In Austin, Kirk Bohls writes NASCAR "has no better ambassador, no bigger superstar who actually gets it" than Dale Earnhardt Jr. Texas Motor Speedway President Eddie Gossage said, "Dale is our Michael Jordan, our Tiger Woods. Whenever he wins, it helps us. If we could write the script, Dale would win eight Daytona 500s.” Bohls notes Fox' TV ratings for Sunday's Sprint Cup Series The Profit On CNBC 500 at Phoenix Int'l Raceway "will probably get a bump." Gossage said that ticket sales for April's Duck Commander 500 at TMS "will spike as well" (AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN, 2/26).
YOUNG AT HEART: SI.com's Tom Verducci wrote signing young players in MLB has "become the new market efficiency, and we're seeing the baseball equivalent of a land rush." Teams are "moving to hand out extensions to their players to keep them away from free agency." The "boom in contract extensions is being fueled by the increases in national and regional television rights, but that's not all that's behind it." Teams know that, in the "drug-testing era, you no longer want players aging through their mid- to late-30s" (SI.com, 2/25).
WHALE WATCHING: Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said that he has "met with three groups regarding bringing the NHL back to Hartford." Malloy said, "If you’d asked me that question 14, 15 months ago, no chance. All of a sudden, in part because of the (lockout) in the NHL, the damage that caused, and realignment, do we have a shot at it? We have a shot at it. I’m going to go for it.” However, in Boston, Fluto Shinzawa noted Hartford is "an unlikely landing spot" for a team, as the city would "need an upgrade over the XL Center," which opened in '75 (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/23).
