Baseball-Ichiro reaches deal to return to Yankees

Dec 19 (Reuters) - Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki has agreed a deal to return to the New York Yankees worth a reported $13 million over two years.
The 39-year-old was traded to the Yankees in July after playing his first 12 Major League seasons with the Seattle Mariners. He thrived in New York, hitting .322 in 67 regular season games.
A 10-times All Star and former league MVP, Suzuki has 2,606 career hits.
"The Yankees are the kind of team that I always envisioned being a part of," Suzuki said in a statement. "Everyone in the world of competition has a strong desire to win, but the Yankees also have an atmosphere where losing is not an option.
"I believe the Yankees organization appreciates that there is a difference between a 39-year-old who has played relying only on talent, and a 39-year-old who has practiced, prepared meticulously and thought carefully about their craft through the experience they have gained."
News of the deal comes after reports Suzuki was growing impatient with the pace of negotiations, though Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman explained the team had prioritized securing their pitching staff before dealing with the other positions.

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Broach Sports Tours Announces Action-Packed 2013 Spring Training Baseball Tour

Fans will get to see eight Grapefruit League games in seven days, with the Yankees, Red Sox, Tigers, Phillies and Braves among the top attractions

Charlotte, N.C. (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Broach Sports Tours has announced a sterling lineup for its 2013 Grapefruit League spring training baseball tour.
The motorcoach tour will run Saturday, March 16 through Sunday, March 24, and will operate with Tampa as its home base. Fans will see eight games in a seven-day stretch, involving 12 different Major League Baseball teams.
“We have been taking fans to spring training throughout our 20-year history, and this may well be the most-exciting tour we have ever done,” president Tom Broach said. “It’s one of those years where everything seemed to fall into place perfectly with the schedule. We’ll get to see the Yankees twice, the Red Sox twice, and one day we’ll even take in a doubleheader.
“Another exciting thing about this tour is that we’ll ride in style in one of our new Broach Coach motorcoaches, complete with flat-screen TVs for watching even more baseball on the way home from the ballpark.”
The tour starts on Saturday, March 16, originating in Charlotte with pickups in Columbia, S.C.; Savannah, Ga.; and Jacksonville, Fla. Fans from other parts of the country can meet up with the group in Tampa.
The schedule is as follows: Sunday, March 17, Twins-Orioles at Sarasota; Monday, March 18, Red Sox-Pirates at Bradenton; Tuesday, March 19, Yankees-Phillies at Clearwater; Wednesday, March 20, Pirates-Braves at Disney; Thursday, March 21, Blue Jays-Rays in the afternoon and Phillies-Red Sox at night at Sarasota; Friday, March 22, Cardinals-Astros at Kissimmee; and Saturday, March 23, Yankees-Tigers at Lakeland.
Fans will then return home on Sunday, March 24.
The package includes deluxe motorcoach transportation, eight nights' hotel accommodations at Country Inn and Suites Tampa Airport, tickets to all eight games, continental breakfast daily, Broach Sports Tours host and more.
Cost of the total package is $1475 per person double occupancy, $1345 per person triple, $1280 per person quad, or $1925 private.
Those reserving by January 4 will receive a $250 per person discount.
Broach Sports Tours, based in Charlotte, has been a leader in the sports and group travel industry since 1992. It specializes in Major League Baseball tours, with a total of 26 different tours on tap for next summer.
Broach also offers golf travel packages to such events as the British Open, U.S. Open and Ryder Cup; tennis packages to Wimbledon, Roland Garros and the U.S. Open; and NASCAR travel packages to the Daytona 500 and a multitude of other races.

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AP source: Polanco reaches agreement with Marlins

MIAMI (AP) — A person familiar with the negotiations says third baseman Placido Polanco has agreed to terms with the Miami Marlins.
The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Thursday because the Marlins hadn't announced a deal.
Polanco, 37, battled injuries this year and hit .257 with two home runs and 19 RBIs in 90 games with Philadelphia. The 15-year veteran is a career .299 hitter with 103 homers.
The deal solidifies the Marlins' lineup following an offseason payroll purge. Other projected starters include Logan Morrison at first base, Donovan Solano at second, Adeiny Hechavarria at shortstop, Jeff Brantly at catcher, Giancarlo Stanton in right field, Justin Ruggiano in center field and Juan Pierre in left field.

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Placido Polanco agrees to $2.75M deal with Marlins

MIAMI (AP) — Former All-Star third baseman Placido Polanco agreed to a $2.75 million, one-year contract Thursday with the Miami Marlins, plugging the final hole in the team's projected lineup following a payroll purge.
The 37-year-old, who can earn an additional $250,000 in performance bonuses, battled injuries this year and hit .257 with two home runs and 19 RBIs in 90 games with the Philadelphia Phillies. The 15-year veteran is a career .299 hitter with 103 homers.
Other projected starters include Logan Morrison at first base, Donovan Solano at second, Adeiny Hechavarria at shortstop, Jeff Brantly at catcher, Giancarlo Stanton in right field, Justin Ruggiano in center field and Juan Pierre in left field.
Hanley Ramirez played 90 games at third this year for Miami before being traded in July. That was part of the salary purge by the Marlins, who pared $146.5 million in future payroll when they swung a trade last month that sent former NL batting champion Jose Reyes, former NL ERA leader Josh Johnson and left-hander Mark Buehrle to Toronto.
The Marlins have a projected 2013 payroll of about $45.75 million. Their payroll on opening day this year was $112 million, not including money received in the Carlos Zambrano trade, but the team finished last in the NL East and drew smaller crowds than expected in its new ballpark.
Polanco was chosen to start in the All-Star game for the second time in 2011, but went only 10 for 58 (.172) after June 30 this year. The Phillies declined a $5.5 million option on Polanco after the season, and he received a $1 million buyout.
Polanco was the 2006 AL championship series MVP for Detroit, and he also played for St. Louis. He has 2,044 hits, and he has won two Gold Gloves at second base and one at third.
A native of the Dominican Republic, Polanco has a home in Miami and attended Miami-Dade Community College.

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Nike Baseball & Softball Camps To Host Multiple Camp Weeks At Dan Duquette Sports Academy For 2013

Nike Baseball and Softball Camps return to Hindsdale, MA at the Dan Duquette Sports Academy to host multiple weeks of camp for 2013. The first camp session is April 14th-19th. Summer sessions begin the week of June 23rd.

San Rafael, CA (PRWEB) December 20, 2012
Nike Baseball Camps and Softball Camps return to Hindsdale, MA at the Dan Duquette Sports Academy to host multiple weeks of camp for 2013. The first camp session is April 14th-19th. Summer sessions begin the week of June 23rd.
The NIKE Baseball and Softball Camps at the Dan Duquette Sports Academy give campers the opportunity to improve their baseball or softball skills, meet new friends, and have fun in a traditional summer camp setting.
“Our baseball and softball camps at the Dan Duquette Sports Academy provide campers with the experience of a lifetime,” says Mike de Surville, Vice President of US Sports Camps. “The abundant field space and new dorms provide a comfortable and ideal environment for our campers.”
Directing the Nike Softball and Baseball Camp at Dan Duquette Sports Academy is Kent Qualls. He was named the Director at the Sports Academy when it opened in 2003 and has overseen its growth into a premier sports facility. The Dan Duquette Sports Academy now hosts a variety of sports camps, broadcasters’ camp, baseball tournaments, tryouts & showcases, team training camps, group retreats, staff training, and team building.
Nike Sports Camps provide focused, intensive training that is essential to improvement for all skill levels. Every facet of the game is covered with an emphasis on fundamentals to help players become valuable team members. At each location, campers are broken into groups with other players of similar age, abilities and goals. Each camp director does their best to advance players to the next level, keeping in consideration each camper’s experience and desire to improve.
About US Sports Camps
US Sports Camps (USSC), headquartered in San Rafael, California, is America's largest sports summer camp network and the licensed operator of Nike Sports Camps. The company has offered summer camps since 1975 with the same mission that defines it today: to shape a lifelong enjoyment of athletics through high quality sports education and skill enhancement.
Players, coaches, parents and others interested in the 2013 Nike Softball Camps or Baseball Camps can visit USSportscamps.com or call 1-800-645-3226.

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BofA CEO: Fed wants bank to show consistent earnings

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp  needs to show the U.S. Federal Reserve  it can produce consistent earnings as part of the annual process to gain permission to return more capital to shareholders, CEO Brian Moynihan said in an interview.

The second-largest U.S. bank is turning a profit in most of its main businesses, but it inherited costly legal problems when it acquired companies during the financial crisis, including subprime mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.

In the third quarter, Bank of America reported only a nominal profit after reaching a $2.4 billion settlement with investors to resolve claims it hid crucial information from shareholders when it bought investment bank Merrill Lynch & Co.

Moynihan declined to comment on whether the bank's capital plan, which is due to the Fed by January 7, will include any proposed share buybacks or increases in dividends. Moynihan suffered a major embarrassment in 2011 when the Fed rejected the bank's request to increase its quarterly dividend, which has been stuck at just one penny per share since the financial crisis.

The Fed has been evaluating capital plans as part of its supervision of bank holding companies and under provisions in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. It is unclear whether the Fed would approve any request for an increased dividend or share buybacks next year. A Fed spokesperson declined to comment.

"The element that is sort of unique to us is the predictability of the earnings stream," Moynihan said in an interview in his Charlotte, North Carolina, office. "We are working to get through that."

Other banks have demonstrated their ability to earn money more consistently. JPMorgan Chase & Co's quarterly profit, for example, hasn't fallen below $3.7 billion in the past year, even as it has taken losses on disastrous credit derivative trades.

Investors and analysts are hopeful that Bank of America's legal problems will die down soon. Its stock price has more than doubled this year, partly on expectations that the bank will increase its dividend and buy back more stock after the Federal Reserve reviews its capital plans this spring.

Analysts at Atlantic Equities on Tuesday said they expect Bank of America to buy back $4 billion of its own shares in 2013 and $10 billion in 2014, which would be its first buybacks since 2007.

The bank has "made a lot of progress" on legal issues, Moynihan said, but he acknowledged that the company is still working through lawsuits and investor demands to buy back soured mortgages the bank sold off during the housing boom.

In recent weeks, the bank's dispute with insurer MBIA Inc over mortgage-related claims has heated up, with Bank of America filing a new lawsuit last week against the insurer. The legal tussle with MBIA has dragged on, even as Bank of America has worked out settlements with other insurers of mortgage-backed securities issued by Countrywide.

Moynihan said the bank will settle the MBIA dispute if it can reach an agreement that is reasonable for shareholders but otherwise it is ready to litigate the matter.

The bank's shares closed Tuesday at $11.35, up 3.2 percent for the day. The shares are the best performer in the Dow Jones industrial average this year, after falling the most in 2011.

HEALING

In an effort to improve earnings, Moynihan is aiming to cut costs by $8 billion annually by mid-2015 through a program called Project New BAC, including 30,000 layoffs that have been under way since September 2011. Bank of America had noninterest expenses of $76.5 billion in 2011.

In addition, Bank of America expects to eventually reduce costs in its unit that serves delinquent mortgage customers to about $500 million per quarter from about $3.4 billion in the third quarter. If delinquent mortgages continue to fall, that saving should be achieved in 2015, if not sooner, Moynihan said.

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Newtown backlash prompts Bushmaster rifle maker sale

(Reuters) - The company whose AR-15 type Bushmaster rifle was used in the Newtown school massacre in Connecticut will be immediately put up for sale, its private equity owner Cerberus Capital Management LP said on Tuesday in response to investor concerns.

The secretive private equity firm risked the ire of investors, which include some of the largest U.S. public pension funds, after its investment in Freedom Group Inc, owner of Bushmaster Firearms International that makes the rifle, came under public scrutiny.

The pressure on Cerberus to sell the firearms maker comes as it seeks up to $3.5 billion from investors for its latest buyout fund.

Late on Monday, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer asked CalPERS and CalSTRS, the state's public pension funds and the largest in the United States, to account for their investments in gun manufacturers, and proposed that they sell their interest in any company that makes guns that are illegal under California's assault weapons ban.

California's ban includes the Bushmaster rifle.

"The Treasurer's view is that neither fund should be invested in any company that makes guns that are illegal in this state, especially ones that were used to kill 20 innocent children and six innocent adults," Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for Lockyer said.

CalSTRS, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, said on Monday it was reviewing its investment with Cerberus in the wake of Friday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

"It's an unusual move by Cerberus but it was a terrible event, so they are responding to some of their investors who are teachers' funds. I'm sure they will be selling it at a low price because now would not be a good time to sell the business," said Steven Kaplan, a University of Chicago finance professor.

Cerberus filed for an initial public offering of Freedom Group in October 2009 but withdrew the registration in April 2011, without offering a reason.

In addition to Cerberus, some gun retailers also took steps.

Dick's Sporting Goods pulled all guns from its store closest to the site of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and suspended the sale of certain kinds of semi-automatic rifles from its chains nationwide.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc took down an informational website about semi-automatic Bushmaster rifles.

Cabela's Inc continued to advertise AR-15 type Bushmaster rifles on its website, though it said the weapons were not available for sale online or at its Connecticut store location.

FUNDRAISING

Cerberus Institutional Partners V, Cerberus' latest buyout fund, was seeking between $3 billion and $3.5 billion from investors, CalPERS, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, that has committed $400 million to the fund, said in a report earlier this year.

Cerberus is also raising a real estate fund, Cerberus Institutional Real Estate Partners III, according to a filing last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Founded in 1992 by Stephen Feinberg and William Richter, New York-based Cerberus has more than $20 billion under management and shares its name with a mythical three-headed dog which in Greek mythology guards the entrance to the underworld.

Feinberg's father, Martin Feinberg, is a resident of Newtown, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing an interview with him. Public records show a Martin Feinberg residing in a retirement facility in Newtown.

Cerberus said on Tuesday it would hire a financial adviser to sell its interests in Freedom Group and return the proceeds to investors.

The private equity firm expressed shock and grief at the killings in Newtown but added that Freedom Group was not responsible.

"We do not believe that Freedom Group or any single company or individual can prevent senseless violence or the illegal use or procurement of firearms and ammunition," it said.

Cerberus bought firearms maker Bushmaster in 2006 and later merged it with other gun companies to create Freedom Group, which reported net sales of $677 million for the nine months ended September, up from $565 million a year earlier.

Besides Cerberus, a few other private equity firms also have stakes in firearms companies. Sciens Capital Management, for example, jointly owns small arms maker Colt Defense.

In an opinion piece published on Monday in Slate magazine, prior to the announcement by Cerberus, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer said pressure should be stepped up on the owners of gun companies, like Cerberus, to change the way they operate.

"It is time to determine pension fund by pension fund who has invested in Cerberus and bring pressure on those investors either to get out of Cerberus or have Cerberus change the way it runs the gun industry," Spitzer wrote. (http://link.reuters.com/vuf74t)

GUN CONTROL DEBATE

Cerberus said the Newtown tragedy was a "watershed event" that has raised the national debate on gun control "to an unprecedented level."

However, it added the firm was responsible for only investment decisions it makes on behalf of its clients and does not play the role of "statesmen or policy makers."

"It is not our role to take positions, or attempt to shape or influence the gun control policy debate. That is the job of our federal and state legislators," it said.

U.S. lawmakers have not approved a major new federal gun law since 1994, and a ban on certain semi-automatic rifles known as assault weapons expired in 2004.

The Newtown massacre has led President Barack Obama and some congressional leaders to reconsider what has been a largely hands-off approach to gun control in recent years.

The percentage of Americans favoring tough gun regulations rose significantly after the killings at the Connecticut school, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Monday.

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Defense bill bans funding for joint missile program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives and Senate negotiators on Tuesday defied the White House and passed a defense budget bill that bans funding for the final year of a joint ground-based missile defense program with Italy and Germany.

The lawmakers prohibited a final U.S. payment of $400.9 million for development of the Medium Extended Air and Missile Defense System (MEADS), saying Washington has no plans to produce the system being built by Lockheed Martin Corp and its partners in Italy and Germany.

Industry executives and foreign officials say the government may face termination fees nearly equal to the money required to finish the system, which is financed by the United States, Italy and Germany.

It has been in development for more than a decade at a combined cost of more than $4 billion.

MEADS International, the Lockheed-led consortium developing the missile defense system, said the program had achieved several milestones in recent weeks.

It said a recent test demonstrated its 360-degree capability to detect, track and destroy an "air-breathing" target, a term used to describe airplanes and cruise missiles, versus ballistic missiles.

The White House last month reiterated its concerns about the bill, warning that a ban on MEADS funding could harm Washington's broader relationship with its allies, jeopardizing the kind of multinational projects favored by the Obama administration as budget pressures mount.

Failure to fund the final part of MEADS development could also make it impossible to take advantage of technologies developed by the program, the White House warned.

VETO THREAT

Other provisions of the 2013 defense authorization bill have prompted a veto threat by the White House.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and officials from Italy and Germany raised concerns this year about the ban on funding for MEADS, which was intended to replace the U.S. Army's aging Patriot air and missile defense system.

The Pentagon announced last year that it would stop funding the program after fiscal 2013, calling it unaffordable in the current budget climate.

That prompted some lawmakers like Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona to call for an immediate halt in spending on the program.

Italy's defense minister told McCain in a letter dated December 7 that MEADS was ideally suited to help address "the current and future air, tactical and ballistic missile threats that Italy, Europe and NATO will have to face for many years to come."

Failure by the United States to fulfill its funding commitment for 2013 would be "a unilateral withdrawal of our transatlantic agreement and (memorandum of understanding) and the U.S. would be held financially liable," he wrote.

Michael Amato, a spokesman for the Democrats who serve on the House Armed Services Committee, said U.S. participation in the program was based on "availability of appropriated funds."

He said lawmakers agreed to fund the program in fiscal 2012 on the condition that the Pentagon wrap up funding for the program, and propose a lower-cost solution.

"This year, the House and Senate were clear that they would prohibit the funds for this program as there are no plans for production," he said.

The White House had no additional comment, referring to its previous statement of administration policy.

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Pfizer to cut 600 jobs as Lipitor sales decline: report

(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc  plans to cut about 20 percent of its sales force for primary-care drugs, Bloomberg News reported, as the pharmaceutical company copes with the loss of a patent for top-selling cholesterol drug Lipitor.

The staff cuts will amount to about 600 sales people out of 3,000, and will begin this month, Bloomberg said, citing a person familiar with the matter.

In November 2011, Pfizer lost its patent in the United States for Lipitor, whose sales topped $10 billion a year. The company is working to lower costs as cheaper generic drugs have entered the market, taking away market share and revenue.

Pfizer spokesman MacKay Jimeson would not comment on the job cut numbers cited by Bloomberg, but said the company is "making changes in some segments of our field force to better match the future needs of the business."

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Instagram tests new limits in user privacy

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Instagram, which spurred suspicions this week that it would sell user photos after revising its terms of service, has sparked renewed debate about how much control over personal data users must give up to live and participate in a world steeped in social media.

In forcefully establishing a new set of usage terms, Instagram, the massively popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc, has claimed some rights that have been practically unheard of among its prominent social media peers, legal experts and consumer advocates say.

Users who decline to accept Instagram's new privacy policy have one month to delete their accounts, or they will be bound by the new terms. Another clause appears to waive the rights of minors on the service. And in the wake of a class-action settlement involving Facebook and privacy issues, Instagram has added terms to shield itself from similar litigation.

All told, the revised terms reflect a new, draconian grip over user rights, experts say.

"This is all uncharted territory," said Jay Edelson, a partner at the Chicago law firm Edelson McGuire. "If Instagram is to encourage as many lawsuits as possible and as much backlash as possible then they succeeded."

Instagram's new policies, which go into effect January 16, lay the groundwork for the company to begin generating advertising revenue by giving marketers the right to display profile pictures and other personal information such as who users follow in advertisements.

The new terms, which allow an advertiser to pay Instagram "to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata)" without compensation, triggered an outburst of complaints on the Web on Tuesday from users upset that Instagram would make money from their uploaded content.

The uproar prompted a lengthy blog post from the company to "clarify" the changes, with CEO Kevin Systrom saying the company had no current plans to incorporate photos taken by users into ads.

Instagram declined comment beyond its blog post, which failed to appease critics including National Geographic, which suspended new posts to Instagram. "We are very concerned with the direction of the proposed new terms of service and if they remain as presented we may close our account," said National Geographic, an early Instagram adopter.

PUSHING BOUNDARIES

Consumer advocates said Facebook was using Instagram's aggressive new terms to push the boundaries of how social media sites can make money while its own hands were tied by recent agreements with regulators and class action plaintiffs.

Under the terms of a 2011 settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Facebook is required to get user consent before personal information is shared beyond their privacy settings. A preliminary class action lawsuit settlement with Facebook allows users to opt-out of being included in the "sponsored stories" ads that use their personal information.

Under Instagram's new terms, users who want to opt-out must simply quit using the service.

"Instagram has given people a pretty stark choice: Take it or leave, and if you leave it you've got to leave the service," said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a Internet user right's group.

What's more, he said, if a user initially agrees to the new terms but then has a change of mind, their information could still be used for commercial purposes.

In a post on its official blog on Tuesday, Instagram did not address another controversial provision that states that if a child under the age of 18 uses the service, then it is implied that his or her parent has tacitly agreed to Instagram's terms.

"The notion is that minors can't be bound to a contract. And that also means they can't be bound to a provision that says they agree to waive the rights," said the EFF's Opsahl.

BLOCKING CLASS ACTION SUITS

While Facebook continues to be bogged in its own class action suit, Instagram took preventive steps to avoid a similar legal morass.

Its new terms of service require users with a legal complaint to enter arbitration, rather than take the company to court. It prohibits users from joining a class action lawsuit unless they mail a written "opt-out" statement to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park within 30 days of joining Instagram.

That provision is not included in terms of service for other leading social media companies like Twitter, Google, YouTube or even Facebook itself, and it immunizes Instagram from many forms of legal liability, said Michael Rustad, a professor at Suffolk University Law School.

Rustad, who has studied the terms of services for 157 social media services, said just 10 contained provisions prohibiting class action lawsuits.

The clause effectively cripples users who want to legally challenge the company because lawyers will not likely represent an individual plaintiff, Rustad argued.

"No lawyers will take these cases," Rustad said. "In consumer arbitration cases, everything is stacked against the consumer. It's a pretense, it's a legal fiction, that there are remedies."

Instagram, which has 100 million users, allows consumers to tweak the photos they take on their smartphones and share the images with friends. Facebook acquired Instagram in September for $715 million.

Instagram's take-it-or-leave-it policy pushes the envelope for how social networking companies treat user privacy issues, said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

"I think Facebook is probably using Instagram to see how far it can press this advertising model," said Rotenberg. "If they can keep a lot of users, then all those users have agreed to have their images as part of advertising."

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