eternal sunshine of the baseball mind

There's something genuinely beautiful about baseball.

Of course there are the obvious reasons: its history, its summer seasonality, its mental strategy, pennants, hot dogs, autographs, the stitched seams on your fingertips, the the smell of broken tanned leather and fresh cut grass.

And baseball fanaticism transcends all other sports. For 200 grueling days of the year, loyal baseball fans patiently await pitches, discuss strategies, pour over box scores, monitor minor leagues and live and die by percentage points.

For 17 long years the Pittsburgh Pirates have tormented fans. Optimism abounds in April, May is borderline fun, reality sets in around June and by July we're watching the family we grew to love say goodbye. August brews hatred and September embarrassment.

But the true beauty of baseball is that, by next April, every loyal fan of every team has washed away any feelings of pessimism and is again primed with potential.

There are few reasons to be excited about the 2010 Pirates. The team is too young to compete. After repeated management do-overs, the organization is still stuck in the early stages of rebuilding. "Inconsistent" only scratches the surface in describing the starting rotation. Fans know--as many times we are promised otherwise--come July any talent on the field will be dismantled and sent packing.

Still my excitement can't be denied. Certainly the goals have been lowered; playoffs are far out of the picture, a .500 season seems nearly unattainable. But the talented youth in Pittsburgh lends itself to a promising future. As I look down the batting order, I see young potential at nearly every spot. A string of singles can turn into a few extra base hits into a few wins into a little streak and all of a sudden the city of Pittsburgh is all abuzz.

Minor league movement in 2010 will make a major splash in Pittsburgh. By the end of the year we expect to see three incredibly talented prospects join the big league ranks, and how fast they hit the ground running could have a catalytic effect on the success of the team.

Pedro Alvarez, 3B, whom MLB.com ranked as baseball's eighth-best prospect heading into the season, is the premier piece in the prospect puzzle. Alvarez was drafted as the No. 2 pick overall in 2008. He agreed to a $6-million minor league contract minutes before the deadline. In June 2009, he was assigned to AA, where he performed extremely well, leading the Pirates organization in home runs and RBIs with 27 and 95 respectively. He batted .288 with an .917 OPS.

Jose Tabata, OF, was acquired in 2008 in a multi-player deal with the Yankees for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte. Prior, he had led the Yankees farm system in batting average for three consecutive years, highlighted by a .314 average in 2005 while playing for the Gulf Coast Yankees. Sport Analysts compare him to the next Manny Ramirez at the plate.

Brad Lincoln, RHP, could be brought up sooner rather than later if the Pirates' rotation shows the holes expected. Scouts regarded Lincoln as one of the best players eligible for the 2006 draft and the Pirates chose him with the fourth overall selection. He almost immediately encountered injury problems; an oblique strain limited him to 24 innings in 2006 and he had Tommy John surgery on his right arm in April 2007. He ended last season in AAA, going 6-2 with a 4.70 ERA, walking 10 and striking out 42.

state of the lodging industry

Here's a presentation I put together for an industry event called HOTEC Operations, which is partially owned by my parent company, Questex Media. The event was held at the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas. They asked me to present a "State of the Industry."

It was 20 minutes in length and about 100 hoteliers and vendors were in attendance.

Stubs: A Digital Scrapbook

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I'm really excited about this project. For a number of reasons.

Last week Melissa surprised me with a scrapbook to house all the concert stubs I've saved throughout the years. It was a thoughtful gift; live music has always been one of my great passions and the old stubs represent, to me, treasured memories shared with great friends.

The hard copy book sparked an idea: how can i get this music memory book online to share with the same friends who attended these shows with me? I wasted little time scanning, cropping, designing and researching.

Building the book was a blast. I had forgotten plenty of details from many of the shows (shocking) and in several cases I had to find the show on the Web to see who the opening act was. Not only did I realize how many good bands I've seen live, but memories from the shows proved to be a narration of my life journeys over the past 15 years.

An equally important discovery during this project was the free digital publishing platform Issuu. I hadn't used the site/application before, and I truly think it could play a part in revolutionizing the magazine and newspaper industries. Nearly every published media has a digital edition, but Issuu provides the least complicated, least cluttered, most seamless application I've seen. Best part--it's free. All you do is take PDF versions of the pages you've built, combine them into one document and hit "upload." The rest of the work is done for you.

From there, you can embed the book into any website just like you would upload a YouTube video. Viewers can flip through the pages without downloading any files or viewers; and one click enlarges the book to full screen. Once you publish more than one title, you can embed an electronic bookshelf onto your site that houses a number of books. Readers can browse the titles and pick the books they want to read from your shelf. No more downloading PDFs or PowerPoint presentations--no more paying for services like NxtBook--all the information can be presented on clean, intuitive, free digital pages.

Take a moment to browse my first digital book, "Stubs," at full screen and let me know if you are as stoked about the new medium for digital presentation as I am ... or if you and I were at any of the same shows!

Ben Harper essential mix

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Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals had been my favorite band for about 10 years; I've seen them live nine times. The first time I saw them in 2001 changed my life. I happened to catch the debut of Relentless 7 (Ben's new band) in Youngstown during the Get Out and Vote tour. Relentless 7's debut album didn't wow me at first, but it grew on me.

Now I'm trying to introduce Ben's music to a friend who doesn't know much about either band. I've put together what I call Ben's "essential mix," or a greatest hits, if you will. I leaned more toward the rock and less toward the folk because that's the mood I'm in. Also I stuck with studio recordings and stayed away from live tracks. I combined work from the Innocent Criminals and Relentless 7; it took nearly a week to whittle the length down to one CD.

For the Ben fans, what do you think? What tracks did I leave out that you would've included? What album is under-represented? How would you have ordered the tracks? I look forward to your feedback below.

1. The Three of Us
2. Oppression
3. Ground on Down
4. Faded
5. Keep it Together
6. Forgiven
7. Shimmer and Shine
8. Black Rain
9. Number with No Name
10. Please Bleed
11. Brown-Eyed Blues
12. With My Own Two Hands
13. Better Way
14. When it's Good
15. Show Me a Little Shame
16. Lay There and Hate Me
17. The Woman in You
18. Paris Sunrise #7
19. Lifeline

pros and cons at new CLE establishment

I wanted to love Caddy Shack Lounge. I really did.

The new golf-centered drinking establishment that opened last week between Prospect and Euclid downtown Cleveland had so much going for it. It's opening in the middle of a "revitalize Cleveland" movement. The recession is in the past and Clevelanders have a deep craving for sunshine, summer and positivity. I assumed it would rival Corner Alley, except built around a golf theme instead of a bowling theme.

And the space was really cool. At first glance, I thought it was going to be the next "place to be." In reality, it had its pros and cons. Unfortunately the Caddy Shack Lounge won't get a mulligan.

Pros:
-- Great space. Roomy, high ceilings, plenty of seating, plenty of HDTVs.
-- Indoor golf. Unless you've been to Classic Fairways in Hudson, you haven't seen this before.

Cons:
-- Service. We'll get into this later, but shouldn't good service be your No. 1 priority?
-- Beer selection. Could you be less creative with your selection of beers on tap? (Bud Light, Miller Lite, Labatt Blue, Smithwick's, Sam Adams, Guinness)
-- Price. Nothing is cheap: not beer, not food, not golf.
-- Happy Hour. Miller Lite and Bud Light are $2 for a pint. The other drafts are $1 off (Smithwicks is $4.50). Bleh.

Build a service culture
I worked in the restaurant industry for eight years and now I write extensively about the hotel industry--both service cultures--so I recognize good and bad service when I see it (almost to a fault). So I'm not talking from nowhere when I constantly remind businesses: make service your first priority.

Forget how pretty your place looks. Forget the menu. Forget the pricing. Before you build a wall, build a service culture. Hire a staff and train them on the menu, the point-of-sale system and the customer service for a month before your establishment opens.

I have no clue what our bartender's name was; she had no clue about anything. She couldn't change the channel on the TV, she didn't recommend any particular drink, she had no clue when Happy Hour started or what Happy Hour prices were.

In fact, when another guest asked her whether they carried Coke or Pepsi products, she said "cola." She didn't know.

There were about seven people in the bar when I got there. By the time I left, there might have been 25. Once business picked up, the bartenders lost control. My glass sat empty for more than five minutes. And once she pulled it from the bar, she performed the ultimate restaurant/bar no-no: grabbed the glass from the rim, with her finger tips going inside the glass itself.

Happy Hour brings business
Rule No. 2: Establish a Happy Hour. Nobody dislikes free stuff. The next best thing to free is a deal. Make people feel like they are getting a deal--especially during Happy Hour. Across the street at Forti's you can get a multitude of beers for $2. Next to Forti's, at RJ Bolands, you can get quality craft beers for $3.

I know how much beer costs in a keg. I know you can get about 140 pints from a keg. If you sell it for $3 a pint for three hours a day during the week, and regular price the rest of the time, you are still going to make a killing.

Happy Hours build business. They get people in after work, especially in a downtown environment. If your establishment is cool and aesthetically pleasing but doesn't give me a deal, I'm going to go somewhere that does.