When the 2008 Major League Baseball season started, the Chicago Cubs were this years' version of the 2004 Boston Red Sox. In 2004, the Sox were the team that the nation got behind as they finally shook off 86 years of coming up short to win a title. The Cubs came into the season with a title drought of an even 100 years.
With no Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens clogging up the sports pages with performance-enhanced headlines, the Cubs took control by dominating the regular season. It appeared that this would indeed be their year to shake off a century-long curse. Then the script took a sharp turn courtesy of an unlikely source. The Tampa Bay Rays, who were the worst team in the 2007 season, started the season as hot as the Cubs and were able to make it to the midway point of the 2008 season in first place in the American League over the big-spending New York Yankees and Red Sox.
The light-spending Rays winning a World Series would have been akin to Hull City topping Chelsea and Manchester United in the Premier League. So now we had two underdog teams going into the play-offs instead of just one. The Cubs trimmed that total in half when they were swept in the first round of the play-offs. The Rays continued to prove that they were not just a good story as they advanced to their first World Series in team history.
Unfortunately a Hollywood ending was not to be as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Rays four games to one to win their first Series' title since 1980. As teams tweak their rosters through the winter months, the frustrated Yankees broke the bank to sign All-Star pitcher CC Sabathia to a seven-year, US$161 million (Dh591m) contract. They also spent $180m on the All-Star first baseman Mark Texiera, signing him in an eight-year deal. Once again the Yankees, who will move to a new stadium in 2009, proved to be recession proof.
ppabst@thenational.ae
Results:
First Test: New Zealand 30 British & Irish Lions 15
Second Test: New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
Third Test: New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
The specs
On racial profiling at airports
Razmig Bedirian: Author subject to three pat downs in one week
HA Hellyer: My airport experience shows racism is systemic
James Zogby: Racial profiling as ineffective as torture tactics
If you go
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Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
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Directors: Raj & DK
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Rating: 4/5
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The biog
DOB: 25/12/92
Marital status: Single
Education: Post-graduate diploma in UAE Diplomacy and External Affairs at the Emirates Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi
Hobbies: I love fencing, I used to fence at the MK Fencing Academy but I want to start again. I also love reading and writing
Lifelong goal: My dream is to be a state minister
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
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The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, six-cylinder
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 395bhp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: from Dh321,200
On sale: now
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Watch live
The National will broadcast live from the IMF on Friday October 13 at 7pm UAE time (3pm GMT) as our Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi moderates a panel on how technology can help growth in MENA.
Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi
From: Dara
To: Team@
Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT
Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East
Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.
Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.
I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.
This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.
It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.
Uber on,
Dara
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Kanguva
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
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On sale: Now
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
States of Passion by Nihad Sirees,
Pushkin Press
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
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Jebel Ali
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The Gandhi Murder
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TV: BeIN Sports
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
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