The Vig

I grabbed a grip of magnet schedules at the Winter Hawks game Saturday night.  I like to pass them around the office and get people a little fired up to go see a game.  It’s the funniest damned thing in this town.  Anytime I mention the Hawks to someone I know, they tell me a story about the last time they went to a game.  The story is always the same…a bunch of friends, much beer, some stuff happens, and everyone promises to do it again.  It’s the same story over and over again.  There’s never a word about the team, in fact it’s assumed that the Hawks are a) good and b) NHL.  When they arrive at the arena, they’re momentarily shocked to learn there’s a city in Canada named Moose Jaw.  They’re even more surprised to learn it’s in a province called Saskatchewan. None of this matters once the puck drops. Then it becomes about cheering for the home team and drinking beer.

For whatever reason the Goldsmith group never figured this out.  Actually I’m convinced they did know it, but they didn’t care.  Jimmy wasn’t going to spend money to make money.  He could have drawn 7,500 a night in the Coliseum if he’d wanted to.  But he wasn’t interested in that.  He was going to fund his team from the other 300 available nights at the Coliseum.  He wanted to use profits from running the building to run his team.  He ran into too many road blocks and burned way too many bridges for that to pan out.  He got what he wanted down in Salem, but the league wasn’t going to allow that to happen.  Once it became clear this summer that he was out of options, he capitulated.  If you can call doubling your money in three years capitulation.

So as I sat there Saturday night looking for Dylan B., who was with his family, and John G., who was no doubt out living the G fantasy, I perused the schedule.  Saturday night would be my last game until November.  I’ll be in San Diego the 9th through the 13th for Betty with Sunglass’ wedding.  I read today on the O-Live forum that Saturday night was likely my last Goldsmith game.  Kind of fitting, I suppose, as I believe the first game under Goldsmith was also a 5-0 loss at the hands of Vancouver.  I could be wrong about that, but I think that’s right.

I’m definitely in the “anything is better than these clowns” camp, but at the same time, this does mean the end of an era.  Hodge is out.  Innes too.  It’s the end of the family era of the Winter Hawks, the only management style it’s ever known.  Coming in are some shrewd pros who will have some substantial backing from that other red, white, and black franchise in the Rose Quarter.  Now that the Blazers have effectively sold-out their season, the Hawks will give the Blazer ticket reps something to do between now and next July.  Hopefully they move a significant number of the Hawks remaining games over to the RG so the 9,000 of us who’ll be attending can feel somewhat comfortable.

Hockey is not a difficult sell.  It just takes someone to lead the way.  I think the Blazers will do that.  And when that happens, the recruiting will become so much easier.  Now suddenly a kid who was on the fence about coming to Portland (honestly, would you want to play in front of 2,000 people on a Saturday night in the Coliseum?) will want to come down and play in front of 9,000 screaming fans.  This town can be electric when it comes to hockey.

Some good things are coming.  The one concern, and it’s minor, is the old-time fans.  The folks who demand their face time with the players.  How will the new regime treat the G.O.A.L. Club and the other various elements of fandom?  Pizza nights and the sing for your dinner stuff.  I’m guessing they’ll still be around, but it will be interesting to see how they interact with the new regime and the hated Trail Blazers.  They all certainly had their moments with Goldsmith.  I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Was it only two seasons ago that Joel Przybilla re-signed with the Blazers?  Wow, time does fly.  Watching the media’s reaction to the arrival of Rudy Fernandez reminds me a lot of their reaction to the Przybilla signing in 2006.  You’ll recall the Blazers put on a big show down on the waterfront which culminated in the big fella taking a ride in a jet ski.  The press hated it.  I mean they loathed every second of it.  The guys on The Fan along with Canzano just went on and on about how much it sucked to be dragged down to this event and how the whole thing seemed cheap and how it was a new low for the Blazers.  How the organization just didn’t get it.

That afternoon was a sign to me that the media was behind the curve on what the Blazers were trying to do.  They were trying to reconnect with Portland.  They were trying to shed the Jail Blazer image.  They were going to rebuild the franchise around solid guys who could play.  You’ll recall that was the same summer Canzano and the two guys from the Uptight and The Monkey afternoon show all ripped the Blazers for passing on Adam Morrison and getting Aldridge and Roy instead.  The summer of 2006 was a major turning point for the Blazers, but the media missed it.  They didn’t catch up completely until that spring, when Roy and Aldridge had asserted themselves as leaders.

I still remember the day Steve Patterson was fired last March.  Morrison and his Charlotte Bobcats were in town that day.  The Fan and Canzano both went on and on about the end of an era and how the Blazers got it right with Roy and Aldridge.  Morrison’s name wasn’t uttered once.  How quickly they had forgotten.

Why do I bring all of this up?  Because the media is behind the curve yet again on the Blazers.  The burn-out is starting to set in on this group.  That stunt over the weekend where the Blazers publicized Fernandez’s flight information was just too much.

Sidebar: I guess there’s something in the CBA which prevented Paul Allen from flying Fernandez in on a private jet?  Was there a reason they made him fly commercial then made him run a media gauntlet?  Dragging him off a plane from the East Coast then into a press conference less than two hours later is plain cruel.  End Sidebar.

Expectations on this team have been blown way out of proportion.  As a commenter on Brother Jaynes’ blog noted, there are some people in this town who need an intervention.  I have a feeling that in six months we’re going to be looking back on this period and wondering what in the heck we were thinking.

Time was Blaer fans were as classy as they were knowledgable.  Apparently those days are over.  A decade of dominance?  When will they win their championship?  Sheesh.

A couple of things.

1. As long as Kobe Bryant is in the league, it is his trophy to lose.  He just turned 30 two weeks ago and he’s got a pretty decent cast around him for the next few years.  And the Lakers will make another move in the next few years to get their next super-star.  So the Blazers have to get past him.  See also #3.
2. Utah is going to be really good for the next several years.  They just locked up Deron “the next great Blazer point guard!” Williams and Boozer will get paid in 2010 as well.  They’re going to be every bit as good as the Blazers during this stretch.
3. There is nothing stopping another Eastern Conference team from assembling a team for a one or two years run like the Celtics did last season.  When LeBron moves to New Jersey/Brooklyn, that franchise will become a destination for guys fishing for their rings.  You could easily see Kobe heading to Brooklyn in 2011.  Easily.  You think that team might win a ring or two?  There will be lots of misfit puzzle pieces floating around the league for the next several years and lots of places for them to land.  To wit…
4. The Kumbaya-era of the Blazer franchise will be coming to an end.  At some point, one or more of the following will be asking for a ticket out of town:  Outlaw, Webster, Bayless, Fernandez.  Now it may well turn out that two of them will be gone just as part of the process, but there’s a log jam at the 2-3 and there’s no way Nate will be keeping them all happy.  Especially not this season.  Someone’s going to start griping.  Especially when there are any number of teams out there (Utah?) who could use a man like Webster.

The Blazers definitely have a wide-open window coming up, but it’s not a foregone conclusion that they’re going to win a championship.  I’d like to see Brandon Roy play an injury-free season first.  I’d also like to see Greg Oden play period.  Let’s maybe wait a little while before we go getting all giddy over the prospect of a Blazer championship.  At least that’s how we did it back in the day.

Wow.  Anyone with two open eyes saw this coming for a while now.  Duck had clearly gone over five full spins on the scale.  As another big guy, this definitely gives me pause.  As a friend of mine said a couple of weeks ago, we have to start getting serious about this.  44 is way too young to go.  Way too young.

You know, I was at Duckworth’s first game as a Blazer back in 1986.  I can’t remember who the Blazers were playing, I just remember the new guy was out there in an old warm-up and a jersey with no name on it.  Everytime he touched the ball in the fourth quarter, the whole crowd yelled “shooooot!”.  Quite fun.

One night back in 1992 or so, I had my friend The TinMan’s tickets and took the formerly lovely Miss Combs to the game.  We were in the third row on the baseline next to the Blazer bench.  A walkway was right in front of us.  Duckworth sprained his ankle that night.  He exited the arena walking right past us, clearly pissed.  This mattered not to Miss Combs, though.  He was her favorite player.  Good times.

He’s almost exactly seven years my senior.  That’s seven years to get myself on track.  It’s the exercise, man.  So it’s back down to the Esplanade tonight.  Maybe I’ll see you down there.

I never did get around to properly writing up the Utah-Chicago game I saw down in Salt Lake ten days ago.  The Jazz are something special and their fan base definitely are our equal.  They’re passionate and fiercely loyal.  I do believe Portland has a better arena.  The Delta Center Energy Solutions Arena is a little smaller than the Rose Garden (19,911 for basketball as opposed to Portland’s 19,980) and much boxier.  I prefer the sight lines at the RG.

The current Jazz squad has been much improved with the addition of Kyle Korver.  In the short time he’s been in town, he’s become a crowd favorite.  Watching him work his way through a maze of picks and screens to get his shot was something to behold.  I’m going to have to get a good look at Webster and Outlaw doing the same thing next time I attend a Blazer game.

Like us, fans in Utah are waiting for their team to fully blossom.  Local sports host David Locke calls is Project 2010.  It’s the year about $26.5 million comes off Utah’s cap.  Now they’re gonna have to resign Boozer and maybe Okur, but beyond that, the sky will be the limit.  By contrast, the Blazers shave about$55.25 million off their cap a year earlier, but they’ll have a ton of guys to resign.  That said, they’ll be getting a top-flight free agent with that cash.  It’s all part of the Blazers plan.

SLC has three sports stations going 24/7 and a ton of local programming.  Fans down there are not only passionate about their Jazz, but they can talk up all angles of Utah and BYU athletics as well.  They really get after it.  The thing I found really interesting though was the lack of talk and respect for the Blazers.  “Project 2010″ focused primarily on defeating the Lakers and Suns and to a lesser extent Dallas and San Antonio.  Only once did I hear the Blazers mentioned, and it was only as a casual aside.  Lack of respect?  Just slipped their mind?  I’m inclined to pick the former.  Despite the fact the Blazers are in the same stinking division, for whatever reason they don’t see what we see.  I wonder why that is.

Something I’ve been thinking about as I watch the recent flurry of deals around the Western Conference.  Why should fans in Portland and Utah have to wait another year or two for their teams to improve themselves?  Why should we continue to pay full price while we’re stuck in holding patterns, waiting for Raef LaFrentz, Steve Francis, and Darius Miles to come off the books?  I mean I understand all the contractual stuff, but still.  It’s depriving fans, I think.  Obviously that thought needs to be fleshed out a little more, but it definitely bugs me.

I may have been in a Codeine-induced haze for the better part of the weekend, but it didn’t keep me from somewhat paying attention.

Blazers: I had tickets to the game but ended up giving them to a co-worker. She also has my tickets to Wednesday night’s game against the Bulls. Friday, I dozed off and on as the Blazers fell behind then rallied. It’s nice to see Brandon got his due, but more importantly it’s great to see he’s not letting up. Are the Blazers a playoff team? Not this year. But soon. Jack Bog wasn’t too high on the big three-way trade rumor of the week, but enough other folks were intrigued at the prospect of adding Devin Harris to the core of Roy and Aldridge that I had to go look him up. I gotta say, Harris would look awful good in a Blazer uniform. The whole thing goes to show I’m nowhere near the fan of the NBA that I was even a decade ago.

Man City: A relatively easy match against bottom-dwelling Derby was just what the doctor ordered following the FA Cup disaster. Someone forgot to tell Derby to roll over, however, and the Blues stumbled into a draw. Those two points will come back and bite our side in the arse at the end of the year. But that’s no news to City fans. Saturday’s 3-1 throttling at the hands of league leading Arsenal only magnified the Derby draw. Sensing things slipping away, Man City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has registered City for something called the Intertoto Cup.  Basically it’s a back-door route into European competition should City finish out of the top-six.  It’s OK, I guess.  But it seems a bit unsporting.  That’s just me.

Winter Hawks:  Ugh.  They gave up 118 shots in two nights and people in the O-Live forum are praising the effort of the defense?  Yowza.  How bad would it have been if the defense played like crap?  Could Seattle have gotten off 100 shots?

Super Bowl XLII:  I was rooting for the Patriots and perfection.  I was rooting for a stomping.  Fortunately it didn’t come to pass.  My buddy Doug and I exchanged texts from across the room at his party today.  I whooped it up after Brady hit Moss to go ahead 14-10.  He texted back “Here’s where Eli wins the MVP”.  He’ll say he wasn’t joking, but he was.  He’s a completely different cat than his brother and he showed it tonight.  Apples and oranges.  Peyton is like some European race car.  Its beautiful to watch, but if its not running at 100% efficiency, it can easily end up in the shop for a month (see the San Diego game).  Eli is a Ford.  Nothing flashy to watch and he’s not going to be the most graceful around the track.  But the car more often than not will get you home to your wife and kids at the end of the day.  Even through snow.  It would be interesting to see how Peyton would have done with these Giants and Eli with his brother’s Colts.

UFC 81:  I missed the Frank Mir-Brock Lesnar fight.  As I write this, it’s available on YouTube.  By the time you read this, however, it will most likely be gone.  Lesnar had an awesome 75-seconds, but in the end skill beat out youthful naivte.  Lesnar is a champion, though, and I’m rooting for him.  He’s way more than a flash-in-the-pan ex-WWE guy.  He’s way more than that.

Congratulations to friend-of-blog Casey Holdahl on his new gig with the Portland Trail Blazers. Until last week, he was OregonLive’s Blazer blogger, taking over for Eric Marentette, who left a while back to become Kobe’s web guy. Whoever gets the gig next has some HUGE shoes to fill.

There has been some tongue-in-cheek discussion as to whether Casey is a real person or some sort of Paul Allen-created borg. I can assure you Casey is real. He’s taken both money and meals off of me by preying on my misguided loyalties. I wish him the best in his new endeavor.