Chad Hutchinson, only a few months removed from life at the beach, gets the start at quarterback for the Bears on Sunday. Click here to see why I'll be pulling for him.
Archive for November, 2004
November 30th, 2004
Pacer Players To Be Charged
Tell the folks at CourtTV to get ready:
Indiana Pacers players will be charged for fighting with fans during the Nov. 19 brawl at the end of a game against the Detroit Pistons, Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca told The Detroit News."Whoever was involved in fisticuffs will be charged, regardless if they were wearing a jersey. It's obvious there were several Pacer players and fans that dealt blows," Gorcyca said, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
The prosecutor declined to say which players would be charged or what the charges might be.
More later.
November 30th, 2004
The Council Votes
Click here to watch the D.C. City Council vote on the stadium financing bill.
UPDATE: Outgoing D.C. City Councilman Harold Brazil just compared the condition of D.C.'s Chinatown before the construction of the MCI Center to Fallujah. I wonder what the locals think about that?
ANOTHER UPDATE: The Council is debating a number of amendments to the underlying financing bill -- in particular an amendment from Linda Cropp requiring the city to seek private financing to pay for the stadium. The motion has just passed on a voice vote. Cropp is now proposing another amendment on monitoring cost overruns on the project -- putting most of the onus on the District's CFO. Not much opposition on the Council, looks like it will pass.
I'm popping out for lunch, so look for another update in about 30 minutes.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Councilman David Catania is impressing the heck out of me, pointing out that the cost estimates underlying the financing are inaccurate. In particular, that while the deal with MLB was signed in September, the cost estimates the bill uses were determined last Spring -- and a number of the costs contained in these estimates (pegged just North of $400 million) including steel, have increased radically since then.
EVENING UPDATE: 5:25 p.m. and the bill still hasn't come to a vote. See you later on tonight. Here's an update of what's happened so far from the Post.
THE LONG REGIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER: The bill, with amendments, passed 6-3 with three abstentions. According to District law, the bill must be voted on again, and it's looking like December 14 or 21. MLB is reserving comment until they get a chance to review the bill. More later.
November 30th, 2004
Snyder Agonistes
Jim Henley, guestblogging over at The Agitator, engages in some speculation around the future of Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs and what was really behind reports that Gibbs plans to step down in favor of defensive coordinator Greg Williams at the end of the season:
The key question here is, assuming Gibbs is sincere, where did Mortensen, who doesn't make stuff up, get the story? Jim's hypothesis: Redskins owner Daniel Snyder's people. This is the opening shot in a whispering campaign aiming to move Gibb upstairs. . .And there's an oedipal logic to it. Snyder idolized Gibbs, so Snyder must kill Gibbs. In a weird way, by visibly destroying the Gibbs legadcy - bring the Old Man back, watch him fail and shunt him off to the front office - Snyder makes the team his in a way it hasn't been, 800 million dollar investment or no. It doesn't work if the fans want Gibbs to stay (which most of us do, I think), but if he can get the "bad health" meme to take hold, and get Gibbs to retire after losing, then Snyder has smashed the Father-Idol.
Uncanny theorizing or paranoid psychobabble? Well, since we are talking about Snyder, something tells me this analysis may just be dead on.
November 30th, 2004
It’s Army-Navy Week
Here comes the second Saturday after Thanksgiving, which means all eyes will be on Philadelphia for the annual Army-Navy football clash. I'll give the opening salvo of the week to BlackFive:
Now, there is no doubt that the Army team is on the way back from the worst record in College Football history. But if they defeat Navy?Well, then, Sailors will be crying the world over, crushed and defeated by one of the worst teams in football. And that, my friends, is a worthy endevour.
So much for inter-service comity. Come on Navy veterans, swivel those deck guns and return some fire!
November 30th, 2004
The Greatest Canadian, Redux
A little more than a month ago, I posted about the CBC competition to determine the "Greatest Canadian" in the history of that proud dominion.
The votes were finally tabulated on Monday night, and politician Tommy Douglas was declared the winner:
Tommy Douglas's legacy as a social policy innovator lives on. Social welfare, universal Medicare, old age pensions and mothers' allowances -- Douglas helped keep these ideas, and many more, watching as more established political parties eventually came to accept these once-radical ideas as their own.
Douglas beat out, among others, Frederick Banting, who only discovered Insulin and was Canada's first Nobel Prize winner, as well as Alexander Graham Bell, who if he had never invented the telephone, would still have been worthy of the award for his groundbreaking work with the deaf.
Consider for a moment if these three men had been nominated not for "Greatest Canadian" but for some other lifetime achievement award. Who would you choose?
As for me, Douglas doesn't even belong in the same neighborhood as the other two.
And for another dose of silly anti-Americanism, click here to find a clip of George Stroumboulopoulos's Yankee-bashing endorsement of Douglas.
November 30th, 2004
The Canadian Blind Spot
For those Americans still considering a move to Canada in the wake of John Kerry's defeat at the polls earlier this month, you might want to listen to what Nora Jacobsen, an American ex-pat living in Toronto, has to say about the idea:
Although I enjoy my work and have made good friends here, I've found life as an American expatriate in Canada difficult, frustrating and even painful in ways that have surprised me. As attractive as living here may be in theory, the reality's something else. For me, it's been one of almost daily confrontation with a powerful anti-Americanism that pervades many aspects of life. When I've mentioned this phenomenon to Canadian friends, they've furrowed their brows sympathetically and said, "Yes, Canadian anti-Americanism can be very subtle." My response is, there's nothing subtle about it.
And as someone who consumes plenty of Canadian media every day of the week, that's a conclusion I came to a long time ago. Thanks to Colby Cosh for the link.
UPDATE: Then again, maybe not everyone North of the border feels the same way.
November 29th, 2004
About Those Eyebrows . . .
Just off the wires from Japan:
The Japan High School Baseball Federation has taken the unusual step of telling schools to tighten up against players who have had their eyebrows shaved or those wearing shabby clothes.The latest trend among schoolboys to shave their eyebrows has already created a stir among education officials who are outraged over the fashion.
Officials of the high school baseball federation on Friday decided to warn member schools to take action against student players with shaved eyebrows or those wearing clothes considered too rough.
Why is this important? Because every August Japanese high schools compete in a national tournament known as the "Summer Koshein" (named after the city where the final round of the tournament takes place) -- think of it as the old Indiana state basketball tournament, except with 4,102 schools across Japan participating. To win it all, the champion needs to string together 12 victories in a row in a win or go home format.
And every game during the final rounds in Koshein are broadcast live on national television. Looks like the folks who run Japanese high school baseball are worried that the sight of unkempt ballplayers might translate into lower ratings.
Link via Drudge.
November 29th, 2004
Leap Of Faith
On Saturday, I linked to a Washington Post Magazine piece that told the story of Nils Antezana, a gutsy resident of the Washington area who decided that he wanted to become the oldest American ever to climb Mount Everest, but lost his life in the attempt.
Earlier today, in the comments section of that post, Antezana's daughter, Fabiola, left the following note:
Dear Eric,Having a look around for comments and reaction to my father's story, I came across yours.
A great many people wrote to us following the first story printed in the Washington Post on June 12th, one attorney in particular struck me saying that he had abandoned his practice taking early retirement to do all the things he had always dreamed of. I am delighted to see that my father's story has struck you in the much the same way.
If I may make a suggestion towards conquering your vertigo. Skydiving. My first birthday following my father's death I was inconsolable and wanted no celebrations. I drove out to Orange, Va with a friend to the same school my father had juped with just a few months earlier. I jumped (tandem mind you) 14,000 feet. I can't remember feeling more alive since his death. I think fear of heights is at its worst only when one can distinguish that which is below you. With skydiving however, you linger, if only briefly and see how wonderfullly vast our earth is. You forget the minutia.
And by the way, climbers feel fear all the time. I myself climb, only rock that is (now considering ice) and have come to realize this. Fear is what keeps them sharp and alive on the mountain. They simply handle it better.
Perhaps you might consider skydiving as your own leap of faith.
Remember to live today.
kindest regards,
Fabiola Antezana
This is something I really have to think about. As fate would have it, only a few hours after writing that first post, I found myself wandering around a local REI in Fairfax, staring up at the rock climbing peak in the front window.
(Heart rate rising and hands trembling as I write the following:)
So here's my promise to my readers: While it might not be skydiving, I'll spend the next few weeks looking for some sort of high stakes adventure in 2005. And everybody will be along for the ride. Target date: September 2005, the month of my next birthday. Look for an announcement about exactly what I'll be doing sometime around January 1, 2005.
POSTSCRIPT: Michael Leahy, author of the Post Magazine piece, moderated an online disucsion about the story earlier today.
November 29th, 2004
Better Dead Than Red
Not a sharp-dressed man.
I understand that the NFL wants to goose merchandise revenues by continually pumping out alternate jerseys, but the red togs worn by the New York Giants on Sunday ought to be re-thought.
As an accent color, red works well in the Giants color scheme. But seeing the team on Sunday, I couldn't help but think their jerseys looked too much like the red practice version we see on quarterbacks during the week -- you know, the final reminder to overzealous defenders not to crush the crown jewels of the franchise during a controlled scrimmage.
Not that red doesn't work as the main color in a uniform design (though the Arizona Cardinals have done much to disgrace it). In fact, I'm thinking the winged wheel on the Red Wings jersey would look pretty cool on a football helmet. Anybody with photoshop skills willing to take a shot?
UPDATE: The indefatigable Vodkafish has stepped up to the plate:
Wow. Interesting. Looks like it would go well with an Ohio State football uniform. What does everybody else think?
November 29th, 2004
Could You Please Explain That Again?
A very obscure section of the college football rulebook got a workout during Texas' 26-13 win over Texas A&M on Saturday:
[U]ntil Friday, neither the Longhorns nor the Aggies had dealt with the nuances of NCAA Rule 8, Section 3, Article 2, Subsection I . . .After the Longhorns pulled within 13-12 on Bobby Tatum's 10-yard blocked punt return, kicker Dusty Mangum lined up for the extra point behind holder Matt Nordgren, a backup quarterback replacing injured holder Tony Jeffrey.
Nordgren bobbled the snap, and Mangum kicked the ball as it lay on the turf. The ball squirted to the right side of the formation, where it was ruled Texas A&M gained possession before the ball was fumbled into the end zone.
A&M defender Jaxson Appel fell on the ball in the end zone, and the Longhorns were awarded a one-point safety.
Thanks to Staten Island ex-pat Charles Kuffner for the pointer.
November 29th, 2004
Pedro Vs. Sandy?
Mr. Irrelevant makes a comparison some might consider heretical: Pedro Martinez vs. Sandy Koufax:
To avoid calling this a push, I
November 29th, 2004
ESPN Needs Your Help
My buddy Reemer, who works for ESPN.com, and has just been put in charge of their ESPN Insider feature, has a question for folks who regularly stop by the leading sports site on the Web:
- If you are not an Insider, why not? Do we need to do a better job of showing you what Insider offers? Or, is there not enough that has compelled you to buy? What content or tools would be worth it to become an Insider?
- If you are an Insider, what do you like about it? What would you like to see more of?
Be sure to drop by and let him know what you think.
And while you're there, check out some of his other stuff regarding measuring ROI for traditional marketing vs. improving user experience, as well as facilitating online conversations.
POSTSCRIPT: Now that I've gotten a second Canadian reference for Flickr, it looks like I'll have to sign up. Gotta love that viral marketing.
November 28th, 2004
Football In The Snow . . .
Is there anything better? I'm watching Broncos-Raiders from Denver, and I'm enjoying the heck out of it. Aren't we lucky that football is the only sport that becomes more fun to watch the worse the weather gets?
Outstanding. Still a little more than six minutes to go in the game if you haven't tuned in yet.
November 28th, 2004
And The Sportsman Of The Year Is . . .
The 2004 Boston Red Sox.
Just announced on Fox a few moments ago. I'll have some thoughts momentarily.
UPDATE: After pulling off the greatest postseason comeback in baseball history, it's impossible to call the Red Sox undeserving of the honor. But perhaps we shouldn't forget that Boston started the 2004 season with the second highest payroll in baseball, so seeing them win the World Series in the end shouldn't have been all that surprising.
So, as far as I'm concerned, Pat Tillman is my Sportsman of the Year.
When it came to fan voting, the Red Sox didn't even finish in the top three, with Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Lance Armstrong and Pat Tillman taking the top three spots.
November 28th, 2004
Reading The Tea Leaves In Lockout Pay
One of the oldest media relations tricks in the book, and one reporters don't appreciate, is when an organization releases some sort of news backed up against a holiday weekend. So when I tripped over the news that the NHLPA had started distributing lockout pay to its members, a story that hit the AP wire late on Wednesday afternoon the day before Thanksgiving, I was curious.
Luckily, they celebrate Thanksgiving in October North of the border, so everybody was at work on Thursday in Canada to dig out all the details of the plan. Click here for the details of the plan from Canada's Sportsnet -- a deal that will gross eligible players between $5,000 and $10,000 per month depending on service time (and some will get their payments tax free). That's not exactly much compared to what they would be making if the league was operating:
The average salary of an NHL player was $1.8 million last season, which worked out to about $138,000 per paycheque. That translates into about $1.31 billion for the season -- or about $1.1 billion from November on.Players have missed three paycheques to date.
Using the average salary, an NHL player would normally make about $277,000 per month during the regular season. Lockout pay of $10,000 a month equals some 3.6 per cent of that amount.
The NHL minimum salary was officially $180,000 last season -- or about $27,700 a month during the regular season -- although it is rare a player makes it.
That's one heck of a pay cut, and it would seem to indicate that ESPN's John Buccigross has a real point when he writes that the pressure is rising right now:
Keep in the mind we are now approaching the reckoning phase of the NHL lockout. After Thanksgiving is when the stress levels will go through the roof. Agents will be coaxing players since they are not collecting fees. Wives will be nagging players because the holiday season is approaching. Owners who sell out all their games will be reminding Gary Bettman about all their lost revenue.After Thanksgiving, things will move quickly. The players will make a proposal, the owners will counter and the season will hang in the balance as the players decide to accept the owners' final offer.
Then again, owners who aren't selling out their arenas, and there are enough of them to block any new labor agreement with the players, aren't hurting nearly as much:
But [Washington Caps owners Ted] Leonsis, who owns slightly more than 40 percent of Washington Sports, says he is losing less money by not playing hockey under the old labor agreement this year than he would be if the Capitals were on the ice. Leonsis says he will lose around $10 million if the season is canceled, about a third of what he lost a year ago. And the losses are being absorbed by a prepaid, $10 million lockout fund that the Capitals -- along with each other NHL club -- set aside in anticipation of the labor strife.
On the other hand, Leonsis has a minority stake in Washington Sports and Entertainment, the umbrella business that owns the MCI Center, the Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics. And without the Caps playing, Washington Sports is losing some serious revenue.
I'd like to believe this means we'll be looking at some kind of agreement in the next few weeks -- but something tells me neither side believes they've extracted their pound of flesh from the opposition as of yet.
In 1995, the lockout was finally settled in January. If we do get some sort of season, we've probably got at least another few weeks to wait before it happens.
November 28th, 2004
Vegas or Wall Street: What’s The Difference?
Mark Cuban has an interesting proposition.
November 27th, 2004
The Mountain Is A Harsh Mistress
All my life, I've been cursed with a near-paralyzing fear of heights. Perhaps as a result of my fear, I've made a point to read and learn something about a group of people who feel anything but fear when it comes to heights: Mountain climbers.
A couple of years back, I essentially inhaled Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, the best-selling account of an expedition to Mount Everest that went all wrong. Most recently, I watched Touching The Void last night on PBS -- a fantastic documentary about a troubled assault on a mountain in the Peruvian Andes.
In each case, I came away with incredible admiration for the folks in the world of mountaineering -- for their skill, their determination and for the appreciation that death is always lurking in the next crevasse.
Which is why I couldn't help but be pulled in by the story of Nils Antezana, a 69-year old American immigrant success story who decided something was missing in his life. And that something was Mount Everest:
One morning, a few years ago, his wife remembers, he asked to speak to her. With a little bow of his head, he murmured: "With you, I am very happy. But I seem to be missing something." He told her that he needed the mountains.She would not, could not, stop him, she knew. During their 38-year marriage, each would always grant independence to the other. She had a construction and property development business that consumed her hours, and he now had his climbing.
His yen for the mountains eventually led him to Nepal, where he would attempt, at 69, to become the second-oldest individual (and the oldest American) ever to scale the mountain. And while he made it to the summit, the end of the story is anything but happy. Click here to read it now. And if you're as intrigued as much as I was by the story of Antezana, be sure to stop by an online chat with Washington Post Magazine correspondent Michael Leahy on Monday at 1:00 p.m. U.S. EST.
November 27th, 2004
The Price Of Anti-Americanism
A couple of months back, PGA Tour pro and native Brit Paul Casey said that he "hated" Americans -- a comment that has now resulted in Titleist dropping him as a cap and ball sponsor.
No Three Putts isn't shedding any tears:
Although Casey now states that he regrets he ever made those comments, he would not have said them if he didn't mean them. Just like when Fuzzy Zoeller made the racist comments at the Masters several years ago regarding Tiger Woods' dinner selection. He said it as a joke, but we all know that he's a bigot and meant it too.
But after taking a second look at what Casey had to say at a press conference at the World Cup of Golf where he and playing partner Luke Donald expounded on Casey's initial comments, I can't work up much bile for Casey. Take a look at the following:
"I stand by my words," said the 27 year-old, "I certainly don't hate Americans, but they do have a tendency to sort of wind people up. When they are chanting 'USA' and there's lots of them it just makes you want to beat them even more.""That's the point I was trying to get across. They probably failed to realise it really sort of riles us and the rest of the world. "
In particular, he's talking about the American fans' behavior at the Ryder Cup, where folks occasionally get carried away, especially by the normal standards of golf. And as far as I'm concerned, if you don't like what Casey has to say, then you ought to go about making him eat his words on the golf course -- something the Americans didn't manage to do at the Ryder Cup this year.
Then again, when the tabloid headlines are screaming, "Americans are stupid. I hate them," you can't get too surprised when an American golf company might not be anxious to do business with you. Maybe it's time to give Mizuno a call.
November 27th, 2004
Pat Tillman For Sportsman Of The Year
Sports Illustrated is going about picking it's Sportsman of the Year, and BlackFive says Pat Tillman is the one and only choice. Let me second that emotion.
Click here to vote. For all of my Tillman-related posts, click here.
Thanks to Instapundit for the link.
November 24th, 2004
Detroit Chair-Thrower Caught On Video
Click here for the completely over the top report where NBC's local affiliate in Detroit essentially fingers the suspect who threw the chair in Friday's melee.
November 24th, 2004
You Can Do Your Shopping Here!
Got some holiday shopping to do? Why not do it here at Off Wing?
If you like what you read here at Off Wing, the best way to support me is to support my advertisers: buyselltix.com, showmetickets.com, coasttocoasttickets.com, Planet BnB, ticko.com and Pediro. Please consider all of them when you think about holiday gift giving.
As always, tips, whether through Amazon or PayPal are welcome as well.
Also, over the next few weeks, you'll be seeing more advertising from Amazon. I'm a member of their associates program, and buying a product from them through Off Wing means I get a nice commission without it costing you one penny more.
Again, thanks for reading. And over the holidays, please shop with Off Wing.
November 24th, 2004
What to do for Ron Artest – or does anger management work?
I originally posted this on my own web site - db's Medical Rants. I hope you enjoy this discussion.
db
================
The recent Ron Artest outburst had many pundits discussing how he needed help. Some explicitly endorsed anger management. But, like everything else in medicine, we must hold anger management classes to explicit criteria. Do these classes decrease anger outbursts.
This NY Times article suggests that the classes may not help at all - Anger Management May Not Help at All
"Anger-management classes, I think, are a Band-Aid; they allow people to feel they've done something, but they haven't had any kind of real treatment," said Dr. Ray DiGiuseppe, a psychologist at St. John's University, where Artest played college basketball. "We have no organized treatment, no idea whether counselors doing the teaching have training in mental health. We're operating under this delusion that we're helping people when we may be just continuing the violence."
Until we understand better the physiology of anger outbursts, I doubt that we will consistently help sufferers. I did choose the word sufferers carefully. Most people with this problem have great regret afterwards. They do not choose to react so violently.
I suspect that there is some genetic predisposition here. Certainly men are more prone to anger outbursts than women. First, we need to have researchers explicitly study the problem.
Anger training is often mandated by courts for spouse abusers, violent criminals, bullying adolescents and aggressive drivers. The classes are based on a loosely defined set of principles and techniques thought to help some people settle or contain outbursts.A pattern of hostile behavior is not considered a specific diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, something that limits research that could lead to effective treatment.
State and county programs have generally been set up without consulting research, experts say, and the result is an unregulated system without any agreed-on standards of what should be taught, when, and to whom. Recent studies suggest that the techniques can be helpful for some people, but that in many cases the classes have little or no measurable effect, and can potentially make the problems worse.
Until we define and study this syndrome we will depend on "feel good" programs. Sending someone for anger management classes absolves the courts (or employer) from responsibility. Anger management classes just seem like they should work. I fear they are junk psychology. We need data. But more importantly, Ron Artest and those like him need data, research and real hope.
November 24th, 2004
Let Cooler Heads Prevail
Both Ted and Colby linked to Ben Mathis-Liley's piece in in Slate deflating all the doomsaying over last Friday's edition of "Basketbrawl" in Detroit:
Immediately after the brawl, the talking heads on ESPN's NBA Shootaround all said that disgusted fans would stop watching NBA games in droves. At this exact moment, millions of people were talking, probably for the first time in history, about a regular season NBA game.
Which after all, is pretty similar to what Mark Cuban said a couple of months back when he was asked what he thought the effect of the Kobe Bryant trial would be on the NBA. Heck, even I'll admit my traffic has essentially tripled over the past week due to Friday's fight and that MNF teaser last week. But I should let the man finish.
The biggest lesson that we can take away from this mega-fight is that Ron Artest is really, really loony, just like Dennis Rodman was loony, and Vernon Maxwell was loony. This is a guy who, after becoming a national villain, appeared on the Today Show to explain himself while decked out in gear promoting his rap album. Rather than herald a plague of sports-related violence, the Pacers-Pistons brawl has just reinforced how rare this kind of behavior is. Now it'll be even rarer because the mental and physical boundaries that keep fans and players apart will be far stronger. I bet you'll think twice about tossing a beer the next time you go to a basketball game.
There's one sentiment I wholeheartedly endorse that Ted mentioned: If I hear one more person whine about "the children" my head is going to explode.
POSTSCRIPT: I should have linked to this yesterday, but sometimes I forget Slate publishes on a West Coast deadline. Gee, I wish I could publish on a West Coast deadline. . .
UPDATE: Some other viewpoints from our friends in the MSM: Robert George and Tom Boswell.
November 24th, 2004
New Entries For The Insulting Gazeteer
Thanks to Colby Cosh for pointing to this negative review of the new Nats uniform from causal Expos fan Evan Mac:
The team's logo, befitting the home market, looks designed by committee. No doubt it will acquire a following among surburban lamers from Falls Church and Bethesda . . .
Well, at least those "suburban lamers" -- who in both of the above cases, live closer to downtown D.C. than most New Yorkers do to downtown Manhattan -- will go to see the team a lot more often than Evan ever did.
The next time you want to make fun of suburban lamers in the D.C. area, give me a call for a more appropriate choice. After all we've got Frederick, Md. (better known in these parts as "Fred-neck"), Dumfries-Manassas (or "Dumb-Ass" Virginia), or even my neighborhood, Reston, Va. (it's not dead, it's just Reston!).
In the meantime, enjoy the bus ride to Ottawa to watch the Lynx.
November 23rd, 2004
Hull Speaks
Missing in action since being uncerimoniously scratched from the Team USA lineup in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, Brett Hull has surfaced long enough to give a revealing interview on the lockout to the Arizona Republic:
Q: Some of the other NHL players have said that the longer the lockout goes, the harder it will be to get the fans to come back to the game. Do you agree?A: "You know what? I've got a very strong opinion on that. I think the fans lost interest starting 10 years ago when Gary Bettman came in, and I think everyone who has watched the game has seen the game decline not only in popularity, but the actual game itself has declined in skill and excitement and fan entertainment value.
"From that 10th year right until today it has been on a steady decline. Something's got to be done. I think there's no question that the fans are going to lose interest, because the game that's not being played right now wasn't that exciting to begin with. And unless changes are made at the top of the heap as far as marketing goes, as far as people in charge of running the game (and) making it more exciting, changing the rules, whatever it takes to make the game more exciting for the fans, it's going to keep steadily declining.
And here's the hammer:
Q: So, do you think there will be a 2004-05 season?A: "I really don't. . . . We are as strong on not having a salary cap as they (the owners) are on wanting one. What is it that's going to make the two sides come together? I think it's going to be a missed season, and then in the off-season they're going to say, 'This can't happen again.' Something will happen. I just can't see there being a season, which is very unfortunate."
Posturing for the sake of union solidarity? I don't think so. See you and the strikebreakers in October 2005.
November 23rd, 2004
Odds And Ends On Artest
NBA Commissioner David Stern in an interview with the AP on what the league can realistically accomplish when it comes to fan misbehavior:
"The reality is that our society and our arenas exist based upon a social contract," Stern said. "Everyone knows that if 20,000 fans decided to go on a rampage, we'd have a serious problem on our hands, no matter what we did."
Then again, it's not all 20,000 fans we need to worry about -- just the fraction of one percent that make life miserable for all the rest.
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Juan Non-Volokh is being pretty hard on Stern, taking him to task for not condemning the fans involved with more vigor. Start here, then go here, and here.
Here in Washington, the name of Robin Ficker is well-known for his once-constant jabbering behind the visitor's bench at Washington Wizards (formerly Bullets) games.
Yesterday, he showed up in the New York Times to give a lesson in fan ettiquette:
Fans who don't know the bounds of their own conduct should be held responsible for whatever happens - and should also be barred from future games.In all my years as one of the most vociferous fans of the Bullets (the team changed its name to the Wizards in 1997), I never resorted to anything stronger than the English language. Although some people thought I knew no bounds, my rules were simple and effective: no drinking, no swearing, no racial or sexual comments, and no comments about children.
To be filed next to your "Free Tyson" and "Free Kobe" t-shirts: "Free Artest."
Thanks to Women's Hoops, and Radley Balko for the linkage.
November 23rd, 2004
Flutie To Phelan Forever
I'm not going to pretend I have any emotional attachment to Boston College, but I do have more than some feelings for what may be the greatest game in college football history -- BCs' 47-45 win over defending NCAA champ Miami in the Orange Bowl on the day after Thanksgiving 19854.
Click here to watch that game-winning heave, 63 yards in the air.
November 23rd, 2004
A Price On My Blog
I got an interesting note in my email box last night, and I just had to share it with everyone:
I don't know if you are interested in selling you site, but we are looking to purchase a variety of sites (and I assumed you are the person I should contact regarding this).If you would be interesting in selling your site, let me know how much would you charge.
I wonder if this means they have to cease trading shares in Off Wing over at BlogShares (and check out my killer P/E ratio!).
I told them to make me an offer, and I'm still waiting to hear back. Unfortunately, I don't have the sort of corporate budget that would allow me to hire Lazard, Solomon or CS First Boston (which was my first choice) to evaluate their offer.
I know many of my readers are accountants or lawyers, so I put the question to you: Just how would I go about valuing Off Wing if I really did want to sell?
Leave your answer in the comments thread, or send me an email.
November 23rd, 2004
Ron Artest On Today
Click here for Ron Artest's interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show this morning.
No apology. No contrition. And absolutely no clue.
UPDATE: Here's an AP account of the interview, one that can't communicate just how mind-numbing an experience it was. Watch and see for yourself.
