NBey6's Blog

"The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned."

- Somerset Maugham -

Thor's Day 1-21-10

457, 113, 482, 075, 716, 438, 493, 568, 908, 813, 702

028, 713, 206, 480, 006, 070, 880, 887, 111, 666, 777

8501, 3684, 0050, 6616, 4993, 4484, 6611, 1111, 6666

Women's roundup: Venus, Serena reach 3rd round

MELBOURNE, Australia - The Williams sisters held court at the Australian Open on Thursday, a back-to-back Venus-Serena doubleheader that left the siblings still in the mix for yet another Grand Slam singles title.

Serena Williams, the Australian Open defending champion who has 11 major singles titles, beat Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-1. Venus, who has seven, defeated Austrian Sybille Bammer 6-2, 7-5.

Venus preceded her sister at Hisense Arena with the roof open under a warm, sunny Melbourne afternoon that morphed into an early evening sky streaked by twilight.

Only one Williams can make it through to the final on Jan. 30 - they are drawn to face each other in the semifinals if they advance that far. The way they played Thursday, it's a good chance they will.

Serena, who has won the Australian Open every odd-numbered year since 2003, was more dominant, completing her match in just over an hour and converting four of her 11 break-point chances.

"I feel if I play well, I can beat anybody," Serena Williams said.

Serena didn't know how her sister was doing before she went on court.

"No, I didn't watch Venus," Serena said. "I can't really watch her on TV, and definitely not before I play. I get way too nervous."

Venus Williams, who has been to the final at Melbourne Park just once, when she lost to her sister in 2003, spent about 30 minutes more on court to beat Bammer. She faced her second left-hander in a row - she beat Lucie Safarova in the first round.

"Playing two lefties in the first two rounds is little unusual, but I was up for the challenge," Venus said. "Her game is a little bit different from most people, so really have to be a little more patient because she's kind of hitting a kind of a moonball almost. I just had to just make sure I stayed on my rhythm."

Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 Australian Open finalist and French Open winner the same year, never found her rhythm. She extended her run of poor results in a second-round 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-4 loss to Gisela Dulko of Argentina.

Since her French Open win, she has failed to get past the fourth round of a major six times.

Ivanovic says she's still a work in progress and is probably playing better than in 2008, when she attained the No. 1 ranking. Personal pressure might be the difference.

"I think it's expectations from myself that I put," Ivanovic said. "Actually, I think I'm striking the ball better now than I did in 2008 or any previous years. My movement is getting there. It will take some time."

U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark advanced 6-3, 6-1 over Julia Goerges of Germany and will next play No. 29 Shahar Peer of Israel, who beat Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-1, 6-4.

Wozniacki could play Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.

"I think she has the potential ... the sky's the limit," Williams said of Wozniacki. "Obviously if we both play well enough, it could happen."

Other women advancing were No. 7 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, No. 9 Vera Zvonareva of Russia, No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 16 Li Na of China and No. 32 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain.

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind."

- Rudyard Kipling -

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
We are all witnesses

---

By Bill Simmons
ESPN.com

 

Like everyone else at Staples Center, I had a little extra hop in my step Saturday night. LeBron was in the house.

 

 I skipped the second half of a live NFL playoff game for him.

 

 I shaved and dressed up a little. For me, anyway.

 

 I showed up early. Seven o'clock. Gotta watch the warm-ups. Gotta see everything.

 

 You do these things when LeBron passes through town. Hey, we see celebrities all the time in Los Angeles. We walk by them on the street, pull up next to them in intersections, sit near them in restaurants. There's something of a code in place. You don't stare at celebs. You don't approach them. You don't stand two feet away and snap cell phone pictures. You show them respect. You leave them alone. Along with the weather and the lifestyle, that's the biggest reason stars like living here. They aren't treated like lions in the zoo.

 

 

So when a basketball player gets thousands of NBA fans to geek out 25 minutes before a game, especially here, he has to be special. In my book, I wrote about how Michael Jordan's competitiveness separated him from everyone else, but so did his force of personality. He had a knack for pulling every eyeball in the room his way ... even a room with 18,000 people in it. Referees and opponents fawned over him. Teammates followed his instructions like drones. If he made an unusually splendid play and glanced into the stands for approval, entire sections would swoon. Command of the room. That's what Jordan had. Kobe doesn't have it, and he never had it. That will always be the difference between them.

 

 

LeBron? He's getting there. I saw it with my own eyes Saturday. The Cavs emerged for warm-ups and I heard that same familiar squeal from MJ's prime. Urgent. Pleading. Desperate.

 

 

LeBron! LEBRON! LAAAAAAA-BRONNNNNNNNNN!

 

 

I saw the same flashbulbs clicking, with thousands of fans taking photos so they could tell people some day that, yes, they saw LeBron James play basketball. I saw the same people crammed around one half of the court, everyone standing -- standing! -- to watch 12 guys in warm-up suits halfheartedly shoot jump shots and get loose. I saw hundreds of fans inexplicably holding out pens and papers, screaming LeBron's name and praying for the miraculous chance that he'd hop out of a layup line, jump into the crowd and start signing. I saw the same look on LeBron's face that Jordan once had -- a Tupacian "All Eyez on Me" smirk, an expression that happens when everyone stares at you no matter what you do, even if you're scratching your balls or rubbing your head, and once you come to grips with that fact, it's a little bit liberating.

 

 

 

LeBron gets a kick out of it. To say the least. He's the most charismatic athlete of his generation, only you wouldn't fully know it until you studied him in person. Command of the room. He might dunk in the layup lines. He might try to make a one-handed half-court shot. He might call for an alley-oop and soar above his incredulous teammates just for the hell of it. Simply saying "bursting with energy" wouldn't do him justice. It's like watching a super-coordinated, mutant 4-year-old dealing with a severe sugar rush.

 

 

I'm gonna go block Delonte's shot from behind! HAH! He didn't see me coming! Wait, I'm in the mood for an alley-oop. I need me some oop. Mo, throw me an oop. Ah, yes ... it's in the air ... I'm jumping ... DUNK! What now? I want to try a one-handed shot from the corner. Jamario, come play with me. Hold on, I just saw Baron Davis! Hey Baron! What up, dog! Watch this, I'm gonna make a half-court shot with my eyes closed ... <snip>! Just missed it. You know what I really feel like doing? Jumping on Shaq's back. Look out, Big Fella, eeeeeeeeeeee-yah!!!!!!!

 

 

Jordan saved his legs before games, using that time to stretch, practice specific shots and butter up referees. LeBron can't pace himself. Even when he walks from Point A to Point B, there's no loping or strolling. He prances. He hops up and down. And if all these people are staring at him anyway, why not rile them up with a couple ridiculous dunks? You never forget he's on the court. Not for a second. Even his teammates are enamored with him; they jockey for his attention like Octomom's kids. Jordan's supporting cast interacted with him warily, like lower-level executives tiptoeing around their CEO. You were always aware of the pecking order. With LeBron, it's a team in the truest sense. Everyone takes part in every joke. Nobody is excluded. They feed off him. Of all the superstars we have seen, there can't be a better or more beloved teammate. There just can't.

 

 

(Two other notes here: First, seeing Shaq relegated to supporting cast member status on the LeBron Express is jarring. Crammed into his ugly Cavs warm-up suit, rendered irrelevant by the ongoing attention for LeBron, Shaq wandered around in warm-ups looking like a bouncer at a sleazy strip club. I kept waiting for him to start checking IDs. Second, a guy in my section named Lenny has been a Clippers season-ticket holder since 1984. I asked him if he was getting MJ flashbacks during the Cleveland warm-ups. "Oh, definitely," he said. "That was the only other guy who caused ... this." Agreed.)

 

 

 

And when the warm-up suit comes off ... I mean ... good grief. LeBron is the greatest natural athlete in NBA history. Has to be. Karl Malone's height, weight and muscles, only if you gave him the Jordan/Erving/Thompson DNA strain, Magic's passing eye and Bo Jackson's breathtaking combination of power and finesse. We're seeing someone like this again? In his first few seasons, LeBron couldn't fully harness his immense gifts; it was like watching someone carrying too many groceries at once. Now? Those gifts have been harnessed. In the first quarter Saturday night, LeBron picked off an errant pass and took off the other way. Standing near midcourt, Eric Gordon turned and started running to protect his basket, only he wasn't running with nearly enough urgency. In my section, a tortured Clips fan named Jesse screamed "GET BACK!" like he was about to watch someone get killed in a horror movie.

 

 

LeBron sniffed it out immediately. Cruised to midcourt, clicked in his nitrous canister like Vin Diesel and whooooooooooooooooooooooooosh! Flew by Gordon like a Beemer going 130 in the fast lane. Needed four strides to go from midcourt to the rim. Took off inside the foul line and ripped home a vicious dunk. "Whoa!!!!!!" That's what we screamed. What else could you say? WHOA!!!!!!!! That was the only acceptable reaction. Of all the great dunkers over the years, only Doc and LeBron had that Nitrous Canister Coast to Coast Dunk. Since LeBron is taller and bigger, when he does it, the court briefly shrinks in size. You read that correctly.

 

 

Look, if that was the only fun moment of the game, I would have left happy. But LeBron has those "HOLY S---!!!!!!" moments once a quarter. Late in the fourth, Gordon drove past Delonte West and tried to get to the rim, only West timed it and elevated to meet him at the backboard. And I'm watching the play thinking, "<snip>, Delonte might get that," when out of nowhere, the smoke monster from "Lost" came gusting in at warp speed, jumped five feet in the air, soared over both Gordon and West and somehow blocked West's block. The smoke monster? LeBron. A blocked shot of a blocked shot!!! Have you ever seen that one before?

 

 

My friend Hirschy is adamant that we haven't seen LeBron's greatest highlight yet, but when we do, it's going to be life-altering and might get its own two-hour ESPYS show. The play will either be a hellacious follow-up dunk (the odds-on favorite) or an alley-oop like what nearly happened in Portland two Sundays ago, when Mo Williams screwed up and lofted it too high from the left side, only LeBron kept climbing and climbing -- his chin at the rim, his hand approaching the top of the backboard -- and somehow controlled the ball (behind him at this point) as his body started doing a pirouette. For a split second, it seemed like LeBron might attempt the first ever 360-degree alley-oop, then he thought better of it. I almost had a heart attack. It was the most exciting split second of my life.

 

 

 

When you see LeBron in person, the Greatest Highlight Ever is always in play. You don't leave your seat until he takes a breather. You just don't. You also expect LeBron's team to win the same way you always expected Jordan's team to win. Heading into the fourth quarter, with Cleveland trailing by five and LeBron having scored only 19, my friend Tollin and I had the obligatory, "What should be the fourth-quarter line, and what should be the line for LeBron's final point total?" conversations. We decided "Cavs by 7.5" and "31.5 for LeBron." They ended up winning by one (didn't cover) but LeBron finished with 32 (covered). When Baron Davis' final brick clanged off the rim, all four of LeBron's teammates on the floor sprinted over to him to celebrate. He held his arms out wide and welcomed them like a happy father. From there, they pranced into the locker room, and if they stayed to have a late dinner in Los Angeles that night, I guarantee LeBron invited everybody and battled with Shaq over the check.

 

 

 

Again, there is no better teammate. And after watching this point get hammered home for three hours, it suddenly seemed far-fetched that LeBron James would willingly walk away from his guys -- and his fans, and his city, and his legacy in Cleveland -- just to play for someone else.

 

 

But he might.

 

 

 

* * * * * * * * * * * *

 

 

 

On July 1, 2010, LeBron becomes a free agent. He will be able to play for any team he wants. You knew this already. You were also aware of the stakes. If LeBron leaves Cleveland, the franchise may never recover. If LeBron joins the Bulls, Knicks, Nets, Heat or Clippers -- the five most logical destinations -- that franchise becomes a top-five team regardless of players two through 12. Even the 3-37 Nets would be a 55-win team with LeBron. What will happen if he ever ends up with good teammates?

 

 

Only five times has an NBA superduperstar switched teams in his prime -- Wilt (twice), Kareem, Moses and Shaq -- and each time, their new team won at least one title. None of those players had LeBron's ceiling at the time: not even Wilt. As crazy as this sounds, he's been the most underrated story of the 2009-10 season. Forget about back-to-back MVPs ... LeBron has a chance to sweep "Player of the Month" from November to April. (Never happened before, in case you were wondering.) He's enjoying one of the greatest statistical seasons ever: 30 PPG, 8 RPG, 7 APG, 51% FG, 80% FT, 40% 3FG and first-team All-Defense are in play right now, only he's doing it in a loaded league surrounded by glorified role players, with a coaching staff that can't figure out much other than "Hey guys, get out of his way." Unlike past seasons, he's learning how to vacillate between MJ Mode and Magic Mode almost like he's flipping a switch. In Portland, the Blazers singled him in the first half and he dropped 31 in MJ Mode. When they doubled him in the second half, he flipped the switch to Magic, found open shooters and finished with a ho-hum 41-10-8. You cannot plan for this guy anymore. He's offensively amorphous.

 

 

SUPERDUPERSTAR MOVES

Five NBA superstars (including Wilt Chamberlain twice) have changed teams while in their primes. All five eventually won a title, but only Moses Malone won in his first season. Here are their ages when they won a title with their new team and how many seasons it took (LeBron is 25).

Player	New team	Years	Age
Chamberlain	76ers	2	30
Chamberlain	Lakers	4	35
Kareem	Lakers	4	31
Moses	76ers	1	27
Shaq	Lakers	4	28

 

 

Know this: The Kobe-LeBron argument is dead. It's over. LeBron James is the best basketball player alive. Whoever gets him this summer will treat its fans to 50-55 appointment home games every season for the next five (including playoffs). If you were ever fortunate enough to have season tickets for a memorable athlete in his prime -- Gretzky, Montana, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Pedro, Koufax, whomever -- then you know exactly what this means. It's not just about the winning. It's about heading to the stadium or the park feeling like you won the lottery. It's about the buzz in the crowd, the way everyone seems like they spent just a little more time getting ready. It's about the ceiling being removed for the night. It's about the chance that, 50 years later, your grandkid or your great-grandkid will ask you, "What was it like to see HIM play every night?" ... and you'll have an answer for him. It's about the familiarity of excellence -- constant exposure to someone who's better at his job than you will ever be at anything -- and how that superiority ebbs and flows from night to night.

 

 

For the Cleveland fans, that's what they would miss most about LeBron. Forget about titles, or even the chances for titles. They would miss that ebb and flow. I never fully appreciated it with Bird in Boston. When Pedro was destroying the American League in 1999 and 2000, I appreciated it. Watched every start. Attended as many games as I could afford. I remember one Friday night, when I was dragging my girlfriend to Fenway on another date to see him, she didn't want to go. She made the salient point that, for the money we paid to buy scalped tickets, we could get dressed up and have a first-class dinner at Hamersley's.

 

 

 

"You don't understand," I told her. "We can always go to Hamersley's. We will NEVER have another pitcher like this."

 

 

These are the stakes with LeBron. His ceiling as a top-10 all-timer remains up for debate. Right now, he doesn't want it as badly as Jordan did or Kobe does. There's more than a hint of Shaqitis with him, a feeling that LeBron wants to win but isn't obsessed with winning. And you have to be both. Just look at what happened last summer: Kobe distinguished himself by perfecting the footwork for a startlingly effective low-post game; LeBron distinguished himself by promoting a documentary and a book. Does he want this or not? His unwillingness to play with his back to the basket, at this point of his career, with his obvious size advantage, is the only blemish on an otherwise impeccable résumé ... but it's a legitimate blemish.

 

 

(Note: On Saturday night in crunch time, the Clippers defended him with Baron Davis, knowing LeBron didn't have the low-post chops to make them pay. He should have been embarrassed afterward. Only he knows if he was.)

 

 

 

The silver lining: He's only 25 years old. Bird, Magic, Hakeem, Jordan, Shaq, Kobe ... all of them peaked as players in their late 20s. Why? Because you need to lose a few times, need to lick your wounds and taste your own blood, need to sit in silence in the locker room of another lost season wondering what went wrong, and then you need to say, "Never again, not ever, I am NOT letting this happen again." Given how easy basketball comes to him right now, given how many people probably kiss his rear end on a day-to-day basis, given how much he enjoys playing and being part of a team, I just don't think LeBron James has hit that point yet. If it never happens, too bad. If it happens, look out.

 

 

 

But where will it happen? With seemingly everyone in play, I allowed myself to dream about LeBron as a Clipper on Saturday night. This wasn't the first time; you might remember my renegade plan last summer for a billionaire to offer Donald Sterling twice the value of the franchise, with the ultimate goal to sign LeBron and turn the Clippers into a twin version of the Lakers. On paper, Los Angeles fulfills LeBron's dueling "global icon" and Hollywood needs, sticks him in good weather, allows him to live a somewhat normal celebrity life and creates one of the best running sports rivalries in a while: Kobe and the Big Brother Lakers sharing Hollywood with LeBron and the Black Sheep Little Brother Who Finally Got His Act Together Clippers. For the first time since Mickey and Willie, the two best players in one sport would share one city. Quite a pipe dream.

 

 

Too bad it will never happen. Whether it's a real Clippers curse or just decades of bad karma built up from Sterling's misdeeds -- as Phil Jackson brazenly suggested last weekend by urging Sterling to do a few more "mitzvahs" to change his team's luck -- clearly, it's bigger than all of us. When Blake Griffin was lost for the season last week, people just shook their heads and said, "Of course ... it's the Clippers." LeBron is too smart to get that Clippers stink on him. He can smell it from 2,000 miles away.

 

 

So wherever he lands, it won't be here. That means we won't cross paths too often. If he remains in the Eastern Conference, I will see him once a season. If he heads West, I will see him twice. I don't know what uniform he will be wearing. I don't know how many titles he has lurking inside him. I don't know if he will keep striving to get better, or if he'll settle on getting 91.7 percent there and enjoying the ride like Shaq did. I don't know if he will average a triple-double one season, win five straight titles, maybe even give us the World's Greatest Highlight. Everything's in play. Everything. I don't know anything, and neither do you.

 

 

But I do know this ...

 

 

LeBron James will play the Clippers at least once next season. And when the game happens, I will be standing during warm-ups and gawking like everyone else. Witnesses.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Fitzgerald dies; built Zags' foundation
Associated Press

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Dan Fitzgerald, the coach who built Gonzaga into a national basketball power but resigned before the school began its current run of NCAA tournaments, has died at the age of 67.

 

“

I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Fitz. He's had a huge impact on how we still run the program, how we work, how we prepare. What we do and what we achieve now has Fitz's imprint all over it.

” -- Gonzaga coach Mark Few

 

Fitzgerald collapsed Tuesday evening in a restaurant in the suburb of Airway Heights. He was pronounced dead at Deaconness Medical Center in Spokane, according to a nursing supervisor at the hospital.

 

The cause of death was not immediately released.

 

Fitzgerald recruited John Stockton to campus, took the Bulldogs to their first NCAA tournament in 1995, and built the coaching staff of Mark Few, Dan Monson and Bill Grier that has put the Bulldogs in every NCAA tournament since the 1999 season.

 

Fitzgerald was 252-171 as coach from 1978 to 1997, and also served as athletic director.

 

"He was an unforgettable personality," Stockton told The Spokesman-Review. "He was loyal -- incredibly loyal -- above all. He was there for anything and everything I've ever needed, ever asked for."

 

Fitzgerald stepped down in December 1997 after a school investigation determined he had been collecting and spending some athletic department funds without the knowledge of the university controller's office, a possible violation of NCAA rules. Fitzgerald contended that none of the money went to players or into his own pocket.

 

In recent years he had worked as community relations manager for the Northern Quest Casino.

 

Fitzgerald took Gonzaga to its first NCAA tournament in 1995, and he recruited the players who went to the final eight in 1999. Only Hank Anderson (291) coached more victories for Gonzaga.

 

Fitzgerald served as head coach from 1978 to 1981, and then from 1985 to 1997. He spent four years concentrating on his duties as athletic director, including renovating the basketball arena that became known as The Kennel.

 

Known throughout Spokane simply as "Fitz," the coach had a big personality and his imprint remains on the Gonzaga program, which is currently ranked No. 10 in the ESPN/USA Today poll (No. 15 AP).

 

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Fitz," Few told The Spokesman-Review. Few, who is three victories from passing Fitzgerald on the Gonzaga list of coaching wins, was brought to campus in the early 1990s as a low-paid assistant.

 

"He's had a huge impact on how we still run the program, how we work, how we prepare," Few said. "What we do and what we achieve now has Fitz's imprint all over it."

 

Fitzgerald is survived by his wife and daughter.

Forbes Magazine

Celebrities
Hollywood's Top-Earning Couples
Dorothy Pomerantz, 01.12.10, 6:00 PM ET

 

LOS ANGELES -

 

The indisputable king and queen of the hip-hop prom are Jay-Z and Beyonce Knowles. The couple, who quietly married in 2008, not only produce and sing some of the biggest hits on the charts (including "Single Ladies" and "Empire State of Mind") but they oversee clothing lines, perform around the world and endorse products from companies like American Express and Budweiser.

 

All that hard work has paid off. Between June 2008 and June 2009 the couple earned a combined $122 million putting them squarely at the top of our annual Top-Earning Couples list.

 

Our list includes actors, musicians and professional athletes. We talked to agents, managers, producers and lawyers to determine what celebrities earned from staring in movies, touring, selling albums, playing professional sports, creating lines of clothing and perfumes and appearing in ads.

 

Jay-Z and Beyonce both contribute significantly to their joint earnings. Last year Beyonce out-earned Jay-Z, bringing in $87 million to his $35 million. (The couple also topped last year’s list with $162 million. About half of that came from each star.)

 

For the couple in second place on our list, it’s more about his big payday. Harrison Ford and his girlfriend, Calista Flockhart, earned a combined $69 million, $53 million less than Jay-Z and Beyonce.

 

Almost all of that came from Ford’s work in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Ford and producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas made a unique deal with Paramount on the movie that gave them a significant portion of the film’s earnings after the studio broke even. As a result Ford eared a jaw-dropping $65 million for putting back on Indy’s trademark fedora. Flockhart earns for her work on the TV show Brothers & Sisters.

 

In third place: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The power couple earned a total of $55 million split about evenly between them both. Pitt had one of the biggest hits of his career last year with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Jolie has embraced her inner action hero with 2008’s Wanted and the upcoming film Salt.

 

Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, rank fourth with $48 million. Smith is perhaps the last of the great movie stars. Even in recessionary times he still can demand a $20 million paycheck. Pinkett Smith has a burgeoning career of her own. She voices Gloria the hippo in the popular Madagascar films and last year produced The Secret Life of Bees.

 

The Smiths would earn even more if we were including whole families. Their daughter, Willow, appeared in I Am Legend with her dad and did voice work with her mom on Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Jaden Smith costarred with his father in The Pursuit of Happyness and will star in the upcoming remake of The Karate Kid.

 

Rounding out the top five are David and Victoria Beckham. The pair earned $46 million between June 2008 and June 2009. The vast majority of that comes from David Beckham, who plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He is also playing for A.C. Milan and could appear in his fourth World Cup this summer.

Mexico is located in the “Ring of Fire,” one of the earth’s most violent earthquake and volcano zones.  

- Provided by RandomHistory.com -

New York Times to charge for Web access in 2011

• By ANDREW VANACORE, AP Business Writer
• 1 hr 56 mins ago

NEW YORK – The New York Times says it will charge readers for full access to its Web site starting in 2011, a risky move aimed at drawing more revenue online without driving away advertisers that want the biggest possible audience.

The potential pitfalls have made most other major newspapers hesitant to take a similar step. But after months of deliberation, the Times said Wednesday it will use a metered system, allowing free access to a certain number of articles and then charging users for additional content.

The Times did not disclose how many articles will be available for free and what it will charge to read more. Subscribers to the printed version of the Times would still have free access to the Web site.

It would not be the first time the newspaper has tried to charge for its online articles.

It charged for its Web site in 1996 but attracted only about 4,000 subscribers. Another experiment called Times Select, which required a $50 annual subscription to read Times columnists, drew 221,000 customers but was scrapped in 2007 because it dented ad sales. Advertisers generally pay more for higher Web traffic.

The new approach resembles the one used at The Financial Times. The idea is to draw casual readers with free articles while getting fees from people who want to go deeper on the site.

The plan would not stop search engines from cataloging the newspaper's Web site, so its articles would still benefit from the traffic generated by search results.

The Times said it will use 2010 to build a new online infrastructure for charging readers on different platforms, not just personal computers. For instance, the newspaper can be read for free through an application on Apple's iPhone. But the Times did not say specifically what its plans are for mobile editions.

In a statement, New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson said the company is "guided by the fact that our news and information are being featured in an increasingly broad range of end-user devices and services, and our pricing plans and policies must reflect this vision."

Times Co. shares fell 16 cents, 1.2 percent, to $13.54 in morning trading.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain -

Offerman banned for life from DomRep league

By DIONISIO SOLDEVILA, Associated Press Writer

Associated Press Writer 1 hr 16 mins ago

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – Jose Offerman was banned for life by the Dominican winter league for throwing a punch at an umpire during an argument on the baseball field.

The former All-Star, manager of the Licey Tigers, appeared to hit first base umpire Daniel Rayburn in the face or neck with a fist during Saturday's playoff game against the Cibao Giants. Rayburn fell to the ground.

The Dominican league's president, Leonardo Matos Berrido, announced the ban Monday. He said the decision against Offerman was made shortly after the attack.

Fernando Ravelo, the general manager of the Tigers, said the club will try to appeal the ban against Offerman, who had a contract with the club for next season.

"We know that he is a young man who committed a serious error, but we think that a pardon" can be granted by the winter league, Revolo told The Associated Press.

Offerman was detained by stadium security and taken to a police station to wait until the end of the game while it was determined whether Rayburn would seek charges.

The Giants were winning 6-0 in the third inning of the final game of the winter league semifinal playoff series when plate umpire Jason Bradley ejected catcher Ronny Paulino for arguing balls and strikes. Offerman came onto the field to talk to Bradley, but ended up arguing with Rayburn.

It was the latest outburst by Offerman, an All-Star infielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 and Boston Red Sox in 1999.

On Aug. 14, 2007, he was batting for the Long Island Ducks against the Bridgeport Bluefish in an independent minor league game when pitcher Matt Beech hit him with a fastball. Offerman charged the mound with his bat and swung at least twice, striking Beech and Bluefish catcher John Nathans.

In February 2009, Nathans sued Offerman in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., seeking $4.8 million in damages. Nathans said the attack left him with permanent, career-ending injuries.

Offerman last played in the big leagues in 2005 with the New York Mets. He played 15 seasons in the majors, also spending time with Kansas City, Seattle, Minnesota and Philadelphia.

Taco Bell founder dead at 86

2 hrs 9 mins ago

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. – Glen W. Bell Jr., an entrepreneur best known as the founder of the Taco Bell chain, has died. He was 86.

Bell died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, according to a statement posted Monday on the Taco Bell Web site.

The Irvine-based company did not release a cause of death.

"Glen Bell was a visionary and innovator in the restaurant industry, as well as a dedicated family man," Greg Creed, president of Taco Bell, said in the statement.

Bell launched his first restaurant, called Bell's Drive-In, in 1948 in San Bernardino after seeing the success of McDonald's. His restaurant sought to take advantage of Southern California's car culture by serving hamburgers and hot dogs through drive-in windows.

The World War II veteran next helped establish Taco Tias in Los Angeles, El Tacos in the Long Beach area, and Der Wienerschnitzel, a national hot dog chain.

Bell launched Taco Bell in 1962 in Downey after cutting ties with his business partners and quickly expanding around Los Angeles.

He sold the first Taco Bell franchise in 1964. In 1978, Bell sold his 868 Taco Bell restaurants to PepsiCo for $125 million in stock.

Taco Bell is now owned by Yum! Brands and is the largest Mexican fast-food chain in the nation, serving more than 36.8 million consumers each week in more than 5,600 U.S. locations.

Bell is survived by his wife, Martha, three sisters, two sons and four grandchildren.

A private funeral is planned.

As of 1/18/10 AP Top 25
No.	School	Record	Points	Prev
1	Texas (57)	17-0	1617	1
2	Kentucky (8)	18-0	1568	2
3	Kansas	16-1	1457	3
4	Villanova	16-1	1442	4
5	Syracuse	17-1	1376	5
6	Michigan State	15-3	1259	7
7	Duke	15-2	1249	8
8	Tennessee	14-2	1163	9
9	Pittsburgh	15-2	1015	16
10	Kansas State	15-2	989	13
11	West Virginia	13-3	922	10
12	Georgetown	13-3	873	11
13	Purdue	14-3	799	6
14	Brigham Young	18-1	763	18
15	Gonzaga	14-3	748	17
16	Temple	15-3	581	19
17	Clemson	15-3	568	24
18	Wisconsin	14-4	542	13
19	Georgia Tech	13-4	380	20
20	Northern Iowa	16-1	252	27
21	Ohio State	13-5	228	0
22	Mississippi	13-4	211	21
23	Mississippi State	15-3	189	29
24	North Carolina	12-6	161	12
25	Baylor	14-2	147	22