The Vig

The Greg Oden injury put Portland front and center on the sports map last week. Outlets from ESPN, to Sports Illustrated, to AOL, to The Big Lead were chock full of commentary on the injury and what it means to the Blazer franchise. Knees and micro-fracture surgery both give fans the heebie jeebies and when its your franchise savior who’s knee just had the micro-fracture performed…well, pardon us if we go a little overboard.

Casey Holdahl had an excellent rundown of local and national reaction on Friday. Much ink was spilled and bandwidth consumed. One link Holdahl left out was Canzano. JC, as is his habit, zigged when the rest of the nation zagged. Rather than give us any insight into what happened or thoughts about where we go from here, Canzano gave us The Birdman. I don’t get it. JC gets 750 words three-times-a-week to talk sports. Instead, more often than not, he’s giving us “life lessons”.

Like the time earlier this summer when he was dispatched to the All-Star Game in San Francisco and came back with the story of Anne Marie Feigner. There were so many other things to talk about down there. Ichiro. Bonds. Heck. Even a column about how the Giants stabbed the A’s in the back and forced them into the South Bay would have been an interesting story. At least that would have justified the expense of sending him down.

There are countless other examples of Canzano writing about down on their luck sports fans, imploring us to write checks and send donations. I’m getting really tired of it. The Oregonian is a big paper, filled with reporters and columnists who’s job it is to give me “perspective.” Now they’re letting their #1 sports columnist become Margie Boulé-lite.

Add to that the fact Canzano’s now moonlighting as talk show host for the Paul Allen owned KXL. I’ve commented on the strained ethics of the deal elsewhere. No one has come up with a satisfactory explanation as to why it’s alright to take a paycheck from an organization you’re being paid by someone else to cover, but whatever. JC says he has complete editorial control, so I guess I’ll believe him. I do wonder though about the timing of the deep tongue kiss he gave the Blazers just before his radio show started. Will he continue to play footsie with the Blazers in print while chiding them on the radio? How long Fred and Sandy will put up with that?

I left a comment on his blog wondering whether his status as a Vulcan employee was clouding the content of his column (djsaladplate, an homage to another local sports guy’s recent weight loss, will now be retired in favor of the much simpler snethen). You’ll have to trust me on that. Seems JC edited that part out, then called me his friend. The comment, as I recall, was something to the effect of “nothing to see here, so says the Blazer employee/Oregonian columnist.” Pretty tame, if you ask me. I’ve left other comments for him, all as djsaladplate, suggesting a local Murrow Award winning journalist might be better suited to cover his subject matter and could we please get back to talking sports. Those have never made the cut.

Having blogged for nearly 4 years now, I can say I’ve whacked my share of comments. I’ve even banned a guy who can’t get it through his head that this isn’t Romper Room. I’ve yet to edit any comment that’s taken a direct shot at me though. You’re either in or you’re out (mostly in, unless your curse). Deleting a comment is one thing, but editing a comment to make yourself look better is not cool. Welcome to Canzano’s world.

My time as a sports fan is limited. I’m not alone in making that observation. I’m getting tired of turning on my radio or opening my paper hoping I’ll find commentary on my favorite team only to be greeted with Debbie Downer or worse. If Canzano wants to be Steve Duin, then by all means go be Steve Duin. There are hundreds of young hungry journalists out there who would kill to write a regular sports column. Maybe it’s time to give one of them a shot and let Canzano go chase his dream.

Update:  You can check out some contrary views here and here.