text:
I'm not going to argue with you, but no.
They used the exact same model as the rifle found and they also used the exact same batch of ammunition from 1963.
You're as much of an expert on TV than you are every other topic.
'); var yuipath = 'clientscript/yui'; var yuicombopath = ''; var remoteyui = false; } else // Load Rest of YUI remotely (where possible) { var yuipath = 'http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.9.0/build'; var yuicombopath = 'http://yui.yahooapis.com/combo'; var remoteyui = true; if (!yuicombopath) { document.write('
I'm not going to argue with you, but no.
They used the exact same model as the rifle found and they also used the exact same batch of ammunition from 1963.
You're as much of an expert on TV than you are every other topic.
Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.
"A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, thats teamwork."
-John Wooden
Right. They went into more depth with it. They were using those high frame per second cameras. (They did multiple shooting tests) They were firing into ballistics gel and showing the gel practically jump backwards. They even talked about the phsyics behind it.
They also did a shooting test where they fired a round into a solid block of wood, then extracted it and showed that even firing into something much more solid than the human body can, and does, leave some bullets in pretty pristine condition.
They really tried to attack the whole thing from a skeptic's POV, instead of just regurgitating all the normal points and telling people to take their word on it.
Nobody is saying that Oswald was not pretty lucky to have gotten off the shots he did, given his skill level and the equipment. But the numerous recreations show it to be physically plausible.
He didn't have to do it three-times-out-of-four or nine-times-out-of-ten. Just once. Like making a half court buzzer beater, just once.
He was an angry loser who wanted to be famous for something, who hated the president over Cuban policy, and who lucked into the perfect opportunity. When he got the job at the TBSD a few weeks before the assassination, the motorcade route had not been published and it wasn't even clear that the rumors of a JFK visit to Dallas were going to come to fruition.
He won the loser lottery. Kinda sucks from a drama perspective, but that's by far the simplest explanation.
The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
LHO was most likely on the CIA payroll and the motorcade may have been moved to take advantate of his being in the TSBD or at least his rifle was there. The recreations show no such thing. Please read carefully, those Carcanos were the same as LHO's weapon but nothing like it because they had been refurbished and the bolt was made to work easier and jam ess often. No one has ever used LHO's actual weapon and duplicated the shooting. In fact, when it was tried, the scope had to be realigned and shims had to be put under it to make it hit any target at all. The iron sights were no zeroed in for the distance that LHO was presumed to be shooting from and the weapon shot high and right of a target at that range. In fact, in FBI tests of that riflle, no one could even work the bolt as fast as LHO would have had to do it even if they just worked it without trying to hit anything. All of what you are saying is just more of the cover-up. Dan Rather has been the biggst liar of all. He told everyone he had seen the Z film and LHO pitched forward violently when hit. He actually lurched back and to his left...... That didn't happen from a shot behind him and to his right...... It was from the shot on the Grassy Knoll that the acoustic evidence proved was the fatal shot.....
Let me ask though about the gun LHO used. Is it possible that the scope and sight might have been off if he either dropped or threw it after it was shot? I have no idea btw, I'm just curious.
I'm inclined to agree with you but I do stay open-minded due to so many unanswered questions, coincidences, and the rush to declare LHO guilty and close the books while obviously leaving a lot of 'hanging chads'.
So that said, playing devil's advocate, if LHO was an angry loser that wanted to be famous for something and hated the president, and got lucky in the loser lottery.... then why didn't he proudly own up to it? Why the famous claim (from his own mouth) that he was "a patsy"? Why not tell the world what he did and why he did it and explain the 'favor' he must've felt he did for either God, country, or the world?
Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.
"A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, thats teamwork."
-John Wooden
The iron sights were correctely zeroed in for a target at 250 yards. That is the way it was set up when it was built. That is also why using them made a shot go high and to the right. That is probably why LHO missed a shot at a general who was sitting at about 50 feet. Most experts think the scope was never attached correctly and was always that far off. But, who knows what was possible. There was no chain of evidence so everything was handled and mishandled. The picture showing the spent shells standing up right was a joke, the first member of the DPD who came in there picked them up and moved them around. ...
The House Select Committee on Assassination has already determined that there was more than one shooter and there was conspiracy to kill JFK.....
They concluded there was a conspiracy... But I don't recall them declaring there was more than one shooter. Is there a link to a summary of their findings?The House Select Committee on Assassination has already determined that there was more than one shooter and there was conspiracy to kill JFK.....
Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.
"A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, thats teamwork."
-John Wooden
There are many clear lies in LHO's statements, such as having never owned a rifle, never mail-ordered a gun (those records were found), claiming that he was arrested for having lived in Russia (Dallas police didn't even know his name until AFTER he was arrested for Tippit's murder), and other things. He was trying to save his hide from the electric chair.
The murder of Officer Tippit is one of the major parts of the story that is hard to work into a logical conspiracy theory, since it happened on a busy street and was witnessed by at least a dozen people. It is crystal clear that Oswald did it, and Tippit was not "in on it" as he had no shady past like Ruby and many others in the story.
Last edited by Slick Pinkham; 02-09-2013 at 09:54 AM.
The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
I thought some of you might find this exchange from the JFK news group interesting: ...
> Walt, now you're talking. I don't know which is more incredible: getting 2
> out of 3 rigth on a Russian test without undergoing instrution, or getting
> 2 out of 3 shots under the conditions under which they were SUPPOSEDLY
> made.
> By the way OIC senior member Craig Roberts was a military sniper and
> Police SWAT officer, and he said that he couldn't have accomplished the
> shooting attributed to Oswald. Really, this whole thing is getting
> ridiculous.
It goes further. Roberts mentioned that he spoke with Carlos Hathcock
of sniper fame, and they both had tried to duplicate the feat and failed.
Roberts also said after looking around he would have chosen the Grassy
Knoll as his 'hide'.
On top of those facts, the condition of the MC rifle was terrible. The
FBI testers got the rifle soon after the murder and they found they
couldn't use the scope and had to put the rifle into their gunsmith for
shimming so that the scope could be used properly. As well, the bolt
action of the rifle was extremely stiff and had to be worked for minutes
before shooting, and it was so stiff that it would throw off the aim. It
became better after they had worked with it for a while, but the condition
that Oswald of another shooter in the TSBD would not have made the shots
in the same length of time as suggested by the authorities that say.
I would suggest that Oswald was the buyer of the MC rifle, but never
bothered to use it. He was notorious for having a dirty rifle in the
marines and being a bad shot, based on statements by Nelson Delgado,
Oswald's buddy.
Dr. Luis Alvarez's explanation of why Kennedy's head moved towards origin of the shot instead of away from it.
Alvarez proved it was counterintuitive physics. Roughly: the movement imparted by the goop pouring out the exit wound created a sort of jet stream that was stronger than that of the tiny hole made by the entrance wound. So the head moved back towards the shooter. Alvarez tested his theory by taking a melon, to represent brain, and wrapping it in fiberglass tape, to represent skull. He shot his melon and, as he predicted, it rocketed right back towards the source of the gunfire.
We wanted to reproduce this experiment ourselves, full action, highspeed camera. So I went with the crew to a gun shop with a firing range. The place was packed with people. More employees than Wal-Mart at xmas and several customers for every salesperson. And this was a Monday afternoon. On weekends there's a line out the door.
I met my instructor, Tony, a silver-haired, tan, 20 year veteran of the police force (where he taught firearms skills). Since retiring from the police, Tony has been teaching marksmanship and gun safety to hobbyists for fifteen years.
He's disgusted and incredulous at the sheer ignorance of anybody who doubts Oswald could have killed Kennedy.
"It was easy shot. Stevie Wonder could have made it," he said and reeled off the exact distances of Oswald's three shots. "I took my gun club out on the desert. We used the exact same make and model of rifle. We set up all the same distances and elevations. Nineteen of the guys hit all three shots, and the other four guys couldn't hit a bull in the *** with a coal shovel. And don't forget, Oswald only hit two out of three."
While the crew set up, Tony took me into another range for some practice. The Mannlicher Carcano rifle was a duplicate of Oswald's, except that it didn't have a telescopic sight; I was holding in my hands, not on a stand, which makes aiming harder. I shot the target smack through the heart three times. "Okay, that's enough practice," said Tony.
I went into the gun safety classroom to don wardrobe and makeup. The classroom walls were covered with diagrams showing how bullets fire and how to ensure safe handling, and with credentials, certificates of appreciation, and awards from police organizations.
Dressed, I was ready to shoot, in both senses. The crew and I set up two melons on stands. The one representing JFK was wrapped in fiberglass tape; the one representing Jackie was wearing a pink pillbox hat. We photographed me loading the gun, then took an "art" shot of me shooting from the point of view of the melon (using blanks, of course). Finally it was time really to shoot the melon.
"This gun shoots a little high, so aim the sights about an inch below where you want it," said Tony. I aimed and squeezed the trigger. A perfect hit. As Alvarez said it would, the melon goop "brain" blew out the front and shot the melon backwards. As an added bonus, the goop knocked off Jackie Melon Kennedy's pillbox hat. I shot again, hit a little off center, but even then, the melon came towards me and the pillbox blew off. I shot one final time. Dead center, melon back at me, the most perfect shot of all. Our director/producer Star Price asked if I wanted to shoot some more. I asked him if he had the shot he needed. He did. So I thanked everybody and left.
It's hard to digest the idea that a pallid loser, Lee Harvey Oswald could annihilate radiant John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the most powerful and glamorous man on the earth. But after talking to Tony and blasting the brains out of a tape-wrapped melon, I'm triply convinced that the Kennedy assassination can be best described like this:
Oswald and Kennedy were men of flesh and blood. One of them pointed a gun at the other and shot.
The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).
Alvarz has been completely discredited... ...
I have talked to several experience snipers. One of them had over 100 kills in Afganistan. Not one of them had ever shot a man in the head and then had them move violently in the direction of the shop. Some went straight down and others went violently away from the shooter. Many years ago there is a film of a man being executed point blank with a pistol to the side of his head. He did not leap back at the shooter, he went the other way. Perhaps in movies where you see firing squads reinacted those posts the victims are tied to are there to keep them from leaping onto the firing squad when hit??
Last edited by OlBlu; 02-17-2013 at 02:26 PM.
All information below is from Warren Commission testimony of Robert Frazier and
Ronald Simmons, both from the FBI. ...
First the WC questioned Robert Frazier and here's what they got in
"Mr. Frazier. The stock is worn, scratched. The bolt is relatively
smooth, as if it had been operated several times. I cannot actually
say how much use the weapon has had. The barrel is--was not, when we
first got it, in excellent condition. It was, I would say, in fair
condition. In other words, it showed the effects of wear and
Frazier goes on:
"Mr. Mccloy. Was it what you would call pitted, were the lands in good
Mr. Frazier. No, sir; the lands and the grooves were worn, the corners
were worn, and the interior of the surface was roughened from
corrosion or wear.
Mr. Mccloy. Was there metal fouling in the barrel?
Mr. Frazier. I did not examine it for that.
Mr. Mccloy. Could you say roughly how many rounds you think had been
fired since it left the factory, with the condition of the barrel as
you found it?
Mr. Frazier. No, sir; I could not, because the number of rounds is not
an indication of the condition of the barrel, since if a barrel is
allowed to rust, one round will remove that rust and wear the barrel
to the same extent as 10 or 15 or 50 rounds just fired through a clean
So now we have a barrel with 'wear and corrosion'. Lands and
grooves were worn. It's not in good shape so far. Frazier avoids
saying that firing a bullet through it cleaned it out some. Now we
move on to Simmons testifying:
Mr. Eisenberg. Was it reported to you by the persons who ran the
machine-rest tests whether they had any difficulties with sighting the
Mr. Simmons. Well, they could not sight the weapon in using the
telescope, and no attempt was made to sight it in using the iron
sight. We did adjust the telescopic sight by the addition of two
shims, one which tended to adjust the azimuth, and one which adjusted
an elevation. The azimuth correction could have been made without the
addition of the shim, but it would have meant that we would have used
all of the adjustment possible, and the shim was a more..."
Hmm. The scope was not functional and they had to have a gunsmith
fix it by using shims. (that comes later). This says that the rifle
couldn't be aimed properly using the scope, meaning that if there was
a shooter in the TSBD, he couldn't have used that weapon to aim at
JFK. Of course, there is the possibility that he used the iron
sights, but I tend to think that wasn't the case in the midst of
shooting at the president, we have to face it...the rifle couldn't be
aimed as per the FBI testers. But there's more from Simmons:
"Mr. Eisenberg. Mr. Simmons, I find there are three shims here. You
mentioned two. Would three be consistent with what you were told?Mr.
Simmons. I was told two. These were put in by a gunsmith in one of our
machine shops-- rather a machinist in one of our machine shops."
Oops! Simmons lets the cat out of the bag. The rifle went to a
gunsmith first before shooting to fix the scope. He tried to change
it from gunsmith to machinist, but it was too late. A gunsmith had a
hold of the rifle before testing and made some adjustments. More on
this later.
"Mr. Eisenberg. Do you think a marksman who is less than a highly
skilled marksman under those conditions would be able to shoot in the
range of 1.2-mil aiming error?
Mr. Simmons. Obviously considerable experience would have to be in
one's background to do so. And with this weapon, I think also
considerable experience with this weapon, because of the amount of
effort required to work the bolt.
Mr. Eisenberg. Would do what? You mean would improve the accuracy?
Mr. Simmons. Yes. In our experiments, the pressure to open the bolt
was so great that we tended to move the rifle off the target, whereas
with greater proficiency this might not have occurred."
Oops again. Simmons has said that "considerable experience with
this weapon" would be required to shoot the rifle for the purpose
intended. But he also let out that it took an 'amount of effort' to
work the bolt. He pointed out that the difficult bolt was making the
aiming difficult too. Now bolts in wartime have to work easily or
there will dead soldiers. Frazier earlier said the bolt worked
smoothly, but he must have been talking about after the testers worked
the bolt so much. What condition was this thing in when the testers
got it? Let's see what else Simmons will inadvertently let out:
Mr. EISENBERG. How much practice had they had with the weapon, Exhibit
139, before they began firing?
Mr. SIMMONS. They had each attempted the exercise without the use of
ammunition, and had worked the bolt as they tried the exercise. They
had not pulled the trigger during the exercise, however, because we
were a little concerned about breaking the firing pin."
While not firing it while unloaded, they were still having trouble
just working the bolt. Simmons let it out that working the bolt was
hard enough to mess up their aim, meaning the target would have to be
reacquired. A shooter that had the rifle before the testers would
surely have trouble working the bolt, and losing sight of the target
(if the scope had been working). Let's go on:
Mr. EISENBERG. Could you give us an estimate of how much time they
used in this dry-run practice, each?
Mr. SIMMONS. They used no more than 2 or 3 minutes each.
Mr. EISENBERG. Did they make any comments concerning the weapon?
Mr. SIMMONS. Yes; there were several comments made particularly with
respect to the amount of effort required to open the bolt. As a matter
of fact, Mr. Staley had difficulty in opening the bolt in his first
firing exercise. He thought it was completely up and it was not, and
he had to retrace his steps as he attempted to open the bolt after the
first round.
There was also a comment made about the trigger pull which is
different as far as these firers are concerned. It is in effect a two-
stage operation where the first--in the first stage the trigger is
relatively free, and it suddenly required a greater pull to actually
fire the weapon."
This rifle is turning out to be a dog! They each worked the bolt
for 2-3 minutes practicing. But they were afraid it would break the
firing pin, so they didn't work the trigger. It must have gone to the
gunsmith first, as noted above. Either way, the testers each had 2-3
minutes to work the bolt, so that would help to free it up after the
All in all, the 'wear and corrosion' that Frazier mentioned seems
to have been much worse than he let on, but Simmons helped us there by
letting so many cats out of the bag. The rifle was not in good
condition so they tried to work the bolt to free it up. If it wasn't
free when they got it, presumably right after the shooter in the TSBD,
then that shooter didn't hit the broad side of a barn from inside it.
The gunsmith had to fix the scope so they could aim it, and after that
they worked it 2-3 minutes each to free it up and to familiarize with
it. Something that Oswald never did as far as we know. His
experience was with semi-automatic rifles, not bolt action.
Either way, the Mannlicher-Carcano wasn't in any condition to be
fired by anyone that day, nor the next at the FBI testers. The list
of problems were: a) the scope was found on the rifle yet the scope
needed work by a gunsmith before the testers could fire it
successfully b) the bolt was so stiff (probably from lack of use for
years) that they had to work it for minutes each for the testers to
test fire it c) the trigger was 2-stage, which they found an extra
difficulty in working with the weapon.
This militates against the MC rifle ever being used before the FBI
got it. It's as if the second hand WW2 rifle was still in the
cosmoline from the war, having been put to rest by the Italian army
and left for years until a buyer came along, probably Oswald.


text:
WHY WOULD Dominique Richard (Marin Voice, May 18) or anyone, oppose an open, bipartisan review of the science surrounding the Drakes Bay oyster farm?
The National Park Service has a mandate to protect natural, cultural and historical resources and the oyster farm falls within all three categories.
Contrary to Richard's claim, two National Academy of Sciences reports on Drakes Estero, one in 2009 and another in 2012, reveal that oyster farming there has no significant negative impacts, functionally replacing ecological services performed by the native oyster, extirpated by over-harvesting in the late 1800s.
Farming native oysters back into the ecosystem has been successful in other estuaries, but efforts by the oyster farm to reestablish native Olympia oysters in Drakes Estero, despite NOAA research funding and support, have been blocked by the Park Service.
After over 80 years of oyster cultivation in Drakes Estero, the "Precautionary Principle," which Richard evokes, dictates the oyster farm should remain.
In his dismissal of Sim Van der Ryn's (Marin Voice, April 28) call for a bipartisan congressional investigation, Richard shows his hand. Anyone actually interested in getting to the truth around this controversy would support the call for Rep. Jared Huffman, as a member of the House committee, representing all of California's shellfish aquaculture production areas, to facilitate a credible congressional inquiry.
If Richard truly favors "sunlight" on the science surrounding this controversy, we have, at last, a point of agreement. We also agree that, —... scientific disagreement, even honest errors, are not misconduct." But policy should not — must not — be based upon erroneous science.
Richard may choose to believe that oyster boats located seven hundred yards from seal haul out areas cause seal pups to be separated from their mothers, but multiple reviews conducted since 2008 have found no evidence of any kind to support that belief.
Those shellfish water bottom leases belong to us, citizens of this state, and represent the majority of the Bay Area's sustainable shellfish production capacity.
Richard and others may enjoy bullying the lessees, but it is "We the People," as statutory owners of those leases, and consumers of locally produced shellfish, they are ultimately attacking.
If this assault against the sustainable production of shellfish on 55 percent of the state's water bottoms is successful, our ability to produce "super green" local seafood, at a time of near collapse of other global fisheries, will be decimated.
The biggest threat to the National Wilderness Act today is the prolonged smear campaign levied against our state-owned shellfish leases in Drakes Estero. By fabricating a case of environmental harm where none exists, by denying the state's retained rights, including mineral rights and rights to its shellfish leases in Drakes Estero, by trampling upon the forty-year collaboration between the Park Service and the state Fish and Game Commission and shredding the National Environmental Policy Act, Richard and others undermine the legitimacy of the process by which segments of our national geography are designated "wilderness."
If Huffman wishes to ensure the future of the Wilderness Act, as well as the Bay Area's capacity to feed itself, he should declare his support for a bipartisan investigation into the science — and policy — used in decisions affecting shellfish production capacity in Drakes Estero.
Web Otis of Stinson Beach has been active in planning issues at Point Reyes National Seashore.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
A small plane made a rough emergency landing on the campus of Cal State University Northridge Sunday, coming to a rest upside down but resulting in only minor injures, authorities said.
A man and woman inside the plane were able to open the door and climb out of the damaged plane after the landing, which was reported just after 3 p.m. at the university, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.
No injuries on the ground were reported.
It initially appeared the pilot of the six-seat, single-engine airplane attempted to make an emergency landing on the athletic field at CSUN but overshot it, Humphrey said. The plane crashed through a chain link fence and ended up overturned just southwest of the intersection of Plummer Street and Zelzah Avenue, at the eastern edge of the campus, across the street from an apartment complex and homes.
No buildings or students at the campus were endangered by the incident, he added.
The plane, a Cessna 206, "departed from Novato, Calif. for John Wayne Airport."
It lost power near Van Nuys Airport and made a forced landing at Plummer and Zelzah, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.
"The two people on board sustained minor injuries," he added.
According to an FAA registry, the airplane is registered to a Newport Beach based business called Clipper 29 Uniform LLC.
In addition to the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to look into the crash, officials said.


text:
Nov. 16 Board of Supervisors Meeting Features 7 Presentations
Nov. 13, 2009
News Highlights
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, at its meeting on Monday, Nov. 16, scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., will make the following presentations to residents and county staff. For more information, call 703-324-3187, TTY 711. More information on the Nov. 16 meeting, including an agenda, can be found online.
International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2068
The Board of Supervisors will commend the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 2068 for its dedication during the Labor Day 2009 Fill the Boot Campaign. Firefighters and paramedics raised nearly $453,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Chantilly American Little League Major All Stars Team
The Board of Supervisors will recognize the Chantilly American Little League Major All Stars Team for its accomplishments. The team's discipline and good sportsmanship resulted in winning the Little League District 10 Championship, the Virginia State Championship and advancement to the championship game of the Southeastern Regional Tournament.
Digital Television Conversion Volunteers
The Board of Supervisors will recognize the volunteers who installed TV conversion equipment for older adults and adults with disabilities during the nationwide change to digital format. Volunteers installed TV conversion equipment in nearly 200 homes.
Self-Help and Resource Exchange, Inc.
The Board of Supervisors will recognize Self-Help and Resource Exchange, Inc. (SHARE), for its 40th anniversary. SHARE was established in 1969 by a coalition of religious and civic organizations to meet emergency needs of residents in McLean, Great Falls, Pimmit Hills and surrounding areas. SHARE offers food, clothing and household items; provides school supplies to children; food baskets during and holiday seasons; and furnishes rides by volunteers to residents in need to get to hospitals, clinics and doctor's appointments.
Herndon Fortnightly Club
The Board of Supervisors will recognize the Herndon Fortnightly Club for its 120th anniversary. Established in 1889, the club opened a library to the public in a rented room. Fundraising efforts resulted in the construction of a library building in 1927, and through a relationship established with Fairfax County in 1939 the new Fortnightly Library opened in 1995. The members of the Fortnightly Club continue to support the library and its staff with volunteers, gifts and donations.
Community Services Board
The Board of Supervisors will recognize the Community Services Board (CSB) for its 40th anniversary. The CSB was established in 1969 to partner with individuals, families and the community to empower and support residents with or at risk of developmental delay, intellectual disabilities, mental illness or substance abuse. Services are currently provided to 18,000 individuals and families annually.
AIDS Awareness Day
The Board of Supervisors will designate Dec. 1, 2009, as AIDS Awareness Day in Fairfax County. The World AIDS Day slogan, " Stop AIDS: Keep the Promise," is a call to governments, policymakers and regional health authorities to ensure greater access for all to AIDS/HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
Contact: Merni Fitzgerald, Director, Office of Public Affairs
703-324-3189, TTY 711, Media Pager: 703-324-NEWS (6397)
To request this information in an alternate format, call 703-324-3187, TTY 711


text:
Getting to the top takes hard work and perseverance. But staying on top requires constant innovation and reinvention. That's a mantra this year's IC 10 winners know well and one they've implemented to achieve tremendous success in their legal departments.
Whether it's simplifying the RFP process down from dozens of unnecessary pages to three pages and a tweet or creating an in-house version of Wikipedia that synthesizes the whole department's knowledge, our winners have developed inventive solutions that have launched their legal departments to a higher level.
On the following pages, InsideCounsel profiles the 10 most innovative legal departments. Their stories and successes are inspiring, proving what a difference just a little original thinking can make in ensuring their legal teams remain a vital business center within their companies.
Healthnow New York: On Track
During 16 years as an attorney and assistant general counsel in the HealthNow New York Inc. legal department, Ken Sodaro became acutely aware of several operational shortcomings. These included an uneven distribution of work among the department's five attorneys; a perception by many business clients that legal was a black hole into which their requests for assistance disappeared; and a failure to track the progress of matters the department was handling.
"We weren't tracking assignments properly, and we weren't being responsive to customers," Sodaro says. "I felt we had to get rid of the black hole mentality regarding legal, and one way was to have a better way to track things coming in."
Some of the problems emanated from bad habits the business clients had fallen into--dropping off a contract or request for information on their favorite attorney's desk or handing it over in the lunchroom. Others resulted from attorneys failing to enter the necessary data into a matter management system.
In 2004 when he became general counsel of the Buffalo, N.Y.-based parent company of BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York and BlueShield of Northeastern New York, Sodaro resolved to fix those problems. He rehired former employee Carol Lynch in 2007 to be the legal department's manager, with a mandate to be the traffic cop on lawyer assignments and workflow. When he presented Lynch with his to-do list, she decided to start with an Excel spreadsheet showing when matters came in, from whom they came and to whom they were assigned. Over the next two years, she worked with the company's IT department to evolve that simple system into an interactive Legal Request Tracking Database, which went live in January 2009.
Now when a business person submits a question or requests a contract by filling out an electronic application on the database, Lynch or one of two other administrators immediately receives an e-mail message with a link to the application. Once the matter is assigned, the client gets an e-mail with a link allowing him to see to whom it was assigned and the target date for completion. The system tracks every message sent regarding the matter as well as redlines and comments on any associated documents.
"It started out as a way to improve client service," Lynch says. "We have enhanced it further so there is functionality to track other things, such as litigated cases and special projects for regulatory matters." Such information is accessible only to the legal department and aids in its reporting requirements.
Client feedback has been very positive. "I see significant improvement with the overall business workflow of the department with the new legal tracking system," one wrote. "This procedure works great and is very user friendly," commented another.
Sodaro says the system has significantly improved the department's image.
"It eliminates the black hole issue," he says. "People get assignments in a more timely way. Work is distributed more evenly among attorneys. Turnaround times improved significantly. And clients can go in any time and see where their matters are."
--Mary Swanton
Cisco: Making Connections
With offices in locales as far flung as Shanghai and San Jose, Calif., Cisco is long past the days when one of its attorneys could pop into a colleague's office for a casual conversation. Yet there's tremendous value in being able to collaborate easily and informally, even across oceans. E-mail is one way to do that, but it doesn't necessarily include everyone in the conversation. And with the rapid rate of change in legal information, a company as spread out as Cisco needs a way to efficiently and uniformly update its legal department's knowledge base.
"With approximately 250 members of the Cisco legal team worldwide, we needed an efficient, secure and highly-functional collaboration tool to keep our team connected," says Cisco General Counsel Mark Chandler.
Enter OnRamp Exchange (ORX), a multifaceted tool developed in collaboration with Legal OnRamp, a website where attorneys share information and correspond with each other, that gives members of Cisco's legal department a centralized way to communicate, pool resources and learn from one another. ORX, launched in late 2008, functions like a hybrid of several Web 2.0 tools, such as Wikipedia and Legal OnRamp. The design team, attorneys from across practice areas in Cisco's legal department worked closely with the technical team from Legal OnRamp so that the website would mold to Cisco's needs and not the other way around, says Risa Schwartz, Cisco's head of knowledge management for legal.
All of Cisco's shareable legal content, such as sample documents, contract clauses and information on issues such as open source software, reside in a centralized repository that each member of the legal team can view and edit. A moderator approves all edits to the content, but users can review all pending edits before they make their way into the actual text.
Discussion forums have been integrated with e-mail so that any e-mail sent through a particular topic thread is captured and published under that heading. The tool allows attorneys to communicate informally while at the same time preserving and making public valuable information from the exchanges.
Schwartz says the response from within the legal department has been fantastic, noting she'll see attorneys on the phone negotiating a deal with ORX on their screen.
"They can be in the throes of a deal and get real-time responses they can use in the negotiation," she says. "People refer to it on a daily basis. It has become the central repository and communication tool for the legal department, unequivocally."
Eventually Schwartz hopes to build a bridge between ORX and Legal OnRamp so that outside counsel and attorneys from other legal departments can benefit from the nonconfidential information on Cisco's site.
"Our vision is to build a tool that allows us to access in radiating circles the institutional knowledge of the legal department, its internal customers, its outside counsel and peer legal departments," she says. "We've started with a tool that will allow us to do that. ... It's going to change the way we do business."
--Lauren Williamson
Yeshiva University: Mission Driven
During the past three years, law firms have done more than $1 million worth of legal work for Yeshiva University--for free. That's because Andrew Lauer, Yeshiva's general counsel, has leveraged the interest of alumni, as well as others who support the Jewish university's mission, beyond mere well wishes and into tangible results.
With full support from the university's president, in April 2008 Lauer launched the Yeshiva University General Counsel's Council, an advisory board of both general counsel and law firm attorneys who help retain pro bono counsel for the university. Lauer got the idea from Lincoln Center General Counsel Lesley Friedman Rosenthal, who implemented a similar program at the performing arts complex and now is also a member of Yeshiva's Counsel's Council.
"People have a strong affinity for universities but especially for mission-driven universities," Lauer says. "People who believe in that mission want to see it thrive and succeed. We took that idea and built on it."
Lauer approached law firms with alumni ties to Yeshiva, many of which already provided paid legal work to the university, and offered to provide them with meaningful projects for summer associates. The 15 or 20 projects assigned each summer, as well as a few portioned out during the rest of the year, come from across the university--from a comprehensive review of real estate holdings to updated policies and procedures for the IT department. Each averages $50,000 in value.
Law firms that donate their summer associates benefit by attracting top talent because they can advertise meaningful, project-based work rather than the more tedious tasks typical of summer associate programs. They also get to forge a stronger relationship with an organization to which they may in the future, or in some cases already, provide legal counsel.
"One key aspect of service delivery for outside firms is knowing and understanding your client's business," says Julian Millstein, senior counselor at Morrison & Foerster and a member of the Counsel's Council. "Participating in the Counsel's Council ensures that we always have a handle on that. And it does make you feel that you are a preferred provider, and for good reason--because the relationship works for both parties."
In addition to helping law firm relationships, Lauer says the program has also improved the legal department's relationship with the rest of the university.
"People generally look at the Office of the General Counsel as a cost center and obstacle to business," he says. "What we are doing here is reaching out to the university saying, 'What can we do to help you? We will solve your problem over the summer--and it won't cost anything.'"
So far, things couldn't be going better. Within a week of releasing each summer's list of projects, nearly all are spoken for. And over the past three years, more than 150 attorneys have donated their time to the university. "Even at the beginning, almost no [law firms] said no," Lauer says. "But now three years in, law firms are asking me about it. It's a real win-win for both."
--Lauren Williamson
In 2007, aware that IP protection is no longer central only to those traditional research and development units embedded in manufacturing and tech companies, the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. launched an Intellectual Property Law Unit to centralize the evaluation and protection of IP created by the insurance/financial services company's numerous business divisions.
"The idea of IP protection with financial services companies has really taken off in the past couple of years, where 20 years ago it wasn't so focused," says David Cunningham, vice president and director of patent law, who has headed the unit from its formation. "Ten years ago, banks started to focus on it, and in the past couple of years, even insurance companies have recognized that many of their innovations can be protected."
At Hartford, Cunningham explains, those innovations take the form of unique solutions across the company's financial services and insurance divisions to optimize the processing of what can be millions of pieces of information.
In its infancy the unit consisted of just two attorneys, a patent analyst and an administrative support person, tasked with educating the company about such innovations. But the condensed unit was up to the heightened challenge when Hartford's CEO at the time, Ramani Ayer, tasked it with creating and nurturing a new era of IP culture.
Central to the initiative was the creation of a companywide "Inventor Recognition Day" to educate employees on the importance of IP protection and showcase company-created innovations. This year, the company recognized more than 80 Hartford employees listed as inventors on patent applications or granted patent protection for innovations such as a sensor technology to reduce on-the-job injuries.
"The employee inventors feel really great about the acknowledgement and senior business leaders taking interest in them," Cunningham says.
The recognition isn't reserved to one day a year, either. Inventors are showcased year-round on the company's internal website and in monthly newsletters. And because one day a year doesn't create an environment of continual learning, the unit supplements Recognition Day with ongoing educational activities to solidify the new companywide culture of IP recognition--presentations tailored to the various business units, and IP question and answer sessions.
In part because of such new tools and lines of communication, the IP Law Unit has succeeded in enhancing the company's culture of innovation--patent filings have increased by more than 500 percent since the unit's formation, and the number of patents the U.S. Patent and Trade Office has granted Hartford has more than doubled.
"Company culture has changed on a number of levels," Cunningham says. "At the senior business level, there's a greater appreciation for protecting IP, and they also appreciate that we highlight innovations to them, in some cases more than would otherwise have happened.
Cunningham encourages other companies aiming to centralize IP education and emphasize innovation to develop similar initiatives. He offers some pieces of advice: First, get senior management to buy in. It's critical to show that they care about innovation and protecting it. Second, plan ahead. Inventor Recognition Day can take months of planning--and it's only one piece of a larger strategy. Third, cultivate key business relationships. In companies like Hartford, with numerous business divisions, having a touch point in each of the units can be invaluable.
And finally, be persistent. "You have to get out there and meet with individual groups--and not just once but continually," Cunningham says. "The law, but also the company, is constantly innovating, so get out there on a regular basis to discuss those innovations."
--Melissa Maleske
Qwest: Ethics Effort
Go to any legal conference and you're likely to find standing room only in the ethics sessions, now that many state bars mandate ethics credits as part of the CLE requirement for attorney registration renewal.
But in most cases, those courses are designed to address the ethical dilemmas of law firm lawyers. The distinct issues faced by in-house attorneys often aren't covered.
That shortcoming, and a dearth of literature on in-house ethical issues, created a need that Qwest General Counsel Rich Baer decided to fill.
"When we see something missing, we see room for innovation," Baer says. "I thought this would be a great opportunity to address a real need and for the Qwest law department to be viewed as a leader on an important issue."
In 2009, Baer formed a 20-member committee of Qwest lawyers, including himself and Deputy GC Andy Crain, tasked with developing a state-of-the art ethics training program and other resources for the law department's 79 attorneys.
"We wanted to take training above and beyond the typical lawyer training, which is a boring lecture," Baer says. "This fall we will present scenarios on four or five key ethical issues. Participants will have electronic clickers to vote on the issues, and we'll use that to generate discussion."
For its May training session on in-house ethics, Qwest partnered with an outside law firm and the University of Denver College of Business and opened the session to all Colorado attorneys. Of the 110 attendees, 65 were from other organizations. The upcoming fall session will also be open, but with a new twist. Qwest will charge for attendance, but the company will underwrite all costs and donate the fees paid by attorneys from other organizations to a local charity.
Another effort of the ethics committee involved divvying up the Rules of Professional Conduct to create subject matter experts in the various aspects of ethics covered by the rules. They will provide counsel to their colleagues who confront a relevant ethical issue. Attorneys can submit questions and concerns via an email ethics hotline, to be addressed by the appropriate committee member.
A final aspect of the program is taking shape as committee members work on an opinion on whether there is a problem inherent in being in-house attorneys for a company with offices in multiple states.
"We can be on a phone call with one employee in Washington state and one in Texas talking about entering into a contract in New York with a Delaware corporation. Is this the unauthorized practice of law in these other states? We think we are fine, but we are working on an opinion on that," Baer says.
That opinion will launch a library of ethical opinions to be available to Qwest lawyers anywhere in the country via a SharePoint site. "That should provide some security for the lawyers if they are confronted with those issues down the line," Baer says.
For Baer, all the opinions and the training revolve around one key point: "It always boils down to, you have to do the right thing. We should never miss an opportunity to reinforce that."
--Mary Swanton
Transamerica Life Insurance Company: Learn then Leverage
At Transamerica, a branch of the Netherlands-based insurance, pension and investment group AEGON N.V., the corporate law department's goal is to learn, then leverage that information for the benefit of the company. As the corporate legal team, the department is expected to spot important trends that affect the business unit legal departments, analyze them and then propose remediation to prevent damage to the company. The challenge was finding an effective way to share relevant information with the company's many business and legal departments.
In response, the corporate litigation unit developed a low cost, five-part program that allows them to leverage legal knowledge and educate not just other lawyers within the company, but managers on the business side as well.
First, they produce "Take 15s"--monthly 15-minute education presentations on issues that have been identified as important to the company that are available to management 24/7 online. Second, they publish "The Legal Monitor," an electronic, quarterly newsletter that features articles geared toward other lawyers within the company. Third, each issue of "The Monitor" promotes teambuilding by spotlighting a company lawyer or paralegal. Fourth, they link the Legal Monitor to an internal SharePoint website that serves as a library of template documents and briefs. Finally, they began hosting "Legal to Legal" webinars for company lawyers and paralegals. They apply for CLE credits for the one-hour presentations from outside counsel which are presented at no cost to the company.
"I honestly never envisioned it this way in the beginning," Vice President and Associate General Counsel Jill Handley says of the development of Transamerica's solution. "Different people in the department came to me with these different ideas, and I saw merit in all of these different approaches. I supported each person's initiative."
Integrating so many different ideas has worked to improve operations at Transamerica from all sides. Handley says the team building aspect of the program has been invaluable. And financially, the Take 15s, SharePoint site, "Legal Monitor" newsletter and "Legal to Legal" webinars have proved to be cost effective solutions to leveraging legal department knowledge and expertise.
The Take 15 presentations cost Transamerica about $24,000 out of pocket annually and are accessed by more than 750 managers each month. The out of pocket costs for the SharePoint site and newsletter, which are available to more than 200 attorneys and paralegals within the company, are nominal. Production costs nothing. The "Legal Monitor" and maintaining the SharePoint site costs just $111 per year. The "Legal to Legal" webinars, however, have had the biggest financial impact, Handley says.
Outside counsel offer the presentations to Transamerica free of charge and Handley says the quality is typically very high because the presenters value the exposure. Handley says a one-hour "Legal to Legal" webinar costs Transamerica about $1,150 to host, but with an average of 50 attendees, the cost for one CLE hour usually averages about $20 per attorney or paralegal, versus $150 per person for an external CLE hour.
Though Handley says the webinars are both the easiest and most cost-effective solution other law departments could borrow from Transamerica's plan, the Take 15s have the most universal appeal and flexibility. Denise Mineck, assistant general counsel and chair of the Legal Practices Committee, which produces "Legal Monitor" and the SharePoint site, says the key to employee satisfaction with the program is that it's tailored to meet Transamerica's needs.
"The number one complaint I hear at conferences is that large companies--even law firms--know they've got a lot of talent and information within the company, but they don't have any way to share it," Mineck says. "Our departments find ways to share it. That's pretty valuable."
--Kayleigh Roberts
DuPont: Paralegal Aid
In 1992, DuPont's legal department went through a transformation. Management wanted to cut costs, increase productivity, improve the quality of its services, open the door to new opportunities for its staff and solidify relationships with its client and service providers. It took time, but the effort paid off, evolving into the most well-known best practices system within the corporate legal discipline--the DuPont Legal Model.
One of the model's secret weapons is its incorporation of paralegals. DuPont's legal department historically had employed paralegals, and with an increase in litigation in the early '90s it saw a greater need for more, so it bulked up its paralegal staff. This influx of paralegals coincided with the development of the department's new model. Department management thought it would be a good idea to place more focus on these employees and created the DuPont Paralegal Utilization Model as part of the DuPont Legal Model.
Initially, the program focused on assigning paralegals to relieve the in-house lawyers of some of the litigation work. For several years, that was working well. But Marybeth Davies, manager of the paralegal program, believed there was much more her team could do. So when Tom Sager, who spearheaded the DuPont Legal Model project and has since become the company's GC, asked Davies what the department could do to provide greater support to paralegals, she was ready with her answer: "You need to focus now on using paralegals as an even greater resource--not just in litigation but across multiple disciplines. There are just things we do better, quicker, more efficiently and cost-effectively."
Getting the green light from Sager, Davies began spreading her team of 58 full-time paralegals into different areas of law where their skills and efficiency could truly be used. "We now have paralegals in every practice area," she says, "ones that had never had them, like patent and trademark and international trade." Additionally, there are several practice groups, such as immigration and bankruptcy, where the paralegal--albeit supervised by an attorney--is doing all this work.
"The paralegals will take as much off the attorneys' plates as possible to allow the attorneys to be more involved with the business," Davies explains. "My focus is to continue to motivate the paralegals and help the lawyers better utilize them."
With a strong, successful paralegal program in place, the team decided to share its experience to benefit other legal departments. Several years ago, Davies pulled together paralegals from both her in-house team as well as outside firms to create "Dollars and Sense of Paralegal Utilization: The DuPont Paralegal Utilization Model," a publication that offers best practices for using paralegals to their fullest potential. It's available for purchase at www.dupontlegalmodel.com.
"At DuPont, we've created a culture where paralegals are partners with the business people as well as colleagues and partners to the lawyers with whom they work," Davies says. "In this economy, we have to do more with less, and paralegals are really stepping in to fill that gap."
--Cathleen Flahardy
Westfield Insurance: Waking the Grade
Law firms often complain that while inside counsel are quick to challenge their fees, they are much less likely to provide feedback on performance. Sometimes the first indication that the client isn't satisfied comes with a notice that the relationship is being terminated.
But the 50 primary law firms that work with the Westfield Insurance Claims Legal Department can't gripe about that. They receive regular report cards from the Ohio-based insurance, banking and related financial services group.
Claims Legal Support Leader Dan Winkler developed the concept for the report card and its design in 2002.
"I had been charged with moving litigation management efforts forward," Winkler says. "The first step was selecting a vendor to provide e-billing and matter management, which was CT TyMetrix. Working with the implementation team, we were able to move forward with an evaluation process and counsel report card" incorporated into the e-billing/matter management system.
Using the electronic system, claims representatives grade the outside counsel who handled their files at the close of each matter. Grading falls into three categories: knowledge and skill; service; and file management. Under each category, they grade the firms on a scale of one to 10 on a series of questions.
"In addition, there is a section in the report card where the claims professional can add a note specific to a matter--good, bad or indifferent. They can include a short narrative on the handling of the file by the attorney or attorneys," adds Michael Cronin, senior claims counsel.
The claims reps scores are then married with analytical data from the e-billing system. In addition, the legal department keeps a log book on the firms to note trends, both positive and negative, that are incorporated into the annual evaluation.
The outside firms get a numerical score that can be translated into a letter grade; for example, a score of 88 equates to a B+. The legal department sends the evaluations electronically, along with an invitation to the firms to follow up and discuss the issues raised.
"We find that our best partners are the ones who look forward to the evaluation and embrace the discussion points," Winkler says. "We are somewhat disappointed in firms that don't follow up when they receive the evaluations."
Winkler adds that the follow-up discussions are a two-way street.
"The best counsel partners seek information from us and also provide thoughts on how we can do better, too," he says. "It's a team issue. It's a trust issue."
Cronin says the report cards have been well-received "even by firms that didn't get an 'A.' It allows them to identify trends that they can correct in order to improve their partnership with us and our claims professionals."
Winkler believes very few legal departments provide such regular, rigorous evaluations to their
outside counsel.
"I know our firms in general seem to be starved for this kind of information," he says.
--Mary Swanton
FMC Technologies: Reinventing the RFP
In 2008 FMC Technologies spun off its airport and food equipment businesses--and with them, more than 60 percent of the company's litigation, many of the company's litigation firms and several in-house lawyers. Fifteen cases remained, only two of which were significant.
"A couple of firms we really liked were working only for those business units," says Jeffrey Carr, FMC's general counsel. "So a challenge was how to keep firms that share our culture and approach in our team recognizing that we were going to have reduced volume."
The natural first step for most law departments would be to conduct a standard RFP, but the legal team at FMC was armed with the knowledge that most law firms hate RFPs--and their value can be limited because law departments lack the time and attention to crunch and use all the data they collect.
FMC's first step toward a better way to identify, vet and engage their law firms cut out the lengthy questionnaires that many RFPs employ--and law firms hate. It discarded a 56-page RFP it previously had used and instead invited law firms to fill out a one-page, yes/no questionnaire posted on Legal OnRamp, a social networking site aimed at in-house lawyers and their collaborators, along with one page of FMC's engagement terms and a description of its pay-for-performance system--in all, three pages. Then FMC published its historic litigation data and invited the participating firms to rank themselves by type of litigation or litigation competency, provide their historic data and metrics, and provide their default ACES budget for the major types of litigation FMC has.
The next step may have been a first for RFPs. FMC held what it called a "Tweet and Greet," challenging the law firms to come up with a 140-character Twitter post to woo it.
"It wasn't just frivolous or trendy," Carr says, noting the legal department wanted to target law firms that were tech-savvy, future-looking, succinct, fun, creative and social network-capable. "Saying something useful and clearly in 140 characters is an incredibly useful discipline that many lawyers lack. ... The tweets themselves were fascinating--some were poignant, some funny, and some showed a true appreciation for our culture of innovation, change and value." Carr's favorite entry in this phase was from a law firm that created a rough "behind the scenes" video of the making of its tweet.
Of the 52 responding law firms, 32 made it to the Twitter phase, and from there 16 were selected to meet and "wow, not woo" Carr and other FMC in-house lawyers face to face. At the end of the undertaking, six firms remained, and FMC decided to form a joint venture among them, wherein new cases are handled by a team the law firms form. Sometimes the team consists of one firm, several or even all of them.
"The JV is administered by one of the outside counsel on retainer with a performance-based hold back," Carr explains. "All cases have a default target budget [based on an FMC-designed pay-for-performance plan] lower than our historic data. The overall savings will be shared between FMC and all the firms, with the distribution reflecting how well they worked with the other firms."
Since the RFP's completion, all of FMC's legacy cases were reviewed and reassigned to new teams, and new cases are assigned based on the joint venture system. Although the initiative is still in the implementation stage, and furthermore FMC has fielded little new litigation since launching the joint venture structure, several litigation and claim matters that the law firms teamed up on have been successful, all while avoiding torturing interested firms with a lengthy RFP.
"Traditional RFPs have a reputation for being complicated, mostly useless and quite painful, but it doesn't have to be that way," Carr says. "So, out with the 56-page RFP, little of which is used in the ultimate decision-making, and in with the three-page non-RFP."
--Melissa Maleske
Tastefully Simple: Breakfast of Champions
When Christy Caspers arrived at Tastefully Simple nearly eight years ago as chief legal officer, she was its first and only in-house counsel. Not surprisingly, she had her hands full--particularly sorting through the mismanaged contracts.
The company, which sells gourmet food products through consultants, had agreements with multiple vendors. And those contracts needed some attention.
"Contracts were being signed without full review, few people were docketing key dates for renewal, there was a lack of consistency of important terms, and there was no overarching strategic contract vision so that the company could best leverage each vendor relationship," Caspers explains. "In fact, several teams were contracting the same vendor but didn't realize it."
Caspers immediately made contract management a priority--creating the Contract Administrative Process. Ensuring her own time and resources were being used as efficiently as possible, she began identifying individuals who should be heavily involved with contracts affecting their functional areas. She assigned each of the company's departments a "contract champion," who--along with his or her assistants--must attend Contract Administration Training.
Knowing nonlawyers weren't likely to find the training exciting, Caspers created a short, targeted approach to teaching her students about contracts. "Who wants to sit and listen to a lawyer talk about contracts?" she says. "But people need to understand how important contracts are to our business. So we decided to keep the training to one hour, and make it fun."
While Caspers handles part of the session herself, her assistant Tess Evink and Site and Contract Manager Claudia Bursch--Caspers' poster child for best efforts in contract management--also take part in leading the training. In one hour, students learn what their responsibilities are with regard to contracts, how to negotiate contracts, various tricky elements commonly found in contracts, how the administration process works and how to best interface with the legal team.
The session also includes training on the three types of contracts Caspers has identified for the company. The first and easiest is template contracts, which are previously drafted by legal and preapproved for use. The second, vendor contracts, are template contracts that Tastefully Simple's vendors provide to the company. Champions learn about their responsibility to review these contracts and send them off to legal for approval--flagging any issues if necessary. The third, most difficult type of contract is one that has to be drafted from scratch. These tend to be time consuming, as Caspers works directly with the contract champion involved to better understand the deal, then drafts the contract herself.
"The goals of the process are to push as much work to the contract champion as makes sense for the deal, to streamline contract review and approval, and to keep those who 'own' the contract accountable for the relationship management and follow up," Caspers explains.
In a given year, Caspers will review more than 200 substantive, high-value contracts, and the turnaround time from champion to legal has dropped about 50 percent. Caspers says now that champions can understand the terms of the contracts, by the time contracts hit her desk for review, they're much closer to a final product than they've ever been.
"We have a win-win contract negotiation philosophy, and our Contract Administration Process Training helps to ensure that our philosophy is shared, understood and followed," Caspers says. "We have exceptionally strong relationships with our vendors and work hard to ensure that their success is our success and vice-versa."
--Cathleen Flahardy
Click here to download a PDF of this article with more graphics.


text:
Read the full story here Web Link posted Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 2:41 PM
Town Square
Two armed robbery suspects arrested in Menlo Park
Original post made on Jan 16, 2013
Read the full story here Web Link posted Wednesday, January 16, 2013, 2:41 PM
Comments (14)
a resident of Downtown North
on Jan 16, 2013 at 7:14 pm
Who is the registered gun owner? If not one of the people arrested, the owner should be arrested as a participant in this robbery if if they were not present. They are just as responsible.
a resident of Downtown North
on Jan 16, 2013 at 7:15 pm
Sorry for the typo. I meant:
Who is the registered gun owner? If not one of the people arrested, the owner should be arrested as a participant in this robbery even if they were not present. They are just as responsible.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 16, 2013 at 8:19 pm
@gun you don't have to register handguns in California.
a resident of Downtown North
on Jan 16, 2013 at 10:26 pm
Why the **** not? Gun registration would be a very effective way to reduce gun crime and gun accidents. We register our cars. Why not guns?
a resident of Greenmeadow
on Jan 16, 2013 at 11:29 pm
California Law: All handgun serial numbers and sales are recorded by the state (registered) in the Department of Justice's Automated Firearms System. Long arm serial numbers are not recorded, only the sale. While there is no requirement for California residents to register previously owned handguns or firearms with law enforcement, §12025 and §12031 enhance several misdemeanor offenses to felonies if the handgun is not on file in the Department of Justice's Automated Firearms System. California §12025 states that handguns must be transported unloaded and in a locked box other than the glove compartment or utility box in a motor vehicle. New residents must register handguns (purchased outside of California) with DOJ within 60 days.
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jan 17, 2013 at 7:29 am
So registering cars prevents them from being stolen and used in a crime? The registered car owner should be arrested as a participant. They are just as responsible.
a resident of Downtown North
on Jan 17, 2013 at 9:41 am
Cars are not the same as guns. An armed robbery is an intentional act. Most car crashes are allegedly accidental. However, in some cases, the cops do go after the registered car owner, even if they were not driving. We need at least as many restrictions on guns as we have on cars.
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jan 17, 2013 at 9:58 am
Totalitarian regimes always thought the same way about typewriters.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 17, 2013 at 10:21 am
Register guns.
a resident of South of Midtown
on Jan 17, 2013 at 11:40 am
Registered guns are stolen (and reported stolen) then are usually used in crimes. They are throw-aways passed around through criminals. Some even have bodys on them...
Does anyone really think that a clean registered gun is used in crimes?!?! DUH!
Registering a gun means nothing in reality.
BTW - I don't like guns one bit, but I live in the real world of understanding!
If guns kill people...then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk and forks make people fat!
a resident of Midtown
on Jan 17, 2013 at 12:45 pm
I would consider them to be culprits of the armed robbery of the liquor store on loma verde and middlefield due to the fact that a semi automatic handgun was also used in that robbery and also fit the same description........just a suggestion.
a resident of Midtown
on Jan 17, 2013 at 12:49 pm
Missing in all of this is recognition for a job well done, which I for one sincerely appreciate
Thanks PD!
a resident of Menlo Park
on Jan 17, 2013 at 12:59 pm
[Post removed by Palo Alto Online staff.]
a resident of East Palo Alto
on Jan 17, 2013 at 1:25 pm
Janet - you & I both know that neighborhood isn't fully Latino. Moreover, it's mixed commercial & residential area, making it easier to hide. I'm glad it didn't turn into a shootout & that the crashed car didn't injure anyone. How lame is it to rob a jewelry store so close to a police substation?
Years ago, in Menlo, we weren't able to return home due to a major SWAT thingy near our house. Authorities had been looking for a barefoot (I think) bad guy for a couple of days. He was on foot & it took the K9 to find him, hiding in the bushes, right under the cops' noses. He was pretty resourceful, & since it was summer, the weather was ok. Sometimes luck is on the side of the desperado. What scares me about these guys is we don't know if they're armed.
Don't miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to be notified of new comments on this topic.
QBB opens in Mountain View
By Elena Kadvany | 10 comments | 3,457 views
Become a Master Gardener - Deadline Sept 21
By Laura Stec | 8 comments | 1,100 views
By Chandrama Anderson | 1 comment | 1,055 views
One more year
By Cheryl Bac | 2 comments | 506 views
Registration now open
Sign up for the 33rd annual Palo Alto Weekly Moonlight Run and Walk. This family-friendly event which benefits local nonprofits serving kids and families will take place on Friday, Oct. 6 at the Palo Alto Baylands.


text:
A Note To Ron Johnson, Less Is More
Why hasn't J. C. Penney (JCP) figured out less is more?
Ron Johnson hit the CNBC airwaves (AGAIN) today to give investors a laundry list of why JCP is still on track to becoming "America's Favorite Retailer." Problem is RJ's credibility has plunged more than the stock price since he took the reins....503 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There's no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
Already a Subscriber? Please login.


text:
My name is Brandon and I come from Sweden. I'm fairly new to Buddhism, I have read some books and meditated a little bit on and off. I joined this forum because I want to learn more about Theravada Buddhism and find peace in my mind.
I hope I found the right place, I know it is the right Buddhist tradition I have chosen anyway.
Sincerely, Brandon


text:
Chicken Gyros
After my other two posts this week, I'm sure this one comes as no surprise. What could possibly go well with pita bread and tzatziki sauce? Hm… Oh right, gyros!
Hubby and I LOVE to go to a local Turkish restaurant. It is literally 3 blocks from us and we didn't try it until we had lived here over two years. Wow it's amazing. We always get gyro meat because it's just so darn good.
These gyros aren't quite the same, but they sure are tasty in their own right. The marinade that the chicken cooks in is just great. We like to use it even when we don't have gyro fixings in the house. I highly recommend it.
I served these gyros with some fresh tomatoes, sliced red onions, tzatziki sauce and of course fresh pita bread.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned one of our favorite things about our new kitchen – our griddle top. It came with the stove and replaced the grate over the middle oblong burner. Not sure what you'd ever use that burner for except maybe a griddle pan? So we leave the griddle on there at all times. I love to use it to cook just about anything.
One Year Ago: Square Cake Balls
Two Years Ago: Monster Cookies
Chicken Gyros
Yield: 4
1.25 lbs. chicken pieces
4 cloves garlic, smashed
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
2 heaping Tbsp. plain yogurt
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper
sliced tomatoes
sliced onions
4 pitas
Whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, vinegar, oil, yogurt, and oregano in a bowl. Add the chicken and rub the marinade in. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.
Preheat the broiler (or grill, or pan on the stove). Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides, and then broil until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side, depending what size/type chicken you are using. Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes before slicing into strips.
Meanwhile, heat your pitas. I have a gas stove, so I just spray them with a little bit of oil and stick them right on the burner for a few seconds per side. Top the pita with the chicken, tzatziki, tomatoes, onions. Roll up and eat!
Recipe adapted from Elly Says Opa!
13 Responses to "Chicken Gyros"
I love making a bunch of different recipes and having them come together in one awesome meal! This looks so delicious, especially with the heat we've been having!
Next time I come over, I insist we either have these delicious looking Gyros or go to the Turkish restaurant you talked about.
Wow, I love that addiction to the stove! Your chicken gyros look super flavorful and like the perfect hot day lunch!
I love that every aspect of this meal is homemade… yum! What is the name of the Turkish restaurant? I need to check it out :).
I just made something similar and they were great! LOVE the sauce! Thanks!
Can't wait for you to post the recipe – I am putting it on my menu for next week. 😀
I used to make tzatziki sauce too -until my grocery store started selling it for .99 cents for a 16 ounce container – so cheap!
Hope you have a great weekend!
I love me a traditional, good, lamb gyro- but these look delicious! I might have to break out of my comfort zone 🙂
I love me a traditional, good, lamb gyro- but these look delicious! I might have to break out of my comfort zone 🙂
We definitely have to try these…yum!
Those look delicious, I will have to try those!
Can the pita bread dough be made in advance and kept in the fridge overnight? I want to make these tomorrow for dinner but will not have time for the 90 minute and then 20 minute rise times. Any advice would be great. Thanks!
welcome to the bandwagon! love Elly's recipe!
Manne – sounds like a plan
Lauren – It's called Brookline Family Restaurant and it's on Washington St in Brookline Village. Definitely check it out if you're in the area.
Sheena – I'm not sure about freezing the pita bread dough. I'm sure it would be fine as other bread doughs can be frozen and used later. Let me know how it goes if you try it!


text:
- Home
- News
- Sports
- Opinion
- Obituaries
- Features
- Special Sections
- Classifieds
- Public Notices
The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, Kentucky Department of Agriculture and Kentucky Cabinet for Health Services are partnering to support farm friendly legislation. House Bill 391 and Farmers Market Legislation allows Kentucky farmers who grow and harvest produce to process value-added products and sell them from designated farmers markets, certified roadside stands and the processor's farm. There are two processing categories in HB 391, Homebased Processors and Home-based Microprocessors.
If you currently subscribe or have subscribed in the past to the Henry County, then simply find your account number on your mailing label and enter it below.
Click the question mark below to see where your account ID appears on your mailing label.
|ZIP Code:


text:
Art book debut at Comic-Con...
For a great selection of action figures and collectibles, check out BigBadToyStore.com, BriansToys.com, ToyWiz.com, SmallJoes.com, PastGenerationToys.com, Urban-Collector.com, ZoloWorld.com, MonkeyDepot.com, HobbyLinkJapan.com, and Sekaido.com.
For a great selection of pop culture t-shirts and apparel, check out TShirtGurus.com and 80sTees.com.
UDON presents VENT, an all-new anthology/art book showcasing their talent over the past decade. The book will feature the personal artwork and stories of the UDON art crew, past and present. Inside, their original concepts are collected for the first time alongside brand new tutorials covering their tools and working methods.
Featured artists include Attila Adorjany, Jay Axer, Greg Boychuck, Christine Choi, Jeffrey Cruz, Steven Cummings, Omar Dogan, Dax Gordine, Andrew Hou, Eric Kim, Alvin Lee, Leo Lingas, Matt Moylan, Joe Ng, Ryan Odagawa, Saejin Oh, Gonzalo Ordonez, Crystal Reid, Arnold Tsang, Eric Vedder, Long Vo, Joe Vriens, Emily Warren, and Jim Zubkavich.
VENT premieres at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con, with an exclusive hardcover edition available only at the UDON booth #5037. VENT will arrive in stores everywhere Sep 15, 2010.


text:
ok, then enjoy Earl the Garbage
'); var yuipath = 'clientscript/yui'; var yuicombopath = ''; var remoteyui = false; } else // Load Rest of YUI remotely (where possible) { var yuipath = 'http://yui.yahooapis.com/2.9.0/build'; var yuicombopath = 'http://yui.yahooapis.com/combo'; var remoteyui = true; if (!yuicombopath) { document.write('
ok, then enjoy Earl the Garbage
at this point, how could they possibly be worse...What..when they lose they'll get blown out...oh wait..
with the first pick in 2010 pacers select
I'm telling you, they won't let it go that way. For better or for worse, we're going to figure out a way to win over 30 games.
Is it me or does Tyler look at little miffed / unhappy tonight?
I'm starting to think TJ is worse off the bench then as a starter. He's taking his bench role as a blank check to try and score every time down the floor. I hate this kind of basketball.
Is it worth getting on LP BB and turning on this travesty?
TJ Ford +4
Earl the garbage -26
League Pass offers no refunds for poor performance.
At least scoring has been consistant last few games 20Q
Depends, if you want to see the Heat totally dominate the Pacers, especially DWade and JO and think 'wow... I don't rememeber him doing that as a Pacer his last few years here'. And if you want to see Murph the Matador just watching cutting big men run past him for dunks. 'OLE!' Yeah it's worth it.
Watching the games for me just gives me a clear idea of how much of a mess things are and I get more and more interested to see what they will do, if anything, to turn things around. I wonder if they really think having a team like this is feasible for another 2 years? If that answer is no I expect changes around All star break.
TJ is truly a joke of a PG. I suppose he can handle the ball well. Otherwise, he has no PG skills whatsoever.
Troy is only negative 30...while Hans is positive 8. Ho hum Another day at the office.
...hmmm maybe it's time to turn back to the Dolts game.
Can you take a picture of the bronze bust of Stephon Marbury you have in your house and upload it for us? Thanks.
If by some miracle that would happem. I can see Larry passing on John Wall, call me pessimistic. But I can see that happening. Maybe for that Lithuanian prospect that is supposed to be like Dirk.
Sooner or later they'll fire the coaching staff and make trades if they have to. Frankly, as long as that doesn't screw up the 2011 salaries, I don't care.
how about Earl "the garbage" Watson ?
Get those dolts off the court. I have seen better ball at a pickup game full of 5 year olds.
Down 30 now !!! Play the youngsters for the reminder of the half OB !!!!!
I think the wheels have officially come off the wagon, folks.
"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." - Albert Camus
"Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." - Voltaire
"Everyone's values are defined by what they will tolerate when it is done to others." - William Greider
Are we really down 30? This just went from really sad to kinda funny.


text:
Nico Rosberg has confirmed holding clear-the-air talks with Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to ensure they know where to draw future battle lines.
The duo emerged unscathed from a thrilling wheel-to-wheel duel in Bahrain 11 days ago after Mercedes allowed them to race even though they could have imposed team orders to avoid a potential accident.
Mercedes emerged from the event with considerable credit, whilst Rosberg and Hamilton were applauded for keeping it clean at a time when their on-track feud could easily have spilled over.
There was one incident, however, that caused Rosberg a degree of consternation and forced him to take to the radio to inform the team he felt Hamilton had strayed too far, exclaiming 'That's not on'.
It happened on the first lap, with Hamilton taking an inside line and holding it into turn four where he forced Rosberg beyond the track limits to ensure the German could not pass around the outside.
Discussions were held after the race, with Rosberg admitting the matter is to again be addressed ahead of this weekend's fourth round in China.
"It's completely normal that as a team, when there are situations or races where a lot has happened and which are intense battles, that you are going to sit down and discuss," said Rosberg.
"That's very important to move forward, and we will do that. We're doing that today to make sure everybody knows everybody's opinions.
"We review to be able to completely put it behind us and push on - full attack.
"It's a very normal process which has to happen, and natural because you need to learn from what happened to move forward even stronger.
"That one incident was the only example where I thought it was above the limits. All the other examples were really tough racing, but with the necessary respect."
Given Rosberg and Hamilton have previously been team-mates going back to their karting days, the former knows what happened in Bahrain is unlikely to be the last incident of its kind.
"It's not the first time we've had a battle out on track, and it's not the first time it's been a little bit close," said Rosberg.
"We have had so many of these (battles) going back to when we were 13 or even 12, and even the discussions can be intense afterwards.
"But that is how our relationship has always been, and always, with respect, we move on afterwards. That's how it has always worked and I think how it will work in the future.
"We have discussed (what happened in Bahrain) a little, but tonight we will discuss the whole race and the weekend."
Hamilton produced a brilliant defensive performance over the closing 10 laps to keep Rosberg at bay, even though the 28-year-old had the advantage as he was on quicker tyres.
Rosberg, though, believes he could not have been any more aggressive than he was without going beyond the limits.
"In hindsight I found I attacked quite a lot and went for it, even when I was not even close, I just dived down the inside and gave it a go," assessed Rosberg of his performance.
"I thought my attacking mode was pretty much there, and anything more - on more than one occasion - meant we wouldn't have finished the race.
"So I think I was at a good level, but of course it is something I will keep adapting."
Rosberg would naturally prefer to avoid clashing with Hamilton, but has no doubts it will continue over the course of the season.
"If I had a choice I would prefer to avoid that, I would prefer just going into the distance at the front," said Rosberg.
"But it is more likely it's going to continue to be a close-fought battle, which is also okay.
"It was a big thrill during the race, a really enjoyable fight and that's what racing is about."
Rosberg has no doubts he can turn the tables on Hamilton and emerge victorious in Shanghai.
"I know I can win here, that I have the chance to win here," added Rosberg.
"I know, most likely, it (the battle) is going to be against Lewis, so that's where my mind is at the moment."


text:
Shek welcomes new Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins into Studio 66 to kibitz about his new team, the food in New Orleans he'll now have to do without, Jimmy Graham's greatness, and surviving a zombie apocalypse. Bald Bryan Bishop of the Adam Carolla podcast & author of "Shrinkage: Manhood, Marriage, and the Tumor That Tried To Kill Me" is also in to talk about his 49ers, Trojans, surviving a brain tumor, and share his master list of actor redundancies. Plus, take a listen to a 1-on-1 interview with Adrian Peterson.
Download: DDFP 249: Adrian Peterson, Malcolm Jenkins & movies


text:
BP Comment Quick Links
|Strength of Schedule Report
October 23, 2012
2012 MLB Postseason Shows Money Matters
I don't care how many times you've heard it, but money matters in sports. Somewhere along the line, maybe starting with a book by some guy named Lewis about the A's, someone confused "money doesn't win championships" for somehow meaning that money doesn't matter if you want to be competitive. That's never been true.
We can haggle over this a bit. There's empirical evidence—a good bit of which comes from this current season—that a team can get into the playoffs without having a massive player payroll. After all, there was "Moneyball" then, and someone will say we saw a new form of "Moneyball" in Oakland this season. But as Nate Silver and Dayn Perry said so eloquently in Baseball Between the Numbers, Billy Beane's shit hasn't worked in the postseason. In truth, having money helps if you wish to go deep into the playoffs.
The past few seasons, this has been less evident. The LCS last year was comprised of the Brewers (ranked 17th in payroll with $85,497,333), Rangers (ranked 13th with $92,299,264), Cardinals (11th with $105,433,572), and Tigers (10th with $105,700,231), leaving the 11th and 13th ranked teams by player payroll in the World Series. In 2010, the LCS featured the Rangers (27th with $55,250,544), Giants (ninth with $98,641,333), Yankees (first with $206,333,389), and Phillies (fourth with $141,928,379). With a Giants/Rangers World Series, that meant no team competing in the championship series had a player payroll over $100 million.
This year, however, this is not the case. With the exception of Oakland, nine of the ten teams that made the postseason had player payroll in the top 20, and all of the LCS teams were in the top eight, not one of which came in under $110 million. The 2012 World Series features the Tigers, with the fifth-ranked Opening Day player payroll of $132,994,000, and the Giants, with the sixth-ranked payroll of $131,980,298. If there is a "glass half full" feeling for the league, it's that along with the A's, there were four playoff teams (Nationals, Braves, Reds, and Orioles) that were within the middle third of the league by player payroll:
Commissioner Selig and others (this author included) have said that the league is experiencing incredible parity in the number of teams that make the postseason. That's true. After that point, however, it shifts. When you think about it, this is a nice side-effect for the league. Selig can rightly say that every team has a shot to make the postseason, while FOX and TBS have been able to ensure good national television ratings as large-market teams and storied franchises make deep runs into the playoff. In that, it's been a win-win.
Money matters. It always has. There hasn't been a GM that sat back and said, "You know what Mr. Owner, I don't need the extra resources that you're offering." The point is money never hurts. And while there are GMs and execs that will always say they've spent wisely, they sometimes don't. What money gives you is a buffer. Or, rather, what sustained revenues give you is margin. You can take more risks and you can more easily blunt the blow if some of the decisions you make don't turn out as planned. Conversely, the club that has limited resources is always at greater risk if it makes mistakes. To quote the poet laureate Brian Johnson of AC/DC, money talks.
What money really gives you is flexibility. It allows you a greater chance of being competitive now and sustaining that competitiveness in subsequent years.
The problem has always been the ability of each of the 30 clubs to have a steady flow of revenues to work from. Yes, everyone is pulling in record revenues, but not all at the same rate. The key is "cost certainty." Clubs that have generational fan bases—Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Cubs, etc.—will, for the most part, generate a fairly steady flow of ticket revenues. When you throw in media rights (see recent television deals for the Rangers, Angels, and soon the Dodgers), it becomes a formidable force that the likes of Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, and Kansas City can't compete with. Those teams have to rely on the draft process, and certainly the Rays have shown that you can actually be competitive for more than a season or two under these constraints, but it isn't easy and it's not something to expect from every club. A club has to be smart. A club has to be positioned to spend when it can spend. And for heaven's sake, a club can't be in a lengthy rebuilding process to do it. In other words, if a club is in the cycle, it can't make too many mistakes that inhibit its ability to spend what little it may have available in the free agency space when the opportunity presents itself.
So, while it's just one year, how does player payroll equate to winning when it comes to the postseason? I hesitated (greatly) with this considering how tight the LCS series were; a play here or there could have easily changed the outcomes. Still, it's an interesting look. I had assumed that there would be more variance before plugging in the numbers, but with one glaring exception, the team with the higher player payroll (which, theoretically could equal a more talented roster ) won each series. Here's a look.
The wild card play-in didn't really follow our pattern, but it's just one game in which a team's rotation isn't even really tested. This has been a common argument by some in regard to the new Wild Card format; at the very least, perhaps a three game series should be employed. It would have been interesting to see how each of these teams would have fared in that format and how the Rangers might have performed.
After that, each series went to the club that had the higher player payroll with, yes, that glaring exception. The Yankees, who had the worst team batting average (.188) in a seven-game series since the playoff format was introduced, were swept by the Tigers. Despite letting outfielder Magglio Ordóñez, infielder Carlos Guillén, and starting pitcher Brad Penny leave via free agency and releasing Brandon Inge, the club increased payroll nearly 25 percent this season (good for fifth in the league) thanks to Prince Fielder's nine-year, $214 million deal. Still, the difference in player payroll between the two clubs was staggering—$76,568,900 less than the Yankees.
What will be interesting is seeing how this plays out in the World Series. The Tigers and Giants (fifth and sixth by total player payroll) show a difference of just $1,013,702, leaning to the Tigers. The question will be how those dollars are invested.
The Tigers are an interesting study in distribution. The team's three biggest contributions all make up a relatively equal portion of their payroll pie: Fielder ($23 million) takes 17.29 percent, Miguel Cabrera ($21 million) takes 15.79 percent, and Justin Verlander $20.1 million) consumes 15.11 percent.
For the Giants, the distribution is spread wider and leans more toward pitching than position players. The top three by pay on the roster for 2012 are starters. Barry Zito, who shined in Game Five, is still the club's highest-paid player ($19 million, or 14.4 percent), followed by Tim Lincecum ($18.25 million, or 13.83 percent), and Matt Cain ($15,833,333, or 12 percent), who shut down the Cardinals in Game Seven. From there, Aubrey Huff ($10 million) is at 7.58 percent while Brian Wilson ($8.5 million), who has been on the DL, makes up 6.44 percent.
The most important thing isn't the 'how much'; it's the output each player provides compared to his salary that counts.
As total player payroll goes, a team's chances of winning go up the more they dole out. It is not an absolute truth, but what is inarguable is that high player payroll affords a team a better chance of being competitive. Money doesn't win championships, but it does give a team a better chance at winning than if it didn't have as much to toy with. We'll see if money talks in the World Series or not, but as the 2012 postseason has shown, it really already has.
Maury Brown is an author of Baseball Prospectus.
12 comments have been left for this article.
BP Comment Quick Links
An interesting hypothesis. Of course one year of data really only provides anecdotal support. Makes me really curious how a more detailed an analysis would look though. Perhaps you could do a similar analysis to the one BP did with high Guillen ratio teams. I.e. ask the question, "does the post-season reduce the winning percentage of high payroll teams less than it reduces the winning percentage of low payroll teams?" Sample size would be a bit of a problem because there are so few playoff games, even if you go back as far as the modern era of free agency, say post-collusion in the early 90's. You get even less data if you try to capture the period of time that Selig's talking about, which would not include the late nineties and early 2000's when the Yankees had their most dominant modern run. I wouldn't be surprised to find that our impression that big market teams do better can't be supported at a high level of statistical significance. Thanks for the food for thought.
Oct 23, 2012 06:55 AM
Planned on this for the comments... I'll likely post the payroll and ranking of WS teams for at least the last decade. Something anadotal to chew on... Look at where the Blue Jays and Royals ranked when they last won the World Series.
Oct 23, 2012 07:42 AM
In case you didn't know... the Giants and Tigers have played each other in interleague six times in the last five years. They have never faced each other in a World Series
Oct 23, 2012 07:55 AM
Pat Folz
Very interesting starting point, though I think it's not enough to draw any conclusions. Just from the info in the article, in 2011 one LCS was won by the team with the lower payroll, and in 2010 both were. It would be interesting to see results for all series in the Wild Card era.
Oct 23, 2012 09:22 AM
It stands to reason that marginal payroll should be correlated with playoff success. What marginal payroll specifically gets you (if done correctly) is a top-heavy roster that should fare better in a short series.
Oct 23, 2012 09:30 AM
Big spending has never bought championships. What it is supposed to buy is the ability to contend, which does happen for the most part.
Oct 23, 2012 09:46 AM
Awesome. For those that don't know, I have more than a passing fancy for AC/DC.
Oct 23, 2012 10:16 AM
Good article, Mr. Brown. One modification that I would make would be to say that money wisely spent matters. The sucessful teams, especially deep into the playoffs are the ones who were not afraid to spend in order to fill gaps, or otherwise strengthen themselves with acquisitons.
Oct 23, 2012 14:29 PM
This was a great read.
Oct 23, 2012 18:03 PM
Was the Pirates payroll zero for the year? That Nutting, he can really run a business :)
Oct 23, 2012 18:15 PM
When you consider the Giants' top earners it's pretty astounding they're near the pinnacle. Zito's been a bust, Lincecum evaporated this year, Huff rides the pine and Wilson spent the season on the DL. Only Cain has earned his coin. Other than him, they've spent $55 mil for negative WARP.
Oct 23, 2012 18:24 PM
Not a subscriber? Sign up today!


text: I tried to listen to the play-by-play from Slick and Mark on Radio at WIBC 93.1 FM when I'm watching the Pacers game today against Clippers. The radio is 7 seconds behind my TV. It is difficult to follow the game as the delay is so huge. Did anyone experience the same problem? or I mess up something which makes me have such as huge delay on my radio. I'm using just a old-style AM / FM radio. Some people on the forum told me that the radio should be ahead of TV by at least 2 seconds and I can buy some device to delay the radio, so that it syncs with the TV. for my situation, it is not working. I hope someone can know how to fix it. My PM box just allowed 1 message inbox, so please discuss on the forum. thanks.