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DUBLIN--Ireland will launch a "coordinated diplomatic drive" with the European Union for a better deal on its international bailout package, Irish Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said Sunday, but without specifying what savings he hoped to secure.
Gilmore told Irish broadcaster RTE Radio that Ireland will step up its negotiations by meeting EU foreign affairs ministers and ambassadors to explain its banking policy and to build support for a cut in the interest rate the country is paying on its EU bailout loans, part of a EUR67.5 billion deal Ireland struck in November with the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
"We are now in the process of negotiating a reduction in that interest rate," he said.
The Irish central bank disclosed Thursday that stress tests on four lenders--Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, Irish Life & Permanent and EBS Building Society--showed Ireland's stricken banking system required EUR24 billion more in capital. That could increase the total cost so far to Ireland of bailing out its banks to EUR70.3 billion, or about 44% of the annual output of its economy.
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Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Ireland's new Prime Minister Enda Kenny, left and coalition partner, Eamon Gilmore leave after a group photograph with newly-elected ministers at the Presidents House, in Dublin, on March 9, 2011.
Gilmore was appointed the country's deputy leader and foreign affairs minister after his junior Labour coalition party agreed last month to form a government with Fine Gael, led by Enda Kenny. Both parties had campaigned during elections for a cut in the cost of the bailout loans and for burden sharing with senior bank bond holders on the country's big banking debts.
But Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Thursday that opposition by the European Central Bank had prevented the new government from negotiating with senior bond holders.
Saturday, Brian Hayes, a junior minister in the finance ministry said the government would press for a lower interest rate on the European loans at looming EU meetings. Finance Minister Michael Noonan will meet his fellow EU finance ministers at the informal gathering in Budapest this week.
"It is a key objective for the government that we are trying to negotiate a lower interest rate on the EU part of the financial package," Hayes told RTE.
On Friday Standard & Poor's became the last of the three major rating agencies to strip Ireland of its 'A' rating. However, the one notch cut and stable outlook was less severe than feared and it gave the thumbs up to stress tests which on Thursday showed its four troubled banks needed a further 24 billion euros to be properly capitalised.
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Hank Crone is the grandson of a major leaguer and the son of one of the top scouts for the Detroit Tigers. Growing up in north Texas, one of the world's great breeding grounds for baseball talent, there was no question he'd play the family game.
But after a few seasons, the athletically gifted 13-year-old said he found himself absent-mindedly kicking the outfield grass during travel-team games. The problem: he was bored. "I like baseball," he said, "but it's just too slow for me."
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The number of kids aged 7 to 17 playing baseball fell 24% from 2000 to 2009.
Two years ago, Hank dropped baseball for hockey, a game that feeds his love for speed and constant movement. He now plays wing and center for a Chicago-based select team that has traveled to tournaments in Russia and Sweden. "Look, if anyone would want him to play baseball it would be me," said Hank's dad, Ray Crone, Jr. "But you've got to follow your heart in this sort of thing, so let him do what he wants."
As the 2011 Major League Baseball season begins Thursday, the national pastime has a problem. Too many kids like Hank Crone are choosing to dedicate themselves to other sports.
With 11.5 million players of all ages in the U.S., baseball remains the fourth-most-popular team sport, trailing only basketball, soccer and softball.
But over the last 16 years, numbers for Little League Baseball, which accounts for about two-thirds of the country's youth play, have been steadily dropping. And there are signs the pace is accelerating.
From 2000 to 2009, the latest year for which figures are available, the number of kids aged 7 to 17 playing baseball fell 24%, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, an industry trade group. Despite growing concerns about the long-term effects of concussions, participation in youth tackle football has soared 21% over the same time span, while ice hockey jumped 38%. The Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, another industry trade group, said baseball participation fell 12.7% for the overall population.
"The days of kids being born with a glove next to their ear in the crib and boys playing catch in the backyard by age three, those are over," said Len Coleman, the former president of the National League.
Coleman, who counts Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson as close friends, said he watched his son, now 23, drop baseball as a teenager for soccer—the sport he starred in at Georgetown University. "I even tried to keep him interested by having him catch so he'd be involved in every play," Coleman said.
According to scouts, the declining numbers are beginning to alter the talent pool in ways that could have a noticeable impact on player quality. "There are still players, but there aren't the numbers out there anymore," said David Bloom, a scout with the Baltimore Orioles. "The great players just don't stand out like they used to."
Tim Brosnan, an executive vice-president for Major League Baseball, said the recent gloomy studies have prompted the league to order up its own research, which is ongoing, and to review the league's efforts to grow the game. Since 1989, baseball has spent more than $50 million building and renovating fields and creating baseball leagues, especially in urban areas where kids have been abandoning the sport. It has also opened youth training academies in California and Texas to teach all aspects of the game—even umpiring. "We know if you play as a kid you over-index in your propensity to become a fan," Brosnan said. "That's our core right there, so any decline in it is going to get our absolute and full attention."
At the high school level, baseball has held steady with about 15,786 programs in the U.S.—a number that ranks it No. 3 among all boys' sports. Youth sports officials say there's been a small decline in the number of teams, but largely because of funding cutbacks.
As for Little League, which covers kids aged 4 to 18, about two million kids played in the U.S. last year, compared to about 2.5 million in 1996—an overall decline of 25%. The only growth in youth baseball participation since the 1990s, according to the NSGA, has come from kids who play more than 50 times a year—which suggests more children who play baseball have chosen to specialize.
Lance Van Auken, Little League's spokesman, said baseball seems to be morphing into a more-structured year-round activity that requires expensive lessons, equipment and travel. "Our position is that kids should play baseball, soccer, a musical instrument, do scouting, and specialize later on," Van Auken said. "It seems ridiculous that there are eight-year-old travel teams, but there are."
There hasn't been any definitive research on why baseball is losing ground. Anecdotally, parents say it has to do with the game's languid pace—and the fact that other sports do a better job forcing kids to stay alert. "Parents want to see their kids moving," said John Mitchell, a former college baseball coach from Alabama. "They drop their kids off at soccer and they know they're going to run around like maniacs for an hour. When they watch baseball practice, they often see them standing around in the outfield while the coach throws batting practice."
Lou Warner, the principal of Tennessee-based Warner's Athletic, an athletic field construction company, said much of his municipal work these days involves converting the outfields in countless parks into multi-sport facilities for soccer, football and lacrosse use.
Studies suggest more people now play soccer in the U.S. than baseball, and lacrosse participation among kids has more than doubled in the last decade. The number of high school lacrosse programs has been growing by about 7% a year.
Todd Hargrove of Rockwall, Texas, had hoped his son, Colton, would play baseball—the same sport he'd played as a teenager. But Colton Hargrove, 18, chose elite hockey instead—and now plays for the Fargo Force of the U.S. Hockey League. "He's 6 -2, 210 pounds, with big hands," Hargrove said. "Could have thrown a mean forkball if he'd stuck with it."
He didn't. "I'd sort of just be standing there on the field," Colton said. "It was kind of boring."
Coleman said baseball's only hope may be to make some radical changes in youth and high school play. His idea: eliminate the walk. Walks slow the game down, he said, and also rob the best players of opportunities to hit because opposing pitchers get orders from their coaches to walk the other teams' best players. "Give the batter three strikes and tell the pitcher he's got to throw the ball over the plate," Coleman said. "That ought to liven things up."
Write to Matthew Futterman at matthew.futterman@wsj.com
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Sunderland manager Steve Bruce hits back at racism claims by Argentine defender Marcos Angeleri
Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has angrily denied claims that he is a racist after defender Marcos Angeleri accused him of overlooking him because he is not English.
Man of the world: Steve Bruce has refuted suggestions he is racist Photo: EPA
By Telegraph staff and agencies 4:52PM BST 31 Mar 2011
The 27-year-old Argentinian was due back on Wearside today on his return from international duty, during which he made his comments.
Angeleri told a South American radio station: "The boss doesn't talk to me, he doesn't even say hello to me when he sees me.
"I think he doesn't like me because I'm not English."
The same quotes were used in a report which recalled Aston Villa's French manager Gerard Houllier's remarks about Bruce's attitude towards him in the wake of Darren Bent's controversial £24 million move to the midlands in January.
However, the former Manchester United defender today hit back and pointed to the fact that he has 11 overseas players from nine different countries among his Sunderland first-team squad of 25 as evidence to refute the charge.
Bruce, who said he is considering legal action, told the Sunderland Echo: "I'm deeply upset. In today's world, there is nothing more damaging than someone suggesting you are a racist.
"Of all things that have been thrown at me over the years, that is the charge that hurts the most.
"I have got no problem with criticism - I learned a long, long time ago that it's part and parcel of the job, and I never take it personally.
"I have always tried to look further afield for players, more so than the vast majority of managers - at Wigan I brought in a lot of South Americans; here I have brought in South Americans and africans.
"It's ridiculous to accuse me of being racist."
Bruce admitted he could even understand why Angeleri, who arrived at the Stadium of Light in a £2m switch from Estudiantes in July last year, is so upset.
He said: "I have left out a player who I paid a lot of money for and he has had his say. I'm not too upset if a player has a pop because he's not getting in the team because if I was in that position, I would feel the same way.
"I try to treat him with respect, but I'm not picking him, so of course I can understand his frustration.
"There is a line you should not cross, though. I will deal with Marcos when he returns, and it will be kept in-house."
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The Angels hope the acquisition of outfielder Vernon Wells in combination with other offseason moves will help the team become a World Series contender. (Associated Press / March 15, 2011)
Finish 80-82 in Pittsburgh or Kansas City, and fans and team officials are doing cartwheels in the streets.
Finish 80-82 in Anaheim, as the Angels did last season, and fans are irate, the scouting director and head trainer are fired, and the owner is "angry, disappointed," and vows to "spend whatever it takes to return to the playoffs."
Most years before 2002, an 80-82 mark by the Angels would have been deemed a success, but the 2002 World Series championship and five American League West titles from 2004 to 2009 changed all that.
"We place high expectations on ourselves, so a season like last year is not acceptable," General Manager Tony Reagins said. "We feel we're better than last year."
This is exactly what Arte Moreno envisioned when he bought the Angels in 2003: a perennial contender on the field, a big-market spender off it, and high expectations everywhere.
"I think it's good that the culture has changed," Moreno said. "These fans want to be associated with a winner, not a loser."
The Angels made the playoffs three times in their first 40 years. They've reached the playoffs six times in nine years entering their 50th-anniversary season, which opens Thursday in Kansas City.
"We've invested heavily in our team, our minor league system," Moreno said. "When you invest, you're expected to perform."
They did not perform well in 2010, a season marred by Kendrys Morales' broken leg, well-below-par offensive years from most regulars and shaky defense.
The Angels ranked 27th among 30 major league teams with a .311 on-base percentage, scored 202 fewer runs than in 2009 and failed to make the playoffs for only the second time since 2004.
The Angels addressed three big needs — offense, bullpen and outfield defense — by trading for outfielder Vernon Wells, who hit 31 home runs for Toronto last season, and signing left-handed relievers Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi.
But the addition of Wells is offset at least temporarily by the loss of Morales, whose rehabilitation is going slower than expected. He probably won't return until May.
If Morales regains his 2009 form, when he hit .306 with 34 homers and 108 runs batted in, the Angels will have a solid middle of the order with Bobby Abreu, Torii Hunter, Morales and Wells.
Productive seasons by infielders Howie Kendrick, Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis would add depth, and speedy center fielder Peter Bourjos seems poised for a breakout year.
The Angels have a solid rotation front four with Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana and Joel Pineiro, but No. 5 starter Scott Kazmir looked awful for most of the spring.
The back of the bullpen is also shaky with closer Fernando Rodney, but Downs could slide to the ninth inning, and 99-mph-throwing Jordan Walden is a closer-in-waiting.
Defensively, the outfield went from one of baseball's worst, with Abreu and Juan Rivera flanking Hunter, to one of the best, with Wells and Hunter, who have combined for 12 Gold Gloves, flanking the speedy Bourjos.
The Angels hope rookie first baseman Mark Trumbo, who had six homers and 20 RBIs this spring, and bounce-back years from several veterans can ease Morales' loss.
If not, the Angels will look outside for help, as they did over the winter, with their failed pursuits of free agents Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre and their acquisition of the pricey Wells ($81 million).
The Angels enter 2011 with a payroll of $140 million, "but if we need to add a piece or make a trade, we have the flexibility to do that," Reagins said. "We want to win a World Series, and we're going to do whatever it takes to accomplish our goal."
Texas and Oakland are substantial roadblocks. The Rangers can't match the Angels' rotation, but they have a superior lineup with Josh Hamilton, Beltre, Michael Young, Nelson Cruz and former Angels catcher Mike Napoli.
The Athletics don't appear as good offensively as the Angels, but they have a better pitching staff, led by young starters Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez and Dallas Braden.
The Angels haven't missed the playoffs in consecutive years since 2000-2001, but most publications pick them to finish third. So, they might benefit from a little chip-on-the-shoulder mentality.
"I see a determination," Reagins said. "What we're hearing from guys is, 'I'm going to show you last year is not the type of player I am.' "
mike.digiovanna@latimes.com
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