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20.11.2019 13:09
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HOUSTON -- Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow first saw Yulieski Gurriel play a decade ago in a tournament in Amsterdam.He imagined him playing in the major leagues and made that dream a reality Saturday when he signed the Cuban free agent to a $47.5 million, five-year deal with the Astros.To be able to get him now really in the prime of his career ... is a huge deal for us, Luhnow said. Its probably the most exciting day since Ive been here except for the wild-card win against the Yankees.A beaming Gurriel was introduced Saturday in Houston, seated next to Luhnow behind a table draped with the American and Cuban flags. He was handed an Astros hat and jersey and proudly put both on, slowly fastening each button on the jersey, a huge smile never leaving his face.I have no words to describe this moment, he said in Spanish through an interpreter.Gurriel was one of the most sought international free agents since leaving Cuba in February after competing in the Caribbean World Series in the Dominican Republic. The 32-year-old was declared a free agent last month.There were times Gurriel wondered if hed ever get the chance to play in the majors.I always had the hope to play in the United States, he said. But it always seemed like something very far away ... it has been my dream my whole life to be here and to play next to big league players.The Astros are in the process of obtaining a work visa for Gurriel. After thats done, Luhnow said, hell head to the minors to get some at-bats to prepare to face major league pitching for the first time. Houstons Triple-A club is in Fresno, but the Astros want Gurriel to be closer to the team, so hell likely get those swings with Double-A Corpus Christi. For now, hell head to Houstons spring training complex in Florida to prepare for his next move.Though theres no official timetable for his major league debut, Luhnow is confident that it will happen this season.Absolutely, he said. One of the reasons why (we) worked so hard to get this deal done as timely as we could was I want, and Yuli wants to be part of a playoff run this year.Gurriel gets a $2 million reporting bonus if he obtains a U.S. work visa before the end of the 2016 season and salaries of $1.5 million this year, $14 million in 2017, $12 million in 2018, $10 million in 2019 and $8 million in 2020.He has a one-time right to opt into salary arbitration following his first eligibility and has the right to become a free agent when the contract expires. He does not have a no-trade provision.He would earn $100,000 if voted MVP, $50,000 for finishing second and $25,000 for third. He would get $50,000 for World Series MVP, and $25,000 each for League Championship Series MVP, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove and being selected an All-Star.The Astros have shaken off a terrible start to the season and entered Saturdays games 4 1/2 games behind Texas for the lead in the AL West and one game back for the second wild card playoff spot.Gurriel is primarily a third baseman but also has played second base and shortstop. He was an Olympian in 2004 and 2008.Luis Valbuena is currently playing third base for Houston but can also play first base. Luhnow said theyll figure out where Gurriel will play later.In 15 seasons in Cuba, he is a.335 hitter with 250 homers and 1,018 RBI. Last season, he hit .500 with 15 homers and 51 RBI in just 49 games for Industriales.To me, he was the Cuban star that everybody was hoping would become available to a major league team, Luhnow said. Its a combination of pretty impressive offensive output, both power and speed and average and the ability to take walks and avoid strikeouts -- all of the things we talk about being key elements of success in the major leagues.Hes a five-tool player with 15 years of incredible success on the international stage ... pretty much the combination wed design if we were going to design a ballplayer.Though Gurriel, who said he prefers to be called El Yuli, will be a rookie in the majors at 32, hell be looked upon to be a leader for a team with several young Latin stars. 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Formula One is on the verge of a multi-billion dollar takeover by John Malones Liberty Group, with a two-stage $8.5 billion deal expected to get underway on Tuesday.While Liberty and Malone have been linked with the purchase of an F1 stake -- controlling or otherwise -- since February 2014, on-going talks have reached a satisfactory conclusion, according to F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone.Speaking to reporters in the Monza paddock, the 85-year-old F1 czar was confident that the sports new owners would not affect his own position. I will do what I have always done, Auto Motor und Sport quoted Ecclestone as saying. What role I play is my decision.In the immediate future, there is no reason to expect much change in direction for F1. But the paddock rumour mill suggests that any guarantees of Ecclestones position remain in place for only the first tranche of the $8.5 billion handover; once the deal has been completed in full it is entirely possible that the man who turned Formula One into a billion-dollar business will find himself in a role more sinecure than senior.So what does the future hold for Formula One under its new owners?First and foremost, expect to see better marketing of F1 in the United States, home to Malones businesses and fortune. As the owner of a multimedia group that includes cable services provision, internet access, and direct-to-consumer sales, Malone is in a unique position when it comes to exploiting his existing businesses to maximise the value of his latest investment.And America is not the only market in which Malones companies hold sway: Liberty Media may be headquartered in Colorado, but through sister company Liberty Global and a 29 per cent stake in Discovery Communications, Malone is also a key media influencer on an international level.Historically, Malones purchases have increased in value after his acquisitions; the American businessman has targeted businesses with unrealised potential and added value before off-loading his stake for a profit. But Malone is no short-term operator: in the early 1990s he spotted the opportunities in digital cable services, and over the course of the following decade his businesses expanded into content creation as well as service delivery.While any $8.5 billion deal has to be seen as something of a gamble given the sums involved -- not forgetting that F1 has no guaranteed longevity beyond the 2020 expiry of the current round of Memoranda of Understanding that replaced the Concorde Agreement -- Malone would not be on the verge of doing the F1 deal had he not spotted opportunities for growth and profit within the sport.Perhaps the most obvious area for expansion is that of general marketing and promotion. The Formula One Group lacks a centralised marketing department, and the bulk of event promotion is done by individual host circuits as thhey attempt to drum up ticket sales in an attempt to claw back the cost of hosting a race.ddddddddddddThere is no centralised cohesive effort to ensure that Formula One remains in the public imagination long after the F1 circus has left town, and little is done to create public anticipation in the run-up. Where such promotional events do take place, it is largely at the behest of individual teams and sponsors: Shell held a Sebastian Vettel fan event before the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, while Petronas traditionally make the Mercedes drivers sing for their suppers at the twin towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur.If F1s new stakeholders want to get a return on their investment, they have to make the sport more profitable. The most obvious way to do so is to increase the size of the sports fanbase, both those watching at home and those attending grands prix in person.Bringing the sport back to terrestrial television is one way to improve the home audience, but as Malone is a man who made his millions off the back of the subscription TV explosion, it is unlikely that we will see the sport back on free-to-air channels at his behest. Instead it is in his interests to improve the general promotion of the sport so that those not currently interested in Formula One choose to pay their hard-earned cash to check it out, either in person or by subscribing to a service that airs it (preferably one owned by Malone, naturally).In America there is a fine tradition of selling both sport and show as separate entities. Millions of people with little-to-no interest in American football will tune into the Super Bowl for the infamous half-time show. Even high school sports use the lure of cheerleaders to entice the uninterested into the bleachers.This year the Circuit of the Americas provided a perfect example of using the show to boost the sport: COTA secured Taylor Swifts only concert of the year for their Saturday night post-qualifying entertainment, meaning that any tween within reach of Texas who wants to see her play live will need to fork out for a three-day race ticket whether or not they know what F1 is. It may not lead to packed grandstands once the tweens have left on Sunday, but the strong ticket sales have provided a boost to COTAs hopes of a long-term future.Expect to see similar -- and centralised -- efforts to promote the sport when Liberty Media take over. Drivers will be expected to do their part to drum up interest, with high-profile TV appearances in target markets, showcar stunts straight out of the Red Bull Guide to Self-Promotion, and a calendar designed in such a way that it becomes physically and geographically possible to use the sports stars to sell the spectacle. ' ' ' |
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