Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli opened up about his childhood yesterday in a Q&A session with fans as part of an “open house” at Steiner Sports in New Rochelle, N.Y. on Monday night.  When asked why he didn’t wear batting gloves that when Cervelli was growing up in Venezuela, he simply couldn’t afford them.  He noted that Jorge Posada didn’t wear them either, eliciting a big chuckle from the crowd.

Cervelli also showed his humble side when discussing 2009 World Series shares.  When asked whether he received a full share, Cervelli confirmed that he had, but said he was not aware that it was the other players that had voted for him, and that he would thank them tomorrow, drawing another hearty laugh.

Reserve outfielder Marcus Thames, currently on the disabled list, was also in attendance Monday night.  In recalling the first-pitch home run off Randy Johnson in his first Major League at bat in 2002, he remembered that Yankees manager Joe Torre had promised to bring him up at the first opportunity, and fulfilled that as soon as another player was injured.  Thames also told the group, many of them children, how excited he was to be back in Pinstripes this year.

Young fans also took photos with the two players and toured the Steiner Sports warehouse, which stores memorabilia from 100 years of Yankees and sports history.

The fantasy sports business has grown into a multinational, multibillion dollar industry with thousands of sites, from small information gathering blogs to huge endeavors by media giants like ESPN and Yahoo, all looking to satisfy the jones of any sports fan who wants to out-do his friends, family or favorite (or hated) general manager.  What started as a baseball ploy just over 30 years ago is now a multi-season, multi-sport bonanza replete with mini-games, tournaments and championships on a weekly basis.  Fantasy sports has transformed the coverage and the viewing patterns in sports like football and baseball and has migrated over time to global sports like golf, cricket and soccer.  There is even fantasy NASCAR.  One top five site, Fantasy Sports Ventures, based its original model on aggregating the best independent fantasy sites and has seen its growth surpass 16 million visitors a month, many of which are people looking to get that little edge to be better at the front office game than anyone else.

This week the 2010 World Cup starts, and with it has come a digital onslaught for fans looking to best follow and engage with their favorite side.  Fantasy soccer is really still in its infancy.  A number of games have caught on, two of which were developed for large platforms:  Sports Illustrated and the popular social entertainment site hi5.com…by Los Angeles-based game developer Rotohog.

While media companies and many smaller sites have looked to attract eyeballs and sponsors to the games themselves, Rotohog has built an amazing behind the scenes business developing, implementing and in some cases marketing, fantasy games from everyone from the NBA and NASCAR to Turner and Pro Football Weekly.  The company recently added entertainment fantasy games for media brands like “US Weekly,” and are in the process of assisting media giant Bloomberg in building its first Facebook game for baseball.  The CEO of Rotohog is former Apprentice winner Kelly Perdew, who has also helped launch other digital startups like eteamz and Pro Elite.  We took a few minutes to ask Perdew what he thought about the landscape and if World Cup could be the time when fantasy soccer firmly takes root. Here is a look:     

1- This is a big year for the brand of soccer in the US, with World Cup and MLS expansion.  Do you see the fantasy market growing for soccer exponentially this year and if so why in the States?

I doubt it will grow exponentially in the US but it will grow.  For a few reasons…  1) the pervasiveness and viral nature of technology delivery systems makes everything available no matter where the consumer is – TV, Social Media, Mobile – the World Cup will have all eyes focused on it and this will translate into many, many viewers and fans.  2) the major media companies in the US, especially ESPN, have expended extraordinary amounts of money on distribution rights and you can be they are going to hype it to the hilt.  3) the US has a good team and will go very far in the competition, which will spark more nationalistic fan interest.  All of these things will be good for Fantasy Soccer; but, the US is still learning about the sport and all fantasy has roots in loyalty to an athlete, team or sport.

2- Has the fantasy market in Europe started to grow for soccer?  how popular are fantasy leagues for elite clubs and what kind of games are they?

Yes, it is growing in Europe as well.  However, there is a damper…in most jurisdictions in Europe, fans are allowed to gamble on sports.  This fact somewhat dampens fans enthusiasm for Fantasy Sports.  Pick ‘ems and Salary Cap games are the most popular in Europe and usually run by the major media companies.

3- Baseball and football are very stats oriented games which make them naturals for very detailed fantasy play.  Soccer is a much simpler game.  Can soccer fantasy be as engaging as football and baseball are here?

Absolutely.  The number of stats in soccer are more than sufficient to create an engaging game – goals, minutes on field, shots on goal, yellow cards, red cards, dribbles, penalty kicks, corner kicks, goalie saves, defensive saves, hand balls, head balls, bicycle kicks, tackles, etc.  Additionally, there are many ways to add fan behavior as well as virtual goods into the game dynamic.  For instance, we just launched a World Cup Soccer Game on hi5 that includes a concept called confidence points (the game allows you to distribute a certain number of Confidence Points across your selections and provide you weighted returns on those selections).

4- Even in baseball, fantasy has not really expanded outside of the US, to places where the sport is popular like Asia and Latin America.  Do you think fantasy is still more a North American phenomenon?

Yes, to some degree.  However, Cricket, Rugby, Soccer, Golf, F1, Basketball, Baseball all have huge followings abroad and the market is ripe for a lot growth.  We built and delivered a baseball game in Spanish for Fox Sports International last year and there were huge Central and South American followings.

5- What will it take for this year’s World Cup to be the tipping point for fantasy soccer globally?

Large sponsorships, exciting prizes, and the appropriate style of game for each of the regional audiences.  For instance, for those countries not used to playing fantasy sports, you can’t give them league manager style games and expect huge adoption.  You have to provide a suite of games with varying levels of complexity to engage the largest audience.

6- How does Rotohog view fantasy soccer as a growth sport to say, fantasy hockey or cricket?

Soccer, Cricket and Hockey in that order.  They all have different appeal.  Soccer has the largest, worldwide fan base.  Cricket has a very large Indian ex-pat consumer base that is a very desirable demographic.  Hockey fans and fantasy players are known for being the most zealous.  Fortunately, RotoHog supports all three!

7- The games that Rotohog designed for hi5 and Sports Illustrated are relatively simple ones for fans to play.  Is there not a need for an in-depth soccer fantasy game at this time?

Our platforms enables us to provide any type of fantasy game that exists.  We have, in fact, provide salary cap style soccer games for large media companies in Brazil (games were in Portuguese) and they were some of our most avid fantasy players.  But as I noted above, you want to understand and deliver the appropriate style of game for your audience.  The 4-5 weeks of World Cup and the International nature of the audience dictate that you should keep a game relatively simple.

So as the world turns to South Africa starting this week, more and more fans will be also turning to their laptops and following the stars of their favorite country. While that passionate following may not lead to an immediate boom in business, it may some day make fantasy even more of a reality for the world’s most popular sport, and if that does happen there is a good chance the a builder like Rotohog will be there to make sure the games run smooth, consistent and are as much fun and engaging as fantasy football and baseball fans already enjoy today. 

The phrase “tennis academy” brings to mind settings like Florida and California, with aspiring young stars practicing serves and groundstrokes and doing tennis drills from dawn to dusk.  It’s a formula that parents see as the best way to give their kids the best chance — realistic or not — at a scholarship or the pros.

John McEnroe has another idea in mind.

Drawing from his own experiences growing up in New York, having developed his game there and achieved some of his greatest successes on the U.S. Open courts, McEnroe this week announced the formation of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, part of Sportime at Randall’s Island, a 20-court complex which opened less than a year ago.  On a teleconference on Wednesday, McEnroe discussed the motivation behind the new endeavor.

“If you know me, this is something I’ve wanted for a long time, having grown up in the New York area,” said the four-time US Open champion,” and seeing tennis somewhat disintegrate here.   “So it seemed only natural for me to put together a tennis academy [here].  I used to play other sports on Randall’s Island, when I was in high school at Trinity.   They’ve put in hundreds of millions of dollars, including this tennis facility.  It’s great for the City of New York.”

McEnroe, 51, can’t recall a great player having come from New York in the past 25 years.

“I’m living proof of someone who can live a ‘normal life,’ go to school and play other sports, and succeed in tennis,” he added.

The experiment could be considered a risky one, given the current economic climate and the seemingly diminished level of interest in tennis in the U.S.  But Claude Okin, CEO of Sportime Clubs and the N.Y. Sportimes World TeamTennis franchise, is confident that the Academy will be a huge hit, with two McEnroes — John and his younger brother Mark, general manager of the Randalls Island site, leading the way.

“This is not a trial balloon,” explained Okin. “The Academy is constructed and funded, there are almost 3000 tennis players using the facility now, and 1000 juniors playing now; many have had the treat of interacting with John this year – under the radar, as he has begun to put the tools in place.”

While discussions have already taken place with the USTA, the sport’s governing body and promotional engine in this country, Okin says the project is a go regardless.

“Whether or not we end up in quasi-partnership with the USTA, and as we add sponsors, the John McEnroe Tennis Academy is going to be here for a while and produce players,” he said.  “And most importantly, it will maintain enough independence that can reflect the wisdom and inspiration of John McEnroe, a pretty independent guy.

Therein lies some of the dilemma.  For as much as John McEnroe has meant to American tennis in the past three decades-plus, he has maintained an independence that, coupled with some criticism of the USTA and its strategy in growing the game, has made a partnership seem less likely, even if his other brother, Patrick, is general manager of USTA Elite Player Development.

“For many years, I talked to the USTA about this type of thing at the tennis center, naming it the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, but I was unable to get through,” he said.  “Now I have this tremendous opportunity to work with Claude and his people at a facility that is as good or better than the Tennis Center.  With the tens of millions [the USTA] make[s] in a single year I would think that it’s in their best interest and the sport’s best interest to welcome us with open arms and provide us with money that they provide other programs.”

The Academy will open in September, with a summer’s worth of activity at Sportime and the July World TeamTennis season helping to generate interest.  The Academy will hold open tryouts for youngsters ages 8-16 interested in attending the Academy, with at least one boy and one girl earning scholarships for the fall.  The tryouts will be held on July 14 (boys) and July 19 (girls) and will tie in to WTT Sportimes matches those evenings, in which McEnroe will participate.

McEnroe has a vision for those kids and the others that find their way to Randall’s Island.

“My academy, based here in the world’s greatest city, will provide a balance of world-class tennis and fitness training, along with a New York experience, so maybe our kids will be a little more creative, a little more intense, and will be able to think on their feet a little better, like any New Yorker,” he said.  Over time and with my guidance and that of our hand-picked coaches and pros, I think our students will see great success.”

For fans of the Yankees and Red Sox, a well-timed home run during Saturday’s game at Fenway Park won’t just bring in some runs for their favorite team.  It can also bring them some free Steiner Sports memorabilia.

From now (Thursday, May 6), all day Friday, May 7, through Saturday at 3:05 p.m. ET, (just before the 3:10 p.m. first pitch), fans who purchase select Steiner Sports Yankees or Red Sox player-specific memorabilia will receive their item free of charge should that particular player hit a home run during Saturday’s game. For “Bronx Bombers” and “Sawks” zealots, it will be a new-fangled version of the “Home Run Derby” to send baseball’s most heated rivalry to a new zenith this weekend thanks to Steiner, which is hitting one out of the park for collectors, “See Ya,” “It’s Outa Here,” and “Kiss It Good Bye!”
 
“To celebrate this weekend’s Yankees-Red Sox Series, we wanted to offer fans this unique opportunity,” says Brandon Steiner, CEO of Steiner Sports.  “This adds another level of excitement, for fans of both teams, to a game that would ordinarily be must-watch television anyway.”

Fans can log onto www.SteinerSports.com or call 1-800-759-SCORE to purchase their player-specific item.  Should that particular player hit a home run on Saturday, the fan will not be charged for their ordered item, and will receive it free of charge (standard shipping rates will apply).  If that player fails to hit a home run, all orders will be treated as usual and will be subject to normal charges.

“It’s really simple,” says Steiner.  “For example, purchase a Derek Jeter hand-signed baseball from Steiner Sports prior to the game; if Derek hits a home run, you won’t be charged for that baseball.  The same would apply for all players on both teams this Saturday.”

Fans are encouraged to place their orders under the following guidelines: Orders must be placed prior to first pitch on Saturday, May 8, 2010 (approximately 3:05 p.m. EST).  All sales are final, even if a particular player doesn’t appear in the game.  The standard 30-day return policy does not apply.  Game used or Yankee Stadium demolition items do not apply.  This promotion cannot be combined with any other offer and is only valid on new orders placed between Thursday, May 6, at 3 p.m. and Saturday, May 8, at 3:05 p.m.  Should multiple players appear on a single piece, all players must hit a home run to qualify.

I haven’t been able to bear stopping by Yankee Stadium in its final days.  I know that it’s just a building, but last year’s send-offs gave me proper closure.

I only saw a dozen or so games at Giants Stadium, and because there were fewer games played there and over a shorter period of time, the good-byes have been less celebrated.  But I think they are just as keenly felt by Giants fans, who, like Mets fans, won’t have to see the unattended facility sit through a yearlong stay of execution as Yankee fans did last year.

Yankee Stadium memorabilia got the lion’s share of notice, but Giants Stadium yielded plenty of goodies for collectors as well.  Steiner Sports, the same group that handled the distribution of pieces of the House that Ruth Built, is concluding its auctions this weekend on Giants Stadium items.

The iconic Giants Stadium sign from above the building, the ‘Play Like a Jet’ sign above the equipment room and section markers autographed by Lawrence Taylor are among the offerings.  Taylor and other Jets and Giants greats including Eli Manning, Marty Lyons, Joe Klecko and Brandon Jacobs have also signed seat backs that are also on the auction block.

Goal posts, game-used turf and yard markers have been turned into commemorative items that fans can also bid on.

The Center for Media Research deposits an email in my box via the very useful MediaPost a few times a week with research briefs from different sources that I occasionally find interesting.

One caught my eye today, from the Cinema Advertsing Council (CAC), involving emotional attachment people have to movies.  Now, the “NewMediaMetrics 360 Cross Platform Study” is a product of the CAC, which, according to its Website, “serves cinema advertising sellers, the theatrical exhibition community and the advertising community, acting as a central source of information for the industry.”

So — surprise! — the study has found that movies have a higher emotional attachment rating (between about 43 to 45%, depending on the category) than TV, radio, magazines and the Internet, which range from about 20 to 30%, for consumers of various types of goods and dining services.

Additionally, the study notes that the 41.5% rating for movies is also higher than watching major televised sports and entertainment events, including the Super Bowl (emotional attachment rating of 39.7%, Summer Olympics (26.3%), World Series (22.8%), Oscars (16.1%) and Grammys (15.1%).

The full report, including methodology, is available here.

It’s easy to be skeptical of a report whose results so clearly benefit the group that commissions it, but I think that within the general consumer population there is some truth to it.

But here’s the issue I have with the study.  The sporting events listed in the televised category are the largest viewed by “casual” sports fans; they are once-a-year happenings, whereas NFL or MLB or NBA fans who watch their favorite teams and others dozens of times a year may have a larger emotional attachment, just as Kanye West fans have a greater attachment to his music than to the Grammys and dedicated “Lost” fans are closer to that show than to the Emmys.

The goal of the study is to show that the cinema is a viable environment for marketers to connect with consumers.  Fair enough. But I think the way it was structured underestimates the emotional attachment that sports, music and TV fans have to those respective categories.

Yankees Manager Joe Girardi has been stressing that today’s World Series Ring ceremony at Yankee Stadium is an opportunity for the team to gain “closure” on the 2009 championship and become fully invested in 2010.  I think it’s a good, if symbolic, marker, and a day to celebrate the title for the last time.

In that spirit, I thought it was interesting that artist Opie Otterstad, who has painted official World Series celebration works, today gave a first look at the 2009 piece in advance of Saturday’s official unveiling at Pop International Galleries, in SoHo, NYC.

Artist Steven Holland will also display art depicting Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Alex Rodriguez at Saturday’s event.

In the 70s, there was The Mad Hungarian.  Today, there’s The Mad Dominican.

A generation ago, Al Hrabosky was a mustachio’d, excitable-type left-handed reliever for the Cardinals, Royals and Braves.  Those of us old enough to have seen Hrabosky pitch will principally remember his histrionics prior to facing a new batter.  He would take the ball behind the mound, rub it up roughly, then slam it into his glove.

Sammy Gervacio, righty middle reliever for the Astros, isn’t exactly mad.  In fact, his unusual pre-pitch routine drew mostly laughs from the Giants dugout when he entered in the 8th inning of today’s season opener.  Before each pitch, the wiry 25-year-old holds the ball up and looks directly into the third-base dugout, pausing for a second before coming to the set position.

As pre-pitch routines go, it’s unlike anything I — and apparently the visiting Giants as well — have ever seen.  The Astros announcers were ready for it, and the Fox Sports cameras caught most of the pauses, and got some good shots of the San Francisco players yukking it up.  It helped that Gervacio retired the Giants in order with relative ease, and after an impressive 29-game stint (1-1, 2.14 ERA, 25K in 21 innings) with Houston last year, he looks like he has the stuff to stick.

I remember Hrabosky mostly as a Royal, even though only two of his 13 seasons were in Kansas City.  But those were 1978 and 1979, when the Yankee-Royal rivalry was in full bloom.  Even though, to this young Yankee rooter, he was on the “enemy” team, Hrabosky made a positive impression on me as a baseball fan.  To know that there were unique personalities like Hrabosky made watching the game a richer experience.  I hated him and was especially pleased when Reggie Jackson took him into the Royals Stadium waterfall, but having that emotion made the game much more fun to follow.

I hope that some young fan today, learning the game and its players for maybe the first time, saw Gervacio and had some of those same thoughts — that if you look closely, you’ll see something unique in different players, something that might make you gravitate towards (or away from) a particular guy.

Opening Day — or in the Yankees’ and Red Sox’s case, opening night — is just two days away, so the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council has picked an appropriate time to tout the hot dog as the undisputed king of ballpark concessions.

From its release today:

The NHDSC predicts that ballparks around the country will serve 21,378,064 hot dogs this season, enough to round the bases 29,691 times.  If laid end-to-end, the dogs would stretch from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., to Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, with enough left over to give a hot dog to every fan at every Colorado Rockies’ home game for the entire 2010 season.  In addition, the NHDSC predicts ballparks will sell 4,933,853 sausages this year.

That’s a whole lot of weiners.

“Old” Yankee Stadium didn’t have much to offer in the way of food outside of the hot dog realm, and the selections were pretty limited.  Regular size and slightly larger “jumbo” were available at most stands, and a select few had “footlongs.”  Of course, the vendors came around with “dirty water” dogs that looked awful and smelled worse.  For most games, it was a dog or maybe a sausage, or grab a slice at the pizza place up 161st Street before the game.

Now, the new Stadium has tons more offerings, even a choice between standard, footlong and natural casing dogs.  The entire first level is full of vendors that there had simply been no room for in the old Stadium.

My favorites at Yankee Stadium last year were the Boar’s Head corned beef and pastrami sandwiches (usually made to order, unless you got there too early) and Philly Cheese steaks (not the Chicken Cheese steaks, which looked substantially less appetizing).

I didn’t branch out much further than that — I made the chicken fingers mistake once — but I might try a few others this year, just to see what else is out there.

It also doesn’t hurt to have a Carvel stand right near the entrance to my station.  Of course, it would help if they didn’t run out of ice cream most games by the 7th inning…

I’ve been a Yankees fan for more than 30 years.  In a way, it’s kind of strange, because in just about everything else, I root for a collection of perennial underdogs, small-market teams, mid-majors and general underachievers. 

In that time, you can count on one hand (well, maybe two) the number of players that were available that the Yankees really wanted — that is, REALLY wanted — that they didn’t get.  Greg Maddux comes to mind, and while dozens of guys have also used the Yankees for leverage elsewhere, not too many have gotten away.  Whether they were the right moves (cough, cough, Carl Pavano, cough, Danny Tartabull, cough, Hideki Irabu, well… you get the point).

Which is why today’s news that Joe Mauer is staying with the Twins, thanks to an eight-year, $184 million contract extension, is so great for the game.  The Yankees and Red Sox won’t be replacing the catchers who have meant so much to their organizations but who are near the end of their respective stellar careers with Mauer; it will take some old-fashioned player development.  Or, of course, they can go and get another catcher from someone else.  But it won’t be the big fish.  He’s staying put.

The Yankees and Red Sox will continue to compete every year, and guys that hit the market will always pass their resumes through New York and Boston on their way to wherever they end up.  But every team deserves a chance at keeping its stars, and though it took a new stadium and unprecedented commitment (the Twins are looking at a $90+million payroll this year), the Twins and Mauer found a way to get it done.

This way, when the Yankees are celebrating World Series titles No. 28 through 31 in the mid-2010’s, it won’t be because they just took Mauer from Minnesota.