The Vig

During Rob Neyer’s conversation with Michael Lewis at Powell’s last year, Lewis lamented the fact that tons of people, especially in business, completely missed the point of his book Moneyball.  It wasn’t about finding fat catchers or paying less to get more results.  It was about something much more esoteric.  It was about understanding your goals and finding the most productive means to achieving them, whether the crowd agreed with you or not.

Much has been made this election cycle about my man Obama and his army of fundraisers.  Guys like me who are giving $25/month.  “It’s Moneyball!”, they cry.  Far from it.  In fact, when Obama declared he was giving up matching funds for his campaign, Republicans were quick to point out that something like 70% of Obama’s money came from contributors who’ve given over $250, or some such number.  The implication being that he’s getting money from the rich.  Well, guess what?  Last month I gave my tenth $25 donation to Obama.  That puts me in that select group.  Am I rich?  Ummm…no.

Back to my point.  This is what political Moneyball looks like.  It’s simple yet powerful.  And could change the debate in this country.

[Former tobacco lobbyist Ted] Trimpa cited the example of Barack Obama: an attractive candidate, solid on gay rights, and viscerally exciting to donors. It feels good to write him a check. An analysis of Obama’s 2004 Senate race, which he won by nearly fifty points, had determined that gays contributed more than $500,000. “The temptation is always to swoon for the popular candidate,” Trimpa told me, “but a fraction of that money, directed at the right state and local races, could have flipped a few chambers. ‘Just because he’s cute’ isn’t a strategy.”

Together, Gill and Trimpa decided to eschew national races in favor of state and local ones, which could be influenced in large batches and for much less money. Most antigay measures, they discovered, originate in state legislatures. Operating at that level gave them a chance to “punish the wicked,” as Gill puts it—to snuff out rising politicians who were building their careers on antigay policies, before they could achieve national influence.

See?  Way more influence for much less money.  And it pays dividends down the road by keeping the righties from gaining any influence and running for higher office.  Fascinating.

TeacherRefPoet has a fantastic post up about the difficulty of finding a church home.

And if you must have a praise band…Do NOT…do NOT…do NOT clap on one and three. At one of the churches we tried, everybody did. The band, the minister, the congregation…everyone. They all started at the same time, which led me to believe that they did this every single week. They do the white-guy clap every single week.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The praise band is the single worst development in worship in my lifetime.  Worse than the acting.  Worse than the admonitions to tithe.  Worse than anything.  In fact, two decades ago, when I was putting together my list of requirements in a church, #1 was no bass guitar.  Period, end of sentence.  If you want to go join Led Zeppelin, go join Led Zeppelin and leave me to worship quietly and reverently.

The other thing I’ve had a difficult time getting past is the use of overhead projectors and Power Point during singing.  There used to be this terrific thing called a hymnal.  I would be instructed to open it to a particular page, and we’d sing along with the organist.  It was fine.  And respectful.  Now, we all have to stand and read along with a computer.  Is it wrong?  Probably not.  But it sure is annoying.

I’m turning into Andy Rooney.  I don’t care.

I did finally find a place where I felt comfortable when I lived down in Lake Oswego.  It was Lake Bible and it was fantastic.  There was no hard selling.  There was no one calling me thrice each week to let me know about the Men’s barbecue.  It was just a bunch of folks who gathered to worship and hear some great preaching.  Not stomp around and tell you about Hellfire and brinstone and such, but practical preaching from a guy who knows his stuff.

Now, I did have to compromise on both the bass guitar and the Power Point, but I quickly figured out that I could use that time to pray and meditate.  No one ever looked sideways at me.  And when I had a question for Pastor Andrews, I simply emailed him Monday morning, and the answer was back in my inbox that afternoon.  Convenient!

Unfortunately I quit going when I moved over here to The Couv.  Just another reason to move back down to Clackamas County, I guess.

Once again the basketball side of the house seems to have gone into hyperdrive on draft night and accomplished some things.  Everyone thought Pritchard would zig his way up into the top-five and make a huge splash, instead he zagged right where he was, unloaded the awful Jarrett Jack on an unsuspecting Indiana (payback for the O’Neal deal) and brought back a real point guard, along with Ike Diago, who will hopefully get packaged with Raef LaFrentz’s expiring contract to bring back someone to replace James Jones.  These are all things, of course, which are out of your control.  I’m not here to discuss any of that.

I’m here to talk to you about what you can control.  And what you can control is your team’s image in the community.  Yeah, you’ve got great players and great human beings.  Greg Oden is just a 7-foot 14-year-old who you’d love to set your daughter up with.  I get it.  Your problem isn’t there.  It’s with the guys presenting your product to the public.  Specifically your radio crew.  They’re awful.  And more importantly, they don’t care that they’re awful.  And that’s unacceptable. Especially when so many other things are going well for your franchise.

Listening to the team’s draft coverage last night on the drive crawl home to the Couv brought it all home for me.  Mike Rice couldn’t keep any of the names in the draft straight.  He kept calling Brook Lopez “Brooks” and mixed up players names for the entire hour I listened.  Larry, you pay these guys to get this stuff right, don’t you?  Isn’t that why they’re in broadcasting?  Does Rice spend any time working on pronunciations?  Or figuring out where these guys go to school?  Or anything?  And forget the Courtside show.  He doesn’t give two hoots about it and will go on weekly and tell you exactly how little he cares.  Why then do you let him on the air?  There are literally hundreds of other people out there, professionals with degrees and such, who would kill to get that gig and do it ten-times better.  Heck Rebecca Haarlow, for all her faults, at least tries.  Give her Rice’s gig and send him out to pasture.

As bad as Rice is, he doesn’t hold a candle to Antonio Harvey.  Rice, I think, goes off of notes.  Bad notes.  But they exist.  Harvey just wings it.  Listening to him on the radio is like watching a celebrity take batting practice.  Wheeler will lob him a softball, and he’ll drive it straight into the ground.  That’s when he makes contact.  Usually he’ll just flail around for a few seconds and hope Wheeler can make sense of whatever just happened.  It sounds terrible.  I’d like a little insight into what the heck is going on in the game.  Harvey gives me zero.  And listening to him try and deconstruct the draft tonight was just hopeless.  All it was was a bunch of nonsensical jokes and laughing.  And like Rice, you’re paying him too.

Larry, Portland fans have always prided themselves on cheering for a first-class organization.  One that treats them with respect.  Blazer fans are as knowledgeable as they are passionate.  It’s time you recognize that.  Dump Harvey and Rice, and bring in some professionals.  Your fans deserve better.

Jack and Jill Politics bestows a high honor on Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold.

Last week, Dwight Jaynes mentioned there was a surprising and comforting name floating around out there who wanted to “rescue the Hawks”.  This morning, Jaynes comes out with the name.  Brent Peterson.  For those not familiar, he played for the Hawks back in the 70s, coached them in the 90s, winning one Memorial Cup, and is now associate coach in Nashville.

This is a stunner.  A surprising and comforting one.  And adding Peter Jacobsen to the mix is just icing on the cake.  This group has both the financial firepower and business savvy to get the franchise turned around in a hurry.  Jacobsen knows everyone in this town, and could set up a first class operation at all levels.

The problem here is Jim “The Winner” Goldsmith.  In his world, there’s a winner and, more improtantly, a loser in every transaction.  Guess which one he is.  So does he do the right thing here and turn over the reigns in time for the new group to bulk the front office up for the new season?  Or does he fly the whole enterprise into the mountain, screwing the franchise, its fans, and the league?  Talking with a friend earlier this week, neither of us could imagine him holding on to the franchise into the season.  But then, my friend cautioned, no one is quite sure how he held on to it last season either, so dire was the financial situation.

So Peterson and company are playing it cool, content to let The Winner twist in the wind.  Will Jimmy pick up the phone and call Peterson or Jacobsen next month?  Seems like it might be a wise thing to do.

Both sports talk radio and the interwebs have lately become fascinated with lists.  They’re both easy to create and guaranteed to start a discussion, which, come to think of it, are the goals of both sports talk radio and Web 2.0.  I try to ignore them because they’re pointless, but every now and then one comes along that makes me seriously wonder how people justify their paychecks.  SI.com’s Chris Mannix published one such list yesterday.  His list scraps the entire league, wipes the slate clean, and starts from scratch, using this year’s draft order as a jumping off point.

Hoo boy.

He has Portland taking Gilbert Arenas at #13.  Talk about wiping the slate clean!  Let’s all forget how he dissed Portland’s coach a while back and declared he’d drop 50 on McMillan every chance he’d get.  So I guess teams would all get new coaches as well.  Perhaps Mannix could come up with a coach draft next.

As if the Arenas pick wasn’t laughable enough, he has Golden State picking Greg Oden at #14, right behind the Blazers.  The entire city of Portland would have to be put into therapy if something like that were to happen.  Silliness.

Fortunately we’re “stuck” with the franchise we have.  Things look pretty good right now and promise to be even better by this time tomorrow night.  In Pritchard I trust.

Exactly how much electoral trouble is he in?

I’ll be busy this weekend, otherwise I might make the drive down for sci-fi night at the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes game.  I wonder if Cousin Joe will be there.

That’s the interest rate on John McCain’s credit card.  For a guy worth married to that much money, you’d think he might have a better rate.  Or a better system to remind himself when the payment is due.

If you believe their website, the new Hold Steady record drops on July 14th.  Cruising around iTunes Saturday afternoon, I found the new album, Stay Positive, already for sale.  I have no idea why.  Not complaining, mind you, I just don’t understand how any of this works anymore.

Anywho, The Hold Steady will return to The Crystal on July 27th.  You will find me right in front of the keyboard, enjoying the show within the show that is Franz Nicolay.

If you’d like a taste of what you’ll miss, check out this live set recorded just a few weeks ago on the World Cafe.