Anthony J. Merced

Lets take this from the very beginning:

2008:

Egyptian goaltender Essam El Hadary was signed away from his club Al Ahly and joined the Swiss team FC Sion. Sounds like normal trade talk right? That’s where you’re wrong. El Hadary negotiated with FC Sion without the consent of Al Ahly. As any sports fan knows, a player under contract cannot negotiate with another team without the knowledge or sometimes expressly given consent of the team they’re currently on. The famous Egyptian football (soccer) club instantly claimed that El Hadary was in breach of contract. They took their complaint to soccer’s biggest governing body, FIFA, who quickly ruled in their favor. Al Hadary would serve a four month ban before being allowed to play for his new Swiss team and FC Sion would be slapped with a two year transfer ban. Since there are very specific windows when trades and signings can be made in soccer, this was quite a crippling decision. Of course, this didn’t sit well with FC Sion who appealed to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sports).

The CAS is an arbitration body that handles disputes related to sports. Most of the time it handles international cases and was created to handle Olympic disputes. It is seen as a third party to best handle disputes without politics becoming an issue.

2010:

The CAS upheld FIFA’s bans but reduced the subsequent financial fine to El Hadary. Unfortunately this wasn’t the end of the controversy. Even though FC Sion was appealing the ruling, FIFA’s ban was still in effect. Sion continued with business as usual making several transfers during the time that the CAS was deciding on the case. Thanks to some smart moves, the team won entry into the 2011-2012 Europa League by winning the season’s Swiss Cup.

Confused yet? It gets worse!

2011:

FC Sion enters the playoff round against the Scottish team Celtic. They win on aggregate after scores of 0-0 and 3-1. Shortly after, Celtic filed a complaint, stating that Sion fielded six players that were not eligible for the competition since they were gained through illegal transfers during the FIFA ban. UEFA (the governing body of the Europa and Champions League) agreed with Celtic and reversed both decisions awarding 3-0 victories to Celtic on both games. This meant that Celtic won on aggregate 6-0.

The drama didn’t end there. Not only did FIFA feel that the Swiss Super League wasn’t adhering to their decision but they felt that they did little to reprimand the team. On December 17th, FIFA made one of the biggest threats that could be made. If the Swiss Super League doesn’t punish FC Sion in one month’s time, the entire country would be banned from world play. This means that teams like FC Basel, who recently earned their way into the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League by defeating super power Manchester United, would be automatically disqualified even though they had nothing to do with the shady decisions made by Sion.

2012:

It’s unsure what the future holds for this scenario. It is one of the most complex yet mind boggling sports stories to come along in quite some time. Not only will a team deserving to play amongst the best in the world be barred from competing, but the national team might see themselves disqualified from World Cup qualifying games beginning in 2012. Not to mention a dismissal from the Euro League. FC Basel is scheduled to play Bayern Munich on February 22nd in the first knockout round of the Champions League. Whether they’ll be replaced by Manchester United or simply disqualified is yet to be determined. Hopefully the Swiss Football League will deal with the issue and allow FC Basel to continue as representatives against some of the best soccer teams in the world. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see where this goes.

Anyone that knows me is aware of my history with Pro Wrestling. Since I follow it, almost as much as I follow film, I thought it would be smart to do a bit of a news segment on it similar to how I cover film. This will go up once a week and be an insider spin on the business.

- The Survivor Series main event is locked. Randy Orton will defend the WWE Championship against Nexus leader Wade Barrett. Since WWE main events can never  be without a stipulation, John Cena has been added as the special guest referee. If Barrett wins the title, Cena is free and is no longer bound to Nexus. Conversely, should Barrett lose, Cena will find himself on the unemployment line.

- There are a few different ways that you can interpret where the Wrestlemania plans are for The Undertaker. Originally planned to win the Buried Alive Match this past Sunday, Taker’s shoulder injury threw a wrench into the machine. His injury should sideline him until early 2011. Whether the plan to include Nexus in the feud was in the works already isn’t clear but it has been pushed to the forefront of Taker’s pre-Wrestlemania program at the very least. This coupled with talks of a John Cena heel turn early next year makes a Cena vs. Undertaker match very likely. Some have eluded to Wade Barrett as the possible Mania opponent but common sense would dictate which combination would draw more money. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much else in the works for WWE’s biggest show. Considering the amount of high level talent that they have lost in the past year, the options are extremely limited.

- Smackdown faces it’s own set of problems. The main problem centers around what to do with Kane. Edge’s move to Friday night’s makes it obvious that he’ll be next in line to feud with The Big Red Machine. However, this is a band aid that is covering up a larger problem with WWE’s second brand. Aside from Rey Mysterio and Edge, there is an extreme lack of babyface main event talent on Smackdown. With Rey constantly being pushed to appear on Raw, it has done damage to the potential of a prolonged feud with Alberto Del Rio. The likely scenario will see Kane dropping the belt to Edge before looking to conclude his saga with The Undertaker. As champion, Edge can move on to secondary feuds with Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio but nothing that will garner too much attention.

- TNA has watched their television ratings shrink back to a 1.2. This has to be disappointing considering the great response they received following the Bound for Glory event two weeks ago. The incoherent booking and nonsensical finishes continue to keep this company from being anything more than a second rate promotion. Their lack of advertising for ppv events continues to show in their abysmally low buyrates. Bound for Glory’s numbers have not been counted yet but, needless to say, you shouldn’t expect Wrestlemania numbers.

Japan:

-NTV is back on the pro wrestling bandwagon. After dismissing Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2009, the national network is interested in bringing back some form of wrestling in 2011. Whether that’s NOAH’s spot to reclaim is still a mystery. The company has reached new lows in attendance and revenue this year due to lack of exposure. A return to national television may help, but much like New Japan, it will take time. Moreover, the philosophical disagreement between president Ryu Nakata and legendary performer Kenta Kobashi, could lead to yet another split. While not as drastic as the exodus from All Japan ten years earlier, a division in the NOAH roster cannot be something that interests a television network.

- As for All Japan, the anniversary tour came to an end in Yokahama with a few weird booking moments. The most obvious one is Kaz Hayashi’s defense of the Jr. Championship against Keiji Muto. Muto, president of All Japan pro wrestling and New Japan heavyweight legend, cut weight to face Hayashi who has been the most dominant Jr. Champion the company has ever seen. Now nearing his second year with the title, Kaz’s biggest issue is finding more opponents. While Japanese wrestling is never short on freelance competitors, it will be hard to find ones that can believably beat a Jr of his caliber. The other issue is Hayashi’s growing number of victories over All Japan heavyweights. Japanese wrestling tends to pride itself on a class system where heavyweights keep their mystic by rarely losing to foes of the lower weight classes. While exceptions are made, Kaz has scored victories over Keiji Muto, Minoru Suzuki and Suwama in recent years. All names that are considered headliners.

- All is well in the world of New Japan. Satoshi Kojima returned to his old home to claim is first G1 Climax trophy in August and, just a few weeks ago, claimed his second IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The victory ends Togi Makabe’s reign which can be seen as spotty at best. The once colorful heel has fallen bland under his babyface persona and may see a return to a darker character soon. Similar to Tanahashi or Nakamura, Makabe could be in line for a return to the edgier character that got him over with the fans.

Last night Matt Garza of the Tampa Bay Rays became the fifth pitcher this year to throw a no hitter. Now that’s not the highest amount ever. 1991 saw seven men throw up all zeros. However, it does indicate that the momentum is swaying away from big hitters in the box and toward strong arms on the mound. Home runs have been on the steady decline. Whether or not you equate this to the new rules and stringent testing for PED’s, it doesn’t change the fact that this new era of baseball is being defined by the ERA and not the RBI. Headlines have been following the professional exploits of young Stephen Strasberg more than A-Rod’s chase of 600 home runs. Last night cemented this changing of the guard.

There are now only two teams in major league baseball to not have a no hitter in their history books: The San Diego Padres and the New York Mets. Both have had their fair share of one hitters and both currently have very strong starting pitching. It wouldn’t be out of the question to see Johan Santana throw a no hitter. Especially when you consider the pitcher friendly ballpark he throws in. While a search for the elusive no hit bid isn’t on the top of every team’s list, it is already affecting their spending habits. Just two years earlier, Manny Ramirez was the talk of the baseball world. One of the best hitters, and game changing players, was traded from the Red Sox to the Dodgers. This year, the two major trades have centered around the movement of pitchers Dan Haren and Cliff Lee. Both men are seen as being the missing key to the playoff puzzle.

Winning playoff games has never been a mystery. It has always begun and ended with starting pitching. The only difference is that people have started to catch wind of this notion. Alex Rodriguez, the highest paid player in baseball, maybe soon be looking at someone with a bigger wallet than his own. That someone else will more than likely be Cliff Lee. And every pitcher after him will be waiting for their payday.

Considering the poor health of George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, it comes as no shock that he died of a heart attack earlier this morning. Mr. Steinbrenner will be remembered as one of the most controversial and passionate owners in the history of sports. He took a crumbling empire that CBS cared little about and restored it to prominence. All of this is easy to learn about simply by looking up any biography. What is harder to find is the personal stories that seem to be spilling in from sportscasters and journalists across the country.

As a high school student growing up in the shadow of Yankee Stadium its impossible to not know someone that wasn’t touched by the team or its owner. A classic story that made the rounds during lunch period was that of a kid who defaced the wall at Yankee Stadium. Obviously he was caught. However, this is where the story took a different turn. George Steinbrenner contacted the police demanding to know who had done it. He met with the kid personally, wanting to know why he had defaced a symbol of his own community. The kid’s response was “Because I’ve got nothing else to do.” George’s response was swift. He threw him a shirt and said, “Well now you’ve got a job.” Needless to say that kid’s first job was to clean the graffiti off of the stadium walls.

Where most men of power wouldn’t have cared or prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, George Steinbrenner showed compassion to the fans and the community around his franchise. He understood the state of the South Bronx and gave back as often as he could. While we don’t know what the future of the Yankees will hold, all we can do is hope that the same passion and stubbornness held by its deceased owner carries on to the next generation.

R.I.P. George Steinbrenner (1930 – 2010)

Let me begin this blog by speaking about why I’m excited about being able to see a Yankees game. I work in theater, not the movie theater, live Broadway theater. Therefore, my hours of operation differ greatly from that of your typical weekday warrior. It’s not easy. Most days it’s downright annoying. I’ve missed out on tons of social opportunities, music performances, birthdays, and yes… baseball games. Your average baseball game starts at either 7pm or 8pm. Unfortunately, yours truly, doesn’t leave the office until 9pm every night. By the time I get home I’ve missed more than half the game. This could easily be remedied by spending every single night at a bar. However doing so would adversely affect my wallet and my liver. So this week the Yankees are on the west coast. That means that each game doesn’t start until 10pm, just in time for me to take a deep breath and sit down with my reheated dinner (Thanks Jen ). So I will thoroughly be enjoying the Yankees six games in Arizona and Los Angeles. I can’t promise not to cry when I see Joe Torrie and Don Mattingly in Dodger Blue but that’s something we can get to at a later time.

This past Saturday was my first step into a larger world (get the Star Wars reference?). We began principle photography for my first feature film Small Jobs. There was a lot to do in the ten hours of shooting we managed to pull off. One of our main actors, Cynthia Zitter, was only available this past weekend. While it was hard for us, we were all happy for the circumstances behind the crunch shooting. She got an amazing acting opportunity down south. Thus, we had to fit in her major role into one day of shooting. Luckily for the crew, she was a rock solid worker and plowed through the material. If not, we would still be sitting in that cramped apartment getting the 1,000,000th take of scene 38. She wasn’t the only actor to give a great performance this weekend. Mario, our male lead, showed up and got dirty… literally. I don’t want to give away any plot points but he definitely needed a change of clothes by the end of the night. (Check for a set photo at the bottom of the blog)

The rest of the credit must go to the awesome, unpaid, crew that did everything they could to have a good time. While it was hot, sweaty, and sometimes tedious we all got our laughs in and had fun. Jen Gallardo saved my life taking up the role of cinematographer. She spent nearly the entire week mapping out how we’ll shoot the 71 page feature. While I may get a lot of credit for the film, she must take a large part considering my head would have exploded had I been forced to do this job along with all of the others accompanied with making a movie. Her input was also insightful and eye opening. Having a still photographer add her ideas helped to make the film more interesting. Many times my own cinematographer tends to be flat. You can see it on my Youtube page.

The rest of the crew: Jen McFann, Jason, and Hilary all took up different roles throughout the day. Some of them will have their chance at acting in the coming weeks. They also passed around slate duties, boom mic operating, and continuity. All of which are important jobs. None of them are ever rewarded. Many times you notice when those people don’t do their jobs but never notice when they do them well. No one will notice some of the work they did on Saturday. However, without them, it wouldn’t have been possible to do what we did.

We’re still a long way from being done. I’ve said that the movie will be screened on December 2nd. While that’s half a year away it never seems like it’s far enough. I look at my calendar now and while summer has just begun, I’m already thinking about winter and what needs to be done before then. There’s still a lot to do. But with a fun group of people around to do it with, the work doesn’t seem quite so hard.

First Set Photo