The Houston Astros declined to exercise their option on first baseman Jeff Bagwell for next season, the club announced Tuesday.Houston will instead pay the $7-million US buyout of the option in Bagwell’s contract.
Bagwell, 38, is Houston’s all-time leader in home runs (449), RBIs (1,529) and walks (1,401). In 15 major-league seasons with the Astros, he hit .297 while stealing 202 bases and scoring 1,517 runs in 2,150 games.
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley ceded his crown to Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain on Forbes.com’s list as the top-earning dead celebrity.
The list, published on Tuesday, said grunge rocker Cobain earned $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006. Presley wound up in the No. 2 slot with $42 million, down from last year’s $45 million.
Forbes.com bases its dollar amounts on licensing deals for using the deceased celebrities’ work or image in advertising or elsewhere.
This was Cobain’s first time on the list in its six years of publication. Presley has ruled the roost since its inception, said Forbes.com staff writer Lacey Rose.
“I inhaled — that was the point.”
That was what Illinois Senator Barack Obama, currently on a book tour that may or may not segue into a run for the 2008 presidency, said to New Yorker editor David Remnick this afternoon at the American Magazine Conference, after Remnick asked Obama whether or not his admission of drug use in the book would become problematic if he does, if fact, run for president.
DALLAS (Reuters) – Eli Manning threw two touchdown passes to lead the New York Giants to an impressive 36-22 road win over the Dallas Cowboys on Monday, while Tiki Barber rushed for 114 yards in the team’s fourth win of the season.
Manning hit Plaxico Burress with a 50-yard strike to open the scoring and Jamie Shockey with a 13-yard pass in the third as the Giants (4-2) took over first place in the NFC East Division.
“That was really a poor performance,” Dallas coach Bill Parcells told reporters.
“A recipe for disaster. It was a real bad performance. And there’s really no excuse for it.”
The Giants quarterback went 12-for-26 for 189 yards and Kevin Dockery returned an interception 96 yards in the fourth quarter for New York.
HOUSTON (CNNMoney.com) — Former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling, who gained infamy as the man who orchestrated the largest corporate fraud in history, was sentenced to more than 24 years in jail Monday.
The 52-year-old Skilling stood stoically, his hands clasped before him, as presiding Judge Sim Lake handed down his sentence. His wife Rebecca, however, sobbed quietly in her seat as victims of Enron’s collapse watched the proceedings stone-faced.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush gently admonished his father for saying he hates to think what life would be like for his son if the Democrats win control of Congress in the November 7 election.
It was the latest sign of possible strain in the relationship between the two men.
“He shouldn’t be speculating like this, because — he should have called me ahead of time and I’d tell him they’re not going to (win),” a smiling Bush told ABC “This Week” in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
DETROIT (AP) — Was it dirt? A smudge from a resin bag? A magic elixir?
Don’t ask the St. Louis Cardinals what that stuff was on Kenny Rogers’ pitching hand.
They didn’t get a good look at it, and even when he wiped it off, they still barely hit the baseballs he was throwing.
Virtually untouchable this October, Rogers smothered the Cardinals on two hits over eight shutout innings, leading Detroit to a 3-1 victory on a chilly Sunday night that tied the World Series at one game apiece.
NEW YORK (AP) — No way anybody was catching Yadier Molina’s ninth-inning shot. And by the time it landed beyond the left-field fence, the St. Louis Cardinals were headed to the World Series.
Molina’s tiebreaking homer and another Game 7 gem by Jeff Suppan helped St. Louis overcome Endy Chavez’s astounding grab, giving the Cardinals a 3-1 victory over the New York Mets on Thursday night for the NL championship.
NEW YORK (AP) — With the New York Mets on the brink of elimination, John Maine pitched a game to remember.
The rookie dominated St. Louis with the poise of a veteran, Jose Reyes sparked the offense with a leadoff home run and the Mets rock ‘n’ rolled at boisterous Shea Stadium to beat the Cardinals 4-2 on Wednesday night and force the NL championship series to a decisive seventh game.
“I knew everything was riding on it,” Maine said.
Reyes had three hits and two stolen bases, Shawn Green boosted the lead with a fourth-inning RBI single and Lo Duca let the loud crowd of 56,334 exhale with a two-run, two-out single in the seventh off Braden Looper that made it 4-0.
Have a great day.
Peace-out..R
Home-field advantage in a postseason series can be overrated. If anything, I’ve always thought it’s better to have the three games in the middle at home because of the often-pivotal nature of Game 5 in a seven-game series. Tonight is a perfect example of this, with the Cardinals and Mets tied 2-2 heading into Game 5.
It’s difficult to understate how crucial it is to have a 3-2 lead in a seven-game series. According to whowins.com, teams heading home for Games 6 and 7 with a 3-2 lead end up winning the series 73.7 percent (28-10) of the time.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Movie actor Wesley Snipes was indicted Tuesday on eight counts of tax fraud accusing him of trying to cheat the government of $12 million in false refund claims.
Snipes, 44, also failed to file tax returns for six years, according to an indictment unsealed in Tampa, Florida.
Federal prosecutors said that Snipes fraudulently claimed refunds totaling nearly $12 million in 1996 and 1997 on income taxes already paid.
The indictment also charged him with failure to file returns between 1999 and 2004. (Indictment — pdf
)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Rain could postpone Game 5 of the NL championship series Monday night between the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets, with showers expected into late evening.
Rain was forecast until midnight, according to the National Weather Service. The chance of rain was 100 percent and temperatures for the start at Busch Stadium were expected to be in the low 50s.
At the end of a three-and-a-half hour show, on the last night of music at the New York club CBGB, Patti Smith read a list of the fallen, just a few of the musicians and spirits who were so important to the room’s legend but couldn’t be there for the October 15th wake. They included the Cramps’ Bryan Gregory, the critic Lester Bangs, singer Helen Wheels, guitarist Robert Quine, Johnny, Joey and Dee Dee Ramone and Smith’s original pianist Richard Sohl. As her band played at soft funeral-march volume behind her, someone in the audience yelled out, “You missed one.” Smith smiled. “We remember everything,” she said with maternal assurance. Then she pointed out that CBGB was expiring at thirty-three — the same age as Jesus.
