About Me 0087: Being Right or Making Money

Telling you Derek Jeter registered his 3,000th hit yesterday would be like telling you the sky is blue or water is wet. Unless you are living with those GEICO guys under some rocks, you and the rest of America already know Captain Jetes reached the 3,000-hit milestone. Sure, I can talk about how great he is, how much this means, etc. But I think we’ve had enough coverage to last us a lifetime. It was especially nauseating if you were watching the Yankees broadcast on the YES Network. Michael Kay sounded as though he had a bucket underneath his chin to catch all the drool. Apparently, Jeter also created the universe, defends us from super villains like Lex Luthor, and makes Barry Bonds (circa 2001) look like a tee-ball hitter. Or, at least according to Kay.

I want to focus on the fan who caught the ball. In case you missed this part (not sure how that’s possible), Jeter notched his 3,000th hit in style by homering. I must admit, that was cool to see. It was especially funny for me as my roommate, a Yankees fan, was sitting here when they announced that specially marked balls were being used in case he hit one out. Knowing Jeter left his power stroke back in 2009 (he had two HRs this season, which came in the same game), I scoffed and told my roommate, “I don’t think they’ll need those; Ha!” Well, I was wrong. Some lucky fan caught Jeter’s 3k hit and became instantly rich… or wait.

Okay, you need to understand that catching Jeter’s 3,000th hit, which happened to be a home run, is the same as catching a winning lottery ticket. Not a lottery ticket with a chance to win, a WINNING ticket. That fan, Christian Lopez as we found out, could have sold the ball for a couple hundred thousand dollars. Instead, Lopez gave the ball back so Jeter could have it, which is respectable, but also moronic.

Lopez gave away a retirement nest egg, his future kid’s entire college fund, a house, etc. He gave a billion-dollar company and multi-millionaire a money-making souvenir. Sure, the Yankees gave him four Champion suite tickets… for the rest of this season. But the Yankees can’t even give them away – wait, they just did – well, they definitely can’t sell them. You can still select from several seats for purchase right now! If anything, they should have and Lopez should have asked for lifetime season tickets. Then, the value would have been more in line with the ball’s value.

I’m sure people claiming to be “fans of history” or “those who respect the game and the moment” will yell and bash me for saying Lopez should have kept the ball for the money, or at least worked out a better deal… I already have. The fact is 99 out of 100 people would make the same decision I suggest. It’s easy to sit here and say giving the ball back for nothing – and don’t forget, that was his original thought – is respecting the game and the right thing. It’s a whole other story when a winning lottery ticket is sitting in your hands. 99 out a 100 would agree with me in the moment; we just found the one goof who didn’t.

Today's Action

Good Bet (50 chips)

San Francisco Giants - It’s quite possible the Mets could face seven straight All-Star pitchers. They went up against Clayton Kershaw in the last game of the Dodgers series, had Ryan Vogelsong, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain (tonight) pitch for San Fran, and if Philly chooses, could face Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels after the All-Star Break. Ouch. The Mets answer to Cain tonight is Mike Pelfrey… wrong answer.

All In (100 chips)

Detroit Tigers - You can never go wrong with the Tigers when Justin Verlander is pitching. Okay, he has four losses, but that doesn’t mean much when facing Jeff Francis and the Royals. Lock it up.

Settling Up

Is this what I get for being cute and trying to include a new team in my picks? I guess so. Not only did the Pirates not beat the Cubs (thank you Kevin Correia), but Germany lost in the Women’s World Cup. Germany was a big shock, as they were one of the favorites, the hosting country and lost in extra time. The Pirates were less surprising, but Ryan Dempster has been struggling, and Pittsburgh is playing well for a change. None of that matters in the end though.

Chip Stack: Up 3,000

Wiffle Ball or Cornhole. Paul Konerko or Kevin Youkilis. What should you decide? I tell you in What’s the Call? over on RotoExperts.com.

From TPM Muckraker, posted before our national celebration of Freedom:

A Luxembourg-based subsidiary of Koch Industries has admitted to making illegal campaign contributions to political candidates and committees.

INVISTA is a limited liability company involved in the textile manufacturing business that is organized in Luxembourg but headquartered in Kansas. They admitted in a filing with the Federal Election Commission that was disclosed this week that they made 12 contributions totally $26,800 to various political committees between Nov. 2005 and Oct. 2009.

INVESTA voluntarily disclosed the violations to the FEC in Aug. 2010 after an investigation by Koch Companies Public Sector (KCPA), which represents Koch Industries and their affiliates, and outside counsel. Their investigation revealed that the employees involved with making the donation decisions did not know INVESTA was a foreign entity and did not know that foreign corporations could not contribute to state elections like corporations could.

For me, the news (and puzzle) is not that they did it, but that they self-reported it. Note that the action is: (a) pre-Citizens United; (b) inadvertent (because the employees of the foreign company "did not know" they were working for a foreign company); and (c) some Koch internal watchdog entity fessed up.

The fine is "$4,700 for violating the law" under an "conciliation agreement" plus an agreement get the money returned. The effect is to appear to confirm the foreign donations ban, but I'm wondering why KCPA came forward.

But something's going on that's not being reported. Why did they fess up? Businesses don't usually fess up about anything. They always make the feds prove it, even for minor stuff like perfectly clean sawdust in milk.

Yet on this story, there's nothing but silence on that aspect. For instance, here's the same tale from HuffPost (my emphasis):

INVISTA's contributions were disclosed to the FEC after lawyers for Koch Industries discovered the illegal contributions and relayed the information to the FEC for review.

All very voluntary, and no digging for causes.

If I'm managing this strategically from atop the Olympian clouds at Koch Brothers Central, I'd work the response more cleverly into my geo-political grand schemata. After all, I want all election contribution restrictions overturned, don't I. So is this minor event a bit of hyper-clever mis-direction by the Koch Olympians, or a mistake by a corporate underling working in a sub-office of a subsidiary (in this case, the Koch internal watchdog group)?

Could be either, but I suspect that this was handled too quickly and at too low a level for Olympian eyeballs, by relatively honest people who were hired to do non-geo-political wrangling — i.e., keeping the numerous acquired toilet-paper and textile companies in that giant Kochish octopus on the right side of basic and mundane law.

Pushing the Citizens United envelope is not mundane, however. So if I'm right, you may not see that kind of compliant response again. But in any case, expect a challenge to the foreign corp limitation from somewhere. After all, the Chinese would love a piece of the purchase-a-politico game, assuming they don't already have their own set of retainers under contract. It's going to happen.

But for now, kudos to Koch lower-downs for (inadvertently?) doing the right thing. Hope you have a backup plan in case the bosses aren't pleased.

GP

About Me 0087

Monday, August 1, 2011

Being Right or Making Money

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