30 K Rings for The Black Hawks. What will the PK Say.

I talked to some people about this when a guy who coached with the Colts came to town with a ring once.

I think were three tiers - players/coaches/GM/owner, player-oriented staff and then other office staff. Trainers, strength coaches and equipment managers are a little hard to place, and I could think of teams where they might be included in the first group. Scouts were definitely second-tier, as are team-hired broadcasters and, in some cases, the PR and media guys. Third was tickets, business, marketing and people up those alleys.

 

I know some people who work for the Red Sox - All received the same ring and got one hell of a tax bill. I heard the whole taxing thing started when the Times was part owner of the Red Sox. They required more stringent accounting than teams had done in past. I think questions started to be asked when some executives at the Times received rings.

Here is link to story that appeared in The Globe:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/10/23/the_globe_sox_connection/

 

When I worked for the Devil Rays, a guy that started the same day as me had a ring from the Angels. he worked in sales & I'm pretty sure it was the same ring everybody got. It was pretty ostentatious, so I can't imagine there was another version.

He had only worked in sports for a few years and the fact that he had a ring really pissed off some of the baseball lifers on the staff.

 

Hey YF - came across an interesting story on your pal Rudy. Sounds like he was fudging on his Yankee rings.

http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-05-08/news/diamonds-are-forever/

 

Yeah, I remember something about this coming up.

I'm not surprised.

George was very smart in how he handled politicians & members of the media. There was never any doubt that Rudy would get a ring for each championship.

What's more incredible is that Gov. Paterson had a tough time getting WS tickets. I can only guess that Randy Levine put him on some sort of "no tickets" list.

Randy & his wife were always very generous with me, but he could be vindictive.

The thing about Rudy is that he's very ethical -- on some things. On others, well...

 

Patterson actually received tickets then someone dropped a dime on him. Now there is an ongoing ethics review.

 

Yeah, but he had to basically beg for the tickets & then the Yankees made a big deal about it when he didn't pay for them.

That's not how they would normally treat a Governor.

 

They already had their new stadium and rail stop so they did not need Patterson in their pocket.

 

I used to have an editor who started working at a paper in St. Louis in the early '80s. He said at least two of the beat writers were given rings when the Cardinals won the World Series.

 

Should have never accepted them. Should have never been allowed to accept them.

It's bad enough when when team announcers get a ring, but they're often team employees.

A writer taking a ring is why sports is considered the "toy department".

It's such a conflict of interest, it's embarrassing.

 

I know on the college side of things that rings were given out to most everybody (at least they were in the early 2000s when most bowl games gave out rings). Speaking for the college I went to, every coach, player and athletic department member got one. BUT, coaches/staff members were given 10K gold rings. Players got "intergold" (fake stuff).

I also know that at my school the governor of the state is the president of the board of trustees and he got a ring. I'm assuming all the other trustees got one as well. When your baseball team won the conference title, the trustees were also allowed to order "other stuff" for family members. A grandson I know got a pendant which was basically just the top of the ring.

And championship rings are amazing. Gaudy but amazing. That's something I've always had a huge interest in - what a team's championship ring looks like. Best one is the ring give out to Heisman Trophy winners. We have one at my alma mater and I talked with him a lot. His Super Bowl ring was nice but that Heisman ring was incredible. If you get a chance, go to www.championship-rings.net, www.tjscollectiblesinc.com or bowlrings.com and just have a look around. The stuff Alabama got for this year's national title is incredible. Some of the rings are so big you can't close your fingers.

 

I have a friend who works in the ticket office of a hockey team who recently won the Stanley Cup and she got the same ring as everyone else.

Not sure if she had to pay the taxes though.