Have to tip the hat to the Calvert Senecas Boys’ basketball team. The Senecas are undefeated so far this season, sporting a 15-0 record and ranked first in the state.
Best of luck from here on out to coach Tony Mass and his team.
Some big changes may be occurring in the near future in the sport that bills itself as the “world’s fastest growing.” Namely, some big signs may have to be changed.
Actually, Union 76 announced this past week that it would pull its sponsorship out of NASCAR after this season. No longer will they be The Official Fuel of NASCAR … a distinction that has lasted for 50 years.
Robin Miller of espn.com wrote this week that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company may be ready to pull out as well. Miller’s story cites “a top-level source inside the tobacco industry and another source close to the situation.”
In the story, several others close to the situation deny there is anything to it.
RJR has been a major figure in NASCAR racing, paying enough money to name the sport’s major prize after itself … The Winston Cup, since 1971. Estimates are that RJR has posted $100 million in purse, bonus and point fund money.
There still are five years left on the current contract but RJR could pull out if it finds its own replacement. The tobacco giant had to end its National Hot Rod Association and professional golf sponsorships last year to comply with the MaSTA (Master Settlement Tobacco Agreement) and dropped the No Bull 5 Program.
The No Bull 5 was that contrived exercise that paid a million dollars to a driver and a million to a fan under certain circumstances in five events.
Miller suggests that UPS, Coca Cola and McDonalds are very interested.
The Daytona 500 kicks off the Winston cup season next Sunday. The Bud shootout will be this Sunday and the Twin 125 qualifying races are next Thursday.
Another world class sports event gets started next weekend and could take two weeks to complete. It’s the America’s Cup, a best-of-nine series between two yachts that begins February 15th.
Actually, since the races are being held on the waters of Huraki Gulf off the coast of New Zealand, it will be Friday night here.
The race will be between Team New Zealand, the current holder of The Cup, and Alinghi, entered by Swiss pharmaceutical magnate Ernesto Bertarelli.
Alinghi steamrolled her way through the Louis Vuitton Cup competition that determines who will be the Challenger.
There always are running arguments surrounding an America’s Cup competition and this year is no exception.
One of the most prominent disagreements is over the nationality makeup of the boat crews.
The original Deed of Gift that donated the Cup as the prize for the competition prescribes that the races should be “a friendly contest between foreign countries.”
Traditionalists, like those of Team New Zealand, take that to mean that the team members should be citizens of the country from which their boat comes. So members of Team New Zealand should be New Zealanders.
On the other hand, there are those like Bertarelli, who say that the teams should be made up of the best sailors and role players money can buy, no matter where they call home.
Whichever team wins the Cup will be in a strong position to influence the argument.
But the racing on the water should be something spectacular to watch.