2008 Academy Awards Nominees Announced

Earlier this week, this year's Academy Awards nominations were announced. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards that honor excellence in all aspects of film. The awards will be announced on Sunday 24 February starting at 6pm and will be broadcast on ABC. A potential snag does exist with the ongoing writers strike which may result in the cancellation of the awards show leaving just an announcement of the winners. Lets hope that does not eventuate. What follows are the nominees for the big six categories as at least 24 total awards are planned for. [ * My early picks]

Best Picture:

Atonement

Juno

Michael Clayton

No Country for Old Men

There Will Be Blood *

Best Actress:

Cate Blanchett, in Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Julie Christie, in Away From Her

Marion Cotillard, in La Vie En Rose

Laura Linney, in The Savages

Ellen Page, in Juno *

Best Actor:

George Clooney, in Michael Clayton

Daniel Day-Lewis, in There Will Be Blood *

Johnny Depp, in Sweeney Todd

Tommy Lee Jones, in In The Valley of Elah

Viggo Mortensen, in Eastern Promises

Best Supporting Actress:

Cate Blanchett, in I'm Not There

Ruby Dee, in American Gangster *

Saorise Ronan, in Atonement

Amy Ryan, in Gone Baby Gone

Tilda Swinton, in Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actor:

Casey Affleck, in The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Javier Bardem, in No Country For Old Men

Philip Seymour Hoffman, in Charlie Wilson's War

Hal Holbrook, in Into The Wild *

Tom Wilkinson, in Michael Clayton

Best Director:

Paul Thomas Anderson, for There Will Be Blood *

Joel and Ethan Coen, for No Country For Old Men

Tony Gilroy, for Michael Clayton

Jason Reitman, for Juno

Julian Schnabel, for The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

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Rockies Ownership Surprisingly Stepping Up

The actions by the Monfort brothers, owners of the Colorado Rockies, in the last few weeks are quite heartening. They have signed several key players from the successful National League winning pennant team to long term contracts and indications are that more players are being pursued for the same end. I, like many other fans and friends of mine, have a seriously negative and cynical attitude about the ownership after many years of poor decisionmaking and gross inaction in regard to past situations when making a commitment towards players was not being done. Their recent moves point to a new philosophy, at least on a small level, towards maintaining a competitive, entertaining club that captures the imagination and loyalty of fans and results in greater satisfaction for everybody. Lets hope the reports of imminent signings of Hawpe, Adkins, Fuentes, and a longer term contract for Holliday, are indeed true.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3210878&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=341409

http://www.purplerow.com/story/2008/1/21/111348/513

http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_8022077

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7703798?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49

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In a More Perfect World...

If we had a more perfect world, things like this could really happen. Baseball is a wonderful sport and I love it and follow it closely, but its business model leaves much to be desired. The huge disparities in broadcast revenues between clubs due to market size is an ever growing problem and an area for serious concern.

The National Football League has gotten it right for years in pooling broadcast revenues for all clubs to share in equally and Baseball needs to get to this point quickly. The disparity in revenues from wealthy clubs in larger population markets like the Yankees, Redsox, Cubs, White Sox, Dodgers, Angels, and Mets compared to small market clubs like the Pirates, Royals, Brewers, Rays, Twins, and Reds is resulting in a differing tier of performance and results on the playing field as these smaller revenue drawing clubs are in a constant struggle to create and maintain a product that is a winner on the field and off. Kansas City has not been a contender for nearing two decades; Pittsburgh has had fifteen straight losing seasons; Milwaukee had its first season of contention since 1992 in 2007; Tampa Bay has yet to win 70 games in a season since it came into existence; Cincinnati has struggled for years; and Minnesota cannot maintain a winning presence on the field as players' salaries get too expensive for them to maintain in their market. The Florida Marlins can all be included in this lower revenue group in spite of winning a championship in '03. In contrast, the seven big money clubs have largely been regular participants in postseason for years and are also generally at the top of the list for largest payrolls. They can more easily afford to make mistakes and have greater flexibility to retool if they do not find success with their most recent roster.

I hope forward thinking, brighter heads and minds can reach an understanding with the next labor agreement to work quickly towards an agreement on fully equally sharing all revenues generated from broadcasting, be it from television, radio, satellite, cable, or internet. The current system of payroll taxes is simply not working and is highly inadequate.

It is always great to see clubs from all size markets be able to compete in the NFL and NHL. I really would like to see the same be true for Baseball as well.

http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2008/01/24/royals-leading-santana-race/

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