“He’s just a stooge”

While I’m still on semi-hiatus, working on travel guides for USA Today (the Downtown one got submitted last night), here’s a reminder that when Caesars Entertainment persuades — “coerces” might be more like it — its lenders into writing off billions in debt and postponing the maturity of billions more into 2015, it doesn’t simply vanish but impacts Main Street, U.S.A., instead. This ain’t Monopoly money, folks, although you’d never know if from Caesars’ behavior. Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Business Press, a grotesque parody of its former self, ran a peculiar editorial on the opening of Horseshoe Cleveland. The uncredited writer notes Caesars’ $19.5 billion in debt, that it’s underwater on cash flow vs. debt servicing and lost $688 million last year, then bizarrely concludes, “Caesars can and will be a vital company both in Las Vegas and throughout the U.S.” It’s too bad Sherman Frederick couldn’t have been fired before he castrated the Business Press. Sad.

If you’re gonna use pine tar in your pitching glove, don’t try to sneak it past Washington Nationals Manager Davey Johnson. Remember, this is the same guy that got Los Angeles Dodgers closer Jay Howell busted for the exact same infraction during the 1988 NLCS, on a drizzly afternoon at Shea Stadium and with National League President Bartlett Giamatti in the front row. The man has a flair for drama.