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UPS Ramps Up for Holidays; Baseball Dead in D.C.?; Maverick Season Ticket Holders Give Up Seats to Vets

Aired December 16, 2004 - 14:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The rush is on to get those holiday packages in the mail. UPS is getting ready for the holiday peak and the security issues that surround this busy time of year.
CNN's Keith Oppenheim is live from the busiest UPS hub in suburban Chicago.

Hello, Keith. Now you're inside.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm inside now. And the section that I'm in is called the bullfrog section. And it in a moment, I'll explain why it's called that.

It's an area for small parcels.

Now, keep in mind, all these parcels are loaded onto tractor- trailers. About half of those tractor-trailers hit the road. The other half are loaded onto trains.

In fact, we have pictures from the rail yard where you can see how the tractor trailers are loaded onto, in this case, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which is the largest carrier for UPS. And they really haul some big loads.

And with us here inside is Alan Copeland from BNSF. Hi Alan.

ALAN COPELAND, BNSF RAILROAD: Hi, how are you?

OPPENHEIM: And give us a sense of why freight trains are so important in terms of parcel delivery.

COPELAND: Well, it's a great way of moving freight. You get 150 trailers on a train, it all gets to your destination at once. Fuel efficient way of moving the freight, too.

OPPENHEIM: Now how many cars are we talking about and what are the distances that these trains are going from Chicago?

COPELAND: Well, the trains can be about 7,000 feet long and they'll go up to -- our longest trains go to Northern California out of the facility next door.

OPPENHEIM: How long does it take for a train of that size to get out of here and make it to the West Coast?

COPELAND: Well, we have train schedules that are only 48 hours from Chicago to the Los Angeles area.

OPPENHEIM: We were talking math before and my understanding is that you have somewhere between maybe 1,000 and 2,000 packages inside one tractor trailer. But if you add all those train cars, you could have like a million packages on one train?

COPELAND: Yes, and it all gets there on time.

OPPENHEIM: Yes, that's the idea. Thank you very much, Alan. Now we're going to give you some general figures about what's going on in the parcel delivery business, which is extremely competitive. In this graphic, you can see that UPS is still the big daddy, with fifty- two percent of total market share. Behind is FedEx with twenty-seven percent. DHL, which bought out Airborne last year, has six percent. And United States Postal Service, competitive with thirteen percent.

All right, Fredricka, I promise to explain bullfrog. And for small parcels, what they do here is they use this conveyer system, which pops up the packages exactly at the right time so they will go where they're supposed to go. In some cases, the packages are put into little parcels and those parcels are then delivered onto the trucks or trains to go to their precise destination. And this is the name of the game in the package delivery business, especially this time of year, to get things where to they need to go on time. Back to you - Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: A little ribbit there. All right. Well, Keith Oppenheim, thanks so much. And I bet you in some of those packages is one of these hottest items this holiday season, the iPod. And guess what, if you don't have one by now for that loved one, you just might be out of business.

Susan Lisovicz is in New York. Boy, they are the hot item, huh?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, "FINANCIAL NEWS": They are. The problem here, Fred, isn't shipping, it's making them, manufacturing. They just can't simply make them fast enough. You'd think they were giving them away. Fredricka, we told you it would be a hot item, so hot in fact, it's now hard to find, the apple iPod flying off store shelves. Some models of the digital music are virtually sold out at Best Buy, Amazon.com and other major retailer. Since its last three years ago, Apple has sold nearly six million of its iPods and it's gaining in popularity. Some analysts expect four million units to be sold this holiday season alone. So if you're in a panic listening to this, consider ordering from Apple directly, either at its own retail stores or online. Apple says it's trying to keep up with the frenzy, it says that it's making and shipping iPods as fast as it can and it's happy to do so.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LISOVICZ: Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: I know Apple's very happy about that. All right, well, you're heading to your holiday party, you need directions. No longer is it just about Mapquest, but maybe Yahoo! is in on the action.

LISOVICZ: A lot of competition there. And some updates, a real milestone. Because these driving directions won't send you straight into a massive traffic jam. Yahoo! is offering a new service that lets users check out live traffic conditions while creating maps to their destinations. The additional data gives drivers traffic data such as actual road speeds and potential delays. The service can be found at Yahoo! maps. So that's something different and new.

Looks like the recent stock market rally, however, has hit the go slow sign today. Dow industrials off by 5 points at 10,686. Nasdaq down three quarters of a percent. And that's the very latest from Wall Street. Stay tuned. LIVE FROM rolls on after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, let's play ball, shall we? Well, it takes on a whole new meaning in some Major League baseball deals. The Montreal Expos plan to move to Washington, D.C. Well, apparently now that plan is in jeopardy. And pitcher Pedro Martinez leaves the Bo Sox to become a New York Met. CNN Sport's Steve Overmyer joins me with some details on that. It certainly seemed like it was a done deal with D.C. What happened?

STEVE OVERMYER, CNN SPORTS: Now the rug kind of seems like it's been pulled out from underneath the city...

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh.

OVERMYER: I mean, the team's operations have moved to D.C., the team has been renamed from the Montreal Expos to the Washington Nationals. They're even selling Nationals' logoed merchandise. But now, the deal might be dead. Here's what happened. The D.C. City Council has always agreed upon the terms that baseball has asked for, a fully, publicly-financed stadium. However, Tuesday night, the city council voted to fund only half of the $531 million stadium, going against what they agreed upon back in September.

That nixes the deal with baseball. The Nationals have now shut down business operations and promotions in the city. Baseball says the deal is not acceptable and the Expos' move to D.C. is now on the verge of collapse. The saving grace, though, here, Fredricka, is the fact that the deal won't be dead until December 31st. So if the council can approve a fully publicly-financed stadium by then, the team stays in D.C.

WHITFIELD: Oh my god.

OVERMYER: But they've only got about 10 days...

WHITFIELD: It's remarkable. All that merchandise is already a collector's item and they haven't even thrown out the first pitch.

OVERMYER: They haven't even played an actual game in D.C. and so we don't even know if they will play one there.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. And then they have to make some changes in order to have an acceptable deal by the end of the month.

OVERMYER: Absolutely. This has all got to be done by December 31st or baseball will start looking at other cities. And one of the possible cities they're actually looking at, one of the leading contenders for the team to move to, could possibly be Las Vegas.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh, OK, that's another day, we'll talk about that one. That would be amazing. All right, let's talk about pitcher Pedro now. You got to wonder if the Bo Sox fans, or at least the Bo Sox fans, are a little perturbed with him.

OVERMYER: I wonder how he's going to be reacted to, I guess, in New York. He's the toast of New York right now. At least for the New York Mets. The pitcher has helped lead the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years. The man who threw Yankees' coach Don Zimmer to the ground, one of the most hated athletes in New York, will now make the Big Apple his home.

Pedro Martinez makes a four year, $53 million deal with the New York Mets. He's already figured out how to handle the media already in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO MARTINEZ, FMR. BOSTON RED SOX PITCHER: People that are thinking negative and actually thinking that they're going to make me look bad, you guys have the power of the pen. You guys have enough to talk about and I don't see why -- I've never gotten a ticket, I've never been in jail. I don't know why would I be in bad shape with the city?

QUESTION: You started 33 games last year, which tied a career high. Yet in the off season, everything seemed to center on your shoulder. Why do you think that is?

MARTINEZ: Because of the crap that you guys have been talking. Next question.

QUESTION: Pedro, Pedro.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OVERMYER: He's ready to fire darts. Pedro Martinez is 33 years old. Last year -- again, he got 33 starts, so he's a very durable player. And we've seen obviously with Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, you know, Roger Clemens, guys can pitch into their 40s. So he has still got plenty of gas left in the tank.

WHITFIELD: Big money as well, $53 million over four years, that's remarkable.

OVERMEYER: We'll see what happens if the Mets and the Red Sox meet in the World Series. That will be interesting.

WHITFIELD: That will be interesting. All right, thanks a lot, Steve. OVERMEYER: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A case of tough love gone too far? A 5-year-old kindergarten pupil is handcuffed by police for misbehaving. His family is outraged. Now an investigation is under way into how it all happened. The details from our Betsey Bruce of affiliate KTVI.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Then he put the -- handcuffed me behind my back.

BETSEY BRUCE, KTVI REPORTER (voice-over): Five-year-old Jerome Staples shows how a police officer handcuffed him on November 30th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now every night I've got to deal with him saying he don't want to go to school because he's scared he's going to go to jail if he acts up. I mean, I just don't appreciate the handcuffs in the back of a police car.

BRUCE: Jerome and his older brother Emmit had been students at Thurgood Marshall Charter School in North St. Louis. Both his mother and his godmother say their principal told them he was having some problems adjusting to school.

TERREKA JONES, JEROME'S GODMOTHER: He said Jerome had not been listening and following directions. And I was -- we were aware of that because we had a meeting with him before. And in the midst of the meeting, he still never stated that he had been handcuffed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My 7-year-old came home, said he looked out the window and saw Jerome kicking and scream and crying, that they were going to take him to jail and that's when I looked (ph) more (ph) into it.

BRUCE: Thurgood Marshall school uses public funds and is sponsored by a UMSL. Today the university issued this statement, quote: "In general, the university would never find handcuffing a 5- year-old as acceptable or appropriate. St. Louis City police and school's board of directors are investigating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the principal of the school is now on administrative leave.

Next on LIVE FROM, he's the outspoken money man with a hot basketball team. Dallas Maverick Mark Cuban join us with a heartwarming story and his thoughts on the latest basketball scandal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: As we celebrate the season, CNN is linking up with soldiers in Iraq with loved ones here at home. We call it "Holiday Home Front."

Here's Jack Cafferty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON PENDER, SPECIALIST: I'm an intel analyst. We actually work in a room with no windows, but we decorated it real nice for Christmas. We probably will spend the day working, though. There's no real breaks here.

CAFFERTY: I've got your wife and one of your children and your dad on a different satellite coming out of Cincinnati. Katie Pender is with us. How do you handle three kids with him that far away? I mean, that's yeoman's work if there are two parents at home.

KATIE PENDER, WIFE OF SPEC. JASON PENDER: It has been a great blessing to have my family and his dad and stepmom around. They have been a tremendous help.

CAFFERTY: You've got a 5-year-old, Michaela (ph) I think is her name. She's old enough to understand a little bit about what's going on. How do you handle the fact that her dad's away at war?

K. PENDER: Well, I think it helps that we are able to talk as often as we are. She knows that daddy's in Iraq. We talk about, you know, that he's there. We pray for him every night, so that she, you know, has an opportunity to talk about him and, you know, pray that he's going to be okay and going to be safe. And I keep pictures of him around so that she and Alex (ph) and Shawn (ph), when he gets a little bit bigger, can see him every day so that they don't forget what he looks like.

CAFFERTY: Gary, let me ask you, you spent time in Vietnam. What goes through your mind when you see the pictures coming out of Iraq and the fact that you've got a son over there in that theater?

GARY PENDER, FATHER OF SPEC. JASON PENDER: Great concern, actually. Having lived through the Vietnam War, having actually lost a brother in Vietnam, there's a lot of concern, a lot of prayers for both Jason and his comrades in arms. You know, we still feel it's the right mission at this point in time, but it's different when you have a son that's right in the heart of it.

K. PENDER: How you doing, honey?

J. PENDER: I'm doing great. How are you guys?

K. PENDER: Oh, we're doing OK. We're hanging in there. Well, you look good!

G. PENDER: Yes, you do. You do look good.

K. PENDER: You look really good.

J. PENDER: Thank you. CAFFERTY: Jason, hang on one sec, you know what, we're going to bring the kids in.

K. PENDER: You wish Daddy a merry Christmas?

MICHAELA (ph) PENDER, DAUGHTER OF SPEC. JASON PENDER: Yes.

K. PENDER: Well, tell, Daddy.

G. PENDER: Say merry Christmas, Daddy.

K. PENDER: Can you say merry Christmas?

M. PENDER: Merry Christmas, Daddy.

G. PENDER: You hear her, Jason?

J. PENDER: Merry Christmas, Michaela.

M. PENDER: Daddy, can you come home for Christmas? Can you?

J. PENDER: I don't think so, darling. I'm here helping other people. OK?

K. PENDER: He's helping out everybody else right now. He'll come home.

G. PENDER: But he loves you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to have more of these segments throughout the holiday season.

So do you want to go to the Dallas Mavericks game this weekend? Fred, you going to go? I know you've got a connection.

WHITFIELD: It would be nice.

PHILLIPS: Yes, it would.

WHITFIELD: Maybe this guy can hook us up.

PHILLIPS: Maybe Mark Cuban can hook us -- well, you know what, I think we have to be able to wear a uniform, though.

WHITFIELD: Yes, we do. At least to get a front row seat.

PHILLIPS: You're going to tell us about it after the break, Mark?

MARK CUBAN, OWNER, DALLAS MAVERICKS: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: All right, stay tuned, everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Well, it's one way of saying thanks to the troops, 140 wounded fighters will get front row seats for the Dallas Mavericks basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. All that thanks to the generosity of the team's season ticket holders. Joining me now with more on this magnanimous gesture, among other things, Dallas Mavericks' owner, Mark Cuban. Good to see you, Mark.

CUBAN: Glad to be here.

WHITFIELD: Well, this really was started by one particular season ticket holder, Neil Hawks (ph)...

CUBAN: Right.

WHITFIELD: ... and then you got wind of this idea how?

CUBAN: Neil is a good friend of mine. We spent some time together. He's close to our family. And so Neil suggested it to us and I just thought it was one of the best ideas I'd ever heard. And actually, he did it on a smaller scale last year. And he had -- he brought, I think, eight injured soldiers. And it had such an emotional impact on all of us. The team and the fans in the stands, that we really wanted to help them expand it this year.

WHITFIELD: That's so great. And so word spread among all the other front row seat ticket holders and...

CUBAN: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: ... it sounds as though this was so easy to get everyone to cooperate to just give up their tickets.

CUBAN: Oh yes, we've had people volunteering. It's like, even if they weren't in the first row, it's like, let me give my tickets. Let me give my tickets. And hopefully that's a sign that they wanted to help and not that they didn't want to go to the game. But the response has been amazing. I'm so proud of Neil and I'm so proud of our players and everybody who has really volunteered, the fans, to get involved. It's really going to have a big impact.

WHITFIELD: And just leading up to the Saturday night game, have you heard from some of these military personnel about how excited they are about getting a chance to take on this opportunity?

CUBAN: Oh, yes, I get tons of e-mails from the military personnel themselves, their families, their friends, just thanking us. I mean, last year, the eight that came to a game got a standing ovation from 20,000 people. And you could just see the tears rolling down their cheeks. And you know, I'm sure it's going to be even more emotional this year. And you know, it's one of those things that so often we take our freedoms for granted. And to be able to give just a tiny bit back and to say thank you. I mean, it's going to have hopefully a lasting effect on everybody who's at the game at the American Airlines Center.

WHITFIELD: And this is seemingly icing on the cake there at that center. You already have a program, Fallen Patriots Fund, which helps out injured military personnel. Is it your feeling that, you know, this feeling of giving back to so many military men and women just is contagious and enough can't be done and that's why so many folks are deciding to pitch in, in so many various ways?

CUBAN: Exactly. I mean, again, we are so blessed in this country to be able to wake up and feel confident that our dreams can -- we can follow our dreams and not have to worry about what so many others go through in other parts of the world. And that's due to the fact that our service people are willing to risk their lives every single day and put it on the line just for us, just so we can wake up and smile and worry about our families instead of other things. And I think it's part of all our responsibilities to give something back and to show our appreciation.

And whether it's the Fallen Patriot Fund, which provides financial support to families who can't meet their bills, you know, who had families who are killed or seriously injured, or whether it's Neil Hawks standing up and saying, you know what, let's do something special, or American Airlines contributing a plane to fly them down, or our front row season tickets holders -- or all of our season ticket holders contributing, all of these little things add up to say thank you and this is the time of the year to do it.

WHITFIELD: You know, so many folks are so grateful. Well, let's shift gears a little bit and talk about one of the more recent incidents involving the NBA. Not your team or any of your team members, this "basket-brawl." Since that time, since the suspensions and since these charges have come down, assault and battery, have you or any of your coaches had any one-on-one heart-to-heart conversations with your team members to try to make sure something like this does not happen again and doesn't involve the Mavericks?

CUBAN: Yes. I mean, it's funny, when that brawl was going on, we were actually all in the locker room watching it, just freaking out. And it was right there and then, I said something to them. I said, look, guys, there are no circumstances with which that I would condone this happening. I don't care what went down. There's security. I'm there. You come and get me and I'll deal with the situation. And our guys were pretty aware and cognizant of the fact that what went on was wrong and it was an isolated incident. And then Don Nelson, our coach, had the same thing to say again. So it has been reinforced.

And you know what, that was a one-time incident...

WHITFIELD: So it doesn't worry you that it taints the image of the NBA overall?

CUBAN: You know what, not really, because in the five years that I've been in the league, there has been 10,000-plus games played and I've seen a whole lot more great things go on than this one isolated incident.

WHITFIELD: Great. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, thanks so much for joining us. CUBAN: My pleasure.

WHITFIELD: And I know the military personnel are going to be excited about that game, front row seats this Saturday between the Mavericks and the Hawks.

CUBAN: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, take care.

PHILLIPS: Coming up in LIVE FROM's homestretch...

WHITFIELD: The commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq briefing reporters live at the Pentagon. We'll bring it to you when it starts.

PHILLIPS: Also ahead, Nic Robertson on the latest tape from Osama bin Laden. That and more when LIVE FROM returns right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired December 16, 2004 - 14:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: The rush is on to get those holiday packages in the mail. UPS is getting ready for the holiday peak and the security issues that surround this busy time of year.
CNN's Keith Oppenheim is live from the busiest UPS hub in suburban Chicago.

Hello, Keith. Now you're inside.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm inside now. And the section that I'm in is called the bullfrog section. And it in a moment, I'll explain why it's called that.

It's an area for small parcels.

Now, keep in mind, all these parcels are loaded onto tractor- trailers. About half of those tractor-trailers hit the road. The other half are loaded onto trains.

In fact, we have pictures from the rail yard where you can see how the tractor trailers are loaded onto, in this case, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, which is the largest carrier for UPS. And they really haul some big loads.

And with us here inside is Alan Copeland from BNSF. Hi Alan.

ALAN COPELAND, BNSF RAILROAD: Hi, how are you?

OPPENHEIM: And give us a sense of why freight trains are so important in terms of parcel delivery.

COPELAND: Well, it's a great way of moving freight. You get 150 trailers on a train, it all gets to your destination at once. Fuel efficient way of moving the freight, too.

OPPENHEIM: Now how many cars are we talking about and what are the distances that these trains are going from Chicago?

COPELAND: Well, the trains can be about 7,000 feet long and they'll go up to -- our longest trains go to Northern California out of the facility next door.

OPPENHEIM: How long does it take for a train of that size to get out of here and make it to the West Coast?

COPELAND: Well, we have train schedules that are only 48 hours from Chicago to the Los Angeles area.

OPPENHEIM: We were talking math before and my understanding is that you have somewhere between maybe 1,000 and 2,000 packages inside one tractor trailer. But if you add all those train cars, you could have like a million packages on one train?

COPELAND: Yes, and it all gets there on time.

OPPENHEIM: Yes, that's the idea. Thank you very much, Alan. Now we're going to give you some general figures about what's going on in the parcel delivery business, which is extremely competitive. In this graphic, you can see that UPS is still the big daddy, with fifty- two percent of total market share. Behind is FedEx with twenty-seven percent. DHL, which bought out Airborne last year, has six percent. And United States Postal Service, competitive with thirteen percent.

All right, Fredricka, I promise to explain bullfrog. And for small parcels, what they do here is they use this conveyer system, which pops up the packages exactly at the right time so they will go where they're supposed to go. In some cases, the packages are put into little parcels and those parcels are then delivered onto the trucks or trains to go to their precise destination. And this is the name of the game in the package delivery business, especially this time of year, to get things where to they need to go on time. Back to you - Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: A little ribbit there. All right. Well, Keith Oppenheim, thanks so much. And I bet you in some of those packages is one of these hottest items this holiday season, the iPod. And guess what, if you don't have one by now for that loved one, you just might be out of business.

Susan Lisovicz is in New York. Boy, they are the hot item, huh?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, "FINANCIAL NEWS": They are. The problem here, Fred, isn't shipping, it's making them, manufacturing. They just can't simply make them fast enough. You'd think they were giving them away. Fredricka, we told you it would be a hot item, so hot in fact, it's now hard to find, the apple iPod flying off store shelves. Some models of the digital music are virtually sold out at Best Buy, Amazon.com and other major retailer. Since its last three years ago, Apple has sold nearly six million of its iPods and it's gaining in popularity. Some analysts expect four million units to be sold this holiday season alone. So if you're in a panic listening to this, consider ordering from Apple directly, either at its own retail stores or online. Apple says it's trying to keep up with the frenzy, it says that it's making and shipping iPods as fast as it can and it's happy to do so.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LISOVICZ: Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: I know Apple's very happy about that. All right, well, you're heading to your holiday party, you need directions. No longer is it just about Mapquest, but maybe Yahoo! is in on the action.

LISOVICZ: A lot of competition there. And some updates, a real milestone. Because these driving directions won't send you straight into a massive traffic jam. Yahoo! is offering a new service that lets users check out live traffic conditions while creating maps to their destinations. The additional data gives drivers traffic data such as actual road speeds and potential delays. The service can be found at Yahoo! maps. So that's something different and new.

Looks like the recent stock market rally, however, has hit the go slow sign today. Dow industrials off by 5 points at 10,686. Nasdaq down three quarters of a percent. And that's the very latest from Wall Street. Stay tuned. LIVE FROM rolls on after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, let's play ball, shall we? Well, it takes on a whole new meaning in some Major League baseball deals. The Montreal Expos plan to move to Washington, D.C. Well, apparently now that plan is in jeopardy. And pitcher Pedro Martinez leaves the Bo Sox to become a New York Met. CNN Sport's Steve Overmyer joins me with some details on that. It certainly seemed like it was a done deal with D.C. What happened?

STEVE OVERMYER, CNN SPORTS: Now the rug kind of seems like it's been pulled out from underneath the city...

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh.

OVERMYER: I mean, the team's operations have moved to D.C., the team has been renamed from the Montreal Expos to the Washington Nationals. They're even selling Nationals' logoed merchandise. But now, the deal might be dead. Here's what happened. The D.C. City Council has always agreed upon the terms that baseball has asked for, a fully, publicly-financed stadium. However, Tuesday night, the city council voted to fund only half of the $531 million stadium, going against what they agreed upon back in September.

That nixes the deal with baseball. The Nationals have now shut down business operations and promotions in the city. Baseball says the deal is not acceptable and the Expos' move to D.C. is now on the verge of collapse. The saving grace, though, here, Fredricka, is the fact that the deal won't be dead until December 31st. So if the council can approve a fully publicly-financed stadium by then, the team stays in D.C.

WHITFIELD: Oh my god.

OVERMYER: But they've only got about 10 days...

WHITFIELD: It's remarkable. All that merchandise is already a collector's item and they haven't even thrown out the first pitch.

OVERMYER: They haven't even played an actual game in D.C. and so we don't even know if they will play one there.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. And then they have to make some changes in order to have an acceptable deal by the end of the month.

OVERMYER: Absolutely. This has all got to be done by December 31st or baseball will start looking at other cities. And one of the possible cities they're actually looking at, one of the leading contenders for the team to move to, could possibly be Las Vegas.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh, OK, that's another day, we'll talk about that one. That would be amazing. All right, let's talk about pitcher Pedro now. You got to wonder if the Bo Sox fans, or at least the Bo Sox fans, are a little perturbed with him.

OVERMYER: I wonder how he's going to be reacted to, I guess, in New York. He's the toast of New York right now. At least for the New York Mets. The pitcher has helped lead the Boston Red Sox to their first World Series title in 86 years. The man who threw Yankees' coach Don Zimmer to the ground, one of the most hated athletes in New York, will now make the Big Apple his home.

Pedro Martinez makes a four year, $53 million deal with the New York Mets. He's already figured out how to handle the media already in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEDRO MARTINEZ, FMR. BOSTON RED SOX PITCHER: People that are thinking negative and actually thinking that they're going to make me look bad, you guys have the power of the pen. You guys have enough to talk about and I don't see why -- I've never gotten a ticket, I've never been in jail. I don't know why would I be in bad shape with the city?

QUESTION: You started 33 games last year, which tied a career high. Yet in the off season, everything seemed to center on your shoulder. Why do you think that is?

MARTINEZ: Because of the crap that you guys have been talking. Next question.

QUESTION: Pedro, Pedro.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OVERMYER: He's ready to fire darts. Pedro Martinez is 33 years old. Last year -- again, he got 33 starts, so he's a very durable player. And we've seen obviously with Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson, you know, Roger Clemens, guys can pitch into their 40s. So he has still got plenty of gas left in the tank.

WHITFIELD: Big money as well, $53 million over four years, that's remarkable.

OVERMEYER: We'll see what happens if the Mets and the Red Sox meet in the World Series. That will be interesting.

WHITFIELD: That will be interesting. All right, thanks a lot, Steve. OVERMEYER: Sure.

WHITFIELD: Kyra.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A case of tough love gone too far? A 5-year-old kindergarten pupil is handcuffed by police for misbehaving. His family is outraged. Now an investigation is under way into how it all happened. The details from our Betsey Bruce of affiliate KTVI.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Then he put the -- handcuffed me behind my back.

BETSEY BRUCE, KTVI REPORTER (voice-over): Five-year-old Jerome Staples shows how a police officer handcuffed him on November 30th.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now every night I've got to deal with him saying he don't want to go to school because he's scared he's going to go to jail if he acts up. I mean, I just don't appreciate the handcuffs in the back of a police car.

BRUCE: Jerome and his older brother Emmit had been students at Thurgood Marshall Charter School in North St. Louis. Both his mother and his godmother say their principal told them he was having some problems adjusting to school.

TERREKA JONES, JEROME'S GODMOTHER: He said Jerome had not been listening and following directions. And I was -- we were aware of that because we had a meeting with him before. And in the midst of the meeting, he still never stated that he had been handcuffed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My 7-year-old came home, said he looked out the window and saw Jerome kicking and scream and crying, that they were going to take him to jail and that's when I looked (ph) more (ph) into it.

BRUCE: Thurgood Marshall school uses public funds and is sponsored by a UMSL. Today the university issued this statement, quote: "In general, the university would never find handcuffing a 5- year-old as acceptable or appropriate. St. Louis City police and school's board of directors are investigating.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the principal of the school is now on administrative leave.

Next on LIVE FROM, he's the outspoken money man with a hot basketball team. Dallas Maverick Mark Cuban join us with a heartwarming story and his thoughts on the latest basketball scandal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: As we celebrate the season, CNN is linking up with soldiers in Iraq with loved ones here at home. We call it "Holiday Home Front."

Here's Jack Cafferty.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON PENDER, SPECIALIST: I'm an intel analyst. We actually work in a room with no windows, but we decorated it real nice for Christmas. We probably will spend the day working, though. There's no real breaks here.

CAFFERTY: I've got your wife and one of your children and your dad on a different satellite coming out of Cincinnati. Katie Pender is with us. How do you handle three kids with him that far away? I mean, that's yeoman's work if there are two parents at home.

KATIE PENDER, WIFE OF SPEC. JASON PENDER: It has been a great blessing to have my family and his dad and stepmom around. They have been a tremendous help.

CAFFERTY: You've got a 5-year-old, Michaela (ph) I think is her name. She's old enough to understand a little bit about what's going on. How do you handle the fact that her dad's away at war?

K. PENDER: Well, I think it helps that we are able to talk as often as we are. She knows that daddy's in Iraq. We talk about, you know, that he's there. We pray for him every night, so that she, you know, has an opportunity to talk about him and, you know, pray that he's going to be okay and going to be safe. And I keep pictures of him around so that she and Alex (ph) and Shawn (ph), when he gets a little bit bigger, can see him every day so that they don't forget what he looks like.

CAFFERTY: Gary, let me ask you, you spent time in Vietnam. What goes through your mind when you see the pictures coming out of Iraq and the fact that you've got a son over there in that theater?

GARY PENDER, FATHER OF SPEC. JASON PENDER: Great concern, actually. Having lived through the Vietnam War, having actually lost a brother in Vietnam, there's a lot of concern, a lot of prayers for both Jason and his comrades in arms. You know, we still feel it's the right mission at this point in time, but it's different when you have a son that's right in the heart of it.

K. PENDER: How you doing, honey?

J. PENDER: I'm doing great. How are you guys?

K. PENDER: Oh, we're doing OK. We're hanging in there. Well, you look good!

G. PENDER: Yes, you do. You do look good.

K. PENDER: You look really good.

J. PENDER: Thank you. CAFFERTY: Jason, hang on one sec, you know what, we're going to bring the kids in.

K. PENDER: You wish Daddy a merry Christmas?

MICHAELA (ph) PENDER, DAUGHTER OF SPEC. JASON PENDER: Yes.

K. PENDER: Well, tell, Daddy.

G. PENDER: Say merry Christmas, Daddy.

K. PENDER: Can you say merry Christmas?

M. PENDER: Merry Christmas, Daddy.

G. PENDER: You hear her, Jason?

J. PENDER: Merry Christmas, Michaela.

M. PENDER: Daddy, can you come home for Christmas? Can you?

J. PENDER: I don't think so, darling. I'm here helping other people. OK?

K. PENDER: He's helping out everybody else right now. He'll come home.

G. PENDER: But he loves you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to have more of these segments throughout the holiday season.

So do you want to go to the Dallas Mavericks game this weekend? Fred, you going to go? I know you've got a connection.

WHITFIELD: It would be nice.

PHILLIPS: Yes, it would.

WHITFIELD: Maybe this guy can hook us up.

PHILLIPS: Maybe Mark Cuban can hook us -- well, you know what, I think we have to be able to wear a uniform, though.

WHITFIELD: Yes, we do. At least to get a front row seat.

PHILLIPS: You're going to tell us about it after the break, Mark?

MARK CUBAN, OWNER, DALLAS MAVERICKS: Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: All right, stay tuned, everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Well, it's one way of saying thanks to the troops, 140 wounded fighters will get front row seats for the Dallas Mavericks basketball game against the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. All that thanks to the generosity of the team's season ticket holders. Joining me now with more on this magnanimous gesture, among other things, Dallas Mavericks' owner, Mark Cuban. Good to see you, Mark.

CUBAN: Glad to be here.

WHITFIELD: Well, this really was started by one particular season ticket holder, Neil Hawks (ph)...

CUBAN: Right.

WHITFIELD: ... and then you got wind of this idea how?

CUBAN: Neil is a good friend of mine. We spent some time together. He's close to our family. And so Neil suggested it to us and I just thought it was one of the best ideas I'd ever heard. And actually, he did it on a smaller scale last year. And he had -- he brought, I think, eight injured soldiers. And it had such an emotional impact on all of us. The team and the fans in the stands, that we really wanted to help them expand it this year.

WHITFIELD: That's so great. And so word spread among all the other front row seat ticket holders and...

CUBAN: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: ... it sounds as though this was so easy to get everyone to cooperate to just give up their tickets.

CUBAN: Oh yes, we've had people volunteering. It's like, even if they weren't in the first row, it's like, let me give my tickets. Let me give my tickets. And hopefully that's a sign that they wanted to help and not that they didn't want to go to the game. But the response has been amazing. I'm so proud of Neil and I'm so proud of our players and everybody who has really volunteered, the fans, to get involved. It's really going to have a big impact.

WHITFIELD: And just leading up to the Saturday night game, have you heard from some of these military personnel about how excited they are about getting a chance to take on this opportunity?

CUBAN: Oh, yes, I get tons of e-mails from the military personnel themselves, their families, their friends, just thanking us. I mean, last year, the eight that came to a game got a standing ovation from 20,000 people. And you could just see the tears rolling down their cheeks. And you know, I'm sure it's going to be even more emotional this year. And you know, it's one of those things that so often we take our freedoms for granted. And to be able to give just a tiny bit back and to say thank you. I mean, it's going to have hopefully a lasting effect on everybody who's at the game at the American Airlines Center.

WHITFIELD: And this is seemingly icing on the cake there at that center. You already have a program, Fallen Patriots Fund, which helps out injured military personnel. Is it your feeling that, you know, this feeling of giving back to so many military men and women just is contagious and enough can't be done and that's why so many folks are deciding to pitch in, in so many various ways?

CUBAN: Exactly. I mean, again, we are so blessed in this country to be able to wake up and feel confident that our dreams can -- we can follow our dreams and not have to worry about what so many others go through in other parts of the world. And that's due to the fact that our service people are willing to risk their lives every single day and put it on the line just for us, just so we can wake up and smile and worry about our families instead of other things. And I think it's part of all our responsibilities to give something back and to show our appreciation.

And whether it's the Fallen Patriot Fund, which provides financial support to families who can't meet their bills, you know, who had families who are killed or seriously injured, or whether it's Neil Hawks standing up and saying, you know what, let's do something special, or American Airlines contributing a plane to fly them down, or our front row season tickets holders -- or all of our season ticket holders contributing, all of these little things add up to say thank you and this is the time of the year to do it.

WHITFIELD: You know, so many folks are so grateful. Well, let's shift gears a little bit and talk about one of the more recent incidents involving the NBA. Not your team or any of your team members, this "basket-brawl." Since that time, since the suspensions and since these charges have come down, assault and battery, have you or any of your coaches had any one-on-one heart-to-heart conversations with your team members to try to make sure something like this does not happen again and doesn't involve the Mavericks?

CUBAN: Yes. I mean, it's funny, when that brawl was going on, we were actually all in the locker room watching it, just freaking out. And it was right there and then, I said something to them. I said, look, guys, there are no circumstances with which that I would condone this happening. I don't care what went down. There's security. I'm there. You come and get me and I'll deal with the situation. And our guys were pretty aware and cognizant of the fact that what went on was wrong and it was an isolated incident. And then Don Nelson, our coach, had the same thing to say again. So it has been reinforced.

And you know what, that was a one-time incident...

WHITFIELD: So it doesn't worry you that it taints the image of the NBA overall?

CUBAN: You know what, not really, because in the five years that I've been in the league, there has been 10,000-plus games played and I've seen a whole lot more great things go on than this one isolated incident.

WHITFIELD: Great. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, thanks so much for joining us. CUBAN: My pleasure.

WHITFIELD: And I know the military personnel are going to be excited about that game, front row seats this Saturday between the Mavericks and the Hawks.

CUBAN: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, take care.

PHILLIPS: Coming up in LIVE FROM's homestretch...

WHITFIELD: The commander of the U.S. forces in Iraq briefing reporters live at the Pentagon. We'll bring it to you when it starts.

PHILLIPS: Also ahead, Nic Robertson on the latest tape from Osama bin Laden. That and more when LIVE FROM returns right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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