Die Macht » But Champ Car folded at the end of the year

Major League Baseball is moving away from the longtime practice of donating its wrong-winner merchandise to other countries.MLB spokesman Matt Bourne confirmed that all licensed items that call the Cleveland Indians the 2016 World Series champions must be handed over by retailers in order to destroy the products after the?Chicago Cubs victory in the seven-game series.The Huffington Post first reported the story.Since 2005, Major League Baseball has officially worked with World Vision, a charity that donates gear to needy countries. But Bourne said the league changed gears to protect the team from inaccurate merchandise being available in the general marketplace.Jim Fischerkeller, director of corporate engagement for World Vision, told ESPN that the organization was not notified by baseball of the decision but is fine with the call as long as it had nothing to do with leakage of product by our organization in the past.Fischerkeller said he did not know of any incidents in which MLB provided gear to World Vision and those items found their way into hands in North America.A relatively large number of Indians championship products are expected to be destroyed for a variety of reasons.So-called hot market gear is produced so retailers can immediately have items available when a team wins a championship. Fischerkeller said he believes more merchandise was made because the Indians had a 3-1 lead, prompting Cleveland retailers to put in more orders.Indians championship gear was shipped to retailers in Cleveland with the instruction that the boxes should only be opened if the Indians won. When the Indians lost 8-7 in Game 7, the retailers had to ship the boxes back to the licensee or to MLB.The nations largest online licensed sports retailer, Fanatics, has nothing to send because it only orders and makes the gear of the eventual champion.If the Cubs had lost, the number of items that would have been destroyed would have been immense because of Chicagos large market and the significance of the teams 108-year-old title drought. One of the largest sports donations to World Vision came when the Chicago Bears lost Super Bowl XLI in 2007. Ian Happ Cubs Jersey . -- About a third of the way through the regular season, the Washington Wizards are at . Kris Bryant Jersey .J. -- Marshawn Lynch said Thursday it will be good to get back to football after the Seattle quiet talking running back wrapped up his final mandatory media session of Super Bowl week. http://www.thecubsteamshop.com/Cubs-Kosuke-Fukudome-Kids-Jersey/ . A statement from the worlds top-ranked player says all checks "were satisfactory and showed positive evolution" regarding the injury, which contributed to his loss to Stanislas Wawrinka in the final in Melbourne. Brad Brach Cubs Jersey . 8 Iowa State on Saturday, sending the Cyclones to their third consecutive loss. The Longhorns (14-4, 3-2) got their biggest win of the season with their third in the row in the Big 12. Daniel Descalso Jersey .35 million, one-year contract that avoided salary arbitration. Plouffe batted .254 with 14 home runs and 52 RBIs in 477 at-bats last season, his second as a regular in the lineup. INDIANAPOLIS -- It was quite a week for Roger Penskes IndyCar team.Last Tuesday evening, the majority of Team Penske was at the Hilbert Circle Theater in Indianapolis as Simon Pagenaud, Will Power and Helio Castroneves were presented trophies and checks to celebrate their 1-2-3 sweep of the 2016 Verizon IndyCar Series championship.Barely 12 hours later, the driver who finished fourth in the standings was announced as the newest Penske team member. After an impressive five-year apprenticeship under Sarah Fisher and Ed Carpenter, 25-year-old Josef Newgarden is now part of the The Captains juggernaut.We figured he was better off being on our side than on the other side, quipped Team Penske president Tim Cindric.On the surface, this looks like a classic case of the rich getting richer. Penske dominated the 2016 season, with Pagenaud, Power, Castroneves and Juan Pablo Montoya combining for 10 wins and 11 poles in 16 races.Newgarden was one of the few drivers who challenged or beat Penskes experienced quartet on a regular basis, and he did it with what is often perceived as one of the IndyCar Series smaller teams.The way the young Tennessee native built Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing into a contender and Ed Carpenter Racing into a winner was what caught Penskes eye. Newgarden is the complete package -- smooth and fast when hes in the car, and media, fan and sponsor savvy when hes not.Hes shown me hes a winner and hes shown me he can handle himself on the racetrack and off the racetrack, said Cindric, who has been Roger Penskes top racing lieutenant since 2000. Thats really the core ingredient for us, because our environment is not for everybody.We want people that can drive race cars and represent our organization and those that we represent in the right way. It felt like he fit that mold.With Newgardens contract with ECR coming to an end, its no surprise that he attracted a lot of attention in the free-agent market. But going to Penske wasnt always a certainty.Since Kevin Cogans star-crossed 1982 campaign, Roger Penske has been reticent about hiring young drivers. The few exceptions have included Helio Castroneves (24 when he started with the team in 2000), Sam Hornish Jr. (25 in 2006), and on the NASCAR side, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano.Now Penskes IndyCar team is trending younger, with Newgarden taking over the No. 2 car from 41-year-old Montoya. Castroneves turns 41 in December, while Power is 35 and newly-crowned champion Pagenaud is 32.Penske didnt necessarily want to replace Montoya, and has in fact offered the experienced Colombian an Indianapolis 500 seat with the potential of a yet-to-be-announced sports car program as well. But like two years ago, when Pagenaud became available, Penske and Cindric felt they had to act quickly.You have to decide if youre going to make a place for somebody like that, or if youre going to race against him for a while, Cindric said.?As we look at it, we wanted somebody that we could build on for the future.Newgarden is set to make his first run in a Penske car Monday at Road America. The team will run all four drivers in a test scheduled long before Penske decided on a driver switch.I think hes a really good fit for Penske, commented new teammate Power.dddddddddddd Obviously hes very well spoken, hes American and the main thing is he is fast. I think it will be very good for the team.Testing is actually very restricted, so I think it will be great for him to get to know these guys because thats important, he added. From a team perspective, its really the only test we get to do until February or something just before the first race. So its a very important day.Team Penskes association with Pagenaud has certainly worked out well. After a mildly disappointing 2015 campaign in which he learned and adapted to the Penske environment, Pagenaud was the class of the IndyCar Series field in 2016, claiming five race wins and seven poles.Even though he quickly emerged as a team leader, Pagenaud did it without incurring the wrath of his older teammates. His humility as the IndyCar Series titlist was reflected in his remarks at Tuesday nights championship celebration.It looked easy this year but it definitely wasnt, he said. Its been a long road, but it was worth it. My story is of many challenges and goals impossible to reach. My family owned a supermarket in a small farming town ... how could I get to here?When I came to the U.S. in 2006, that was the key point of my career, he added. I spoke barely any English, and I told my dad I have to win, because there is no point to keep going if Im not good enough for this. Otherwise Im back in the supermarket once again.Pagenaud won the 2006 Formula Atlantic championship with a $2 million prize package that put him in the Champ Car sanctioned IndyCar series in 2007. But Champ Car folded at the end of the year, sending the Frenchman into an unexpected four-year detour in sports cars.It turned out to be a blessing. Pagenaud was tutored by Gil de Ferran, who won two IndyCar championships and an Indianapolis 500 for Team Penske. It was de Ferran who pointed Penske and Cindric in Pagenauds direction.A series of IndyCar Series race wins for Schmidt Peterson Motorsports convinced Penske that Pagenaud was ready. The Frenchmans early adoption of black slacks and fashionable loafers didnt hurt his cause either.Everybody at SPM was like, Why are you wearing black slacks? Just relax and put your jeans on! he related. I said, You know, Im trying to be professional. But in reality, I was hoping Roger might notice me.It must have worked.Now Newgarden must adapt to the traditional Penske black slacks dress code. But it shouldnt be a problem, because hes certainly given every indication that he is Penske material up to now.As a still relatively young guy in the sport, its an amazing opportunity, Newgarden said.?I think its a great place where I can learn new experiences, try and grow as a driver, and kind of open up my whole role within the group and try and just become better within the sport.I hope it pushes me to a new level, he added. Im probably going to figure some things out about myself I didnt know and hopefully those are good things; the bad things, Ill try and fix them pretty quick.?But I think its going to be a great change. ' ' '