As it always does, summer disappeared into our rearview mirror all too soon. Our August beach and golf holiday in Sea Pines, on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina is fading much too quickly.
Fall, though, brings the final month of pennant races for Major League Baseball and the start of the National Football League season. At this point in the baseball season, I am surprised that the New York Yankees, my longtime favorite team, are still fighting for a wild card playoff spot as they start a series in the Bronx this evening against their primary rival, the Boston Red Sox. Based on the number of injuries to their starting players, who are showing their age, it is a pleasant surprise to find the Yankees in the mix this late in a season that many of us wrote off. I trust this is a testimony to their savvy manager, Joe Girardi and some outstanding pitching from Ivan Nova, who spent the early part of the season in the minor leagues and is now the go-to guy. Nova will pitch this evening versus Jake Peavy, who the Red Sox secured from the White Sox as insurance in their pennant run. Peavy has pitched very well and I trust that he has more than met the expectations of the Red Sox brain trust.
In the National League, the Los Angeles Dodgers in the West look like the team that could go all the way to the World Series. Earlier in the season their manager, Don Mattingly, was close to being fired. He then added Yasiel Puig, who had defected earlier from Cuba, to the starting lineup and the Dodgers have not looked back since they moved into first place in the NL West. What happened to the dynasty in San Francisco? The Giants, who won two of the last three World Series, now find themselves tied for last place in the West with the San Diego Padres.
The NFL season kicks off tonight as well, with the Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens traveling to Denver to play the Broncos because of a scheduling conflict with the Baltimore Orioles. (The prior season Super Bowl Champion would open at home, but the traffic concerns and the unwillingness of the Orioles to change the schedule have put the Ravens on the road.) It is much too early to make any predictions, but here are the teams that I think will be in the playoff mix leading up to Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium, in East Rutherford, New Jersey:
AFC: Patriots, Ravens, Colts and Chiefs
NFC: Giants, Packers, Saints and 49ers
“Coach Moylan,” our Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, is once again coaching the Ipswich Tigers (this year they are primarily 5th grade students) and with a modified spread offense has advised me that they plan to challenge for their league trophy as well. They are lead by Chase Moylan at quarterback.
Turning to a major announcement for Asset International’s Strategic Insight division that will take place in October, I will give you a sneak peek of Simfund Global Pro for Europe & Asia.
- This is a business intelligence tool that provides a detailed view, by country, into fund trends.
- Fund companies will be able to identify sales opportunities and to make strategic product decisions.
- It will include assets and flows for both locally domiciled and cross-border funds, as well as a feature that will allow the user to see cross-border funds by country.
- The user will also find additional data on fund performance, ratings and fees.
This latest offering from Strategic Insight will be on a web-based platform that provides for custom report creation, screening and charting in one place.
We are confident that this latest Simfund product will further differentiate us from our global competitors, much as Simfund 7.0 did this past year in the U.S. I will be joining Andreas Pfunder and our other colleagues in London in the first week of October as we start trials with our current client base and new prospective clients.