"Reflected glory for sale; Business brisk for athletes’ championship rings" by Shira Springer, Globe Staff | July 22, 2010
How sad.
LAS VEGAS — After Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, and Stanley Cup celebrations end, the sentimental value of championship rings fades for some athletes and team staff members, and financial needs become more pressing.
After being paid all that money?
Most players’ rings reach the open market because of what sports memorabilia dealers call “the three D’s’’ — divorce, drugs, and death. Now, add the economy....
The world of championship rings is a competitive business similar to sports — sometimes risky, sometimes unpredictable, sometimes secretive, sometimes shady, yet always thrilling for people who land the ultimate prize....
Since players first received championship rings more than a century ago, the award has evolved from class-ring-style bands into weighty, jewel-encrusted showpieces. Much of the embellishment has taken place over the last couple of decades....
Huh.
About the same time pro sports were ruined for me.
As designs increased in extravagance, the number of people who received the baubles rose. Some teams distribute hundreds of championship rings, going well beyond players, coaches, and owners to all team executives, team medical personnel, team staff, and legendary former players....
Good thing sports teams have so much cash to blow while Americans suffer unemployment and foreclosure.
It is ROME ALL OVER AGAIN, isn't it?
A decade ago, New York City-based collector Larry S., who asked that his last name not be used to protect his privacy and his memorabilia, paid $15,000 for a 1998 Yankees World Series ring that belonged to a team doctor.
That couldn't be Larry Silverstein of 9/11/WTC fame?
It was the start of an impressive collection of Yankees World Series rings that now includes pitcher Dwight Gooden’s 1996 ring (purchased from a pawn shop for $25,000) and 1950s and ’60s pitching legend Whitey Ford’s 1999 ring (bought at auction for $36,000).
“At first, my wife thought I was a little crazy collecting rings,’’ said Larry S. “Seeing the rings, she was impressed with them. Then, she just shakes her head when she sees how much they are.’’
Like many collectors and players, Larry S. keeps his rings in a safe deposit box, occasionally wearing one on a night out. Once while he was dining out with his 1999 World Series ring on, a player from the 1986 champion Mets approached him.
“It was cool because he thought I was a player right away,’’ said Larry S. “I told him I’d picked the ring up at auction. Then, I asked him, ‘You still have your Mets ring?’ You’ve always got to work the angle.’’
No, I suppose not.
It takes a combination of aggressive tactics and patience to build a quality collection of championship rings....
As if any of us out here gives a shit, Globe.
Typically, dealers find it takes five or more years post-championship for a player in financial trouble to sell his ring. Meanwhile, collectors track rings through websites, auctions, and even death notices....
Because the manufacturing process involves spinning and cooling gold inside a mold, fakes produced without the proper equipment often lack crisp detail and appear overpolished. Dealers who don’t provide a direct phone number and don’t showcase rings for sale on a website or elsewhere raise red flags among buyers....
I have more important things to spend money on -- you know, things like food.
To the untrained eye, the 1974 NBA championship ring on the T.J.’s Collectibles website looks as if it belonged to former Celtics player Jo Jo White. The last name White appears on the ring shank. But the 10-karat gold ring with cubic zirconium is a salesman’s sample, a version of the 1974 award produced by ring manufacturer Balfour for marketing purposes.
So, the search continues for the original, which was stolen from White decades ago. That’s another unfortunate aspect of the championship ring trade.
“I’m hoping, at this late date, that it’s out there and it turns up,’’ said White.
Asked about financially troubled former players selling rings, teams chasing rings by stockpiling stars, and collectors paying big bucks for rings, White added: “The value of the whole journey is tainted as far as I’m concerned.’’
That is the SAME WAY I FEEL about reading the Boston Globe.
Yeah, that is a front-page story.
So are these rings the Globe is kissing today:
"Ensuring access to court at core of her legacy" by John R. Ellement and Sydney Lupkin, Globe Staff | Globe Correspondent | July 22, 2010
Margaret H. Marshall will be forever known as the author of the ruling that gave judicial approval to single-sex marriages....
--more--""Marshall, groundbreaker, to step down as SJC chief; Author of gay-marriage ruling wants ‘final seasons’ with ill spouse" by Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff | July 22, 2010
Margaret H. Marshall, the first woman chief justice of the state’s highest court and the author of the landmark 2003 decision that made Massachusetts the first state to legalize gay marriage, announced yesterday that she will retire this fall to spend more time with her ailing husband.
Oh, I'm so proud!
Hours after she phoned each of her six colleagues on the Supreme Judicial Court with news of her plans, Marshall appeared at a press conference packed with judges, lawyers, court employees, and friends. She said she will step down by the end of October because her 83-year-old husband, former New York Times columnist Anthony Lewis, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease....
The Lord works in mysterious ways.
Marshall’s announcement means that Governor Deval Patrick now has an opportunity to appoint the first new chief justice in 11 years. He can either elevate one of the six associate justices and name a replacement to the bench or name an outsider to the court as chief justice. His nominee must be approved by the Governor’s Council, an elected body that rules on all judicial nominations.
The vacancy, the third on the SJC since Patrick was inaugurated in 2007, finds the governor in the midst of a reelection campaign, facing tough challenges from a Republican, Charles D. Baker, and an independent, state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill.
Mo Cowan, Patrick’s chief legal counsel, said the administration learned of Marshall’s decision only yesterday morning and that he and the governor have no short list of potential replacements.
“There are no singular issues or specific litmus tests,’’ Cowan said. “We look for intelligent, thoughtful, civic-minded members of the bar who are committed to public service.’’
Marshall, a native of South Africa, earned a bachelor of arts degree in 1964 from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she was a student leader in South Africa’s antiapartheid movement.
She attended Harvard University and Yale Law School, worked as a partner in two law firms in Boston, and then in 1992 was named as Harvard’s vice president and general counsel.
She was appointed to the high court in 1996 by a Republican governor, William F. Weld, and was named chief justice in 1999 by another Republican, Governor Paul Cellucci.
Marshall was often viewed as a liberal force on the court, and she had to apologize in 2005 after looking out over a sea of blue and white balloons at the Brandeis University commencement and quipping, “No red states here.’’
My first thought when it comes to blue and white is the war-criminal state of Israel, not AmeriKan politics.
After someone complained confidentially to the Commission on Judicial Conduct, Marshall issued a public mea culpa, calling her bon mot an “unconsidered, spontaneous attempt to connect’’ with the exuberant crowd. “I did not intend to say anything of a political nature,’’ she said.
Marshall said yesterday that she always welcomed public criticism of her work as a judge because the South Africa of her childhood forbade free speech.
During her remarks, she acknowledged that the judiciary has struggled with deep budget cuts in recent years. Over the years, she has criticized cuts that she said left many of the state’s 103 courthouses short-staffed.
But she said her decision to retire was “predicated singularly on a personal reason,’’ her husband’s illness.
Lewis, who worked at The New York Times for 50 years until his retirement in 2001, looked frail on June 4 when the couple attended the unveiling of a portrait of US District Court Chief Judge Mark L. Wolf at the federal courthouse.
Her retirement plans startled many in the legal community and drew encomiums from political leaders....
Marshall’s name will forever be linked to Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the historic case that allowed gay marriage in Massachusetts....
Yeah, SORRY ABOUT THAT, American citizens.
In an interview, Mineau said he was glad to see Marshall go.
Me, too.
“We’re very pleased that she has decided to retire, and, hopefully, her replacement will not legislate from the bench as actively as Judge Marshall was inclined to do,’’ he said.
Marshall announced her retirement to a packed room at the John Adams Courthouse, the 1894 building that houses the Supreme Judicial Court and the state Appeals Court. The building was painstakingly restored five years ago, at a cost of more than $147 million, under Marshall’s leadership.
Not that it didn't need it; however, I'm sick of "public servants" spending so much tax loot on their workplaces while residents are put out of their homes.
After her announcement, Marshall got a standing ovation from spectators. She removed her eyeglasses, rubbed her eyes, smiled, and, after a spectator whistled loudly, laughed.
BYE-BYE!!
Related:
"Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall said the 1974 ruling was wrong and will no longer be followed by Massachusetts courts"
What are we to make of a JUDGE who IGNORES the LAW, huh?
It's obvious what the Globe thinks:
Globe Editorial A commitment to justice
