In Toronto, Dave Feschuk notes recently retired Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President & CEO RICHARD PEDDIE is "planning on becoming [a] published author in the coming months." Peddie's "literary agent is expecting him to deliver a synopsis of his forthcoming book, an anecdotal memoir of his remarkable career, by Jan. 19." Peddie also has "been approached by universities that covet him as a lecturer, by corporate boards who'd gladly have him as a director." Peddie said, "I don't want to be a CEO again. I don't want the 24-7 grind. I'm really going to stop and not accept anything for a number of months and see what comes to me." Meanwhile, he said of his replacement, "I have endorsed [MLSE Exec VP & COO] TOM ANSELMI" (TORONTO STAR, 1/9).
ROME THE TRACK: FORBES.com' Teresa Genaro noted syndicated radio show host JIM ROME and his wife JANET "first got involved in horse ownership" in '07, and the Romes' Jungle Racing LLC "now owns 14 horses, wholly or in partnership." Some are "yearlings, getting ready to start training; some are racing; some are retired." Rome last week "got his first graded stakes win as an owner when his 4-year-old filly," Mizdirection, won the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes at Santa Anita Park. Rome said, "I've had a lot of really good things happen to me in business and in life, but nothing has ever felt as good as that (win) felt in a professional sense" (FORBES.com, 1/6).
CASE DISMISSED: In London, Ashling O'Connor reported FIFA on Friday dismissed a claim by former VP JACK WARNER "that he was rewarded for supporting SEPP BLATTER's presidential campaigns with World Cup television contracts." Warner said last week that he "was awarded the rights for seven World Cups for a nominal fee." For the '98 tournament in France, Warner, "the Trinidad & Tobago Minister for Works and Infrastructure, said that FIFA sold the rights to him for $1" (LONDON TIMES, 1/7).
ALL THINGS TIGER: Golf coach HANK HANEY has written a book, titled "THE BIG MISS," about the six years he spent as TIGER WOODS' swing coach. The book goes on sale in the spring, and Haney believes that it "will be hard to put down." The book will be released by Crown Archetype, part of the Crown Publishing Group at Random House. It is scheduled to be published March 27, one week before the Masters (AP, 1/8)....Blueprints indicate that Woods' ex-wife ELIN NORDEGREN is "shelling out millions to raze her existing Florida home and replace it with one that dwarfs the golfer's own palatial pad." Nordegren paid $12.2M to buy the existing 17,000-square-foot oceanfront home before taking "a wrecking ball to the digs last month." She is now "set to erect a 18,984-square-foot main house" in its place (N.Y. POST, 1/9).
NAMES: The Int'l Ice Hockey Federation has "launched a special task force to find out why concussions are plaguing the sport and would back a complete overhaul of the game if that would eradicate them." The committee was announced Thursday prior to the IIHF World Junior Championship gold-medal game between Russia and Sweden. The organization will "reach out to specialists -- such as physicians who treated superstar SIDNEY CROSBY -- coaches, former players and equipment experts" as well as the NHL. IIHF VP MURRAY COSTELLO will head the committee (GLOBE & MAIL, 1/6)....Dolphins Owner STEPHEN ROSS will host a fundraiser Thursday at his Palm Beach home for Republican presidential candidate MITT ROMNEY. Invitations to the event "list 15 co-chairs who were given a target of raising $50,000 apiece and 49 host committee members with a goal of raising $25,000 each." NFL Jets Owner WOODY JOHNSON is a member of the host committee (PALM BEACH POST, 1/9)....As part of ESPN’s “Digital Media Hackathon,” for the “second straight year, teams of programmers, engineers and designers from the Digital Media group took time out … to ideate, collaborate and create the next big thing for an ESPN online or mobile product.” More than 50 hackers “making up 15 teams spread across Bristol, New York, Seattle and Bangalore, India competed for trophies and prizes awarded by a panel of judges comprised of top ESPN executives, like new president JOHN SKIPPER and Chief Technology Officer CHUCK PAGANO” (ESPN.com, 1/6)....Marlins President DAVID SAMSON, GM MICHAEL HILL and Equipment Manager JOHN SILVERMAN completed the Disney Goofy Challenge, which consists of running in Saturday’s half marathon and yesterday’s full marathon (SUN-SENTINEL.com, 1/8). Last night’s edition of Food Network’s “CUPCAKE WARS" featured a competition in which the winner’s cupcakes were displayed at the MLS Cup (“Cupcake Wars,” Food Network, 1/8).
IN MEMORY: Former Boston Globe sportswriter FRAN ROSA “died of cardiac and lung ailments Wednesday” at the age of 91. Rosa “helped build the Globe’s sports department into a powerhouse during his editing days in the late 1960s,” and his writing “secured him a spot as a media inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame” (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/8). In Boston, Kevin Paul Dupont wrote Rosa was “a joy, ever-smiling and gracious, qualities not always abundant in the newsrooms.” Rosa worked in an era “when reporters had time to work sources, talk a lot and listen more, and that’s what he did best.” Rosa leaves behind “millions of printed words about the games and people he so obviously loved, as well as his legacy of unwavering gentlemanly kindness” (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/8)….DON CARTER, a “leading force in the formation” of the Professional Bowlers Association in ’58 and a charter member of the PBA HOF in ’75, died at the age of 85 on Thursday (AP, 1/7)
