Bill Grigsby was an announcer. He was also a salesman. He was a promoter. He was a storyteller. He was a businessman. He was a bar owner. He was an insurance salesman. He was a pool hustler. He was a job recruiter. He was a guy who worked for the Kansas City A’s in the years when they were dreadful and largely irrelevant – this would cover all the years of the Kansas City A’s – and when people would call the office to ask what time the game started, he would reply: “What time can you get here?”

One of the things that makes Joe Poz so good is the joy he’s able to convey in his writing. Clearly, he learned a bit from watching Grigsby attack life.

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Watson, IBM’s super Jeopardy computer, thrashed Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in the first game of the trio’s two-match face-off for the future of humanity.

When it was over, Watson earned $35,734 in winnings, with Rutter at $10,400 and Jennings in third with $4,800.

But there’s hope for humanity. Watson missed badly on Final Jeopardy, a relatively straightforward question: “Its largest airport is named for a World War II hero; its second largest, for a World War II battle”

Watson missed the answer – Chicago, which Jennings and Rutter nailed – instead writing “Toronto?????” The question marks indicate the machine’s high level of uncertainty.

(The Canadian city’s major airport is named for Lester B. Pearson, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and Prime Minister. Chicago boats Midway and O’Hare.)

David Ferrucci, the manager of the Watson project at IBM Research, discussed the miss, saying: continued…

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The legendary club featured Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, and other massive names. They were hugely popular in New York, dominating Studio 54 and earning themselves a much-loved documentary. In 1985, they disappeared from the field.

But now, the Cosmos are coming back. Byrne, former Tottenham Hotspurs director Paul Kelmsley, and a few other executives are intent on making the Cosmos Major League Soccer’s 20th franchise in 2013.

In essence, this is a media, marketing, and branding story. How do you transform a franchise that exists in the hearts and minds into one that appears on the field?

Byrne has some thoughts. continued…

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The network averaged 3.7 million viewers between Sept. 27 to Oct. 31 according to a Disney-ABC Television Group analysis of Nielsen data.

TBS finished second with 3.2 million viewers and USA was third with 3 million. All three networks lost viewers compared to last year’s numbers. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.