22 Oct 2023

Orioles retail workers leaflet customers during union contract talks with Fanatics

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Hats and shirts celebrating the Orioles’ American League East title are still for sale in the B&O Warehouse.

Meanwhile, the union workers who stock and sell the team merchandise at Camden Yards have been passing out leaflets to customers during the first round of collective bargaining negotiations with Fanatics since the company took over the Orioles Team Store ahead of the 2023 season.

The Orioles contracted with Delaware North for both concession and merchandise sales from 2010 until 2022. Effective this season, the team contracted with Levy, a Chicago-based hospitality company, to manage concessions, and Fanatics, a licensed sports merchandise company co-headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and San Mateo, California. Fanatics has made Major League Baseball’s uniforms and official merchandise since 2017, when it bought Majestic for around $225 million.

This season, merchandise workers did not have a union contract as Fanatics, unlike Levy, did not assume the union contract with Unite Here Local 7, instead agreeing to bargain.

“The union does not have a contract with Fanatics,” said Tracy Lingo, president of Unite Here Local 7, which represents around 400 concessions workers and 50 merchandise workers at Camden Yards. “When Levy came in, they assumed the previous company’s contract with us. Fanatics has not done so. We are bargaining a first contract with Fanatics.”

Lingo added that union and company representatives have not met since August, and that workers began to communicate with customers about the labor dispute during the playoffs this month and plan to continue to pass out leaflets at the team store explaining their grievances. The 101-win Orioles attracted roughly 7,000 more fans per game this season compared with last, around a 40% increase.

A Fanatics spokesperson declined to comment Monday night. The Orioles did not respond to a request for comment about the team’s business with Fanatics.

The union says Fanatics has not allowed workers to work five days a week while keeping the team store open six days a week.

Carolyn Brooks, who has worked the cash register at the team store since 2018 and grew up in East Baltimore, said she lost around $90 a week when her hours were cut from five to four days per week.

“They bring in boatloads and boatloads of merchandise for us to size and put on hangers and to put out on the floor. We have to stand for long periods of time providing for this company that is making all this money,” Brooks said. “Fanatics doesn’t want to do anything for us, but we have rights. We deserve respect.”

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22 Oct 2023

Bruins stay unbeaten with 4-2 win over Kings

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The Bruins may not be capable of dominating opponents like they did last year, but they’re still finding ways to win hockey games. And in Los Angeles on Saturday, the B’s deserved to feel good about themselves with their best win of the season over a quality opponent.

Jeremy Swayman (32 saves) was locked in and captain Brad Marchand produced a three-point night (two goals, assist) to beat the Kings, 4-2, at crypto.com Arena to improve to 4-0 on the season.

The day started with a wakeup call when it was learned that Jake DeBrusk earned a healthy scratch because he was late for a team meeting. And it appeared to focus his teammates.

The B’s took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, thanks in part to some superb penalty killing and goaltending from Swayman (14 first period saves).

They found themselves on their heels immediately when Charlie Coyle was called for interference 2:01 into the game. Swayman came up with some huge saves on the first half of that PK, including one on a clean breakaway on Adrian Kempe. Then John Beecher took a penalty midway through it, giving the Kings a 55-second 5-on-3. The B’s in front of Swayman did a much better job to kill that off and they eventually got their legs under them.

Rookie Matt Poitras, who had a rough game in San Jose, got some of his mojo back on a productive shift, creating a couple of scoring chances and, eventually, the Kings committed a foul.

The B’s scored quickly on the power play. Brad Marchand absorbed a a big hit along the right boards and then found David Pastrnak in the left circle. Pastrnak stepped to the inside and ripped a short-side shot that goalie Cam Talbot could not catch up to with his blocker, giving he B’s a 1-0 lead at 13:10. It was Pastrnak’s fifth goal of the season and he became the first Bruin to score goals in each of his first four games of the season since Dmitry Kvartalnov did it in 1992.

A great chance to extend the lead was squandered by the B’s when Arthur Kaliyev high-sticked Charlie McAvoy late in the first period, taking a double minor. But not only did the B’s apply very little pressure, they were lucky that the score wasn’t tied by the end of the advantage. Philip Danault pounce on a loose puck at the LA blue line and took off on another clean breakaway, clanging the crossbar behind Swayman.

But the Kings did get the equalizer at 6:28 of the second. Pierre-Luc Dubois sprung Alex Laferriere for a breakaway between Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo, whose desperate swipe could not keep the former Harvard forward from scoring his first career NHL goal.

An explosive 48 seconds turned the game back in the B’s favor

Morgan Geekie got the B’s their lead back at 14:45, thanks in part to another good shift of Poitras cycling and retrieving the puck. After Derek Forbort clanged a post, Poitras recovered the puck and set up Forbort again. The defenseman’s second slapper went off Milan Lucic’s leg in front and bounced to Geekie, who deposited it behind Talbot for his first as a Bruin.

Off the ensuing faceoff, Trent Frederic dropped the gloves with 6-foot-4, 200-pound Andreas Englund and landed several big rights before the linesmen jumped in, Frederic emerging with an ear-to-ear grin while pumping up the B’s bench.

And less then a minute after Geekie’s goal, Marchand snapped a wrist shot that went through Pavel Zacha’s slot battle with Anze Kopitar and somehow leaked through Talbot’s pads for the 3-1 lead, Marchand’s second of the season.

AS the B’s mucked it up for much of the third period the Kings pulled Talbot with 3:38 left. Talbot had to go back in when there was a faceoff circle in he neutral zone. The B’s then outworked the Kings down low with Pastrnak feeding Marchand his second of the game with 2:12 left to seal.

The Kings got a late power-play goal to snap the B’s streak of 18 straight penalty kills to start the season

 

 

 

22 Oct 2023

Nemacolin resort a sprawling expanse of posh possibilities

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It’s dawn and as the first shards of light cut up from the lush green mountains around me, a lion’s roar announces that it’s morning.

I’m not on safari nor near a zoo. I’m at Pennsylvania’s Nemacolin, (nemacolin.com), the poshest resort you’ve probably never heard of.

But like that lion’s morning roar (a rescue by the resort’s owner), Nemacolin is making itself known.

Tucked into Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains – about a 90 minute drive from the Pittsburgh Airport – Nemacolin came about on something of a whim: Lumber magnate Joseph Hardy (84 Lumber Company), purchased a hunting lodge on the property for his daughter Maggie when she was 21, mostly because she loved the outdoors.

But Maggie Hardy, who still oversees the resort’s operation along with her son PJ Magerko Liquorice, found her calling on those grounds and built over the years an expansive, welcoming resort.

It’s moneyed roots are evident: statues rise out of water and peer down from rooftops, museums display historic planes and cars, among other treasures. Hallways and great rooms are lined with art – you glance up from your evening cocktail and see a Botero.

There’s camp too: Zoltar from the movie “Big” greets you in one hallway, and there are all kinds of other surprises as well.

There’s lots to do: Two Pete Dye championship golf courses, mini golf, pools and more pools, a golf academy, a sporting clay range, enormous spa, a fishing set up, off-road driving programs, restaurants and just about every type of lodging (from basic comfort condos all the way up to butler serviced Chateau rooms). You can get gourmet ice cream in a classic shop or spend some time reflecting at a piece of the Berlin Wall.  In other words, if you want it, they’ve probably got it.

Their tagline is “Real Life Magic,” and it shows. Nemacolin is eclectic, amped with elegance. And it holds 24 Forbes stars for its hotels, restaurants and spa.

Now, with a half a billion dollar upgrade in motion, it’s not going to be that top spot you’ve never heard of much longer.

While I was there mostly for the golf, I love a trip that weaves in several experiences.  I was wowed by the food, from the thick, perfect steaks at Rockwell’s Bistro to the amazing breakfast sandwich I grabbed at Patisserie, to the pasta I made with my own hands at an on-site cooking class.

The resort is sprawling: all that fun is laid out over 2,200 acres. But their shuttle service means you don’t need a car.  When, while on my way to the spa, I mentioned I’d yet to visit the on-site car museum, my driver said “I can drop you off any time and pick you up any time. If it’s not open, I’ll open it!” That’s service.

There are family pools and adult-only pools, and a huge one – open year round –where you can float and watch a movie, football game, the World Series or whatever big thing is going on at the time.

And while I was there in warm weather, there’s a small ski area poolside, a perfect spot to learn the sport or grab a few runs.

I found my favorite spots at Nemacolin. On the 16th tee, high above the course, stands the statue of Chief Nemacolin, namesake of the resort and friend to George Washington. Outside the grand entrance to the Chateau stands a bronze statue called “Awakening to Freedom.” It depicts a woman, arms wide open, ready to take all of it in – every notion, moment, taste and sight.

That’s a great thing about Nemacolin: There’s always more to savor.

 

A fiddler on the roof statue adds a touch of whimsy to the Nemacolin setting. (Photo Moira McCarthy)

 

There are family pools and adult-only pools, fun and creative to boot. (Photo Moira McCarthy)

 

22 Oct 2023

Scorsese goes behind the scenes of ‘Flower Moon’

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For Martin Scorsese, one highlight of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” his epic adaptation of David Grann’s best-selling true crime tale, is that it pairs for the first time the two actors that define and bookend his career: Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“Killers” charts the murderous rampage in 1920s Oklahoma that decimated the Osage Nation tribal members who, because of oil on their reservation, were among the richest people in America.  But the indigenous natives could not sell their stake, it could only be inherited.

That saw white men, including DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart,  marry and murder Osage women to acquire their fortune. The killer conspiracy is led by the benevolent-seeming Oklahoma entrepreneur William King Hale (De Niro). What makes Burkhart so conflicted is that he genuinely loves his Osage heiress Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone).

In a virtual global press conference earlier this week Scorsese, 80, noted, “It was very important for me as soon as I saw the book,” that he answer the question: “How truthful can we be and have truth and dignity as best we can? One way we can deal with that is by getting in touch with the culture of the Osage.

“For me I wanted to play with that (Native American) world in contrast to the white European world. We went out and talked with the Osage. They were naturally cautious.  We weren’t going to fall into the trap of the cliche of victims or the ‘drunken Indian,’ yet tell the story as straight as possible.”

That story centers on a truly twisted core, Scorsese explained. “Molly loved Ernest, it’s a love story. So the script shifted that way and Leo decided to play Ernest instead of King.

“What I wanted to capture was the nature of the cancer that creates this easy-going genocide.  That’s why we went with the story of Molly and Ernest. For me instead of coming from the outside to find who done it, it’s a story of sin by omission. Silent complicity. That afforded us the possibility to open the picture from inside out.”

It was 50 years ago that with De Niro, as star Scorsese’s “Mean Streets,” announced an original, new filmmaker.  The duo would go on to score with, among many, “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas” and “Cape Fear.”

It was De Niro who suggested Scorsese take a look at his teenage costar – DiCaprio! — in “This Boy’s Life.”  “It was casual,” the filmmaker recalled. “Although he rarely gives recommendations.”

That eventually led to Scorsese-DiCaprio collaborations, from “Gangs of New York,” “The Aviator” – “That’s where we really clicked,” Scorsese said — “The Departed” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.”