Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Link roundup

1. "Spanish-speaking Yankees feeling more comfortable as MLB mandates translator in clubhouse"
[Carlos] Beltran can relate. During his first years in the Royals organization, the Puerto Rico product didn’t know any English at all. He would go to the food court at a nearby mall and look for somebody eating something he liked.

“I would be on line and there were three people in front of me, so I would watch what they were ordering,” Beltran said. “When it was my turn, if the person in front of me ordered something I liked, I would point and say, ‘Same.’ If they ordered something I didn’t like, I would go to the back of the line and try again. I would sometimes go to the back of the line three or four times.”
2. "This mobile game is earning $100m every month in China"
Not bad for a game that’s 15 years old.

...

The Legend of Mir Mobile capitalizes on the nostalgia of China’s early PC gamers, the people who were playing this game on PC in internet cafes 15 years ago. Many of those gamers are now adults with white-collar jobs. They may or may not still be hardcore PC gamers, but virtually all of them own smartphones, and being able to play what many consider a classic game from their youth on a phone is too tempting to pass up.
3. Friday the 13th-themed wedding photos.

4. "You won't believe how Nike lost Steph to Under Armour"
On March 3, 2016, Business Insider relayed a note from Morgan Stanley analyst Jay Sole on Under Armour's business prospects. In it, Curry's potential worth to the company is placed at more than a staggering $14 billion.

...

The pitch meeting, according to Steph's father Dell, who was present, kicked off with one Nike official accidentally addressing Stephen as "Steph-on," the moniker, of course, of Steve Urkel's alter ego in Family Matters. "I heard some people pronounce his name wrong before," says Dell Curry. "I wasn't surprised. I was surprised that I didn't get a correction."

It got worse from there. A PowerPoint slide featured Kevin Durant's name, presumably left on by accident, presumably residue from repurposed materials. "I stopped paying attention after that," Dell says.

...

As someone familiar with Nike's marketing operation says, in regard to Curry: "Everything that makes him human and cuddly and an unlikely monster is anathema to Nike. They like studs with tight haircuts and muscles."