will beat the Twins, the Phils will overpower the Reds and the Giants will defeat the Braves.   In the NL Championship Series, due to their dynamic and deep pitching, I’ll take the Phillies over the Giants (who also have a great pitching line-up but the Phils are much stronger offensively).   In the AL series, my heart says to pick the Rays over the Yanks, but my mind says to pick the Yanks to defeat the Rays (due to their superior offensive firepower — see what a $200 million plus payroll delivers)!   My prediction for the World Series Champion is the Phillies.  Their 1-2-3 pitching line-up of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels plus their hitting balance will overtake the Yankees (they have great offensive balance, too, but their starting pitching has been a bit suspect lately).

So, for Sports fans throughout the country, enjoy the next few weeks.  There’s great Sports action – across all major sports — for the next month.  This will help make our Sports courses we teach at Georgetown that much more lively as we discuss and dissect these wonderful sports events each and every week.  Enjoy.

Good week in DC

Last week was a good, busy week in DC.  Here a few of the highlights –

I co-teach a Sports Leadership and Management class on Monday evenings at Georgetown.  This is the third time I’ve taught this class.  The first time was with Kevin Payne, President, DC United and George Perry of the Freedom.  The second time was with Marty Conway from AOL – and a former exec with the Orioles and Rangers.  This semester I’m teaching with Steve Goodman from NFLPA and Zach Bono, formerly with the Redskins, Wizards, Bucs, etc.  We’ve also been fortunate to have a number of excellent guest speakers this semester — executives from the Wizards (Tommy Sheppard), Capitals (GM George McPhee), Redskins (Jeff Ritter), NFLPA (Marc Levin), etc.  I love teaching this course and interacting with our excellent students.

On Tuesday afternoon, our business school at Georgetown hosted a terrific panel session featuring Under Armour Founder and CEO, Kevin Plank and Rosetta Stone CEO, Tom Adams.  I know our students very much enjoyed hearing from these business leaders of these two very popular and growing brands.

On Wednesday afternoon, I moderated a panel session titled “Fan Engagement” at the Radio Advertising Bureau’s Conference in DC.  Fortunately, we had three excellent panelists — Chris Oliviero, SVP Programming, CBS Radio; Jim Rushton, SVP, Corporate Sales, Miami Dolphins; and Mark Turley, Dir, Corporate Media Sales, Pittsburgh Penguins.  Although a majority of my career has been spent in the Internet space, I did get my start in radio so it was terrific to be back among radio execs at the RAB Conference.

Then, on Wednesday night, I attended the 24th Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards Gala at the beautiful Kennedy Center.  What a spectacular night!   The Princess of Spain was there as well as Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor.   The honorees were Juan Luis Guerra, Alejandro Sanz, Mario Kreutzberger, Jaime Esclante and Cuauhtemoc Blanco.  The performers included Luis Enrique, Belinda, Jorge Celedon, Jenni Rivera, etc.  Lots of pride and emotion throughout the evening — congrats to Antonio Tijerino and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation for hosting another terrific event.

Thursday night was a great event hosted by Ridgwell’s and the Greater DC Board of Trade at the redesigned Arena Stage.   The many people in attendance marveled at the new Arena Stage.  They hit a home run — and it will go a long way in improving the waterfront area in that part of town (which will eventually extend to the area around Nationals Park).

It was also a good week of business as well as mentoring a number of students and mentees.   And, topped off by the great Skins win over the Eagles on Sunday and OU’s nice victory over Texas on Saturday!