Jimmy’s Blog

What an up-and-down night last night!  First, my brother, Pete, and I attended Game 5 of the outstanding Capitals – Penguins play-off series. It was great to walk to the Verizon Center in a sea of red shirts.  The fans were excited for this terrific match-up.

This game featured the two greatest players in the world, Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby.  They both have been playing superbly in the first 4 games of the series.

The Pens jumped out to a quick lead, but then Ovie tied it at 1-1.  The Caps went ahead 2 – 1 but then the Pens scored twice in the 3rd period to take a one-goal lead.  Then, Ovie blistered in a shot to tie at 3 – 3.  The Verizon Center was loud and rocking!  Unfortunately, the Pens scored on a deflected shot in OT and the Caps lost 4 – 3.  It’s on to Game 6 in Pittsburgh.  Hopefully, the Caps can win and force a Game 7.

After the game, it was time to change into a tux and head to the Corcoran Art Gallery for the one of the best parties of White House Correspondent Dinner Weekend, sponsored by Capitol File Magazine and BET.

What a great party!  There were about 600 guests in attendance — many of DC’s finest mixing with LA personalities and executives from the administration.  It was an electric night, topped off by lots of dancing in the last two hours, with excellent music from DJ Nice.   I’m sure pics from that party will flying around in email this week.

Capitol File hit a home run with this party!  What a memorable event.  I’m glad Sunday is the “day of rest.”  I did play baseball this morning at 8:00 (on 5 hours of sleep), but it’s been a relaxing and chill Sunday afternoon.  Peace.

This is going to be a terrific weekend in DC since it’s the White House Correspondents Dinner weekend.  This city will be buzzing with politicians, Hollywood celebs and media.

Last night, DC Magazine and the Brunswick Group hosted a fantastic party at the beautiful Embassy of Finland — what a cool venue!  DC has many terrific embassies … and it’s great that they’re so open and willing to host events.  In the past few months, we’ve attend great events at the Russian Embassy, Italian Embassy and Japanese Embassy.

Tonight is a huge — it’s Game 5 of the thrilling play-off series between the Capitals and Penguins, then it’s off to Capitol File and BET’s post White House Correspondent Dinner party at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

Let’s go, Caps!

My good friend, Derrick Mayes, was recognized this afternoon as the Pajama Program’s “Humanitarian of the Year” for his terrific philanthropic efforts at a wonderful luncheon at the Pierre Hotel in  New York (he asked me to introduce him at the event).

Derrick was honored along with actress Susan Lucci (who looks amazing at 62) and the mother of Chris Rock.   The Pajama Program “delivers warm sleepwear and nurturing books children in need.”  This was my first time learning about the program — I was very impressed with their terrific efforts to help so many children across the country.

Derrick is now the CEO of Executive Action’s Sports and Entertainment division (they’ve asked me to serve on their advisory board).  D graduated from Notre Dame as their all-time leading receiver, then played 6 years in the NFL, with the Packers and Steelers.

My congrats go out to Derrick and the other honorees as well as to the terrific Pajama Program.

Our Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management co-sponsored a great event last night at the Cornell Club in NY.  We did this in conjunction with the NY chapter of GU’s GEMA program.

Matt Winkler, our Associate Dean of the program, moderated the event.  The four panelists were Hoyas grads who hold executive positions in Sports and Media.  They were Tim Brosnan of Major League Baseball, Rich Michel of Busch Media, Jim O’Connell of NASCAR and Molly Solomon from NBC Olympics.

The panelists were superb as they provided great insight about the hot topics in Sports in today’s environment.  This was followed by a Q&A, then a networking reception.

Although the SIM program is only in its’ first year, we’re off to a superb start.  I’ll be co-teaching a Sports Executive course this summer.  I’m looking forward to it!

I was honored to be asked to deliver a speech earlier today at GEICO for their celebration of Asian-Pacific Heritage Month.   My good friend, Rynthia Rost, is their VP, Public Affairs.  She and I both share a strong interest in philanthropy and community service (GEICO is clearly one of the leaders in these efforts in the Capital region).

After 12 years on being the business development and account management person for AOL Sports, I spent my past two years there working in our Office of Diversity and Inclusion, under our fantastic Chief Diversity Officer, Tiane Mitchell Gordon.

I focused my speech on the important shift in demographics occurring in the US, particularly in the Latino, African-American and Asian-American groups; the importance of employee affinity groups (AOL is a leader in this space); the increased importance of China and India for companies with global aspirations; and the request to get involved in community service and to “give back” to help children from lower-income families pursue their collegiate education.

This was my first time back in the corporate environment since I left AOL in late March.  It felt good and I’m glad I was able to share my learnings and experiences with the wonderful GEICO team.

Yesterday was one incredible day in Sports.   It was literally action-packed from 1:00 pm to past midnight.

I had tickets to both the highly anticipated play-off Game 1 of the Capitals – Penguins series, featuring the two best players in the world, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby,  and the afternoon game between the Nationals and the Cards, featuring the best player in baseball, Albert Pujols.  But, I had a wedding and reception to attend so I wasn’t able to go to either game.

Fortunately, there was a sports bar at the hotel and few of us were able to slip away from time to time to catch the action in Game 1.   Fortunately, we saw the spectacular save by the 21-year old rookie phenom, Simeon Varlamov, against Crosby.   Then, we watched the last 10 minutes of the game as they Caps held on for a hard-fought 3 – 2 victory.   The NHL must be pumped with this series which features not only Ovie and Crosby, but also a few of the other best players in the world — Malkin, Semin, Green, Staal, Backstrom, etc.

I made it home in time to see the Kentucky Derby.  I’m not too much into horse racing but I turned on the tube to catch the action.  What an incredible ride by the great Cajun jockey, Calvin Borel, on the long-shot horse, “Mine That Bird.”  It was an amazing ride as he came from the back of the pack and navigated his way through the pack of horses – then he squeezed through a tight opening and hugged the rail to take the lead – and then blew away the field.   This is a horse that was bought for $9,500!   The way the crowd reacted to Calvin and the horse after the race was reminiscent of the scenes from “Seabiscuit,” another long-short horse that went on to capture big races as well as the adulation of the huge crowds.

What next?  Game 7 of the perhaps the best and most exciting NBA playoff opening round — between the defending champion Boston Celtics vs the Chicago Bulls.  This series has been spectacular with 4 straight overtime games.  The game was not nearly as exciting as the previous games in the series, but the Bulls did manage to whittle it down to a few points with a couple of minutes left in the game.   The Celtics, with their veteran leadership from Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, managed to hang on to win and advance to the next round vs the Orlando Magic.

The final event of this glorious sports day was the much-anticipated championship boxing match between the two best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton.   We were so psyched for this fight — we figured it’d be a great, exciting match that would end up in a split decision.  But, lo and behold, Pac-Man (my favorite fighter) dominated and quickly ended the fight.  He knocked down the British champion twice in the first round, then hit him with a devastating right with less that 10 seconds left in the 2nd round.  Wow, what a result!   We’re all now looking forward to a Pacquiao – Floyd Mayweather match!

Yesterday was a great day in Sports!  Oh, yeah, Tiger is two shots back from the lead of the Quail Hollow Championship — so guess I have to watch a bit more Sports today.  🙂

I’m saddened to hear the news about the passing of Jack Kemp, the former Congressman, Secretary of HUD and outstanding quarterback of the AFL’s Buffalo Bills.

I’ve known Jack for the past decade.  He was always so very nice and gracious — a big smile and warm handshake.   He was one of the best people in DC for “networking” a room.  He had a fantastic memory and seemed to know everyone.

We used to regularly attend his parties during Super Bowl Weekend.  We used to affectionately call it the anti-Maxim party since it was full of more mature, professionals versus the more raucous crowd at the Maxim Super Bowl parties.

I also was fortunate to attend a few dinners with him where he would regale us all with story after story.   I was also fortunate to meet his family.   Jack loved to show photos of his family, including all of his children and grandchildren.  I used to joke that it was like a Gap ad – full of beautiful, well-dressed kids.

I know Jack was a wonderful husband, father, friend and leader.  He gave back so much to the community, especially to minorities and those that came from less-priviliged backgrounds.   The country lost a great and compassionate human being.   We were better off for having a Jack Kemp in our lives.   We will miss you, Jack.  We will pray for strength for your family.

After the terrific NFTE “Dare to Dream” Gala on Wednesday night, last night we had another great event.  It was DC Scores’ annual fund-raising dinner, which was held again at the beautiful, Organization of American States building, one of the best venues in DC and just blocks from the White House.

The mission of DC Scores is to “inspire youth to lead healthy lifestyles, be engaged students, and become agents of change in their communities.”

Child obesity is a critical problem in the U.S.  Kids now have so many more options after school — PlayStation, X-box, surfing the internet, texting, hundreds of cable channels, i-Phone, etc.  They simply aren’t playing sports as much as the previous generations.  So, it’s important to have organizations such as DC Scores in the community to help promote healthier lifestyles.

This year’s event was run by Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, the genius behind Latin Concepts, and Tony Hudgins, associate publisher of DC Magazine.   They did a great job in helping generate over 400 attendees for this year’s event.

The food was excellent since it came from Mauricio’s restaurants, including Guarapo, Chi-Cha, Mate, Ceviche, Yaku, etc.

WJLA’s Leon Harris did a great job of emceeing the event, but the highlight was the “poetry slams” performed by some of the students.  They brought down the house.

It’s been a great week thus far!

The NFTE “Dare to Dream” Gala was a home run last night!  Held at the Marriott Wardman Park, we must have had nearly 500 people in attendance.  In these down economic times, that’s a great turn-out.

I served as one of the Vice-Chairs for the Gala.  It was not easy asking people to purchase tickets and tables — and we had to adjust the ticket prices — but fortunately the community came together to support this outstanding organization.

Mark Ein was the very deserving honoree this year.   He received many plaudits, particularly from a couple of the esteemed guests, including Senator Mark Warner and Mayor Fenty — as well as from our Chair of the Gala, Don Peebles (who also is a great entrepreneur and philanthropist).

As always, the students were the stars of the shows.   The composure and grace they had on the stage while giving their speeches was truly remarkable.  Our table of 12 guests was blown away by the students.

NFTE (National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship) is a terrific organization — I’m proud to be associated with them.   Thank you to our many friends in the community for your terrific support of NFTE and the Gala.