One of the richest men to emerge from my hometown was the late D.B. Reinhart, founder of Reinhart Foodservice , a leading institutional food distributor, and a billionaire many times over. Though a devout Catholic and generous benefactor of our community, giving untold millions of dollars to our local schools and universities, Mr. Reinhart was also known as something of a ruthless businessman. From the stories I've heard of him, I'm convinced he would have made a fantastic poker player.

It seems that Illinois-based grocery store chain Cub Foods , which at the time had a store in the next town over, had begun to cast a lustful eye upon a long-unused warehouse on a lot only a few blocks from where I grew up, with the intent of expanding into La Crosse. Mr. Reinhart caught wind of this, swooped in on the owner of the property, and told him, "Look, I'll give you $300,000 more than what they're offering you. You have 10 minutes to decide." Naturally, the owner accepted, and Reinhart acquired the property.

What did he do with it, you ask? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. He simply bought the lot to ensure Cub Foods never got a toehold in La Crosse proper.
(snipping irrelevant Crabtree stuff)

"Wade" wrote:

The situation in San Francisco between the 49ers and receiver Michael Crabtree is quickly going from bad to worse.

Per a league source, agent Eugene Parker is telling the 49ers that Crabtree will sit out the season and re-enter the draft in 2010, unless the team gives Crabtree what he wants.

Of course, what Crabtree specifically wants isn't known, since Parker (as multiple sources tell us) still hasn't made a proposal.

There's also a growing chorus of league insiders who are speaking out against the widely-believed effort by Parker to blow up the slotting process with Crabtree. Teams obviously would contend that the unwritten rules of draft-pick negotiation ritual should be honored; however, some of the agents who arguably would benefit from the introduction of chaos privately have described efforts to blow the curve as "inappropriate" and "unacceptable" and "wrong."

And if Crabtree opts to re-enter the draft next year, the current thinking is that he wouldn't be the first receiver drafted. For now, the guy who is regarded as likely to be the first wideout (and possibly the first overall pick) is Illinois junior Arrelious Benn.

Then again, if Crabtree is picked any higher than No. 10 after having a chance to engage in pre-draft workouts, he'd likely end up with more money than the slotting process currently would pay.

After, of course, waiting a year to get it.

"Zero2Cool" wrote: