At Baruch, a New York Rental to the Stars, the Wood Floors Tend to Squeak

Abstract: As the N.C.A.A. tournament approaches, the best basketball scene in the country is not Rupp Arena, home of the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats, or even Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Duke Blue Devils’ noisy home. Rather, it is a nondescript gym in Manhattan, home of the commuter school Baruch College. Over the past decade, Baruch has established itself as host to the basketball stars, lending its courts to more than 60 N.B.A. and N.C.A.A. Division I teams passing through New York City. On any day, its 18,000 students can peek through a door in the William and Anita Newman Vertical Campus building on Lexington Avenue and see the likes of Louisville Coach Rick Pitino, San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich or any number of star players. “I think it’s incredible,” said Hamza Karb, a Baruch student who met Phoenix Suns forward Markieff Morris last week. “I’ve always made the joke that they should put this in the pamphlet or brochure for kids coming to Baruch.” As deputy director of athletics at Baruch, Machli Joseph keeps track of student locker renewals, guides deliveries into the athletics complex and juggles requests from the most prominent coaches in basketball. The gym provides a secluded location for athletes, while the money raised from renting out its courts has enabled Baruch to upgrade its athletic facilities and expand its sports teams’ recognition beyond the Flatiron district. “You walk in here, you feel like you’re a part of something,” Joseph said of the walls covered with blue Bearcats logos and collages of past sports accomplishments. “When I first came, it looked like a hospital in here. Plain brick walls.” This week, hundreds of students swiped their IDs to enter the building. Unbeknown to most of those headed to business statistics class or eating at the cafeteria, DePaul and Marquette were practicing for the Big East tournament two floors below street level. Players usually enter through side doors and walk down seldom-used stairwells to the basketball courts, mostly shielded from the majority of the campus community. Joseph said teams generally did not care when the occasional student looked through the locked gym doors during a practice. Once, when the Spurs were at Baruch, Joseph was watching from the bleachers when, he said, Popovich asked him to step in on a drill. “He said, ‘Tell your team to come down and watch,’ ” Joseph said. “All the kids were in class, but I sat down; the coaches sat down. He appreciated Division III because he’s been there.” Scott Kuykendall, Marquette’s associate athletic director who helps coordinate practice sites on the road, said privacy was often a big factor in choosing a gym. “They know what we’re looking for and what we need,” Kuykendall said. “They make it as easy as possible for us. You’d rather come play at some place like this than an athletic club where there’s people around.” When the ARC gym opened in 2002, Baruch began by renting its courts to corporate leagues. The caliber of its clients has improved over the years, notably the Nike Pro City, which held its summer league games at Baruch and brought All-Stars like Kevin Durant. Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade and others have held individual workouts there. This week, with the Atlantic 10 and Big East tournaments in New York, teams began calling Baruch weeks in advance to secure their practice times. A few years ago, when Louisville was a member of the Big East, Joseph said, he received an angry call from Pitino when the Cardinals’ desired time was unavailable. Image The DePaul basketball team practicing at Baruch College on Tuesday in preparation for the Big East tournament in New York. Credit Kirsten Luce for The New York Times “There’s like 10 schools, all of them want the same slot,” Joseph said. “We ended up working it out. I ended up sliding a team down an hour.” Teams occasionally practice beyond their scheduled appointments, leading to encounters between one rival college and another. On Tuesday, Marquette players and staff sat on bleachers in the complex’s lobby, waiting for DePaul to finish practice. Also nearby were Baruch students who were hoping to play pickup games, but students from the Ecole Internationale De New York School, having a physical education class, occupied the adjacent auxiliary gym. As DePaul’s practice ended, the elementary school students exited, looking up at the towering athletes, while the less athletically inclined Baruch students warmed up, throwing awkward chest passes or occasionally dribbling off their feet. Karb, the Baruch student, said that aside from the college’s basketball team and those who use the gym recreationally, few students knew of Baruch’s basketball legacy. Joseph and the athletic department do not advertise practices to the campus community but have used appearances to their advantage. Joseph, who formerly coached Baruch’s women’s basketball team, said he would mention the N.B.A. practices in recruiting pitches. When a team like the Miami Heat posts photos on social media at Baruch, it also spreads the college’s name. “I’m like, this is what puts Baruch on the map nationally,” Joseph said. “I try to show the administrators how we’re trying to brand athletics. You could be in Miami and hear Baruch College. Before I arrived I never heard of it. “To get those kind of opportunities, you’re not going to get it in the middle of Pennsylvania.” Oluwatosin Onabanjo, a sophomore who played basketball last season but sat out this year because of academic ineligibility, watched Big East team practices this week from the athletic offices, through a window looking down to the court. He has met the N.B.A. players Mo Williams, LaMarcus Aldridge, Eric Bledsoe and Gerald Green while at Baruch, and he saw the rare opportunity of watching pros and Division I college players up close as a chance to improve his game. Onabanjo said the Big East teams practiced with more intensity and volume than Baruch, something he hopes to bring when he rejoins the basketball team next fall. At Baruch, aside from paying for new wall murals championing school spirit, the money raised from gym rentals has allowed the athletic department to purchase better training equipment and bypass some of the bureaucracy that comes with being a city university. “We get the floors done when we need them done,” Joseph said. “Sometimes at a city school, you have to wait for a while to get things done.” Baruch is not the only city university that offers such services. New York University and St. Francis College have lent their courts to other colleges, and in recent years, John Jay College of Criminal Justice has increased its visibility as a practice option, hosting about 20 N.B.A. and N.C.A.A. teams. Even with competition in the area, there will be continued opportunities for growth with the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference tournaments destined for New York in coming years. “In this region we’ve become a name,” Joseph said. “I have so many more plans on how to grow this place.”

Baruch
Basketball
College
Atlantic Coast Conference
College basketball
Big East Conference


Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns China on View of U.S.

Abstract: BEIJING — In an unusual public airing of strategic problems surrounding China ’s rise, the prime minister of Singapore , Lee Hsien Loong, warned China on Thursday that it should view the United States not as a declining power, but as a nation with the ability to innovate and bounce back. Speaking at the Central Party School, the prestigious training ground for officials of the Communist Party, Mr. Lee also suggested that China try to solve its maritime disputes in the South China Sea regionally, through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, known as Asean, rather than country by country. Mr. Lee is the son of Lee Kuan Yew, the longtime leader of Singapore who forged strong relations with China and the United States and successfully balanced his small city-state between the two, and his views carry considerable weight among the Chinese elite. By choosing to make his pointed remarks in a prime setting like the Central Party School, the prime minister was ensuring that they carried extra heft. The president of the school is Vice President Xi Jinping , expected to be the next leader of China . Mr. Lee addressed the question of America’s standing in the world, a subject that fascinates Chinese academics and writers in the state-run news media, many of whom have written caustically in recent months about Washington’s budget difficulties, political gridlock and what they see as a crisis of confidence. “It is currently facing some very difficult problems, but it is not a nation in decline,” Mr. Lee said of the United States. “The U.S. is an enormously resilient and creative society, which attracts and absorbs talent from all over the world, including many from China and the rest of Asia.” In a subtle jab at China, Mr. Lee noted, “All eight Nobel Prize winners in science who are of Chinese descent either were or subsequently became American citizens.” “We should never underestimate the U.S. capacity to reinvigorate and reinvent itself,” he said. Singapore is considered an important post for the United States military presence in Asia. American aircraft carriers and other warships use Singapore’s port, which sits astride the South China Sea. Last year, Singapore agreed to an American request to allow four new littoral combat ships, a new category of fast warship, to use its facilities. At the same time, Singapore maintains a strong relationship with Beijing, which began when Deng Xiaoping visited the country in 1978 and was impressed that Lee Kuan Yew’s stern governance was accompanied by economic prosperity. Mr. Lee’s appearance at the Communist Party school came after China effectively shattered Southeast Asian unity on how to deal with disputes in the South China Sea, a tactic that shocked Washington and Singapore alike. At a meeting in Cambodia in July that was attended by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, China managed to quash an agreement on the South China Sea among members of Asean . Some Southeast Asian officials said they believed that China was emboldened by a belief that the United States was a waning power that lacked the clout to keep Asean unified. In his speech, Mr. Lee said Asean “has to take and state a position which is neutral, forward-looking and encourages the peaceful resolution of issues.” “For Asean not to address it would severely damage its credibility,” he continued. Moreover, Asean and China should soon start talks on a code of conduct designed to help resolve conflicts, he said. This was a position put forward by Mrs. Clinton during her visit to Beijing this week , which so far the Chinese have resisted. Lee Kuan Yew wrote in his memoirs that he told the Chinese leader, Mr. Deng, that the countries of Asia were more afraid of the “China dragon” than the “Russian bear.” His son appeared to be beaming, indirectly, a variant of that message to his Chinese audience on Thursday. The prime minister closed his speech by saying he believed that “the Chinese government and people are determined to overcome its various challenges.” But without being explicit, Mr. Lee seemed to be echoing his father, and suggesting that in Asia, China was more feared than the United States.

Singapore
China
Lee Hsien Loong
United States Economy
Economic Conditions and Trends
United States International Relations


Obama’s Remarks on Oklahoma Tornadoes

Abstract: The following is a transcript of President Obama’s remarks from the State Dining Room of the White House on Tuesday about the severe weather in Oklahoma, as provided by the White House. Mr. OBAMA: Good morning, everybody. As we all know by now, a series of storms swept across the Plains yesterday, and one of the most destructive tornadoes in history sliced through the towns of Newcastle and Moore, Oklahoma. In an instant, neighborhoods were destroyed. Dozens of people lost their lives. Many more were injured. And among the victims were young children, trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew -- their school. So our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today. Our gratitude is with the teachers who gave their all to shield their children; with the neighbors, first responders, and emergency personnel who raced to help as soon as the tornado passed; and with all of those who, as darkness fell, searched for survivors through the night. As a nation, our full focus right now is on the urgent work of rescue, and the hard work of recovery and rebuilding that lies ahead. Yesterday, I spoke with Governor Fallin to make it clear to Oklahomans that they would have all the resources that they need at their disposal. Last night, I issued a disaster declaration to expedite those resources, to support the Governor’s team in the immediate response, and to offer direct assistance to folks who have suffered loss. I also just spoke with Mayor Lewis of Moore, Oklahoma, to ensure that he’s getting everything that he needs. I’ve met with Secretary Napolitano this morning and my Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor, Lisa Monaco, to underscore that point that Oklahoma needs to get everything that it needs right away. The FEMA Administrator, Craig Fugate, is on his way to Oklahoma as we speak. FEMA staff was first deployed to Oklahoma’s Emergency Operations Center on Sunday, as the state already was facing down the first wave of deadly tornadoes. Yesterday, FEMA activated Urban Search and Rescue Teams from Texas, Nebraska, and Tennessee to assist in the ongoing search and rescue efforts, and a mobile response unit to boost communications and logistical support. Video President Obama delivered a statement Tuesday about the deadly tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area on Monday afternoon. Credit Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times So the people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground, there for them, beside them as long as it takes. For there are homes and schools to rebuild, businesses and hospitals to reopen, there are parents to console, first responders to comfort, and, of course, frightened children who will need our continued love and attention. There are empty spaces where there used to be living rooms, and bedrooms, and classrooms, and, in time, we’re going to need to refill those spaces with love and laughter and community. We don’t yet know the full extent of the damage from this week’s storm. We don't know both the human and economic losses that may have occurred. We know that severe rumbling of weather, bad weather, through much of the country still continues, and we’re also preparing for a hurricane season that begins next week. But if there is hope to hold on to, not just in Oklahoma but around the country, it’s the knowledge that the good people there and in Oklahoma are better prepared for this type of storm than most. And what they can be certain of is that Americans from every corner of this country will be right there with them, opening our homes, our hearts to those in need. Because we're a nation that stands with our fellow citizens as long as it takes. We've seen that spirit in Joplin, in Tuscaloosa; we saw that spirit in Boston and Breezy Point. And that’s what the people of Oklahoma are going to need from us right now. For those of you who want to help, you can go online right now to the American Red Cross, which is already on the ground in Moore. Already we've seen the University of Oklahoma announce that it will provide housing for displaced families. We’ve seen local churches and companies open their doors and their wallets. And last night, the people of Joplin dispatched a team to help the people of Moore. So for all those who’ve been affected, we recognize that you face a long road ahead. In some cases, there will be enormous grief that has to be absorbed, but you will not travel that path alone. Your country will travel it with you, fueled by our faith in the Almighty and our faith in one another. So our prayers are with the people of Oklahoma today. And we will back up those prayers with deeds for as long as it takes. Thank you very much.


Google to Sell Web-Page Ads Visible on Mobile Phones

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 17 — In another step to extend its dominance of online advertising, Google said Monday that it would begin selling ads on Web pages that are viewed on cellphones. The company said that its new product, AdSense for Mobile, would establish a cellphone advertising network in which Google would match ads with the content of mobile Web pages, much as it does online. Other Internet giants, including Yahoo and AOLTime Warner, as well as some start-ups, have also created advertising networks tailored for mobile phones. Dilip Venkatachari, product management director for AdSense, said the ads would provide a new source of revenue for publishers and could encourage more online sites to create mobile-focused Web sites. Like most other Google advertising systems, ad prices will be set through an auction and and advertisers will pay when a user clicks on its ad. Mr. Venkatachari said Google had encouraged publishers to have no more than two ads per mobile page, a smaller number than typically appear on a PC’s Web browser. Google has been testing the system with a limited number of advertisers and publishers this year. On Tuesday, it will open it to all mobile publishers in 13 countries, including the United States, Britain, France, China and India. Last summer, Google began selling ads that appear next to search results on mobile phones through a program known as AdWords. Last week, it said that all of its online AdWords advertisers, which are said to number in the hundreds of thousands, would be eligible to have their ads appear next to search results on cellphones. Google’s further inroads into mobile advertising have long been expected. But the market remains relatively small, and analysts do not expect the new service to contribute much soon to Google’s bottom line. Still, advertisers and publishers appear to be growing increasingly comfortable with mobile advertising. AdMob, a start-up that runs a mobile advertising network, showed 230 million ads in January and expects to show about 1.5 billion this month, said Omar Hamoui, its founder and chief executive. “The reason that Google and others are getting in is that the market is growing so rapidly, so people are getting very excited,” Mr. Hamoui said. Earlier in the year, AOL acquired Third Screen Media, an AdMob competitor, while Microsoft acquired ScreenTonic, a mobile ad company based in Paris. On Monday, Nokia said it would buy Enpocket, a company in Boston that displays ads on cellphones. Microsoft said it was expanding a mobile search partnership with Sprint first announced last November. Since then, Microsoft’s search technology allowed Sprint customers to look for ring tones and local Web content, like restaurants and stores. Starting Tuesday, Sprint customers will be able to use Microsoft’s service to search the entire Web on their cellphones. In addition, customers will be able to choose to have Sprint track their whereabouts, so that when they search for local content, they will not have to type in their location. Users will also have access to these services through voice-activated technology, allowing them to speak into the device rather than triple-tap or type in a keyword.

Computers and the Internet
Google Inc
Advertising and Marketing
Cellular Telephones


Bobcats Struggle to Keep Up in N.B.A. and With A.C.C.

Abstract: CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Ordinarily, the dominant color among fans attending Charlotte Bobcats games is blue. Saturday was St. Patrick’s Day, however, so Time Warner Cable Arena was a sea of green. During timeouts, a man dressed as a leprechaun, wearing curved springs on his legs, used a lacrosse stick to hurl T-shirts into the crowd. On any other night, the sight would have bordered on the surreal, but the home team was winning for a change, and that dwarfed any other oddity. Holiday or not, the crowd was far larger than the game itself would seem to have deserved. The Toronto Raptors, with their 15-29 record, were in town to play the Bobcats, who had won only six games this season, the most meager showing in the N.B.A. It would be tough to conjure a more meaningless matchup, but more than 15,000 fans turned out and the energy in the building clearly outweighed the game’s import in the standings. Toronto took a double-digit lead, but the Bobcats turned in an astounding (by their standards) 38-point third quarter and held on for a 107-103 win. It boosted their record to an unseemly 7-36 before their 105-80 loss at home to Philadelphia on Monday. In a lockout-condensed season, it is tricky to compare the Bobcats to infamous clubs of the past, like the 9-73 76ers of 1972-73. Still, at one point this winter the Bobcats lost 16 straight games, and 22 of 23. The Bobcats, who have yet to win two games in a row, are scoring the fewest points in the N.B.A. and have the largest differential between points allowed and points scored (13.09 points a game). “It’s so difficult because you don’t know if you’re ever going to come out of it,” Bobcats Coach Paul Silas said of the long losing streak. “I didn’t realize it would be as bad as it is. Losing as many games as we have really gets to you.” When asked about positives from this season, Silas, 68, paused a long time, then broke out laughing. “There’s your answer right there.” Rumors abound that this will be Silas’s last season in charge, but he is attempting to control his exit. On Saturday, for the second time this year, his son, Stephen, coached the team and notched his first win. “Don Nelson at Golden State had Keith Smart doing the same thing,” Silas said of the Warriors’ rite of succession, adding that his son “will be a terrific coach eventually.” He added, “But it’s good that he can start right now, where wins and losses don’t matter as much.” Part of the reason they do not is because basketball emotions in North Carolina are dominated by the state’s college teams, in particular Duke and North Carolina. That leaves the Bobcats as a vehicle for fan entertainment, although not many who follow the team are necessarily living and dying with the results. It could be worse. “If there wasn’t such a strong A.C.C. base, they might not even have the support they have now,” said Priscilla Sawicki, a Bobcats season-ticket holder who sits 10 rows from the court for every home game with her husband of nearly 50 years, Chuck. “We love basketball, all basketball, and a lot of others feel the same way,” she added. Bobcats guard Gerald Henderson starred for the Blue Devils from 2006 to 2009. “I hear ‘Go Duke’ more than I hear ‘Go Bobcats,’ to be honest,” he said. “We still get a strong following of Duke fans, which is pretty cool.” The contrast in North Carolina basketball loyalties — pro versus college — was starkly apparent the next day. The Bobcats practiced in front of three reporters. The rest of the state’s news media was in Greensboro, 90 miles up Interstate 85, where North Carolina was playing in the second round of the N.C.A.A. tournament and where Duke would have been playing, too, if it had not been upset by Lehigh on Friday night. North Carolina State , meanwhile, was in Columbus, Ohio, taking on Georgetown. Even the Bobcats’ locker room abounded with talk of the college tournament, especially Duke’s shocking loss. At the intersection of all of this is Michael Jordan, North Carolina native son, former University of North Carolina star, former N.B.A. superstar and current owner of the Bobcats. From the outside, it appears that Jordan is well on his way to leading his second N.B.A. team into difficulties, after his uninspiring stewardship of the Washington Wizards, where he was general manager and minority owner. But Jordan has seemingly benefited from low expectations in Charlotte, profiting from the negative reputations of the previous two owners of the Charlotte N.B.A. franchise. When the George Shinn-owned Hornets left for New Orleans in 2002, the general feeling in town was good riddance, given the toxic effect of Shinn’s miserly methods and the fact that he had been the target of a sexual-assault lawsuit, even though a jury eventually found in his favor. The cable television mogul Robert L. Johnson promised a new era when he bought the expansion Bobcats, who began play in 2004. But he, too, quickly wore out his welcome, failing, among other sins, to deliver on a promised television network for the team. “Michael is a refreshing change,” Priscilla Sawicki said. “Bob Johnson lectured us, told us it was our responsibility to support the team. Michael had to overcome that. He said, ‘I have to earn your loyalty,’ and he was right.” Jordan became the majority owner in 2010 — shortly afterward the Bobcats made their only playoff appearance — and he has made an effort to be around the team and the city, even recently putting his mansion in Chicago up for sale. His prolonged absences were a major criticism during his tenure in Washington and while he was still a minority owner here under Johnson (a Bobcats fan Web site, Queen City Hoops, sold T-shirts with the phrase “You won’t find M J here, either”). “He passes along his philosophy to us, and stays out of the way, which is greatly appreciated,” Silas said. The players say they welcome his occasional advice, in particular the rookie Bismack Biyombo, the long-striding, infectious-smiling forward whose rights Jordan traded for on draft day. “I knew nothing about Charlotte until Michael took over as owner,” said Biyombo, who grew up in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “He’s the greatest player ever; of course I want to hear what he has to tell me.” Still, as Davis Roberts, a fan who watched Saturday’s game from the very last row, said of Jordan, “I don’t think his management skills are as good as his playing skills.” Chuck Sawicki said: “I worry he’s not a businessman or a manager. He’s been trying for a long time, and hasn’t turned the team around.” Silas disagreed. “We’re sticking to his plan, building through the draft and spending some money,” he said. “But he knows it will take some time.” In the short term, the far bigger news is that North Carolina and North Carolina State made the Round of 16 and will be in action together Friday in St. Louis. They could square off Sunday, with the winner going to the Final Four. The Bobcats — oh yes, the Bobcats. They will be playing next weekend, too, trying to improve their horrible record ever so slightly.

Charlotte Bobcats
Basketball
University of North Carolina
Duke University
Silas Paul
Basketball (College)
North Carolina State University
NCAA Basketball Championships (Men)


Yankees, Down by Nine Runs, Rally to Stun the Red Sox

Abstract: BOSTON — After so much frustration and disappointment two weeks into the season, it seemed things could not get any worse for the Boston Red Sox . But along came Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira and the Yankees to prove that it could. The Yankees trailed, 9-0, after five innings, and it seemed as if the Red Sox would hold on for an important victory against their historic foe. But when Boston’s manager, Bobby Valentine, turned to his deeply struggling bullpen, the Yankees pounced with 14 runs to stun the Red Sox, 15-9, on Saturday at Fenway Park. Most of the damage was done by Swisher and Teixeira, who each drove in six runs as the Yankees sent the already reeling Red Sox closer to the edge of desperation. Swisher hit a grand slam and a two-run double, and Teixeira homered from both sides of the plate and added a two-run double. The Yankees scored seven runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to complete the comeback and wipe away another poor start from Freddy Garcia, whose position in the starting rotation grew even less secure when he was knocked out in the second inning. But Garcia was spared a loss as the Yankees tied the club record for the largest deficit overcome to win a game, equaling a mark that had been achieved four times.“It’s the most fun I’ve ever had in a regular-season game,” Teixeira said, “and I’ve played in a lot of games.” For Valentine, the opposite may have been true. With each failed pitching change, he was booed loudly by fans who, barely two weeks into the season, are angry and impatient over Boston’s 4-10 start. When it was over, all that was left was a debate about whether the Red Sox had reached the lowest point of their despair, or if there were further depths to plumb. “I think we’ve hit bottom,” Valentine said shortly before he met with John Henry, the team’s owner, Larry Lucchino, the team’s president, and Ben Cherington, the general manager. “That’s what I told them after the game. I told them you sometimes have to hit bottom. If this isn’t bottom, we’ll find some new ends of the earth, I guess.” Shortstop Mark Aviles, whose error in the seventh inning added to the impact of Teixeira’s second home run, wasn’t sure, either. “In all honesty, I don’t want to see if it gets any worse,” he said. “Baseball hasn’t been very good right now for us.” After starter Felix Doubront pitched well through six innings, the Red Sox’ bullpen allowed 13 earned runs, the most it has given up since 1994. Boston hadn’t blown a nine-run lead since 2009, and it has not blown a bigger lead since it wasted a 10-run bulge in 1989. “In this park, a lot of things can happen,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. That is especially true when the home team’s earned run average is 6.68. Doubront held the Yankees scoreless until Teixeira came to the plate with one out in the sixth. Wearing one of his own blue socks on one foot and one of C. C. Sabathia’s on the other, Teixeira drove a pitch over the Green Monster from the right side of the plate. Doubront threw 99 pitches after six innings, so he was pulled for Vicente Padilla, who gave up Swisher’s grand slam, which made the score 9-5. Three batters later, after Aviles’s error, Teixeira hit a three-run homer from the left side to make it 9-8. It was the 13th game in which Teixeira has homered from both sides of the plate, extending his major league record. While he was getting dressed before he game, Teixeira noticed that while one of his socks had his No. 25 on it, the other one was transposed with No. 52. “I actually said to myself, ‘C. C.’s a pretty good player, I’ll try it,’ ” Teixeira said. “I’m definitely going to keep wearing it.” In the eighth inning, with Alfredo Aceves pitching, Swisher came up with Eduardo Nunez on second and Derek Jeter on first, and he ripped a double off the wall. As Nunez and Jeter came across the plate, the Yankees took the lead, 10-9, and Swisher stood at second base and screamed in delight. “That’s a big win for us,” Swisher said. “It’s a huge momentum shift.” After the game, Cherington, who is in his first year as the general manager, announced that the Red Sox had traded for Marlon Byrd to play center field, and he said that more changes were in store involving the pitching. He refused to blame Valentine for the mess the team is in, and accepted his share of the responsibility. “He’s doing the best he can with the roster he has,” Cherington said. “It will get better. He knows that and I know that, and along the way, if changes need to be made on the roster, that’s my responsibility.” INSIDE PITCH Saturday was the third consecutive game in which a Yankee hit at least two home runs. Curtis Granderson hit three on Thursday, Eric Chavez hit two on Friday and Mark Teixeira two on Saturday. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time the Yankees have done that since 1961, when Roger Maris, Clete Boyer and Johnny Blanchard did it. ...The Yankees scored seven runs in back-to-back innings for the second time. The last time was also at Fenway Park, in 2000.

Boston Red Sox
Baseball
New York Yankees
Teixeira Mark
Swisher Nick


Paris Attacks Expected to Influence Boston Trial

Abstract: BOSTON — A pair of brothers viewed as homegrown Islamic terrorists. Horrible acts of violence. Manhunts that forced the lockdown of entire neighborhoods. The slaughter of 12 people in Paris last week and the subsequent shootout that killed several hostages shocked the world, but it had particular resonance in this city, where a similarly horrific chain of events played out in the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon and where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the lone surviving suspect, is preparing to go on trial. The events in Paris almost certainly exacerbated the challenge here, already immense, of finding an impartial jury, analysts said. And they might prompt potential jurors to view Mr. Tsarnaev not as an isolated actor but as part of a global terror network. That in turn could make some people feel even more justified in wanting him put to death, the analysts said. The bombing at the marathon killed three people and injured more than 260 others. Jules Epstein, a longtime criminal-defense lawyer who has worked on death-penalty cases and teaches at Widener University School of Law in Delaware, said the events in France had probably already influenced the strategy of Mr. Tsarnaev’s defense lawyers. He said he would not be surprised if they asked for a delay in picking the jury, if only for a couple of weeks. Jury selection began last week and is set to resume on Thursday. “You want things to die down,” Mr. Epstein said. Beyond that, he said, he expected that the defense would probe prospective jurors for their reaction to the Paris shootings as a gauge of their thoughtfulness and their feelings toward the death penalty. Matt Sienkiewicz, an assistant professor at Boston College who specializes in global media cultures, noted that the defense was seeking to portray Mr. Tsarnaev as having been under the sway of his older brother, Tamerlan, who was killed in a shootout with the police. The defense wants to separate Mr. Tsarnaev from “the grand narrative of terrorism,” he said, but the Paris shootings may make that impossible. “Some people may have thought the marathon bombing took place in isolation, but now they are making the connections and seeing it as part of a broader trend,” Mr. Sienkiewicz said. Some accounts of the Paris shootings have noted that Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born imam who joined Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, inspired not only the Paris killers but also the Tsarnaev brothers. The indictment against Mr. Tsarnaev, who has pleaded not guilty to the 30 counts, said that sometime before the bombing on April 15, 2013, he downloaded a book titled, in part, “The Slicing Sword.” The book, with a foreword by Mr. Awlaki, directs Muslims not to give their allegiance to governments that invade Muslim lands. When Mr. Tsarnaev was hiding inside a dry-docked boat, prosecutors have said, he scrawled incriminating messages saying the Boston victims were “collateral damage” for Muslims killed by the United States in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. With Mr. Tsarnaev’s trial underway, the news media here had already been replaying scenes from the Boston Marathon bombing. But the fresh scenes of mayhem from Paris make the bombing “seem very immediate, not something that happened in the past but also could happen tomorrow,” Mr. Sienkiewicz said. The effect, he said, could make potential jurors “want to be more draconian, more strict in passing judgment.” (In a Boston Globe poll conducted in September 2013, 57 percent of Bostonians said they preferred that Mr. Tsarnaev be sent to prison for life without parole, but analysts said some people could change their minds.) Some of those attending a rally Sunday on the Boston Common in solidarity with France agreed that the Paris slaughter could influence jurors here in a negative way. “It’s created more fear,” said Shari Moy, 60, an animal-rights advocate at the rally. Jonathan Friedlander, 31, a French biologist who lives in Cambridge, Mass., and who was at the rally, said of Mr. Tsarnaev: “The image here was of him as a lone wolf, and now this gives him a global context.” But some said the Paris shootings would have little influence on the trial because so many residents — and likely jurors — were already convinced of Mr. Tsarnaev’s guilt. As Edward English, 69, a lawyer from Andover, Mass., who attended the rally, put it: “They already can’t pick a jury that will not convict this kid.” Rabbi Eric Gurvis of Temple Shalom in suburban Newton, who helped organize a tribute last week to those killed in Paris, said the killings sent a terrible message beyond any implications for the trial. “In the midst of all the horror of what this reawakens,” he said, “it’s a stark reminder that we live in a world where terrorists strike against unwitting, unknowing, unsuspecting populations.”

Boston
Terrorism
Jury
France
Boston Marathon Bombings
Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev
Paris France


With Ukraine Tensions Mounting, U.S. Weighs New Sanctions Against Russia

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama warned President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Monday against further disruption of eastern Ukraine even as the United States and Europe prepared to expand sanctions against leading Russian figures in the next few days. After a weekend of meetings, the White House was working on a list of new targets who would be barred from traveling to the United States or whose assets here would be frozen, officials said. Among them is Igor Sechin, a longtime Putin ally and the president of Rosneft , the largest state-owned Russian oil company, which has a major joint venture with ExxonMobil. European ministers agreed on Monday on a list of their own. The American sanctions would also be imposed on at least one Russian institution that is deemed part of the so-called crony network supporting Mr. Putin, officials said. But they added that Mr. Obama does not plan to place more crippling measures on whole sectors of the Russian economy unless the Kremlin escalates its actions. The White House wants to hold those sanctions in reserve should Moscow invade Ukraine or seek to annex its eastern regions. The debate over the Western response came as tensions continued to mount. The Pentagon said Monday that a Russian attack aircraft made 12 close passes near an American destroyer in the Black Sea on Saturday. And the White House confirmed that John O. Brennan, the director of the C.I.A., visited Kiev over the weekend, a move that provided propaganda ammunition to the Kremlin, which has presented the crisis as an American-orchestrated intervention. Judging by public accounts, the latest telephone call between Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin did little to bridge the divide. In the call, requested by Moscow, Mr. Obama accused Mr. Putin of trying to subvert Ukraine by fomenting takeovers of security buildings. “The president expressed grave concern about Russian government support for the actions of armed, pro-Russian separatists who threaten to undermine and destabilize the government of Ukraine,” the White House said in a statement. Mr. Putin denied interfering in Ukraine. “Such speculations are based on inaccurate information,” the Kremlin said in a statement. Instead, he placed blame for the turmoil on Ukraine’s new pro-Western government and its “unwillingness and inability to take into account the interests of the Russian and Russian-speaking population.” The United States and Europe are moving to shore up that government. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew met with his Ukrainian counterpart in Washington for the signing of a $1 billion loan guarantee agreement, while European Union foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg approved $1.4 billion in assistance. The sides were debating how far and how fast to apply additional sanctions. The Obama administration was trying to decide whether to impose them before a meeting scheduled for Thursday in Geneva that is to bring together Secretary of State John Kerry with counterparts from Russia, Ukraine and Europe. Some officials argued in favor of holding off sanctions, reasoning that it would sour the Geneva meeting and make it harder to forge a diplomatic solution. Others countered that taking action before the meeting would strengthen the hand of the West and signal that continued provocation would not be accepted. Mr. Obama called President François Hollande of France on Monday to coordinate positions. “There will be further costs imposed on Russia,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters before the president’s call with Mr. Putin. “And certainly if they go further down the road of attempting to destabilize Ukraine rather than choosing the path of de-escalation, the costs will continue to grow.” Targeting Mr. Sechin would aim directly at Mr. Putin’s inner circle. Rosneft, Mr. Sechin’s oil company, is deeply involved with Western firms. BP owns nearly 20 percent of the company, and ExxonMobil has multiple projects with Rosneft in Siberia, the Arctic, the Black Sea, Canada, Alaska and Texas. Lawyers at ExxonMobil are researching the impact of sanctions against Mr. Sechin. Given that they would apply to Mr. Sechin personally and not his company, some specialists said it might mean little more than a logistical hassle because he could not travel to the United States to meet with his ExxonMobil partners. But Anders Aslund, a Russia specialist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said it would have more of an effect. “If Sechin is banned, it would be very difficult for these companies,” he said. “You don’t want to be connected with a person who’s banned by the United States if you’re a highly U.S.-dependent company.” Mr. Brennan’s decision to travel to Kiev, however, struck many in Washington as baffling. Russian television first reported over the weekend that the C.I.A. director had arrived in Kiev under an assumed name to direct operations there. The White House and the C.I.A. initially refused to comment but on Monday confirmed his trip. Mr. Carney said it was meant simply to foster “mutually beneficial security cooperation,” and he called Russia’s characterization “absurd.” Some former intelligence officers privately criticized the visit, saying it only bolstered the conspiracies advanced by Russian officials that the C.I.A. was behind the Ukrainian unrest that toppled a pro-Moscow president in favor of a government oriented toward the West. But other C.I.A. veterans said there must have been a good reason for him to go because the White House would have known Mr. Brennan would be spotted. “It’s a well-thought-out decision that had to be weighed against playing right into Putin’s message,” said Milton Bearden, chief of the C.I.A.’s Soviet division during the Soviet Union’s collapse. The Obama administration was also debating what to do about Russian plans to upgrade digital photographic equipment, radars and infrared sensors carried on two observation planes that typically conduct missions over Ukraine. Under the 1993 Open Skies agreement , nations may carry out unarmed aerial observation missions over each other’s territory to promote openness and dispel fears of attack. But according to a recent letter by four members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, concerns have been raised about Russia’s missions over Ukraine. Before Russia can carry out observation missions with the improved monitoring, the United States and other signatories of the Open Skies agreement must certify that they may be used. The issue is to be discussed at a meeting of administration officials. “The invasion of Crimea and Moscow’s ongoing efforts to destabilize Ukraine using subversive methods is sufficient reason to counsel further review,” wrote the senators, Mark Warner of Virginia and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, both Democrats, and the Republicans Dan Coats of Indiana and Jim Risch of Idaho. In a separate letter to Mr. Obama, Mike Rogers of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, urged Mr. Obama to reject the Russian move. “Putin’s attempt to upgrade Russia’s sensing capabilities now is particularly problematic,” he wrote.

Ukraine
Russia
Crimea
Embargoes Sanctions
US Foreign Policy
Vladimir Putin
Igor I Sechin
Barack Obama
US


Hugo Chávez Forces Venezuelans to Contemplate a Void

Abstract: CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez is the undisputed, 24-7, one-man show of Venezuelan politics, its be-all and end-all. He makes laws on his own, with the stroke of a pen. He expropriates buildings and businesses with the wave of a hand. His face smiles from billboards and posters. He posts his thoughts on Twitter. He talks on television for hours on end. He even sings and dances. But after nearly 14 years as Venezuela’s president, Mr. Chávez is battling cancer as he enters a heated re-election campaign, leaving many of those who love him and many who loathe him to wonder who will take his place if failing health forces him from office, either before or after the Oct. 7 election. Such a sudden transition would be difficult in any country but would be even more so here, where Mr. Chávez has built a state that revolves around his outsize personality and where no clear successor has emerged. “Here I am before you again!” Mr. Chávez, 57, told a large crowd of supporters on Monday after formally registering as a candidate. He has been seen little in recent months because of his illness, but he dismissed what he called “necrophiliac” rumors that he was near death and searching for a successor, and predicted that he would win re-election by a knockout. A day earlier, Mr. Chávez’s opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, 39, led a throng on a six-mile march through Caracas that seemed intended to emphasize the contrast between his youth and vigor and Mr. Chávez’s fragile health. Mr. Chávez rode to his speech on a platform atop a campaign truck — but then, in a show of stamina, spoke energetically for more than 2 hours 45 minutes. “They have a big problem,” said Armando Briquet, the campaign manager for Mr. Capriles, who stepped aside this month from his post as a state governor. “Chávez is like one of those family businesses in which the head of the family won’t let any of his children grow up professionally and surpass him.” All of that feeds an air of mystery and uncertainty, which some say works to Mr. Chávez’s advantage, reinforcing the notion that only he is in control. Just as Mr. Chávez has refused to disclose details of his illness, he has avoided naming a political successor, which has led to feverish handicapping, especially among his critics, of who is next in line. “We’re all in the dark,” said Carolina Fontalvo, 33, a waitress who previously supported Mr. Chávez but now plans to vote against him. “It’s as if they want to keep people guessing.” Pedro Díaz, 63, an accountant, said the unsettled political situation made him feel powerless and anxious. “I feel it in my stomach,” he said. But for the true believers in Mr. Chávez’s movement, which is known as Chavismo, any talk about possible successors is dismissed out of hand. “We’re going to have Chávez until two thousand-forever,” asserted Edelio Rebolledo, 76, a retired government employee. “Chávez will be the candidate. Forget about it.” Political observers divide Mr. Chávez’s inner circle into two or three main groups, each containing a contender for his mantle. One group is led by two Chávez appointees, Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro and Vice President Elías Jaua. Both men are longtime leftists in harmony with Mr. Chávez’s most hard-core socialist supporters, the true believers in what he calls his Bolivarian Revolution. Another group is led by Diosdado Cabello, the president of the National Assembly and the No. 2 man in Mr. Chávez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Mr. Cabello is a former soldier who took part in the failed 1992 coup led by Mr. Chávez, which thrust the future president onto the national stage. Mr. Cabello has close ties to the military, an all-important power base, and to the business community. And then there is Mr. Chávez’s family. Some see his older brother, Adán, the governor of Mr. Chávez’s home state, Barinas, as a possible choice. Two of Mr. Chávez’s daughters, Rosa Virginia and María Gabriela, are also sometimes mentioned as candidates who could keep the family name on the ballot. But all of them lack Mr. Chávez’s charisma and visceral connection to voters. That is especially true of Adán Chávez, whose public appearances have a somnolent quality evocative of the vast plains of the state he governs. Mr. Cabello is sharp-tongued and fiery with a Machiavellian reputation, but not popular — a kind of socialist Newt Gingrich. He is often referred to as part of what Mr. Chávez’s followers call the endogenous right, a more conservative wing within Mr. Chávez’s movement. Despite his red shirts and flame-throwing pronouncements, Mr. Cabello is widely associated with the country’s nouveau riche, the entrepreneurs who have grown fabulously rich by doing business with the socialist government, often by tapping into its vast oil wealth or securing government contracts. All of these men have risen and fallen by Mr. Chávez’s word. Mr. Cabello was out of favor until late last year, when Mr. Chávez suddenly returned him to prominence. Mr. Maduro and Mr. Jaua seemed comfortably ensconced until Mr. Chávez announced that they would leave their positions to run for governor in states controlled by the opposition. But all of that was before Mr. Chávez learned in February that his cancer, which first appeared last year, had returned. He began shuttling to Cuba for surgery and a series of radiation treatments, which ended last month. The treatments left him weakened and sent him into seclusion, which has spurred a new round of speculation about what would happen if he was too sick to continue running for re-election. The need for a Plan B seems obvious, but it is hard to find anyone among Mr. Chávez’s supporters willing to discuss it. “Today in the mind of Venezuelans this is not something that is present,” said Jesse Chacón, a former cabinet minister who runs a polling firm that is close to the government. Mr. Chacón cited surveys showing that a majority of Venezuelans believe Mr. Chávez will regain his health, and that they plan to vote for him. But Mr. Chávez’s opponents have dedicated countless pages of newsprint and hours of television time to discussing the what-ifs. They delight in the imagined power struggle. And they relish the thought that Mr. Capriles may run against one of Mr. Chávez’s less charismatic disciples. Mr. Chávez has a comfortable lead over Mr. Capriles in nearly all polls. But opposition politicians contend that polls taken by Mr. Chávez’s camp show that Mr. Capriles would beat any of the likely successors to Mr. Chávez if he does not run. On a recent morning, large posters mysteriously appeared on one of the main streets of Caracas, showing Mr. Cabello with a raised fist and purporting to promote him as a presidential candidate. Although widely supposed to be the work of opposition provocateurs, the posters underscored the sensitivity of the subject within Mr. Chávez’s camp, prompting a quick reply by Mr. Cabello. “Our only candidate is Chávez,” he said on his Twitter account. And he blamed members of the opposition for the posters, saying, “They believe that by putting up posters with my name they are going to win votes” or divide Mr. Chávez’s followers. Most analysts agree that Mr. Chávez probably will remain his party’s candidate and the favorite to win in October. But speculation has also focused on what would happen if he died or stepped down after starting a new term early next year. Under the Constitution, if a president leaves office or dies in the first four years of the six-year term, the vice president takes his place and new elections must be called within 30 days. That means Mr. Chávez’s choice of a vice president, an appointed office, may give the clearest indication of whom he wants to follow him. The biggest obstacle may be the highly personalized political reality he created. “There is no one either in the opposition or within Chavismo who can equal his leadership,” Mr. Chacón, the pollster, said. “He is one of these human beings who comes by once every century.”

Venezuela
Elections
Chavez Hugo
Capriles Radonski Henrique
Chavez Adan


Motive in Japanese Stabbings: A Dead Dog

Abstract: TOKYO — The Japanese police say the motive in last week’s stabbing deaths of a former health ministry official and his wife appeared to be anger over a long-dead dog. On Monday, the police arrested a 46-year-old unemployed man, Takeshi Koizumi, after he turned himself in for the killings. He was carrying a blood-stained knife. The police had been investigating whether the killings, which shocked this low-crime nation, were motivated by recent scandals involving tens of millions of lost pension records, which are administered by the ministry. But Mr. Koizumi told police that he was angry at the ministry because, decades ago, animal control agents had put to sleep a stray dog that he had befriended as a child.


Getting Mortgage Payment Cut Takes Patience, and Luck

Abstract: On the day in June when her mortgage company finally agreed to lower her monthly payments, Yolanda Thomas felt a twinge of hope that she would hold on to her Queens apartment, the first home she had ever owned. The loan modification extended by Chase Home Finance was technically a trial, not a permanent alteration, but this fact seemed of lesser significance. “I felt they were working with me,” Ms. Thomas said. “I felt very positive and hopeful, like I had a chance to keep my house.” But five months later, Ms. Thomas, 35, is back at the beginning. She has made her reduced payments on time. She has submitted the proper paperwork, she says, while enduring a bewildering array of conflicting instructions from her bank. But last month, Chase rejected her application for a permanent loan modification and invited her to start over and send in a new application, for another trial. “At this point, I don’t know what is going on,” she said. Ms. Thomas’s experience shows the confusing and frustrating ways of the Obama administration program aimed at keeping millions of troubled American borrowers in their homes. Four years ago, she bought her apartment — a three-bedroom condominium in Ozone Park — for $530,000, putting down about 10 percent and borrowing the rest through an interest-only loan from Washington Mutual. Given her $130,000 salary at a marketing job, she had no difficulty making the $2,700 monthly payments. Indeed, she continued to add to her savings, which grew to about $80,000, while paying college tuition for two younger brothers. But in April 2008, amid the recession, Ms. Thomas was laid off. She continued to make her mortgage payments by tapping her savings. By that fall, with her savings nearly exhausted and credit-card debt mounting, she turned to a housing counselor at the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, a nonprofit group based in Brooklyn. The counselor began seeking a loan modification from Washington Mutual, which had been purchased in distress by JPMorgan Chase. This March — after several rounds of mislaid paperwork and resubmitted forms — Chase extended a so-called forbearance arrangement, allowing her to make no payments for two months while she continued to look for a job. Ms. Thomas soon found a new marketing job that paid roughly half as much as her previous position. In June, on the basis of that income, Chase approved her for a trial loan modification, which reduced her payments to $1,174.30 a month. The trial loan modification documents that Ms. Thomas signed promised that the new payments would become permanent, provided she made her three trial payments on time and then submitted required documents confirming her financial situation. According to notes kept by Ms. Thomas, Chase promised not to report her to credit agencies as delinquent while she made her lowered payments. But by early July, Chase collection agents were calling regularly, threatening to foreclose. Chase reported her to credit agencies as delinquent, which increased the interest on her credit card debt and her car insurance rates. When Ms. Thomas began calling Chase to try to reverse this, she got nowhere. “Once, I was told this happens all the time,” she said. “Then I was told that this never happens and there was nothing that could be done. It was just bad information all the time.” In a letter this month, Chase told Ms. Thomas that it had asked major credit rating agencies to “remove any negative payment history” from her credit profile. But this admission that the bank had made a mistake was itself made in error, Tom Kelly, a Chase spokesman, said. “We actually should not have sent her the letter,” Mr. Kelly said, maintaining that Ms. Thomas should indeed have been reported to the credit agencies. “We’re not always perfect.” As her trial period ended at the beginning of October, Ms. Thomas still had no word about a permanent loan modification, so she sent in a fourth month’s payment. In late October, Chase told her that she had been turned down for a permanent loan modification because her income was insufficient. She insists that her income remained the same, though Chase produced a pay stub showing that she had in fact worked full-time in May and only part-time in September, earning less. Two days later, Ms. Thomas received a letter from Chase saying that her application was still being considered, but missing a required tax document. Then, by phone, Chase told her that, never mind, she should start over. Despite the mishaps, the Chase spokesman says, Ms. Thomas’s case amounts to a success story. “She’s ahead of where she would have been without this program,” Mr. Kelly said. Where she is now is in limbo, awaiting word on another trial modification, this time based on her new salary of about $100,000, courtesy of a new job. “I’ve been working my whole life and paying my bills,” she said. “I just want to pay my mortgage.”

Mortgages
Foreclosures
Housing and Real Estate
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Labor and Jobs
Queens (NYC)


President Looks Back in Goodbye From Peru

Abstract: LIMA, Peru — An unfamiliar emotion — wistfulness — is settling in over President Bush and his White House. As the sun sets on his administration, Mr. Bush is spending the weekend in this city on a cliff where the sun sets, spectacularly, over the Pacific. It is his last scheduled foreign trip (there is some betting he will make another visit to Iraq) and it features a forward-looking official agenda: the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, where Mr. Bush delivered an impassioned plea on Saturday for free trade and free markets. But the unofficial agenda is, simply, a presidential goodbye. Mr. Bush engaged in an unusually sentimental look back over his presidency in a speech here on Saturday morning, beginning with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks: “I remember the flag flying from every fire truck in Montreal, Canada. I remember children kneeling in silent prayer outside our embassy in Seoul. I remember baseball players in Japan observing moments of silence.” He continued: “The bonds of unity we felt then remain today, and they will always remain.” Mr. Bush has never been one for introspection; his aides often say he detests “navel-gazing.” He arrived in Washington eight years ago with a kind of Texas swagger and quickly earned a reputation for a go-it-alone style of “cowboy diplomacy” that infuriated much of the rest of the world. Now, as he leaves office, amid two wars, a grave economic crisis and historically low job approval ratings, Mr. Bush seems a changed man, offering occasional hints he is reflecting about the world he leaves behind. “I’ve worked hard on a lot of fronts,” he told America TV, a Peruvian news outlet, in an interview in the White House Map Room before leaving Washington. “I have given it my all. And now I am very hopeful that the man who succeeds me as president of the United States succeeds in his job.” Mr. Bush’s aides bristled at talk of Peru as a lame-duck farewell tour. “This is a serious meeting, it is not a farewell,” Dan Price, the president’s chief economics adviser for international affairs, said last week. “Lame duck, low approval ratings — I think that completely misses the point.” Yet on the way to Lima on Air Force One, another foreign policy adviser to Mr. Bush, Dennis Wilder, was talking in past tense, reviewing Mr. Bush’s efforts in the region. “I think he would say that he worked hard to understand this region, worked hard to build really strong relationships with leaders,” Mr. Wilder said. The president has long been an avid practitioner of personal diplomacy, and here in Lima he seems almost sorry to break off some of his relationships. Just hours after arriving on Friday, he confessed to President Hu Jintao of China that he was already “feeling a little nostalgic” about their last meeting as heads of state. Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada told Mr. Bush on Saturday that he wished him “all the best” if they did not see each other before Jan. 20, when Barack Obama is sworn in. “Before forced retirement,” Mr. Bush shot back. Nostalgia aside, Mr. Bush is still not above delivering a poke in the eye to leaders with whom he disagrees. Case in point: President Dimitri A. Medvedev of Russia, who sent troops into Georgia over the summer. Hours before Mr. Bush was to meet Mr. Medvedev on Saturday, the White House issued a statement celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Rose Revolution in Georgia, in which a pro-Western government that the Kremlin loathed came to power, as “one of the most inspiring chapters in the history of freedom.” As presidential goodbye trips go, the Lima visit — just two nights away from the White House — is strikingly low key. Initially, there was talk at the White House that the president would visit Brazil and Colombia as part of this final swing. But Mr. Bush saw the Brazilian president at last week’s global economic summit meeting in Washington. And with Democrats in Congress blocking adoption of Mr. Bush’s free trade pact with Colombia, Mr. Bush could not exactly take a victory lap there. Bill Clinton trotted the globe late into his presidency. In December 2000, Mr. Clinton had a stormy meeting in Northern Ireland with lawmakers who opposed a peace accord he forged there. One month before that, Mr. Clinton took a five-day tour of Asia, including a historic trip to Vietnam, where he stood on the edge of a rice paddy and watched, his eyes welled up with tears, as laborers sifted through dirt to search for the remains of an American serviceman. There are unlikely to be any such overt expressions of emotion from Mr. Bush. His Lima itinerary is devoid of any cultural excursions; in addition to Saturday’s speech, his schedule consists of meetings with fellow world leaders, a gala dinner Saturday night, and a drop-in at the United States Embassy. On Monday in Washington, Mr. Bush will be back to saying goodbye, this time to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel, who is stepping down amid corruption allegations and whose approval ratings are even worse than Mr. Bush’s. Mr. Bush once had hopes of presiding over a peace agreement that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state; the White House now concedes that this is highly unlikely. Instead, said its press secretary, Dana M. Perino, the two leaders will talk about “the path forward” in the next two months. “I’m sure that Prime Minister Olmert will want to talk about old times, but also what the future holds,” Ms. Perino said. She did not say if Mr. Bush, too, would want to talk about old times.

Peru
Bush George W
United States Politics and Government


Faulty DePuy Artificial Hip Points to Broken Implant System

Abstract: A recently recalled artificial hip made by a unit of Johnson & Johnson , designed to last 15 years or more, is failing worldwide at unusually high rates after just a few years. One of the most troubled orthopedic implants of the past decade, this artificial hip — known as the A.S.R., or Articular Surface Replacement — was originally promoted as a breakthrough in design that would last longer and provide patients more natural movement. But many patients soon developed inexplicable pain, and surgeons, when replacing the implant, discovered mysterious masses of dead tissue near the thighs of some patients. Until late summer, officials at the Johnson & Johnson unit, DePuy Orthopaedics, the largest maker of replacement hips worldwide, maintained that the A.S.R. was performing on a par with competing devices. But interviews with doctors indicate that DePuy received repeated warnings that the implant was failing and that surgeons were abandoning it. The brief and troubled life of DePuy’s A.S.R. hip points to a medical implant system that is piecemeal and broken on many fronts, critics say. Unlike new drugs, many of which go through a series of clinical trials before receiving approval from the Food and Drug Administration , critical implants can be sold without such testing if a device, like an artificial hip, resembles an implant already approved and used on patients. That way, manufacturers can rapidly make small changes to a device to improve it. But those simpler procedures have also effectively created a loophole, experts say, that lets producers bundle a component from an unapproved implant into an existing design and sell a device with minimal testing. With the A.S.R., that process unfolded with devastating results. “You are basically testing these devices in an uncontrolled way on a large number of people,” said Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe , the director of the Public Citizen’s Health Research Group and a longtime F.D.A. critic. Officials at DePuy declined to be interviewed for this article or to respond to specific written questions. In the past, they have said that the company moved promptly to take appropriate action on the A.S.R. Late last year, DePuy announced that it was phasing the device out, but asserted at that time that the decision reflected lagging sales, not safety issues. And some doctors report good results with the implant. “We believe we made the appropriate decision to recall at the appropriate time given the available information,” DePuy said in a recent statement. The faulty DePuy device is one of a number of Johnson & Johnson products that have come under intense scrutiny in the last year, because of defects or manufacturing flaws that have prompted recalls of such household names as children’s Tylenol to Rolaids. DePuy officials cannot say how many patients in this country received an A.S.R. because the company, like other orthopedic makers, does not track such implants. The Johnson & Johnson unit sold two versions of the A.S.R. hip, one that the F.D.A. never cleared for sale in the United States and one that it did. DePuy officials estimated that about one-third of some 93,000 patients worldwide who received some version of the implant were in the United States. Both versions of the A.S.R. shared a common component, a so-called cup, or the part of the joint that replaces a patient’s hip socket. It was that cup’s design, experts say, that would prove faulty. As patients began complaining, doctors and regulators here remained largely unaware that the problem was widespread because no independent monitoring system exists in this country that tracks implant failures. Such a database, used in other countries, might have clued in American orthopedists to the problem. In addition, doctors who tried to sound an alert said they had been rebuffed by DePuy. The director of Australia ’s orthopedic database said he believed that DePuy had been less than forthright about the A.S.R. Data in that country, he said, showed that in 2008 the A.S.R. was failing early at a rate higher than some competing devices. “When it is clear to the orthopedic community that a company has not been honest, that is a problem,” said Australia’s registry’s director, Dr. Stephen Graves. “I think that J.& J. has a major issue with DePuy.” Permanent Damage For patients, the problems with the A.S.R. required additional painful operations in which the device was replaced with yet another artificial hip. For some, however, the damage to bone, muscles and nerves from the troubled device, which can shed tiny metallic particles, has left them permanently disabled. That damage can also complicate a replacement operation. One patient, Mary Ann Doornbos, a former I.B.M. employee in Illinois , remains on disability and still walks with a cane, one year after her A.S.R. was removed and replaced. Ms. Doornbos, 56, said that she could not stand up long enough to cook a meal because the pain was constant. “I have been told that I have to be prepared that it will be like this for the rest of my life,” she said. Like thousands of other patients, Ms. Doornbos did not know the hip component that caused her disability was a critical part of another device that the F.D.A. had never approved for sale. Initially, DePuy developed the A.S.R. as a so-called resurfacing implant, a device comprising two components — the cup and a thigh component — that was used in a procedure in which less of a patient’s thigh bone was removed than in a standard hip replacement. And in 2003, DePuy started selling that version of the A.S.R. outside the United States. But because resurfacing was a new procedure, the F.D.A. required DePuy to test the A.S.R. resurfacing implant in a clinical trial before it could sell it here. It was not until late 2007 that the company submitted that study data to the F.D.A. for review and possible approval, a process that was aborted last year when DePuy withdrew its application. But back in 2005, the F.D.A. allowed DePuy to start selling the other version of the A.S.R., a modified standard hip replacement that used the same A.S.R. cup found in the company’s unapproved resurfacing device. As a result, tens of thousands of patients here like Ms. Doornbos would get that version of the A.S.R. Current rules do not require device producers to notify the F.D.A. when they bundle together components from approved and unapproved devices, Mark Melkerson, an agency official, acknowledged. New iterations of device designs already used on patients typically receive scant scrutiny from the F.D.A. before going to market. An internal agency review released several months ago found numerous flaws with the process, and the F.D.A. is proposing changes to it. To win agency permission to market the A.S.R. in the United States, DePuy never had to perform any patient testing of it. Agency officials said the company cited clinical data it had used five years earlier to win F.D.A. approval to sell another all-metal hip implant called the Ultima. The Ultima, however, used a cup that had a totally different design than the one used with the A.S.R. The F.D.A. also allowed another orthopedics company, Zimmer Holdings , to sell a cup used in its unapproved hip resurfacing implant as part of a standard hip replacement. Hundreds of patients who got that component, which is known as the Durom, have also been forced to undergo early second operations after it failed not long after the first implant. As for Ms. Doornbos, her surgeon simply told her in 2007 that he expected that she would not have to worry about a new hip for a long time. “My doctor said that this was a new design that was particularly good for young people,” she recalled. Grave Concerns It also was in 2007, the same year that Ms. Doornbos got her new hip, that an orthopedic surgeon in northeastern Britain , Dr. Antoni Nargol, would start seeing a few A.S.R. patients complaining of groin pain . But two years later when Dr. Nargol and a colleague say they told DePuy officials they had found an explanation for why the A.S.R. was failing in patients, the company did not stop selling it or issue a warning. Instead, the men said they were met with a response similar to one that other orthopedic surgeons who have tried to sound alarms encountered — a claim that the fault was not related to a particular device but to a doctor’s surgical technique. “They basically said that the problem was me,” said Dr. Nargol, who practices at a hospital in Stockton-on-Tees, a small industrial city south of Newcastle. Dr. Nargol started as a believer in the A.S.R., not a critic; today both he and a colleague, Dr. David Langton, are consultants to lawyers suing the company. Dr. Nargol’s involvement with the A.S.R. started in 2004, he said, when DePuy asked him to be one of its investigators on the study of the A.S.R. resurfacing device it submitted in 2007 to the F.D.A. The 45-year-old surgeon said DePuy had shown him data to persuade him that the A.S.R. was superior to a competing resurfacing implant he was using called the Birmingham hip. One DePuy video, he recalled, resembled a product face-off: An A.S.R. and a Birmingham were mounted on mechanical simulators that replicated years of use; soon, the oil used to lubricate the Birmingham turned black while the A.S.R.’s stayed clear. “Their data indicated that the A.S.R. was going to last longer than the Birmingham,” he said recently. Smith & Nephew , the Birmingham’s marketer, would later assert that DePuy had doctored that test; DePuy declined to comment. Dr. Nargol said he was not overly concerned in 2007 when a few of his A.S.R. patients developed pain because he first thought the problem was related to his implant technique. For example, an improperly positioned hip cup can cause so-called edge-loading, a situation where the joint’s ball strikes against the cup’s edge, chiseling off debris. And tests of those patients showed that they had elevated levels of cobalt and chromium ions, the A.S.R.’s constituent metals, in their blood, a sign of edge-loading. “At first, I blamed myself,” Dr. Nargol said. But Dr. Langton, an orthopedic resident working with Dr. Nargol, was not so sure because Dr. Nargol’s patients with the Birmingham hip seemed to be doing fine. So he began to take blood samples from Birmingham patients as well as A.S.R. patients not experiencing pain. That study, which was presented in mid-2008 to a medical meeting, showed that many A.S.R. patients had elevated blood levels of cobalt and chromium. It also soon became apparent to Dr. Nargol that well-positioned cups were failing. By 2008, the Australian registry was also showing that the A.S.R. was failing early at a fast growing rate. And as doctors operated on patients to remove and replace the device, they discovered that the metallic debris shed by the device had set off a reaction that was destroying muscle and bone. Working with an engineer at Newcastle University, Dr. Nargol and Dr. Langton concluded by early 2009 that the design of the A.S.R. cup — the very component that the F.D.A. had allowed to be sold without clinical testing — was at the heart of the problem. Its interior surface was so shallow, the researchers asserted, that it was particularly vulnerable to edge-loading and shedding debris. In February 2009, the two British physicians met with DePuy officials at a company facility in Leeds , where the A.S.R. was then being produced. Dr. Nargol said he expressed his grave concerns to the company about the A.S.R.’s safety. He said DePuy officials told him that they had confidence in the device because many other doctors had used it successfully and that they were not aware of similar complaints. “I told them I was done,” he said. Device Recall In April 2009, not long after that meeting, Betty Jane Haak, a 74-year-old grandmother, got an A.S.R. cup as part of a new hip. These days, Ms. Haak has pain on that side and highly elevated levels of cobalt ions in her blood. A specialist has urged her to have the device replaced, but because she had a heart attack this spring, she delayed doing so. Ms. Haak said at one point that she feared she might not be able to withstand surgery. “Do I risk a heart attack, or do I risk poisoning myself?” she said. The case of the A.S.R. is not the first time in recent years that problems with orthopedic implants emerged in registries elsewhere well before doctors in the United States stopped using that device. And the absence of such a system also means that device companies like DePuy — not doctors, patients or even regulators — determine when safety alerts about implants are issued or products are withdrawn from the market. It was in March, a year after Dr. Nargol’s meeting, that DePuy issued a safety alert about the A.S.R. But even before that, the company had decided to drop the A.S.R., even as it was still being used on patients. Late last year, DePuy publicly announced that it would phase out A.S.R. sales and close the British plant that produced it. It also withdrew its F.D.A. application to sell the A.S.R. resurfacing implant in the United States and halted sales of the device in Australia. It cited declining sales, not safety concerns, for all those actions. “When they said they were doing it for commercial reasons, I had to laugh,” said Dr. Graves, the head of the Australian registry. In August, when DePuy recalled the A.S.R., the company said it would pay for operations to replace the device if needed and also urged patients who were experiencing pain to see their doctors. DePuy said in a recent statement that it was working with health authorities in several countries to address patient needs. “We have an extensive team in place to handle the clinical, reimbursement and communications needs associated with this recall,” the company said. Not surprisingly, the A.S.R. episode has touched off a wave of litigation both here and abroad against DePuy from patients like Ms. Doornbos and Ms. Haak. Johnson & Johnson has said it was currently unable to predict what the A.S.R.’s problems might cost the company over time. Some officials have renewed efforts to begin an orthopedic registry in the United States. But an expert involved in that, Dr. Kevin Bozic, questioned how successful it would become because so far only 15 medical centers nationwide were voluntarily reporting data. To make such a system effective, some experts believe that the federal government would need to mandate such reporting as a condition of payment through taxpayer-financed programs like Medicare . It is estimated that hundreds of millions of dollars in public funds are spent unnecessarily every year on premature device replacement procedures. The F.D.A has also recently proposed rules that, if adopted, could require implanted devices like artificial hips to undergo more thorough testing before they were approved for sale. However, the fate of those proposals is unclear and the device industry is questioning the need for broad changes. Meanwhile, surgeons like Dr. Nargol continue to witness the fallout. At several hospitals in Britain, he said, the earlier replacement rate for the A.S.R. now exceeded 20 percent and might soon reach 30 percent. The impact on individual patients also continues to be profound. Recently, Dr. Nargol said he had met with a woman who now used two canes to walk because of the hip tissue damage she suffered from an A.S.R. He said the woman became inconsolable when he told her that little could be done to ease her condition. “It really brought it home,” he said. “The destruction this situation has caused.”

Hip
Implants
Johnson & Johnson
DePuy Orthopaedics
Medical device
Defective Products


New York Introduces Its First Adult Playground

Abstract: IT was a classic father-son moment, reversed: The 2-year-old sat and watched patiently as his parent hung upside down from the monkey bars. A few feet away, a white-haired man skipped across an S-shaped metal beam. Another man squeezed his six-foot frame onto a metal rack for situps, and two others hoisted themselves up chin-up bars. Never mind the punishing diets, the gym dates and the doctors’ warnings, the quest to live a healthier, more active lifestyle has come to this: playgrounds for adults. New York City is testing its first such playground in Macombs Dam Park in the Bronx , and plans to bring as many as two dozen more to neighborhoods across the five boroughs in the next 18 months, park officials said. The goal is to lure people off their couches and into the outdoors with specially designed playground equipment — in grown-up shades like forest green and beige — that recall the joy of childhood play while tightening up flabby abs, thighs and triceps. Though there are no swings or slides — these are essentially outdoor gyms — such playgrounds not only have the look of traditional children’s play spaces, but they are also built in some cases by the same manufacturers. The adult playground concept is borrowed from China and parts of Europe , where outdoor fitness areas for adults have become as routine as high-fiber diets or vitamin D supplements in preventive care, particularly for older people. Now a growing number of city and park officials, health experts and community leaders throughout the country are praising the health and social benefits of adult playgrounds. They say that the playgrounds will succeed where treadmills have failed in combating rising rates of obesity and related illnesses by enticing the grown-ups out for play dates. “Let’s face it, most of us dread going to the gym,” said Dr. David Ludwig, a Harvard Medical School professor who directs the Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. “The point is to make physical activity fun, easy and accessible, so it’s the normal thing to do.” Adult playgrounds have spread across the nation, including to Miami-Dade County in Florida , where four fitness zones with advanced strength-training equipment opened this year in neighborhoods with high rates of cardiovascular diseases. San Antonio has added outdoor fitness stations to 30 parks since 2010. Los Angeles has 30, with 15 more on the way, after park officials found, to their surprise, there were “lines of people waiting to use the equipment.” And two mothers in Washington State , Paige Dunn and Kelly Singer, started a grass-roots campaign last year to build “ Momentum ” sites to help new mothers shed their baby weight; each site would face a children’s play area and hold seven pieces of equipment that specifically target problem areas. The women raised $30,000 to open the first one in Auburn, Wash; a second will be dedicated in Redmond, Wash., next month. In New York City, where adults are banned from playgrounds unless accompanied by a child, the $200,000 Bronx playground with 15 pieces of equipment opened two years ago as part of an effort to get more people out to the parks to exercise and slim down. Parks officials said it had been popular enough that the city was now planning a rapid expansion. “This represents a continuing evolution of both parks and playgrounds,” said Adrian Benepe , the parks commissioner. This fall, the city will build a second adult playground with upgraded amenities — river view, exercise mats, chess tables, a sign that says, “Adult Space” — at John Jay Park on the Upper East Side. Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, who represents the neighborhood, said she had secured $250,000 in city money for the project after some of her older constituents pointed out, “There are tot lots, but there’s no place for us.” “A lot of these people live alone,” she said. “So going outside to the park, and being part of the activity of the park, is important to them.” About 150 spots in city parks have one or two pieces of old-fashioned adult fitness equipment, mostly static pieces like chin-up bars. And parks elsewhere have had fitness circuits for years, though usually they’ve been fairly modest. Many of the new adult playgrounds will have comprehensive workout areas and equipment with moving pieces. As public policy, adult playgrounds have proved far easier to sell as an anti-obesity measure than, say, a proposed ban on large sodas. They produce almost no noise or car traffic, take up little space and are cheaper to build than children’s playgrounds, though the cost varies depending on size and location. “They’re not controversial,” said Michael Shull, a parks superintendent in Los Angeles, which spends an average of $40,000 on a site for adults, versus $300,000 for children. New York City’s adult playgrounds will cost from $75,000 for the smallest one, with five pieces of equipment, to more than $200,000, park officials said. In contrast, children’s playgrounds typically start at $500,000, with the majority running $1 million to $2 million. The demand for adult-size equipment has created a niche business in an industry that once catered mainly to the elementary school set. GameTime, one of the largest manufacturers of children’s playground equipment, introduced a new adult line in 2009 called iTrack, which includes elliptical trainers and rowing machines. Outdoor Fitness in Colorado has worked with more than 600 adult sites since 2005, according to Barry King, the founder. In addition to sites in public parks, the equipment is being installed at residential developments and business complexes. Jim Sargen, a former technology executive who started TriActive America in California , which has supplied 470 adult sites since 2004, half in the past three years, said he discovered firsthand while traveling in Beijing in 2002 that exercise could be passed off as play. “My wife, who doesn’t normally exercise, climbed onto one of the pieces,” he recalled. “She said, ‘It’s kind of fun,’ and an idea clicked.” The adult playground in the Bronx, the city’s poorest borough and a place dogged by troubling health statistics, is built on top of a parking garage and sandwiched between a track and basketball and handball courts. It has attracted regulars like Brian Ferreira, 20, who once tried working out at a children’s playground near his home in Soundview, only to draw stares from the parents. Now he hops onto two trains and a bus, three times a week, to have a playground of his own. “I use every piece of equipment,” he said. “It’s good endurance training.” On a recent morning, regulars and newcomers alike drifted onto the playground and waited patiently — no tears or whining here — to use the equipment; one of the most popular was a pair of metal seats that any child would have loved, rising and falling with the push of foot pedals. The morning hours brought fathers with toddlers, and muscled older men who wore gloves and earphones and effortlessly executed situps, push-ups and pull-ups. They retreated when noisy teenagers passed through bouncing basketballs and running around the equipment without stopping to use any. In the afternoon, a 30-year-old court clerk swung from the monkey bars during his lunch hour. Others just watched. “Oh no, I’m past my prime,” said Daren Trapp, a bus driver with a tummy bulge who was among the observers. “It’s out in the open, and I guess I’m a private individual.” But Colette Prosper, an unemployed mother of five, and her daughter, Iesha, 21, came ready to sweat. It was their third time at the playground in a week; the first time, a stranger had to show them how to use the equipment. Ms. Prosper, 45, who said she was trying to lose 40 pounds, said her clothes were already feeling looser. “It’s a free membership, and I like what they have to offer,” she said. “I’m getting older, so I’m trying to get everything in shape.”

Playground
Obesity
Adrian Benepe
Exercise,Fitness
Parks and Other Recreation Areas
NYC


First ATP Tour Title for a Belgian Since 2008

Abstract: David Goffin ended Belgium’s six-year title drought on the ATP Tour by earning his first career victory at the Kitzbühel Cup on Saturday in Austria. Goffin rallied to beat fifth-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3. Goffin became the first tournament winner from Belgium since Steve Darcis triumphed in Memphis in 2008. ■ Vasek Pospisil of Canada won his rain-interrupted Citi Open quarterfinal in Washington against 10th-seeded Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4. The match between the 13th-seeded Pospisil and Giraldo began Friday but was suspended because of showers.


Yankees Acquire Aroldis Chapman, a Potent Arm With Baggage in Hand

Abstract: When the Yankees acquired the Cincinnati Reds’ All-Star closer, Aroldis Chapman, on Monday, the cost was rock bottom in baseball terms: four minor leaguers, none of them top prospects. But there are peripheral costs, and those are still to be calculated as law enforcement officials and Major League Baseball continue to investigate a domestic violence case involving Chapman, who the police say fired eight gunshots into a garage after arguing with his girlfriend on Oct. 30 at their Davie, Fla., home. Chapman could face legal trouble, a suspension under M.L.B.’s new domestic violence policy , and scrutiny from fans and anti-domestic-violence organizations. Those factors were enough to scare off some teams, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox, but the Yankees saw a chance to add a player they had long coveted, and at a reduced cost. “Given the circumstances that exist, the price point on the acquisition has been modified,” General Manager Brian Cashman said in a conference call on Monday. “We felt this was an opportunity to add a big arm to our bullpen.” The Yankees now have one of baseball’s most formidable bullpens, teaming Chapman, a four-time All-Star , with Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances. Those players ranked first, second and third in strikeouts per nine innings among pitchers who threw at least 40 innings last season. It is uncertain, though, whether Chapman — whose fastball has been routinely clocked at 103 miles per hour, the fastest in the majors — will be part of that group to begin the season. He is one of three players, along with the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig and the Colorado Rockies’ Jose Reyes, who are being investigated under M.L.B.’s new domestic violence policy, which was negotiated with the players’ union. The policy gives Commissioner Rob Manfred broad authority to hand out discipline, but it also calls for counseling and psychological evaluation. Kim Gandy, the president of the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said in a telephone interview that the presence of a gun in the Chapman case “certainly adds to the seriousness of the situation, the fact that a handgun was fired multiple times.” Gandy added, “The presence of a handgun makes it five times more likely that an abuse victim becomes a homicide victim.” After details of the police report were published by Yahoo Sports on Dec. 7, Florida state prosecutors said they would consider criminal charges, even though no arrests had been made and the Davie Police Department had considered the case closed. The Red Sox, who were interested in acquiring Chapman, learned of the episode weeks before it was revealed and dropped their pursuit, according to The Boston Globe . The Red Sox instead traded for Craig Kimbrel. Cashman said the Yankees had done their due diligence on Chapman’s case, but he acknowledged that teams did not have the same investigative clout that law enforcement officials or M.L.B. investigators might have. He declined to answer specifically whether the Yankees had asked M.L.B. for information on the case. “Certainly, there is some serious issues here that are in play,” Cashman said. “That’s why it’s going to play out. And I acknowledge that it’s an area of concern. There’s risk, and I understand that.” He added, “The results will be whatever they will be.” To acquire Chapman, who struck out 15.7 hitters per nine innings in 2015, the Yankees did not have to part with any of their most prized prospects: pitcher Luis Severino, first baseman Greg Bird, catcher Gary Sanchez and outfielder Aaron Judge. Instead, they gave up third baseman Eric Jagielo, a 2013 first-round draft pick who made the All-Star team at Class AA Trenton this year; second baseman Tony Renda, whom they acquired from Washington last season for pitcher David Carpenter; and pitchers Caleb Cotham, who was 1-0 with a 6.52 E.R.A. in 12 appearances for the Yankees, and Rookie Davis, who was added to the team’s 40-man roster last month. Chapman, who made a little more than $8 million last season, is due for a raise through arbitration to approximately $13 million, but Cashman said that Hal Steinbrenner, the team’s principal owner, had not required him to trim additional payroll with the deal. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the Yankees are projected to have a $229.8 million payroll, the highest in baseball, next season. The Yankees have made several moves in the past two years to acquire young but experienced talent. Chapman, 27, joins two recent acquisitions — second baseman Starlin Castro, 25, and outfielder Aaron Hicks, 26 — in that category. The Yankees are expected to avoid major moves in free agency until the big contracts of Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran, C. C. Sabathia and Alex Rodriguez come off the books in the next two years. The acquisition of Chapman, whom Cashman had inquired about before the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline and again in November, is a rare recent example of a decision by the Yankees to add a player with off-the-field troubles. But during the 1990s, when the Yankees were becoming perennial World Series contenders, they regularly took chances on such players — including Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden and Steve Howe . They invited Howe, a reliever, to spring training in 1991 after he had been suspended for substance abuse six times and been out of baseball for several seasons. Gene Michael, the general manager at the time, said, “If it was my son or your son, you’d want to give him another chance.” Howe was permanently barred from baseball the next season by Commissioner Fay Vincent after pleading guilty to a federal charge of attempted possession of cocaine. When an arbitrator overturned the ban, the Yankees, who opposed Vincent’s decision , brought back Howe for three and a half more seasons. When the Yankees signed Strawberry, he had been punished by baseball for substance abuse, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and been cited in two domestic abuse cases. Times have changed greatly since then, and there is a greater awareness of social issues. But Gandy, the anti-domestic-violence advocate, said she was not surprised that the Yankees had made such a calculated decision to trade for Chapman. “I think they are all calculated business decisions,” Gandy said. “It doesn’t surprise me at all, but at some point, it will become bad business.”

Yankees
Aroldis Chapman
Reds
Baseball
Domestic violence
Sports Trades