Names In The News

Several ESPN execs are being honored this afternoon at the Cablefax Most Powerful Women luncheon in N.Y. They are PATRICIA BETRON, CHRISTINE DRIESSEN, ROSALYN DURANT, MARINA ESCOBAR, LORI LEBAS, JODI MARKLEY, DIANE MORSE, ALISON OVERHOLT and WANDA YOUNG. The net's SAGE STEELE noted the "extremely smart, talented, hard-charging women ... were chosen for their work in technology, production, print and company leadership." Steele: "Congratulations to all these fabulous women here at ESPN who made this list" ("SportsCenter," ESPN, 11/16).

PRESSURE POINT: MLB owners yesterday at their quarterly meetings in Orlando heard a roundtable discussion from former White House chiefs of staff KEN DUBERSTEIN and DENIS MCDONOUGH. Duberstein served under PRESIDENT REAGAN and McDonough under PRESIDENT OBAMA. The session, continuing a pattern under Commissioner ROB MANFRED to schedule some non-baseball content for owners during the meetings, focused less on politics than issues such as leadership and managing high-pressure situations (Eric Fisher, Staff Writer).

MONEY MATTERS: Mobile engagement platform Hopscotch yesterday announced the closing of $5M in Series B funding (Hopscotch)....San Diego-based crowdsourcing firm ScoreStream said that it has "received financial backing from Intel Capital, the venture capital arm" of Intel. The new $3.7M round, announced last week, "brings the total raised by ScoreStream since it was founded" in '12 to $6.8M (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 11/16).

NAMES: Baseball HOFers CAL RIPKEN JR. and EDDIE MURRAY yesterday teamed up for the dedication of Eddie Murray Field at BGE Park behind James Mosher Elementary in West Baltimore (Baltimore SUN, 11/16)....LEBRON JAMES, DWYANE WADE and CHANCE THE RAPPER are "teaming up in hopes of telling powerful sports stories that focus on young athletes." All three are listed as exec producers on Fox Sports Films' upcoming feature-length documentary series "MAGNIFY" (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 11/16)....Former Yankees manager JOE GIRARDI yesterday attended FAU football practice and "spoke with players" (PALMBEACHPOST.com, 11/15).