Boxing pound for pound rankings have soared in popularity over the past decade. These lists are used to show the best fighters in the entire sport, as if they were all in the weight class. In other words, which fighters are the best, most skilled, and most likely to win regardless of their size? It’s a fun way to look at the sport, learn more about the best fighters, and see which boxers are reigning supreme in the sport right now.

 

The debate about which fighter is the kingpin in boxing right now really comes down to two guys, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather had the top spot for several years, after the downfall of Roy Jones Jr. and the aging of Bernard Hopkins, but then he briefly retired from the sport.

 

In his absence, Pacquiao emerged as the top pound for pound boxer in the sport, as he continued to climb into new weight classes and dominate his opposition. Since, Mayweather has returned and has looked great in a few big wins, but Pacquiao hasn’t slowed down either, and he has been more active than Mayweather has. Therefore, these guys are seen as 1A and 1B in the boxing pound for pound rankings, but everyone has their own thoughts about which one really deserves to be the kingpin standing alone at the top.

 

But the boxing P4P lists aren’t just about the top boxer, or top two boxers. These are usually top 10 pound for pound, or top 20 pound for pound boxing lists. Therefore, you get a huge range of different fighters covered. You’ll find aging warriors who are still making names for themselves, emerging prospects one win away from becoming huge stars, longtime champions that have been dominating their challengers, and much more. It’s the perfect way to see where everyone stands, and to see who the big names in the sport are.

 

Fans also love creating their own top 10 P4P boxing lists, because it allows them to voice their own opinions and get in on the action. You’ll be hard pressed to find two top 10 pound for pound lists that are exactly the same, and that’s part of the fun too. So browse around the web and find a few great lists provided by the boxing news websites, by fans and their blogs, and much more, and see if you agree or disagree. It’s part of the fun of being a fan of boxing, and it creates endless debate.

Not everyone is on the ice lately for the Blues. But the roster list looks like forwards David Backes, Patrik Berglund, Brad Boyes, B.J. Crombeen, Dan Hinote, Cam Janssen, Paul Kariya, D.J. King, Jay McClement, Andy McDonald, T.J. Oshie, David Perron, Yan Stastny, Alexander Steen, Keith Tkachuk and Brad Winchester. Defensemen players include Eric Brewer, Carlo Colaiacovo, Barret Jackman, Erik Johnson, Jay McKee, Roman Polak, Tyson Strachan, Mike Weaver and Jeff Woywitka. Goalies are Manny Legace and Chris Mason. The bad news is that Polak, Brewer, McDonald and Kariya are currently in the injured reserves list.

Making keen observations from the system standings are forward players Jay Barriball, Nicholas Drazenovic, Lars Eller, Travis Erstad, Matt Foy, Simon Hjalmarsson, Tomas Kana, Jori Lehtera, Nikolai Lemtyugov, Charles Linglet, James Livingston, Phillip McRae, Anthony Nigro, Trevor Nill, Cam Paddock, Aaron Palushaj, Chris Porter, Ryan Reaves, Steven Regier, Ian Schultz, Brett Sonne, Julian Talbot and Trent Whitfield. Defensemen players include Kristoffer Berglund, Ian Cole, Mark Cundari, Cade Fairchild, T.J. Fast, Alexander Hellstrom, Jonas Junland, Anthony Peluso, Alex Pietrangelo, Steve Wagner, David Warsofsky and Andy Wizniewski. Goalies include Jake Allen, Ben Bishop, Chris Holt, Paul Karpowich and Marek Schwarz.

The Blues took home a win against the Blackhawks at their last game and have two more games at home against the Senators and Flyers to close out the month of January. In February, the Blues will host more games during the 2008-2009 season against the Oilers, Avalanche, Canucks, Blackhawks, Rangers and Predators. After that, the Blues will take to the road and hit the ice as visitors against the Red Wings, Blue Jackets, Predators, the Blue Jackets again, the Predators again, Stars and Coyotes.

In March the Blues will stay on the road for games against the Lightning, Panthers, Oilers, Canucks, Flames, and Blue Jackets. At home, the Blues will host games against the Red Wings, Stars, Sharks, the Red Wings again, Wild, Kings, Canucks and Blue Jackets. By April, fans will have an idea of what the outcome will be for this season as the Blues play their last away games during the month against the Blackhawks, Red Wings, Stars, Coyotes and Avalanche. A home game against the Blue Jackets will be the only home game for the Blues in April. The final game of the season will be played on the road on Sunday, April 12, when the Blues take on the Avalanche.

Coaching and training support members include head coach Andy Murray, assistant coach Ray Bennett, goaltending coach Rick Wamsley, assistant coach Brad Shaw, strength and conditioning coach Nelson Ayotte, video coach Scott Masters, athletic trainer Ray Barile, equipment manager Bert Godin, assistant equipment manager Steve Wissman, equipment assistant Ray Halle, massage therapist Jeffrey Wright, orthopedic surgeons Rick Wright/Matt Matava/Jerome Gilder, internists William Birenbaum and Aaron Birenbaum, neurosurgeon Ralph Dacey, general surgeon Michael Brunt, plastic surgeon Tom Francel, dentist Glenn Edwards, ophthalmologist Gill Grand, optometrist Rex Ghormley and oral surgeon Ken Kram.

The Blues are currently ranked fourth in the western conference standings with a total of 42 points.

High-quality child care is much in demand from parents either because they are busy with their careers or because they need time off to enjoy a personal space.

Child care options are manifold – nanny, manny (a male nanny), babysitter, au pair, baby nurse, governess, day care, child care sharing, mother’s helper, and family and friends. But, most often, the choice is between hiring a babysitter or a nanny.

Relationship:

A babysitting arrangement is generally opted to, on an intermittent basis.

Whenever an occasion arises that compels both parents to be away from home without the children accompanying them, a temporary arrangement is made with a babysitter for child care.

Of course, there could also be a need for a babysitter on a daily basis – for a limited number of hours every day – in the event that children return from school prior to the arrival of their parents from their workplaces. Compared with a babysitter, a nanny usually spends nearly the whole day, every day, with the children and indeed much time with the family. The bonding between the nanny and the children and family is, therefore, far more intimate than that of a babysitter.

Children may get very attached to a nanny but such an eventuality with a babysitter would be rare. In fact, toddlers when they start school may need to transit from a nanny (whole time services no longer being essential) to a babysitter and the transition is never easy because of the loving relationship.

Compensation:

The compensation for a babysitter is usually on an hourly basis. Babysitters are hired for specific contracts and are paid the agreed cash compensation.

There are no further obligations to be fulfilled. When you arrange for nanny care, the nanny is regarded as your employee and is entitled not only to payment of monthly remuneration but also to other perquisites such as breakfast, lunch and dinner, holidays/vacation time, medical benefits, etc. that may be negotiated at the time of appointment. If the nanny is requested to perform additional services that are not a part of the arrangement, you may have to pay compensation, though, much depends on the rapport between the nanny and the family.

Due Diligence:

Your personal circumstances will dictate whether you need a babysitter or a nanny.

Whatever your choice, due diligence should be a critical part of your endeavour to hire the best possible person for your child. If you elect to hire personally, you must insist on an identity check, residence check, family background, criminal history, if any, reference check from at least three previous employers, etc.

However, you could also approach a reliable agency for the assigning a babysitter or a nanny.Before you select the agency, you need to check its reputation, track record, number of years in existence, the personal reputation of the founders/promoters of the agency, facilities they provide like App based booking, conveniences like WhatsApp message interaction etc. Once satisfied with the assessment, you can deal with the agency which itself will have robust systems in place to weed out suspicious and undesirable elements from their retainer roll.

With the personal hiring, you will need to carry out the due diligence each time you make a hire (there is no guarantee that the babysitter you identified will be available each time). With an agency, you need to do the due diligence just once.

Children are your future and great nanny care brings an assurance of child safety, the qualitative all-round growth of the child and a helping hand for family responsibilities. A first-rate nanny is often a babysitter, a governess, a baby nurse, a mother’s helper and a family member rolled into one.

The signing announced last week was a bit of a surprise, but free agent slugger Edwin Encarnacion finally chose to sign with Cleveland. Earlier predictions had the All-Star power hitter either staying with Toronto or heading to Boston, where he would have been the successor to the now retired David Ortiz.

He should provide manager Terry Francona and the Indians with a much needed power bat from the right side in the order, joining a lineup that came up just one win short of its first World Series championship in over half a century. Encarnacion also, by signing with Cleveland, earned a spot on a group that could be called the “If You Can’t Beat Them Join Them” team.

His Blue Jays last year lost to the Indians in the American League Championship series, so Encarnacion will be playing for the very team that last October ended his postseason. When he dons the Cleveland uniform on Opening Day this April, he will join a short list of stars who have switched to the team which just knocked them out of the playoffs.

Here are five other players who, just like Encarnacion, have gone straight from the team that lost the playoffs to the very team that eliminated them.

Jason Heyward

The All-Star Good Glove outfielder was playing for the Cardinals when they were eliminated by the Cubs in the 2015 National League Division Series. That winter he signed a lucrative free agent contract with Chicago, where he earned a World Series ring while his former team missed the postseason completely.

Nelson Cruz

After helping the Rangers to the playoffs in 2013 the outfielder signed with the Baltimore Orioles, the very team that had just beaten Texas in the A.L.D.S.

John Lackey

Just like his teammate Jason Heyward, the right hander left the Cardinals for the Cubs just a few months after Chicago had sent St. Louis home from the N.L.D.S. in 2015.

Manny Ramirez

The perennial All-Star outfielder, who had been with Cleveland his entire career, left the Indians for Boston. The Red Sox had just beaten the Indians in the 1999 A.L.D.S.

Jason Giambi

An A.L. Most Valuable Player while a member of the Athletics, Giambi left Oakland for New York in 2001. The Yankees had just eliminated Giambi and his Oakland teammates to capture still yet another pennant.

He was a quiet man who dressed inconspicuously and was known to never loose his temper. But there is no doubt, Carlo Gambino, with his huge hawk nose and enigmatic smile, was one of the most powerful mob bosses of all time.

Gambino was born in Palermo, Sicily on August 24, 1902. The area of Palermo, called Caccamo, in which Gambino grew up in, had such a intense Mafia presences, the police and even the military, were afraid to enter into its domain. That left the Mafioso to rule the area with impunity, knowing whatever they did would not be reported to the police, if the police even cared what happened there in the first place.

Carlo’s mother’s maiden name was Castellano, and she used her influence with her family, who were Mafiosos, to introduce Gambino to “Men of Respect” when Gambino was barely a teenager. Gambino, who was slight of built and only 5-foot-7, quietly impressed his superiors with his calmness, his intellect, and his ability to do what was necessary to be done, even if it mean killing someone who needed to be killed.

In 1921 right before his twentieth birthday, Gambino was rewarded for his good work by being inducted into the Mafia, or what was known in Italy as the “Honored Society.” However, because of Benito’s Mussolini’s vendetta against the Mafia (Mussolini had arrested many Mafioso, including top Mafia boss Don Vito Cascio Ferro, who was sentenced to life in prison), many Mafioso, including Gambino, decided that Sicily was too dangerous for them to exist in the manner that they had been accustomed to. As a result, there was a huge exodus of Mafioso to that mountain of gold across the Atlantic Ocean called America.

In late 1921, Gambino left Sicily on the freighter SS Vincenzo Florio, which was headed for America. For the entire trip, Gambino subsisted on nothing but wine and anchovies, which besides olive oil, were the only food substances on the ship.

The SS Vincenzo Florio docked in Norfolk, Virgina, on December 23, 1921, and Gambino disembarked as an illegal immigrant. Wearing a natty three-piece suit and a black fedora, Gambino walked down the gangplank looking for a car, he was told when he left in Palermo, would be waiting for him when he docked in America, with flashing lights at the end of the dock. He spotted the car and when he arrived at it, Gambino saw a Castellano cousin sitting behind the wheel. The two men embraced, and in seconds they were headed to New York City.

When Gambino arrived in New York City he was pleased to discover that his Castellano cousins had already rented him an apartment on Navy Street in Brooklyn, near the waterfront. They also put Gambino to work in a trucking company owned by his first cousins Peter and Paul Castellano. Soon Gambino segued into the illegal bootlegging business, run by his Palermo pal Tommy Lucchese. Prohibition was instituted by the passing of the Volstead Act in 1919, which banned the manufacture, sale, or transport of intoxicating liquors, but not the consumption. On thing led to another, and soon Gambino was a main cog in the crew of Joe “The Boss” Masseria, the most powerful Mafioso in America.

However, another Mafioso had escaped Mussolini’s wrath and arrived in America in the mid-1920’s. His name was Salvatore Maranzano, second in command to Don Vito Cascio Ferro in Sicily. Maranzano figured the Sicilian Mafioso were much superior to those in America, so it was only natural that he should become the top Mafia boss in America. This did not sit well with Masseria, and the result was the Castellammarese War, which flooded the streets of New York City with scores of dead bodies from 1929-31.

Masseria’s crew was soon joined by top Mafia men like Lucky Luciano, Frank Costello, Albert Anastasia, and Vito Genovese, who were well-connected to Jewish gangsters Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. However, since Masseria did not like his men doing business with non-Sicilians (Costello, real name Castiglia, was from Calabria), Luciano, Costello, Anastasia, and Genovese bided their time, hoping that maybe both Masseria and Maranzano would knock each other off, so that the younger men could take control of all their operations.

However, it was Gambino who made the first move in rectifying this situation. Sensing that he was on the losing side of the battle, Gambino secretly approached Maranzano and offered to jump to Maranzano’s side. Maranzano readily agreed, and soon Luciano, Costello, Anastasia, and Genovese, also wanted to join Maranzano’s forces. Maranzano accepted their offer, on the stipulation that they do away with Masseria, once and for all. That task was accomplished on April 15, 1931, when Luciano lured Masseria to the Nuova Villa Tammaro Restaurant in Coney Island. While Luciano was taking a bathroom break, Siegel, Genovese, Anastasia, and Jewish killer Red Levine burst though the front door and filled Masseria with lead, rendering him quite dead and ending the Castellammarese War.

Maranzano immediately called for a meeting of all the top Mafioso in the city (reportedly over 500 men) in a warehouse in the Bronx. At this meeting Maranzano said, “Whatever happened in the past is over. There is to be no more hatred between us. Those who lost someone in the war must forgive and forget.”

Maranzano then proceeded to form five families, each with a boss and an underboss. Under the two top men each family would have capiregimes, or captains, who would rule over the rest of the family: soldatos, or soldiers. The five bosses were Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci, Lucky Luciano, Tommy Lucchese, and Vincent Mangano. Albert Anastasia became Mangano’s underboss, and Carlo Gambino – a captain in Mangano’s family. Of course, Maranzano made himself “Boss of All Bosses” (Capo Di Tutti Capi), which did not sit well with the rest of the young Mafioso.

Despite all the nice talk about “no more hatred between us,” Maranzano had a secret plan to kill Luciano, Genovese, and Costello — men Maranzano thought to be ambitious and a threat to his rule. Maranzano called on vicious Irish killer Vincent “Mad Dog” Cole to eliminate his perceived competition. Maranzano paid Cole $25,000 on the spot, with another $25,000 forthcoming when the dirty deed was done. To set the trap, Maranzano invited Luciano, Genovese, and Costello to his office in Midtown Manhattan.

However, Luciano caught wind of the plot through an informer close to Maranzano, believed to be Tommy Lucchese. Instead of showing up at Maranzano’s office, Luciano sent four Jewish killers to the proposed meeting, led by Red Levine, one the men who had offed Masseria. The four men, posing as detectives, bulldozed their way past Maranzano’s bodyguards in the outer office. Then they blasted into Maranzano’s office, where they stabbed and shot him to death. On the way out of the building, the four killers ran into “Mad Dog” Cole. They told him not to bother — that Maranzano was dead and the police were on the way. Cole did an about face, whistling a happy tune, having made a $25,000 payday without firing a single shot.

Luciano soon called the bosses of the other four Mafia families and told them the title of “Boss of All Bosses” was eliminated with Maranzano. Luciano then formed a National Crime Commission, which included Jewish mobsters Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, and Dutch Schultz.

Gambino, now firmly entrenched as a captain in the Mangano family, became the biggest money-maker in all the New York Mafia. And in the Mafia, money brings prestige.

In 1932, his pockets bursting with cash, Gambino married his first cousin, Catherine Castellano Carlo and Catherine Gambino eventually raised three sons and a daughter. (Marrying a first cousin was common in Italy, and not frowned upon in the United States as it is today. In fact, marrying a first cousin is now illegal in most, but not all, states. Editors note: My grandparents on my father’s side were first cousins, married in Sicily in the early 1900’s.)

When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, Gambino was already set to cash in on the now legal booze business, but he did so in an illegal way. While Prohibition was booming in illegal sales for the Mafia, Gambino planned for the days when he knew Prohibition would end. To achieve his goals, Gambino scooped up as many illegal stills that he could; in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and even as far as Maryland. When Prohibition ended and the price of alcohol blasted through the roof, Gambino had the largest illegal liquor distribution system on the East Coast of America. And since he was producing the booze himself and not paying any government taxes, Gambino could undercut the legal distributors, thereby making himself, and the Mangano family, a small fortune all through the mid-to-late 1930’s.

The start of World War II gave Gambino another opportunity to make even more illegal cash, through his wartime rations stamps racket. With war imminent against both Germany and Japan, on August 28, 1941, the United States government created the Office of Price Administration (OPA), whose job it was to print and distribute rations stamps to the American public. Without these stamps, people could not buy gasoline, tires, shoes, nylon, sugar, fuel oil, coffee, meats, and processed foods. Gambino figured the only way he could get his hands on ration stamps to sell on the black market was to steal them outright.

Gambino sent his best safe-crackers and second-story men to the vaults inside the Office of Price Administration, and they emerged with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ration stamps. When certain low-level employees of the OPA realized the ration stamps were being stolen by the mob, they decided to cut themselves in on the deal, by stealing the ration stamps themselves and selling them to Gambino and his boys, of course, at bargain-basement prices. Gambino figured why take a chance of stealing the ration stamps, with the possibility of getting caught. So he took the crooked OPA employees offer, and started buying the rations stamps from them in droves.

The beauty of this scheme was that Gambino already had a ready-made distribution network in place: his network of illegal booze distributors. In October 1963, Mafia informant Joe Valachi testified before Arkansas Senator John L. McClellan’s Investigative Subcommittee on Government Operations, that in one rations stamp deal alone, Gambino made a profit of over $1 million.

Being the savvy businessman he was, Gambino knew he could not live the high life without reporting substantial income to the government. So Gambino invested the money he made from his illegal operations, estimated to be several millions of dollars, in legal businesses such as meat markets, pizza parlors, olive and cheese importers, carting companies, dress factories, bakeries, and restaurants.

By 1951, the Mangano family, thanks to Gambino’s incredible ability to generate income, was one of the most prosperous in the Mafia. The problem was Mangano did not get along with his underboss Anastasia. Mangano was jealous of Anastasia’s closeness with the other bosses, like Frank Costello and Lucky Luciano, who was in exile in Italy; a stipulation of the pardon agreement he received from the United States government after serving 9 years in jail on a trumped-up prostitution charge. Several times Mangano physically attacked Anastasia, a silly move since the younger and stronger Anastasia easily beat his boss in a fistfight.

With rumors abounding that Mangano was plotting to kill Anastasia, Anastasia, with the blessing a crime boss Frank Costello, decided to strike first. On April 19, 1951, the body of Phil Mangano, the brother of Vincent Mangano, was found in the marshes near Sheepshead Bay. He was shot five times in the head. When the police investigating the murder tried to contact Vincent Mangano about his brother’s death, they could find no trace of him. Vincent Mangano’s body was never found.

Within days, Anastasia sat down with the other bosses and explained that he killed Mangano before Mangano could kill him. With the backing of Costello, Anastasia was bumped up to the boss of the Mangano Family, and the name was changed to the Anastasia family. Anastasia made Frank Scalise and Joe Adonis his underbosses, and he gave his capo Carlo Gambino more men, and more power within the organization.

However, Anastasia’s reign lasted less than seven years. Anastasia continually butted heads with vicious crime boss Vito Genovese, who was looking to take over all the rackets in New York City, even if it meant killing the other bosses one by one. Anastasia received a terrible blow when his underboss Joe Adonis was deported back to Italy as an undesirable alien. Anastasia knew his days were numbered, when in early 1956 Frank Costello was shot in the head by Genovese henchman Vincent “The Chin” Gigante. Costello survived the shooting, and at Gigante’s trial, Costello, true to the Mafia code of “omerta,” refused to name Gigante as his assailant.

However, this greatly diminished Costello’s power in the Mafia, and at the insistence of Genovese, Costello was booted out as one of the fives bosses on the Mafia Commission. This left Anastasia without his closest ally, and put Anastasia in a vulnerable position. Soon after, Anastasia other underboss Frank Scalise was gunned down while shopping for fruits and vegetable on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.

The final shoe dropped, when on October 25, 1957, Anastasia was shot to death while sitting in a barber chair in the Park Sheridan Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. With Anastasia now dead, Genovese called for a sitdown with the other bosses, and proposed that Carlo Gambino, whom he had let in on his plot to kill Anastasia, should take over Anastasia’s family. The commission agreed and they renamed the family the Gambino Family.

The greedy Genovese called for a meeting of all the crime bosses, underbosses, captains, and respected Mafia men in America, which was to take place in the sleepy town of Apalachin, New York, at the home of Joseph Barbara, a capo in the crime family of Buffalo crime boss Stephano Magaddino. There were several items on Genovese’s agenda, but the prime one was that Genovese would announce himself as the ” Capo Di Tutti Capi,” or “Boss of All Bosses,” a title that had been vacant since the death of Salvatore Maranzano.

On November 17, 1957, scores of mobsters made their way to Barbara’s home. Included in the group were crime bosses John Scalish, from Cleveland, Sam Giancana from Chicago, Frank DeSimone from California, Santo Trafficante from Florida, Gerardo Catena and Frank Majuri from New Jersey, and Carlo Gambino, Joe Profaci, Tommy Lucchese, and Vito Genovese from New York City.

However, before the festivities got under way, state Sergeant Edgar Roswell, along with a dozen state troopers, stormed the house. Roswell later said that he became suspicious when he saw Joseph Barbara Jr. make hotel reservation for a dozen or so out-of-towners. Roswell said he then drove by the Barbara residence and saw dozens of parked luxury car parked in and around Barbara’s estate. Roswell said he called for heavy backup, and when his troopers arrived, they made their move.

Another rumor later circulated that it was Meyer Lansky himself, no big fan of Vito Genovese, who had tipped off the state troopers about the impending Mafia convention.

Be that as it may, when the troopers stormed the house, Mafioso, like in a Chinese fire drill, scattered in all directions. Men in expensive suits jumped though open windows, and if they could not make it to their cars, they hightailed it on foot through the woods, ruining their patent-leather shoes. Sam Giancana safely escaped by fleeing through the woods, as did Bonanno underboss Carmine Galente. But both men were a mess; their suits destroyed by thorny bushes. Some cars made it off the property before a roadblock was put in place, but most didn’t. When the dust cleared 58 members of the Mafia were detained and told to empty out their pockets. A total of $300,000 in cash was found on the 58 men, making the state police all the more suspicious about the meeting.

What was notable about the meeting was the men who chose not to attend. Besides Lansky, those absent were Frank Costello, Carlo Marcello from New Orleans, and Lansky’s pal Joseph “Doc” Stracher.

Of the 58 men detained, 27 were indicted on obstruction of justice, 20 of whom were convicted of refusing to answer questions about the purpose of the meeting. One of the men convicted was Gambino’s cousin Paul Castellano, who wound up doing a year in the slammer as a result.

The aborted meeting, more than anything else, led to the downfall of Vito Genovese. Not only did he not get the exalted title of “Boss of All Bosses,” but he became a pariah in the Mafia; ridiculed as being stupid and greedy for calling so many important men to the same place at the same time for his own purposes.

The day after the raid, the entire nation’s newspapers ran front page stories about the incident. No longer could Mafia men claim that the Mafia did not exist. The police, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who for years denied the existence of the Mafia, went on a rampage, putting extreme pressure on the Mafia’s operations.

Although at first, Carlo Gambino seemed to be a victim of circumstances, the wily mob veteran plotted to turn the incident to his advantage. In fact, there was speculation that Gambino knew about the raid in advance, and went there purposely so that no would would suspect him of being in on the treachery; which would make sense in light of further developments.

With Genovese still stewing from his loss of face, Gambino colluded with Frank Costello, Meyer Lansky, and Lucky Luciano (still in exile in Italy, but able to move freely into Cuba to meet with his pals) to get Genovese up to his neck in a multi-million dollar international drug deal. Even thought dealing in drugs was forbidden by the Mafia, the greedy Genovese could not resist the urge to make a ton of dough.

When the time was right, Gambino tipped off the Narcotics Bureau about the drug deal, resulting in Genovese’s arrest. At Genovese’s trial, Gambino paid a false witness named Nelson Cantellops, who insisted on the witness stand that Genovese was not only involved in this particular drug deal, but was, in fact, involved in dozens of drug deals throughout the years. As a result, Genovese was sentence to 15 years in prison. Genovese served a little more than ten years of his sentence, before he died in prison on February 14, 1969.

With Anastasia dead, Genovese in prison, Luciano in exile, Frank Costello basically out of the Mafia loop, Joe Profaci getting older and weaker, and Joe Bonanno having a relatively small crime family, Carlo Gambino became undoubtedly the most powerful Mafia boss in America. His crew of over 500 made men out in the streets included his underboss Joe Biondo, his consigliere Joseph Riccobono, and capos Armand “Tommy” Rava, Aniello “Mr. Neil” Dellacroce, Paul Castellano, Carmine “The Doctor” Lombardozzi, Joseph “Joe Piney” Armone, and Carmine “Wagon Wheels” Fatico.

Gambino expanded his enterprises all over the United States. Besides New York City, Gambino had his fingers in the pot in Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Boston, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Gambino also ruled the powerful International Longshoremen Union, which controlled all the docks in New York, the main port for imports into America.

After Joe Valachi became the first known Mafia informer, Gambino reinforced the rule that forbade the sale of drugs in his crew. Gambino’s rational was that the penalties for selling drugs were so severe, men might turn rat when arrested, rather than do their time in jail like the “real men” of the Mafia had done in the past. The Gambino family policy was “Deal and Die,” and he enforced this rule with no exceptions.

Riding on top of the Mafia heap, Carlo Gambino became a popular figure in New York’s neighborhood streets of Little Italy. While the other bosses barricaded themselves in their mansions, with armed bodyguard, burglar alarms and electrified fences, Gambino walked the streets with impunity, stopping to talk with old friends, while be bought vegetables and fruits from street vendors. Gambino went to Ferrara’s on Grand Street, between Mulberry and Mott, for pastries. Then he would stroll down the block to get his Italian meats, cheeses, and Italian delicacies from Aleva’s, on the corner of Mulberry and Grand.

Starting in March of 1970, Gambino started having trouble with the law. While he was strolling down a Brooklyn street, Gambino was surrounded by New York City police and members of the FBI. They arrested Gambino and charged him with masterminding a scheme to steal $30 million in cash from an an armored truck company located in the Bronx. Gambino was eventually indicted, but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.

This forced the Feds to try another tactic to take Gambino off the streets. In 1966 the government had issued a deportation order on Gambino, but for some reason the order was never implemented. In early 1971, after Gambino’s wife Catherine had died of cancer, the Feds did indeed try to implement this order, but on hearing about his imminent danger, the wily Gambino faked a serious heart attack. The Feds were incensed at Gambino’s ploy, so they had the U.S. Public Health Service give Gambino a complete physical. The Feds were aghast when it was determined that Gambino indeed had a severe heart condition. This was confirmed in 1972, when Gambino was rushed from his home at 2230 Ocean Parkway, in Brooklyn, to the Columbus Hospital in Manhattan with a massive heart attack. Why a hospital in Brooklyn was not suitable for Gambino was never revealed.

While recuperating at home, Gambino broke one of the laws he decreed himself — “Deal Drugs and Die.” Acting Genovese boss Thomas “Tommy Ryan” Eboli approached Gambino with a “can’t miss” proposition to broker a multi-million dollar drug deal with Louis Civillo, considered by the Feds to be the biggest narcotics dealer in America. The problem was, Eboli, a former boxing manager and notoriously bad gambler, did not have the $4 million needed to proceed with the operation. Gambino fronted Eboli the $4 million, but he lost it all when the Feds arrested Civillo, and confiscated the drugs and money. When Gambino approached Eboli about his missing $4 million, Eboli turned his pockets inside out, indicating he was flat broke.

This did not please Gambino too much. As a result, at approximately 1 a.m., on July 16, 1972, Eboli was shot five times while he was leaving his girlfriend’s apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Eboli died on the spot, and Gambino had enough influence in the Mafia Commission to order that his close pal, Genovese captain Frank “Funzi” Tieri, would now be the new boss of the Genovese Family. And so it was done.

Gambino had another setback, when in early 1973, his 29-year-old nephew Emmanuel “Manny” Gambino was kidnapped for ransom. This same gang had previously kidnapped a Gambino Crime Family captain, Frank “Frankie the Wop” Manzo for $100,000. After that amount was paid for Manzo’s safe return, the gang got more ambitious with the Manny Gambino kidnapping — this time asking for $200,000. Gambino tried to bargain, offering them only $50,000. Soon after, the body was Manny Gambino was found in a sitting position in a New Jersey dump near the Earle Naval Ammunition Depot. On June 1, 1973, degenerate gambler Robert Senter plead guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Apparently, Senter had fallen in debt to Gambino and it was easier to kill Gambino then to pay the debt.

After the death of his nephew compounded the agony of the death of his wife, Gambino became a recluse in his house on Ocean Parkway. He surrounded himself with family members, most notably his cousin Paul Castellano. By 1975, it was clear Gambino’s heart condition would not allow him to live much longer. So he began to plan for his succession as the head of the Gambino Crime Family. Wanting to keep power in his own family blood, Gambino anointed his cousin Paul Castellano to succeed him.

This did not go over well with the rest of the Gambinos, who expected longtime Mafioso Aniello Dellacroce to be the natural successor to Gambino. To appease Dellacroce, Gambino gave him all the Manhattan rackets controlled by the Gambino Family. And that was a big gift indeed.

On October 15, 1976, Carlo Gambino took his last breath, as his heart finally gave out. Gambino’s funeral was one of the most elaborate ever to take place in the borough of Brooklyn. More than 100 cars took part in the funeral procession, which ended at the Saint John’s Cemetery in Queens, New York City; the same cemetery his lifelong friend Charles “Lucky” Luciano had been buried at.

In the 1985 film “Prizzi’s Honor,” directed by John Huston and starring Jack Nicholson, actor William Hickey played Don Corrado Prizzi, a character based on Don Carlo Gambino.

One of the most difficult decisions to make in the game of racquetball when it comes to equipment is buying racquetball shoes. Note I say racquetball shoes because many players play in regular tennis or track shoes that are not optimized to give you the specific performance you need in a small court area that requires constant direction change, good gripping support, etc.

A player’s best option when it comes to making this decision is to order it online and take the chance of it not fitting in size and/or not being a comfortable fit. Ordering online is a great, time saving option and to make sure you order the right size… here are some suggestions.

Here are 6 steps in helping you make the right decision the first time.

1. Know what you are looking for in a shoe.

– Do your feet need special attention?

– Do you experience pain in the arch of your feet? You may need more arch support.

– Do your feet pronate (apply majority of your weight onto the inside sole of the foot)? This can be corrected and a proper fitting shoe can help.

– Do you need insoles for more support? Are you flatfooted? Do you have high arches? Is comfort your main concern or is it the weight of the shoe?

– What is your budget?

– How much would you pay for a good pair of racquetball shoes? (Note: top quality racquetball shoes frequently cost less than half of what top athletic brands cost and in most cases are about the same cost of a quality sneaker (seriously). The highest priced racquetball shoes are all well under $100 and many high quality shoes cost $60 or less.

2. What shoes are most high caliber players playing with? Ask them for their opinion on the shoes. What shoes are other players talking about? Is there a particular brand that most players talk about? Are you loyal to a brand and do they offer shoes?

Testimonies of personal experiences are as good as it gets.

3. Talk to a knowledgeable person about the indoor shoes you are wanting to purchase and if it is right for you. Someone who sells racquetball shoes on a regular basis would have good ideas as to what works for you.

4. Know your size. I can tell you from personal experience that having a shoe that is not the right size can cause long term pain. As you get older, your body changes including your feet.

We just got back from a tournament where we set up our pro shop and strung racquets and sold equipment to players. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that more than half of the players looking into shoes were off when they told me their shoe size. I measure up their foot before putting a shoe on and more than half of the players trying on shoes were off at least a half size to a whole size. One player was off by a whole size and half and now new why his big toe was hurting.

Be careful of size differences. If you are purchasing online, make sure that you read the descriptions carefully to find as close to the right shoe size as possible. Shoes sizes can be different between each shoe company and from country to country.

A couple of ways to get your foot measured could be to go to a shoe store and get your foot measured. They won’t have a problem with this as you are a potential customer for future purchases. You can also measure your feet from the comfort of your own home.

If you prefer to measure your feet from home follow these directions from an article from about.com: http://shoes.about.com/od/fitcomfort/ss/measurefeet.htm

Choose a shoe that gives you a thumbnail space from the front of your shoe to your longest toe. Have someone (family, friend, significant other) check the fitting while you stand with your shoes on with all your weight on your foot. You should have a thumbnail length in space.

How do the sides feel? They are new and will break in but know when a shoe is too narrow. One good way to know… Ask yourself… Are they REALLY tight on the sides?

5. Order from a secured website if online otherwise call them.

6. Know the return policy if you are unhappy with the shoes? Don’t be stuck with shoes you are not happy with. As long as a retailer can resell them at full value (repackage them correctly and make sure you haven’t marked up or walked outside with them, etc.) you are sure not to have any problems returning the shoes. A good way to try them to be sure of happiness with the shoes is to wear them around your home for a few hours.

Look for my other article on what to look for in a good supportive shoe for your indoor game.

Have you ever been ambushed or otherwise lost a towel fight? The type involving a rolled up towel, otherwise known as a towel whip or rat tail? There are several points to keep in mind the next time you get in a potential towel fight situation.

First, make sure you pick the right kind of towel. The best weapon is a thin, large beach towel. Less than optimal but still acceptable are a bath towel (too thick) or a dish towel (not long enough).

Second, make sure you roll your towel properly. Fold down the upper corners of the towel so that they touch each other (you should have a triangle looking shape), and then roll along the longest edge of either one of the sides of the triangle (not the base that is facing you). Roll it tightly and wet the tip slightly.

Third, make sure your technique is proper. Stay far enough away from your opponent that only the tip of the towel will hit him; use good footwork to maintain the right distance. Deliver a series of rapid blows in success and end the towel fight quickly and decisively.

Finally, do not fear to be hit by a towel. Paradoxically, fear of getting hit is exactly what makes it more likely that you actually will be hit. Your instinct will be to turn your back and face away in order to avoid getting struck in the eyes, but nothing is more painful than just getting smacked in the back. Please, trust me on this.

Be bold, and remember that, as with many things, in a towel fight, the best defense is a a strong offense–in this case, putting a properly whipped rat tail in the face of your opponent before he can do the same to you.

All throughout the world of baseball, writers and pundits are applauding the acquisitions of the Dodgers. At the trade deadline Los Angeles landed two veteran All-Stars to improve their middle infield, hoping that this duo would lead last year’s National League Champs to their first World Series title since 1986.

Brian Dozier, who recently set a record for home runs by a second baseman, came to the West Coast in a deal with the Minnesota Twins. Just the day before, Los Angeles made a transaction to get slugging shortstop Manny Machado from the Baltimore Orioles.

Most likely those acquisitions will help the offense of the Dodgers, but they could very well negatively affect what happens on the diamond. Both Machado and Dozier have more than proven their defensive skills, having won several Gold Gloves between them.

However, baseball history seems to indicate that middle infielders need a lot of time playing together before they can win it all. A look back at the most recent Novembers provides insight into just how important it is that the second baseman and shortstop spend more than simply a few months together.

Last year Houston had the phenomenal pair of Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa, who have been playing side by side for an extended period. Twelve months before the Cubs had youngsters Javier Baez and Addison Russell, who had become acclimated to one another the previous season.

The year before veterans Omar Infante and Alcides Escobar looked after the middle of the diamond for a second straight season, helping the Kansas City Royals to their first World Series title in thirty years. The connected middle infield, combined with a superb and deep bullpen, took the Series from the New York Mets.

That tandem had come close in 2014, when the Royals won the pennant but lost to the Giants in the Fall Classic. San Francisco’s middle infielders had only been together since just before the All Star break, rookie Joe Panik getting called up to the Big Leagues to take over second base in late June.

Fortunately for the Giants, they had a veteran Gold Glove winner at shortstop to help his young double play partner get acclimated. Brandon Crawford more than fulfilled that role, having already played on San Francisco championship teams in 2010 and 2012.

For additional evidence of the importance of a well -connected shortstop and second baseman, one can look back even further. In the Nineties the Yankees dominated the baseball postseason, anchored by shortstop Derek Jeter and his double play partner Chuck Knoblauch.

How about the decade before that? The Detroit Tigers teams of the Reagan Era enjoyed the luxury of having Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker playing side by side, highlighted by a World Series title in 1984. In the Seventies the Big Red Machine was driven by having shortstop Dave Concepcion and second baseman Joe Morgan for extended seasons, culminating in back to back championships in 1975 and 1976.

You can find many more examples in the annals of baseball, but do you know what is much harder to find? The answer is a single team that has gone on to win the World Series after having replaced both shortstop and second base in the middle of the season, which is what the Dodgers are hoping to accomplish this year.

Dozier did hit a home run in each of his first two games with Los Angeles, and Machado collected four hits. Baseball history, however, seems to suggest that the newcomers will need more than two months together to carry their team to the ultimate goal.

Could you imagine having a music studio software program that has the same, if not better, creation and recording options that a professional recording studio would have but for a price of under $30 bucks?

If your thinking that finding such a beat maker is crazy and unrealistic, since the majority of music creator software is priced for hundreds of dollars, you would be mistaken.

Of course you have many options one of which is to buy top of the line software, but I would not recommend it if you are a beginner or new to beat making software. These programs will run hundreds of dollars and require extensive knowledge of music production to make any beats what so ever.

For starters Any good quality music studio software program will have a Key editor that produces Instruments, quality banks, special effects, stabs and more.

If you are searching for a beat maker and come across one that does not have this kind of key editor, simply scratch it off your list. You need to have these kind of options if you want to have any creative control of the beats you want to create.

This would stand true to online beat makers. Paying for a membership so that you can log on to make your music beats is a waste of your money.

When I started to remix music, 10 years ago, I did not have the dollars to drop on programs such as fruity Loops or sound forge.

I wanted a music studio software that had top-notch pre recorded beats that I could add to or use as an overlay, already pre-loaded. I wanted something affordable but not cheap.

My Dj beats software that I have is good for mixing but not as savvy on creating music beats. Since my dream list was getting longer and harder to find, I would just buy music beats until a friend of mine told me about a new music studio software that was released. It really is something you need to see for yourself to believe.

Let’s just say that I have been finally making those killer beats I kept hearing in my head but was unable to create them until now.

Consider your search over so that you too can start making the music beats you have always wanted to create. Warning…this music studio software program is addicting.

Floyd Mayweather, Jr. did not become the highest paid American athlete in 2013 if he isn’t one hell of a salesman. He could be one of, if not, the best in that regard.

Couple that with a brash, cocky persona with exceptional boxing skills and you have the ultimate villain. He is the man fans would love to hate. Mayweather plays the “heel” role to perfection and therein lies the secret of his gain: the crowd patronizes him, not because of his impregnable but otherwise not fan-friendly, defense-first style, but simply because they want to see him lose.

To Mayweather’s credit, some of the best lower-weight fighters (Jose Luis Castillo, Diego Corrales, Zab Judah) in the era have tried to put a stench on his record but to no avail. It’s far from a secret to the casual fan that for the better part of two decades, no one ever did, and perhaps no one ever will.

The rise of Manny Pacquiao in the mid-2000s became a beacon of hope for Mayweather bashers.

There’s this nice guy from the Philippines with a literal rags-to-riches-story, knocking people left and right on his way to being considered the best pound for pound fighter in the world for over 300 weeks.

At last, there is now someone fans would view as a hero, the anti-Mayweather if you will.

All the talk about Pacquiao possibly beating Mayweather isn’t just wishful thinking. The Filipino machine has lightning quick hands with real power behind them and most purists believe Pacman’s all-pressure, fast-paced style could pose problems for the defensive-minded wizard. Even the great Sugar Ray Leonard called him a “tasmanian devil” the way he comes forward and throws punches in bunches.

On the contrary, Money’s game is not so much about rapid-fire boxing as not getting hit by any of the projectiles they call punches. But that just made the possible encounter a hundred times more exciting. Styles make fights, they say.

It’s a match-up many thought was made in heaven. Or maybe not.

Years before, reports said that at least twice, the fight almost pushed through only to fall in the last minute. Drug testing to which Pacquiao doesn’t want any part of then, the $40 million guaranteed money that he turned down, Bob Arum, and so forth.

Much has happened since then and Pacquiao, from being on top of the boxing world, plummeted to number 5 in most lists and Mayweather has been firmly planted in that number one spot.

Mayweather basked in the glory of having his fight opposite Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez billed as the highest grossing PPV fight of all time (2.2 million buys) and reportedly generated $150 million. Pacquiao, on the other hand, won convincingly against Brandon Rios but PPV numbers could only muster an anemic 550,000 buys, tops.

Now, that would only mean Pacquiao has lost much, if not all, of his leverage in talks of a potential showdown and Mayweather, the master that he is, isn’t going to stop reminding Pacquiao of the latter’s now-inferior status.

Recently, in a visit to Johannesburg, South Africa, Mayweather had some choice words for the fighting congressman and even pointed out Pacquiao’s two previous losses and recent tax issues.

“I offered Manny Pacquiao the fight before,” Mayweather said. “We didn’t see eye to eye on terms. Years later we come back and I try and make the fight happen again. I offer him $40 million. He said he wanted 50-50. So we didn’t make the fight happen.

“All of a sudden, he loses to Timothy Bradley, he loses to Marquez… he has tax problems now. So, two losses and tax problems later, now he all of a sudden want to say: ‘You know what? I’d do anything to make the fight happen,’ when he’s really saying: ‘Floyd, can you help me solve my tax problems, get me out of debt?'”

Pacquiao fired back summoning his inner villain, appealing to Mayweather’s manhood in a phone interview in a Filipino daily.

“I’m not desperate to fight him just for the sake of money or material things. I’m not the one seeking this fight; rather it’s the boxing fans all over the world. I am ready to submit myself to any kind of stringent drug testing.”

“Above all, I challenge him to include in our fight contract that both of us will not receive anything out of this fight. We will donate all the proceeds from the fight-guaranteed prize, should there be any, gate receipts, pay-per-view and endorsements-to charities around the world.”

Aside from proposing a charity fight, Pacquiao added:

“Floyd, if you’re a real man, fight me. Let’s do it for the love of boxing and for the fans. Let’s do it not for the sake of money. Let’s make the boxing fans happy.”

Of course, Mayweather’s accusations of Pacquiao being broke is unfounded and borderline ridiculous. Estimates have Pacquiao’s total earnings at over $300 million dollars and he is constantly in the Forbes magazine’s highest-paid athletes list year in and year out.

Mayweather may be on top of that list for a couple of years now but Pacquiao is no pushover himself. It is also interesting to note that “Money” got all his green exclusively from his fights and zilch from endorsements of any sort.

Pacquiao, on the other hand, has a quite a batch of local and international endorsements including Nike, Hennessy, San Miguel Corp., among others. The numbers may not add up to Mayweather’s totals but you get what I mean. Even with Pacquiao’s troubles with the BIR and IRS, he would still have enough money to last him and his family a lifetime.

But does Pacquiao did more harm than good in challenging Mayweather that way? Probably, but Mayweather isn’t the type to run out of wisecracks. He maybe is silent for now but expect a retort in the coming weeks.

Contrary to what some fans would suggest, Mayweather isn’t really scared as in “chicken scared” to fight the eight-division world champ. But the thing is, he is so concerned in nothing but in keeping his undefeated record and he recognized Pacquiao is as legitimate a threat as there ever will be.

What will happen if he ever get his rear handed to him? What now if that cloak of invincibility he so long treasured will be taken from him? Will he have endorsements to fall back on or the face to confront the people and the media?

Floyd is a salesman, remember, and he may be a classier businessman than a fighter.

I am one of the millions that wanted to see a clash between two of the best in our generation. Never mind the records,the gate attendance and the PPV buys; never mind the Ws and Ls or the legacies, just seeing Mayweather test his skills against Pacquiao and vice versa is enough to drive any aficionado nuts.

I, for one, believe Mayweather will outlast Pacquiao if it ever could happen. I have always favored defense over offense in any sport and it won’t be different this time around. But there’s always what-ifs and game breaks especially in big events and that’s what made sports exciting.

But sadly, everybody got their own reasons and agenda just not to make this fight happen. Manny had his when he was atop and Floyd Jr. always has his notwithstanding his own limits if there ever was.

From the looks of it, Manny Pacquiao doesn’t care now if he wins or loses; he has lost before and if he will drop one more time no one will be surprised. But I cannot say the same to Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Maybe he has pondered over these things and decided it will be too much of a risk fighting a daredevil like Pacquiao. With that said, let us all put the buzz to rest until real talks begin and don’t keep your hopes up on a Mayweather vs Pacquiao.

But then again, I’d love to be proven wrong this one time.