The Vig

One of the greatest times of my life was my two years as resident adviser at Southern Oregon State College in the early 90s. I made some great friends, many of whom I’ve begun to reconnect with through Facebook, and learned lessons I carry with me to this day.  We had two wonderful leaders in Joe Fisher and Mark Ianuzzo.  It’s because of those great memories that it’s hard to wrap my head around this story.  Folks down south have great things to say about Kolacek, and I’m sure they’re all true.  But stealing funds meant for student activities isn’t cool.  I hope there hasn’t been too much damage done.

Rumors out if the Hawk camp this afternoon suggest the front office was let go. If true, it’s a dark day in Hawk history. This does not bode well for the future of the franchise, either in Portland or elsewhere. It’s time for the league to step in and take over.

Update: Well, it’s true. The two J’s have cleaned house and slashed their payroll down to next to zero. The question now is what did the league office know and when? And what does the league office do now? There’s an outside audit of the books due to be conducted in the next several days, the purpose of which is unclear. There remain, as of this morning, dozens of unpaid bills and many upset vendors. League president Ron Robison has cast his lot with the two J’s. He may be in for a shock over the next several days as the depth of the Hawks’ leadership and finance crises is discovered.

The organization has spent the last few seasons trading on the names and reputations of its employees. From it’s inception, the Winter Hawks have always been a mom-and-pop operation where deals were more likely done via handshake than by contract. You can thank Dean Vrooman for the majority of that goodwill. He’s gone. And now so is the rest of their goodwill crew. Like Vrooman, I expect those let go today will take the high road, at least publicly. Fans all know those were decent, hardworking employees that were let go this morning.

Without their human capital, it’s difficult to see how the organization can continue. Apparently there’s a deal in place to move the franchise to Salem by 2010. All that stands in the way is about $2 million in improvements to the Expo Center on the state fairgrounds. Will they be able to make it that long? Or will they simply fold-up the tents and try and reconstitute themselves in two years? I’m guessing they’ll do their best to limp along.

They’ll be doing it without me. I love hockey and I love the Winter Hawks, but the combination of today’s firings and the impending move to Salem has me at the end of my rope. I don’t see how I can pour my heart out for an organization this poorly managed, and one planning to rip my heart out by moving 50 miles away from my home.

Andy offers his thoughts here. Dylan B. here.

What if it were Darius Miles who was caught playing pick-up hoops rather than Oden? After the shock had worn off that D-Miles had gotten off the couch long enough to actually visit the gym, would they praise or criticize him? Would anyone care?

Springsteen: There’s not a lot to add that Jack hasn’t said already (Part 1, 2, 3). It probably escaped most folks’ notice, but Rose Garden Poo Bah Mike Scanlon was at the north entrance as fans entered the arena on Friday night. That guy runs a tight ship. Few details get past him. As for the show… I laughed, I cried, I called Betty with Sunglasses. The highlights for me were “Lonesome Day”, “She’s the One”, and “Lost in the Flood”. Oh, and I may have cried during “The Rising”. I sort of wish I’d taken a seat rather than being on the floor. The energy down there was great and all, but I couldn’t quite take in the whole spectacle. I love watching Max do his thing, for example, but for whatever reason, I couldn’t concentrate on him. Too many other distractions. It was fun, though, to watch Charlie Giordano flip frantically through his song book as Bruce audibled “For You” and “Lost in the Flood” back-to-back. Giordano, filling in for Brother Danny Federici as he battles cancer, spent most of the evening looking out into the crowd, clearly enjoying his time with the band, but for those two tunes, his eyes were glued to his book. I thought he did a great job. Props also to Gary W. Tallent who came down and sang back-up on “American Land”.  I also ran into my friends Brad and The Tin Man.  They were there with their wives and friends.  One of the friends evidently coaches Springsteen’s son, so everyone in their party were wearing backstage passes.  Unfortunately, I didn’t make the cut.  *sigh*

Tall in the Saddle:  There was a Star Wars-esque plot twist in the fifth act wherein it turned out the hottie I was hoping The Duke would end up with was actually his cousin.  Instead he got Ella Raines.  Not a bad consolation prize, I suppose.  The movie also featured Gabby Hayes as “Dave”, one of the few times he played a character not named Gabby.  As usual he got the best line of the movie.

“She’s meaner than a skillet full of rattlesnakes.”

As Pete in Parkrose mentioned, I think I may have dated her at one point.

Man City:  The Blues have slid all the way down to 9th place in the table.  Safely out of relegation, but also safely out of European contention.  They’ve been a frustrating team all season.  They’ve shown an ability to go run with the big dogs, but then they get beat 3:1 at bottom-dwelling Birmingham.  I don’t get it.

Jim Norton:  I should have known it wouldn’t be my kind of show when I saw all the KUFO banners hanging in the lobby of the Winningstad Theatre.  But I was such a fan of his HBO special, I wanted to get out and support him.  I thought he was a young up and comer.  Turns out, he’s a regular with Opie and Anthony.  Now that’s a show I don’t get.  I knew we were in trouble when he went straight to relationship talk straight out of the chute.  He does the same thing on his Letterman appearance.  Lame, lame, lame.  And from there it just got worse.  And by worse, I mean the little old ladies who were acting as ushers were shocked.  It was the first night for one of them.  Two other ladies had to reassure her that not every show and not every crowd was “this bad”.  Norton did have a pretty good opener though by the name of Al Jackson.  You can see him here.  Comedy is a tricky thing.  There’s not a lot that separates them from musicians like Springsteen.  Every joke to a comedian is like a song to Springsteen.  The difference is while I love to hear Bruce break out the old tunes when I see him, I don’t want to see a comedian break out the same jokes every time I see them.  The only exception I can think of is Andrew Dice Clay.  Hmmm….  Just something I’ve been rolling over in my head.

Major League Baseball:  Diamondbacks over the Red Sox in six.  That’s based on nothing but pure speculation.  And any guess you make is based on the same thing.

The Big Lebowski:  I made the mistake of having three White Russians before the show last night.  I couldn’t get off the couch at all today.  Yes, this makes me a lightweight.  I don’t drink.  Like ever.  I figured if Jeffery Lebowski could guzzle Caucasians by the bucket load in that movie, then certainly I could do the same in real life.  Turns out I was wrong.  Lesson learned.

I don’t know who he is, but he nailed it.

Before you click here, you must register your guess below.  I’d give you a hint, but any hint I give would make the whole exercise too easy.

Let’s just say … former Blazer.

See?  You already know!

HT:  Deadspin.

In Seattle, all heck broke loose for a couple of minutes.

It’s a matter of time, of course, before Portland hipsters decide to have a giant pillow fight in Pioneer Square. It’ll be just like that day a bunch of folks “froze” in front of Powell’s. Because, of course, that had never been done before either.

From Gregg Drinnan’s Taking Note blog this morning:

The Radio Wars going on between the two cities has gotten comical. After Drive morning show host Steve Russell phone Medicine Hat area golf courses looking for tee-times for the Tigers on Wednesday morning a Hat radio station personality phoned the Drive this morning saying that he was Ice forward Dustin Sylvester and that he had missed the bus to Medicine Hat. The Drive went on the air asking if someone could give Sylvester a ride to Medicine Hat. At 8 a.m., Ice players received text messages on their cell phones asking if Sylvester was really not with the team. Sylvester was obviously with the team and went on to score a goal and an assist, garnering first star honours.

It’ll be fun when we can start doing that with Trail Blazer playoff opponents again.

I got sucked into John Wayne’s “Tall in the Saddle” this morning on TCM but had to leave about a half-hour before the end. So here I am at Fry’s, picking it up for $7.99 on dvd just to find out how it ends. How dumb am I?

From this morning’s O.

“Baseball,” says Chris Metz, a Beavers spokesman, “is about nostalgia.”

Sure it is, Chris. That’s why Thirsty Thursday is your biggest draw.

Seriously though, I love baseball and its history as much as the next guy, and I’m planning to spend a lot of time at PGE Park this summer. But this whole attitude that we go to the ballpark to recapture some bygone era is a bunch of Boomer hooey.

Update:  An alert reader reminds me that one of Merritt Paulson’s first acts as Beavers owner was to gauge our interest in changing the team’s nickname.  That’s a guy who loves nostalgia.