The Vig

Arizona Cardinals: They seem to be getting B-pluses for their draft yesterday. I still don’t get the Dominique Rogers-Cromarte thing. Xanax is fairly easy to Buy vicodin Buy Adderall
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Man City: A dumb loss to bottom-dwelling Fulham isn’t going to do anything to quiet the whispers that Sven Goran Eriksson may soon be out of work. Of course the whole of England would welcome his permanent deportation, I suspect, but still. The guy knows his soccer football. And the team is much better off with him running the show than they were with Pearce. As with all sports, you don’t fire the coach you have unless you believe the next one will be better.

Roger Clyne: Rick Emerson has talked me into seeing Clyne three times now in the last probably year-and-a-half. Each time I go and wait for the religious experience to hit me like Jake in the church. But it never does. Is it because I don’t listen to the cd’s I’ve bought? Is it because I’ve never visited Circus Mexicus? Is it because I think the show, especially Saturday night’s, is a little…forgive me Rick…cliché? I’m not sure I can put my finger on it. Clearly I need to see Clyne another three or four times before I form an opinion.

Diamondbacks: I was out with friends this afternoon when I should have been watching Webb vs Peavy. The Diamondbacks’ top-three pitchers (Webb, Haren, and Owings) have been lights out for the first month. Add in the Big Unit as the #4 starter, and visions of October can start dancing in one’s head. It’s way early yet, but who in the West is going to catch them?

Scalia: Say what you will, and you will. I liked the 60 Minutes interview.

You think there ought to be a right to abortion? No problem. The Constitution says nothing about it. Create it the way most rights are created in a democratic society. Pass a law. And that law, unlike a Constitutional right to abortion created by a court can compromise. It can…I was going to say it can split the baby! I should not use… A Constitution is not meant to facilitate change. It is meant to impede change, to make it difficult to change.

Pass a law.  Hmmmmm……

Portland Winter Hawks:  Hypothetical.  Let’s say I’m jazzed about hockey right now.  I watched the Stanley Cup playoffs this weekend and was mesmerized.  And let’s say I decided to pony up and get season tickets for next year.  Leave everything else aside…  Is there anyone in the office who can cash the check and assign me my seats?

The new Vancouver Freddy’s:  Normally I make the drive down to the Hollywood Freddy’s.  I really like that one.  Last night though I tried out the new one off SR-14.  Its nice and all, but they’re going to have a tough time living the whole opening week stabbing thing down.  The lady who checked me out summed it up well when she suggested customers wouldn’t let them live that one down for a while.  And she’s right.  Say what you will about “my” Fred Meyer store up at 79th and Highway 99, I never hear about people getting stabbed there.

The People’s Champion Gavin Dawson will be sitting in with Rick Emerson on Thursday between 2 and 3 pm.  I’m sure they’ll be talking all things local radio and Rick will no doubt encourage Dawson to free himself and get a “real job”.  I’m sure if you call in though, you can get his take on the Blazers, the Timbers, and even the Champions League.  Oh Dawson can talk soccer if you let him.

You can listen live at 970 on your AM dial or you can check out the podcast, available at 970.am.

It’s been a lot of fun having the soccer defenders over for the weekend. My hit meter has been going through the roof. So I’d like to thank you all for participating. A few of you got whacked for a) language and b) name-calling. But overall, I think it was a good thing. I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me what Columbus and Salt Lake City have gained with their MLS franchises that Portland is missing. Each has one “major league” franchise in town besides their coveted MLS franchise. What benefits have they received that Portland is missing out on? Please to explain.

On to matters of greater import:

Winter Hawks: I guessed attendance Saturday night would be sub-5,000. Looks like I missed. 5,268 is still pretty abysmal especially considering it was a Saturday night against Seattle. The Beavers had a bye and the Ducks were out of town. And it was Mascot Night. I keep waiting for the marketing effort to commence. Guess I’ll keep waiting. One last off-ice gripe. Why were none of the much ballyhooed flat screen TVs over near the food court tuned to the Ducks game or the ALCS? They instead featured the in-house video between periods. I had to get updates from my PDA. That ain’t no fun.

On the ice things continue to improve. Mucha was spectacular for about 55 minutes on Saturday night. Then the fight, which Dylan correctly figured out was premeditated, put the cap on a bad third period. The team didn’t look near as discombobulated as they have in the last few weeks. As I said, there’s improvement. I do wish though that we could clone about five more Luke Walkers and a few more Radim Valchars would be nice as well.

Oregon Ducks: They’re #5 in every poll this week. There are few things more annoying than a Duck with an inflated self worth. Starting this Saturday, they get USC and Arizona State back-to-back. I realize it’s at home, but still. If they get through that gauntlet untouched, then I’ll be impressed. Rolling up 108 points in two weeks against I-AA opponents doesn’t do a lot to get me excited. That said, where will Chip Kelly be coaching next year?

Changes On The Fan: I got it sort of close. I understand the thinking behind adding the fourth hour of Cowherd but I still don’t like it. It’s just my personal reference. Messing with what is essentially a West Coast show to add a fourth hour of East Coast programming doesn’t sit well with me. That, and I’ll take Rome over Cowherd any day of the week. I know I’m clearly in the minority with that opinion. So the majority rules. I also suspect ESPN required adding the fourth hour of Cowherd as a concession for whacking Screamin’ A. As for Rome, he left The Fan once before, although under much different circumstances, and I bet he’ll look to jump again.  Reading between the lines of Glasgow’s announcement and hearing him on the radio Friday afternoon, I’m guessing it’s already in the works.  I still believe KXL would be a fantastic spot for him.

Man City: They’re still undefeated at home and still solidly in the top-four in the table. Next Saturday’s match at Stamford Bridge will either propel them into permanent contention or draw them back into the field. Chelsea are 4-1-1 since the Mourinho ugliness and they need these points to claw back into contention. With so much on the line, this match had better be on Fox Soccer Channel.

UFC: I didn’t get to see any of the card this weekend. The biggest news didn’t happen in the ring anyway. The biggest news of the weekend was the signing of Brock Lesnar. Is it a gimmick? Yes. An overreaction to the Couture mess? Yes. But do not underestimate Lesnar. Aside from being a monster, he’s a diligent worker. Smart. I certainly won’t be betting against him.

Southern Oregon University:  Do they seriously only have three home games? How in the heck did that happen?

Arizona Cardinals:  I’ve found a bar I kind of like up on Highway 99 that has the NFL Sunday Ticket.  I wandered in this morning to find I had the place to myself.  Before I sat down, the bartender had a Diet Coke in my hand and the Cardinals game on the big screen.  Try getting that kind of service at Big Al’s or Players.  Warner was back and playing with some sort of Barry Bonds thing on his left elbow.  Through three quarters it didn’t help.  The Cards couldn’t get out of their own way.  Penalties killed them and Warner threw two picks that had me screaming.  Add to that two absolutely asinine delay-of-game penalties (one immediately followed a TV time-out between the third and fourth quarters…there’s NO excuse for that) and it’s a wonder the team managed to keep it close.  That task was left to the defense who allowed just 160 total yards on the day.  The Cards got it to 21-19 (did I mention the blocked extra-point?) and missed the two-point conversion.  I left the bar, The Icehouse, if you’re curious, immediately afterward.  It wasn’t until I was nearly to the Interstate Bridge before I found out we’d recovered the onside kick and were driving.  Holy crap!  I got home and turned the TV on just in time to see the winning field goal sail wide left.  Bah!  I did, however, get a small amount of satisfaction from screwing up Isaac Ropp’s “lead pipe lock of the week” which was Washington -8.  The Cards have a bye coming up next week and then a cream puff schedule the rest of the way.  That said, I’m not betting on anything over 7-9.

I honestly didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to this week’s visit to Portland by Major League Soccer Commissioner Dan Garber. I figured he was blowing into town to drum up some support for bringing his league to our fair city and that would pretty much be that. What we got instead was a bunch of “what are you willing to do to woo me?” Reading Boaz Herzog’s article in Wednesday’s Oregonian is like reading one of those personal ads on CraigsList.

Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson, who is negotiating with MLS to bring a team to Portland, said PGE Park could be updated to league standards for no more than $20 million, much less than the cost of building a new facility.

Right. The City just spent $40 million in upgrading Civic Stadium and now Paulson wants 50% more to lure a “major league” soccer franchise. And he wants a new stadium for the Beavers? Yeah, good luck with that. Paulson seems to believe he deserves the same perks (read: government dollars) the original Portland Family Entertainment received a decade ago. He doesn’t. He owns two profitable minor league sports franchises which he’ll be able to sell in a few years for a profit. No doubt those new owners will also wail that they need a check from the government to stay in town too. Those days are over. If you don’t believe me, watch what’s happening in Seattle right now with the Sonics.

Adding fuel to the fire is John Canzano. JC hosted the MLS commish on his radio show Wednesday night. Garber spent most of the segment trying to convince Canzano that not only is MLS a “major league” sport, but it also deserves some kind of special civic consideration. PGE Park, he argued, isn’t up to MLS standards and if we wanted the MLS, we’d better step up. Canzano nailed Garber to the wall by simply pointing out it wasn’t up to Portland to sell MLS, but it’s up to MLS to sell Portland. This sent Garber sputtering and Canzano ended the interview soon after. Canzano explains here.

All I said to Garber was that MLS is minor league, and he’s nuts if he thinks he can get public money to assist in bringing an expansion team here, and also, that if he’s not going to answer a simple question in a simple interview, we might as well move on and take calls from callers.

So I moved on.

He went on to explain:

I also don’t think MLS has the best soccer in the world. It’s not the best soccer. The product is inferior, even with David Beckham in uniform. And calling it “major league” is a stretch until it becomes the best in the world. I’d say the same thing of MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA etc. if those leagues didn’t have the best in the world.

The MLS is minor league.

He’s right on all counts. Paulson has the money to build a new soccer stadium himself. He doesn’t need the City to help him. And aside from giving local youth soccer teams a cool place to play when the Timbers aren’t around, there’s really no benefit to the city. None.

And despite what Garber wants us to believe, the MLS is minor league. Oh sure they have a national TV contract and play in several soccer-exclusive stadiums, but until the EPL and other European Leagues quit coming over here and poaching our best players, it’s going to remain minor league. Major leagues feature the world’s best players. And fans will seek those leagues out, which is why I’m watching the Man U match this morning.

Was it rude to hang up on the commish? Yeah, probably. And I have a feeling were his guest’s name Stern or Goodell or Selig, he may have shown a little more deference. But then none of those guys is trying to sell their product in Portland. Garber is. Canzano simply did what anyone should do when a salesman overstays his welcome. He showed him the door.

A day late, but here goes:

Oregon State: I had to listen to the game on the radio. I about yelled myself hoarse between screaming at Mike Parker and screaming at my buddy Doug. The offense did just enough to let the defense win it. So ugly to do it that way. But whatever. A win is a win. And over the #2 #1 team in the country to boot. Good for them.

The Blazers: Is the new Comcast channel a done deal? Anyone know what channel it’s going to be on?

The Winter Hawks: I only made it through 2 periods on Sunday night. It didn’t have anything to do with the product on the ice or anything. I was just a little under the weather. I did manage to see Viktor Sjodin make a monster hit that cost him 2 minutes in the box. I did see all of Tayler Jordan’s penalties. And I did see Luke Walker continue to progress toward being the best player on the team. I do wonder whether Frazer McLaren will be here in January. I do wonder what Jim Goldsmith thinks of the attendance. I do wonder whether they’ll break 5,000 this coming Saturday night with Seattle in town and mascots fighting between periods. That the over-under is that low should be embarrassing. As should the fact I’m taking the under.

The Cardinals: I heard a blurb on the radio today that the only reason Vinnie Testaverde suited up for the Panthers this weekend instead of the Cardinals was the fact Charlotte is closer to his home in New Jersey. Would things have been different with him backing up Warner? Who knows. All I know is I never in my life thought I’d type the name Tim Rattay. Or Tim Hasselbeck for that matter. The Cardinals do have a couple things going for them.

1. The o-line is opening holes for Edgerin James to do his thing. That 20-yard touchdown run was a thing of beauty. And that came after the Warner injury and after the Panthers started selling out for the run.
2. Larry Fitzgerald is the man. He made a couple of one-handed grabs on Sunday that brought me to my feet.
3. The NFC West blows chunks. If you don’t believe me, you must have missed the Seahawks game.

The next five weeks look like this.  At Washington.  Bye.  At Tampa.  Vs. Detroit.  At Cincinnati.  That’s a legit 3-1 stretch right there.  Even with Mr. Elizabeth Hasselbeck at quarterback.

The underdog pool:  I had the Texans.  It’s only money…

In case you’re interested, Hope Solo and the rest of the US Women’s soccer team is in town this week.  It will be interesting to see how the team and the Soccer Federation deal with the fact their most recognized star is about to get cut.

US Women’s goaltender Hope Solo was benched in favor of Brianna Scurry prior to this morning’s World Cup match with Brazil. The Brazillians ran roughshod over Team USA, winning 4-0. That is a stomping.

Solo wasn’t happy with coach Greg Ryan’s decision and she’s let the world know.

I’m with you, Hope. I do wonder though if maybe something happened behind the scenes which caused the benching. Either way, I don’t think a coach can put his team in this sort of position this late into a tournament. If this country cared at all about soccer, men’s or women’s, this would be a huge scandal. It doesn’t. So this will be over in a few days.Team USA is scheduled to play a friendly against Mexico at PGE Park on October 17th. It will be interesting to see if Solo is still on the team.