Mañana

"Get lost, get lost, get lost,'' Detroit Tigers Manager, Jim Leyland said. ''Do yourself a favor and get lost.''

That was the Tigers skipper’s unprofessional response to a New York reporter asking him to comment on the arrest of Detroit leftfielder, Delmon Young. The Tigers slugger was allegedly drunk when he reportedly tussled with a Jewish panhandler on Friday night, hurling anti-Semitic slurs while bruising with the street person and several passersby, who police said were also Jewish.

But someone forgot to warn the New York press that Leyland is accustomed to friendly media types who routinely give him a free pass. Detroit reporters handle him with kid gloves on a regular basis. So, when he got a tough question from the New York press, Leyland reportedly threw a tantrum.

Long before the Young arrest, and a three-game sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners, Detroit reporters wondered aloud how to approach Leyland about Tiger, Brandon Inge and his career meltdown. Last Monday evening, I listened to the 97.1FM “The Ticket” as Bob Wojnowski, Mike Valenti and Terry Foster pondered a strategic approach to interviewing Leyland. Should they ask him about Inge and fans booing him? Did his sub .100 batting average justify benching or waivers? How would Leyland respond to such questions?

It was painful to hear. But that’s the state of sports journalism in Detroit. Reporters are afraid, with tails between their legs, fearful of confronting team management in a town where pizza-pizza king, Mike Ilitch, owns both the baseball and hockey teams. But it’s not because Little Caesar’s is a ruthless ruler.

Here’s how I see it.  The radio stations that broadcast those games feature print journalists as co-hosts for daily sports talk shows. And TV stations feature other print journalists as guests on their Sunday night sports wrap-ups. ESPN does it, too.

Since everything is intertwined with conflicts of interest, there’s little room for these beat writers to truthfully criticize the teams and management they cover.

I have to admit, I’m no Jim Leyland fan. I call him the mañana manager. (Spanish for “later, man.”) For my taste, he responds too slowly in game situations. Late to pull pitchers when they lose their stuff. Late to play small ball when the Tigers struggle for offense. And often illogical in his personnel decisions and then slow to adjust. For example, why continue to bat power-hitter Brennan Boesch in the number two slot as his batting average tumbled to the low .200’s? He’s soft on his players. Remember how his pitchers failed to field their positions in the Tigers 2006 World Series collapse?

Oh, how I long for a season with Billy Martin or Sparky Anderson at the helm.

Now, in fairness, some of you may be saying, “look, Media Guy, Leyland forgot more about baseball than you’ll ever know.” And you may be right. I’ve covered my share of sports in my career, but I’m no expert. On the other hand, when a team is struggling to play .500 baseball, the skipper should face his share of tough questions. Especially when he’s known to be slow to make changes.

Remember in 2006, when the Tigers needed just one win at the end of the season to clinch their division title. They lost three in a row to the Kansas City Royals, and Leyland in a panic pitched his ace starter Kenny Rogers in relief. The Tigers blew a six-run lead and lost the third of three consecutive games to the Royals and backed into the playoffs in the wild card slot. The Tigers lost their last five games that season.

Then there was the 2008 season, we picked up Miguel Cabrera, Edgar Renteria, and Dontrelle Willis. Instant championship right? Lots of season tickets sold. The team tanked so badly in the first couple weeks, they never recovered. Leyland kept saying, be patient.

Since, gold glove all-star Placido Polanco left Detroit in 2009, Tigers President, CEO and General Manager, Dave Dombrowski, has yet to fill the hole at second base and add a contact hitter like Polanco in the number two spot of the batting order. This year, Leyland has inserted and rotated a number of second-hand replacements so rapidly, no one can get in the groove at the plate or on the field. He even let Inge try his hand at the position in an embarrassing last hurrah before his departure.

Do you recall a few years ago when Leyland pitched hurler Jeremy Bonderman, game after game, after the kid gave up four or more runs in the first inning, time after time? Eventually, we discovered Bonderman had a career-ending injury. He’s still trying to make a comeback. So, why did Leyland pitch Rick Porcello in the second inning last week after the Texas Rangers shelled him for eight runs in the first?

Again, you may disagree with my analysis, but where are the questions? Why would Detroit sign the expensive hard swinging first basemen, Prince Fielder, when they already had Miguel Cabrera at that position? Didn't they need a third baseman? Why does Jhonny Peralta, who batted over .300 last year, continue to bat seventh? Wouldn’t he benefit from batting in front of Cabrera? When are we going to pick up a real second baseman, or play the switch-hitting and sure-handed fielder Ramon Santiago every day? What about more speed on the base paths and guys who can get on base?

As April winds down the Tigers are 11-11 with eight losses in their last ten games. They’re picked to win it all in 2012, with the 2011 American League Most Valuable Player and Cy Young Award Winner, in Justin Verlander and 2011 American League Batting Champion, in Cabrera

Maybe you can understand why I’m not content to hear Leyland say “don’t panic, it’s a long season.” He may be right, but the questions deserve to be asked, even if his answers are always mañana.

I just wish someone would ask him.

Gasman

If you’re old enough to remember a utility worker yelling out “gasman” as he approached your home, you probably remember a time when energy was cheap and plentiful.

But then you also recall when most people had one car and not two or three, buses ran often and on time and most clothes dryers were gas powered, just like stoves. It was the advent of the self-cleaning oven in 1963 that sparked the growth of electric cooking.

But natural gas is about to make a comeback. Big time. I have a buddy who made some serious dough on gold and he sold when it hit $1,000. He told me this week he keeps waiting for natural gas to hit bottom and buy low. Right now, it’s at about $2 per million BTU. And it’s moving in the opposite direction of the price of oil, which has been consistently north of $100 per barrel.

Why? Because natural gas is a byproduct of oil drilling. The more oil companies drill for crude the more gas they find. Plus, natural gas producers have been exploring at a record pace as well. So, there’s an excessive supply of natural gas and deep reserves.

That’s great news for consumers, especially if you have a gas stove and gas dryer to go along with a gas furnace and water heater. Little wonder municipalities are buying fleets of buses powered by natural gas and industries that used gas-guzzling vehicles are converting to machines powered by compressed natural gas.

A couple months ago, T. Boone Pickens, the natural gas tycoon, boasted in an interview about some fifty waste management companies converting their fleets to run on compressed natural gas. Waste Management Inc. has 30,000 trucks and has purchased 1,400 units that burn gas so far. They plan to only purchase diesel engines for trucks where access to natural gas filling stations is limited. Each gas truck saves 8,000 gallons of diesel per year. The availability of natural gas service stations is growing.

Here’s more good news for America. The U.S. has an abundant supply of natural gas; far exceeding its oil reserves. And because gas is so inexpensive, this resource could conceivably make America the low-cost manufacturer again. Even though the cost of labor is higher here, industrial energy costs could soon be so low; the U.S. would be the choice for manufacturing requiring high-added value. So, you might make party hats in China but jet engines and sewing machines in the U.S.A.

America might start making natural gas refrigerators, too. I remember seeing a natural gas fridge many years ago. I was apartment hunting after college and one landlord had installed it because it was efficient. You can buy them now, and they’ll get more affordable as supply rises with demand. They will be very efficient to operate and more reliable than electricity. Seriously, when was the last time you heard about someone losing his or her gas service after a thunderstorm or in a blizzard. It doesn’t happen often, because the lines are underground.

But it seems like power companies are routinely restoring electricity and their customers are buying emergency supplies of ice or tossing out a fridge-full of spoiled food.

I’m sure you’re thinking, “If I can operate a natural gas fridge, why not a car?” Honda has you covered. You can order your 2012 Civic now.

Are you ready for this? The price of natural gas at the pump is about $2 less than petroleum. The Civic gets about 27 miles to the gallon in the city and 38 highway.

At current fuel prices it’s very frugal. Natural gas has got big truckers salivating.

Ford CEO, Alan Mulally reported this week that natural gas is the next alternative energy frontier for the carmaker. Why is it that a Japanese company has the technology ready to go in a mainstream consumer car and it’s the next big thing at the domestic automakers? GM, Ford and Chrysler have offered natural gas conversion kits and natural gas vehicles for fleet buyers, but nothing the average car owner can just walk up and buy for the family car.

Ironically, the U.S. is the Saudi Arabia of natural gas.

Maybe Saudi Arabia and all those companies that import their black gold to the United States have something to do with it.

The worm turns

I love apples. Both the kind you eat and those you click.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m keyboarding this blog on a MacBook Pro. And we own five other Apple products including an iPad my wife, Ellen, rarely puts down. We also have an AppleCare contract and have received prompt, friendly and consistently excellent service from technical support.

Although I enjoy these devices and how they work, I’m not crazy these days about the way the technology company is behaving. And I’m not just talking about the exploitation of workers in foreign countries.

The most valuable company in the world is also allegedly continuing to set new standards for greed right here at home.

This week, the U.S. Department of Justice launched a lawsuit against the Cupertino, California company alleging collusion with five book publishers. Apparently, Apple set prices for e-books at its iTunes store and required the publishing companies to pay a 30% commission on every virtual volume sold there. Plus, they demanded the book business not sell e-books at lower prices through other Web retailers.

In fairness to Apple, the alleged price-setting efforts were in response to Amazon’s parasitic relationship with the publishing business. Amazon has been slashing book prices. According to a Bloomberg News interview, Amazon is allegedly selling books at a loss in hopes of driving bookstores, competitors and eventually publishers out of business. If book prices get low enough, publishing print versions won’t be a viable business model. Authors will be forced to deal directly with the likes of Amazon and sell only e-books.

Publishers allegedly crafted the Apple arrangement to fight back against price deflation. The Feds and 15 state attorneys general say consumers have paid millions of extra dollars for popular books. Three of the five publishers settled and two agreed to pay $51 million in restitution to book lovers.

All of these twisted tactics spell trouble for the creative minds that generate the content for books, newspapers, magazines, movies and other media.  As the value is artificially deflated and middlemen divert profits to their pockets, there’s less revenue for those who actually invest in media. The media companies and their creatives are being bled.

Apple’s 30% commission is based on an agency model. In other words, rather than buying the books wholesale like other retailers, or even selling them on consignment, they insist on nearly one-third of the price paid at the Apple store. And they’ve extended this to all sales generated at their App store, including subscriptions, as well and all sales made from within a company’s App bought at the App store.

In that sense, they’re setting prices by imposing a mandatory 30% premium rather than allowing the market to decide the value and price of a product. On the other hand, a bookstore would typically buy merchandise at the wholesale price and then sell them for whatever the market would bear. That way, a great book would bring the top asking price and a bore might sell at rock bottom.  The market rules. But at Apple, in every case, they get 30 pounds of flesh.

You can’t really blame Apple though. They saw the gap in the thinking of media companies and are simply exploiting it.

Consider this. In most cases we pay extra for convenience. Whether it’s the high-priced groceries at the gas station; the surcharge on carryout food orders; handling fees for sports and theater tickets or the shipping costs for mail order or Web purchases. Shopping the easy way has a price and it’s often steep.

Why is it that so many media companies gave away online access to newspapers and magazines for free? Think about it. In most cases, the new media version of a publication or creative asset is more robust and valuable than the old school version. For example, newspapers offer video and galleries of photos online. You can also easily search and e-mail articles and assets to friends and family. Yet, many publishers allow you to enjoy online media with all its extra perks for free. Makes no business sense.

Now, after giving away first-class journalism online, publishers like the New York Times are trying to train readers to pay for it. As they should. And advertising is more measurable online than in any other medium. It’s worth more.

In the 20^th century, radio and television began under free access business models. But advertisers paid top dollar in the golden age of radio and TV to buy share of mind of consumers who invested in radios and TV sets. However, over time, both have evolved into pay models, with satellite radio offering broad programming and excellent reception wherever we go. And cable TV provides hundreds of channels plus on-demand access to first run movies that cost less than theater tickets. But you pay at least the $29.99 monthly teaser rate for satellite or cable TV. And those current box office offerings are extra.

Simply put, you get what you pay for and if it’s convenient, you typically pay more. Getting your favorite journal or show delivered to your desktop no mater where you are in the world, anytime day or night is the ultimate convenience. And it should not be free. Giving away journalism and entertainment is costing jobs and may eventually destroy the media industry as we know it.

All the recent legal haggling with Apple and others couldn’t have come at a better time.

In early April, a consortium of leading magazine publishers announced they would batch 32 major titles for online subscriptions. You get all the monthly magazines at the all-you-can-read price of $9.99 per month. For $14.99 you receive both weekly and monthly titles. An unbelievable deal.

The consortium, called Next Issue Media, includes publishers like Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, Time Inc. and News Corporation. Some of the popular titles in the bundle are The New Yorker, Time, Vanity Fair, Better Homes and Gardens, Elle, Esquire, Wired, Fortune, People, Real Simple and Sports Illustrated.

You might say magazines are going cable, except this subscription model requires no extra fees for the premium content. It would be like getting HBO and Showtime thrown in with your local channels, ESPN, AMC and The Big Ten Network.

The Next Issue Media magazine App will reportedly work with the iPad, Android tablets, Kindle Fire and Nook. It will take about 12 months before the publishers officially make the offer.

Will they have to pay Apple 30% of every subscription they sell through the iTunes store? How will that impact their operations and business plan?

Imagine what would have happened to radio and TV if broadcasters had to pay RCA Victor, Motorola and Philco a 30% fee so the technology tuned into their programming. Even credit cards charge just a few percentage points commission for financing retail sales. The late Steve Jobs must have consulted the ghost of Hammurabi when developing his 30% taste of the business that passes his processors. I’m not talking about a commission on Apps, I’m criticizing the commission on subscriptions.

Apple and Google have created a double tax on the toll roads of the information highway. Consumers already pay fat fees through monthly charges for Internet access. Without the content that media companies create, iPads and other tablets are roads to nowhere, sleek looking launching pads with limited destinations.

My suggestion is that publishers prevent the technology giant, Apple, and others like Amazon or Google from worming in on their valuable content. How? Some technology writers are encouraging media companies to invest in developing Web-based Apps instead of those designed to run on Macs.

That way, they can advertise their amazing offer on the Web and have consumers connect there. Consequently, publishers would then be able to take a bigger bite of the apple for themselves — and the talented people who develop the content for their award winning media. 

Hunting for Easter

I am very grateful this Easter.

My 83-year-old mom took a fall on Good Friday evening. We all got a good scare including her. But she’s a tough old matriarch who survived Nazi occupied Poland as the invasion rolled through her family farm when she was 11.

That’s probably why she refuses to move out of Detroit, even though her Westside neighborhood is pocked with drug deals and abandoned homes, amidst manicured lawns and tidy little bungalows.

Despite her fat lip, bruised hands, nose and eyes, mom managed to stir up some of her classic Polish dishes to celebrate Easter, and her quiet strength and unshaken faith made the day more special. You could see she was proud to have her family around her for support, yet she was courageous enough to pick herself up and keep going.

I’ve been enjoying this traditional meal for five decades and it helps define the holiday for me, due to the spiritual significance of the courses and their religious symbolism.

Easter has become an afterthought for so much of our society. Unlike Christmas that has morphed into consumption heaven, Easter remains a challenge for Madison Avenue. You can only sell so many chocolate bunnies, lilies and hams.

For the past several days, I’ve been searching Comcast’s cable menu for Biblical or spiritually related movies available on demand. The only one I found was “The Muppet’s Christmas Carole.” This was especially shameful when you consider that people are observing both Passover and Easter this weekend. There are some films available on pay-per-view, but it seems like we pay enough for cable to allow Comcast to program an appropriate lineup for Holy Week.

When TV was free, “King of Kings”, “The Ten Commandments” and “The Robe” were routine fare at this time of year. Now Easter Sunday is dominated by baseball, the Masters golf tournament and various NBA games.

When I was a kid, Easter was spent enjoying our new duds and making sure we didn’t get chocolate on them. Mom and dad got us new shoes every spring and those shoes and dress clothes had to last. We wore those dress shoes as part of our parochial school uniform. The represented hard-earned wages stretched to give us the best our parents could afford.

I always take the day off the Monday after Easter so I can get the most out of the holiday.  I love the time with family and a house full of relatives. Because that’s what this day is all about.

Love.

Home Paige

I met a woman this week who is struggling to stay off the streets.  We’ll call her Paige. She has been homeless. Today, Paige lives with the scars of frostbite after having fallen asleep in an abandoned home.

No high school diploma. No GED. Her options are limited. Although you don’t need a formal education to apply for housekeeping work, you do need to know how to use a computer.

I suggested Paige go to the public library and experiment with a PC. She said she has many times, but can only spend 20 minutes keyboarding or surfing the Web before she has to step aside for the next person waiting in line.

Twenty minutes isn’t a lot of time to learn to navigate most any software, let alone explore something.

We have entered an era where a significant number of people like Paige will be cut off from participating in our society. They already have very limited phone access due to the cost of cell phones. Even cell services that are free for the needy offer minimal minutes. Try to find a pay phone where you can make a call for a quarter.

There was a time when office buildings, airports and train stations had lines of phone booths, complete with lamps, seats and phone books. You could reach out and touch someone for about as long as you liked, unless your call was long distance.

But in today’s world, there aren’t many pay phones and virtually no convenient, affordable pay computers. Paige told me how hard it is to complete an online job application in twenty minutes with her inexperienced fingers. When I suggested she pursue adult education classes in basic computer skills, she didn’t know where to start to look for help in her community.  

Paige doesn’t have a computer at home to Google resources. And even if she did, she’d have to be able to afford Internet access through her cable or phone company.

Now, Paige is grateful to have a roof over her head, but feels trapped because she’s walking on the information highway, while most travelers are rocketing along at the speed of broadband.  Paige and people in her situation may as well be living 60 or 70 years ago when many people didn’t have phones, and sometimes had to borrow a neighbor’s to make or receive an emergency call. The problem is, this is the information age, where virtually everything occurs online or with the help of the Web.

Seriously, when was the last time you used a phone book?  All the numbers and addresses are now just a few clicks away. What about an atlas or a road map? Type in your destination on your GPS system and you get turn-by-turn directions.

You and I can even read a book without ever making a trip to the library or bookstore. And turn the pages by swiping a finger on a glass screen.

But Paige can’t turn the corner on her life unless her fingers learn to run along the information highway. Very fast and very soon.