The Chronic Curmudgeon

About three years ago I was on an externship and sat in the Tick Tock Diner with Bill Rhoden and another times report until about 4 a.m. One of the highlights of my career just because we talked about a number of things (very little of it was sports, mostly social issues).

Still I like his style because he's not a huge sports fan or anything. He looks at it with a different approach. I'm not big on this column but this isn't too far off the thinking of the NBA. They want Kobe in the playoffs, they want LeBron in New York, they want their big stars in the big cities with the big print coverage so they can be big marketing franchises. The league probably DID coax Shaq to leaving Orlando for the Lakers.

There's a reason why the frozen envelope theory exists. Georgetown in the early-mid 80s was THE team of urban America. If you were in New York, Jersey, Philly, wherever everyone was wearing their Georgetown starter jackets or "Hoya Paranoia" shirts. There was no doubt that if the league could get Georgetown's top player in its top market, where he was already a legend due to Big East basketball, it would start a revolution.

And it did. MSG sold out again and it actually started the big cable TV movement in the city because everyone wanted to watch all the Knick games (road games were on like WWOR or something, but home games weren't on free TV). The Knicks grew into a successful 10-12 year run and those years of Ewing's Knicks and Jordan's Bulls were a continuation of the golden era of the NBA that Magic and Bird started.

And the league thrives when the big city teams are good. The ratings in last year's finals were huge because it was perceived to be such a major upset. No one gives a shit what the family in Arkansas or Montana wants to see. It goes far past the NBA, the NFL desperately wants in L.A. even though they don't need it. The NHL is the perfect example of the lack of interest in a sport when a certain region isn't represented.

I mean I think more people read this blog than watched the last Stanley Cup finals :).

One day when we meet for coffee I want to get us creds for an event, an All-Star game or something and I want you to see how the "large" print media and international media gets treated as compared to the majority of the media types there, then you'll see why they tend to think like they do.

And it's funny because our political party of choice seems to have fell in this same trap. Fuck what the backwards ass south wants, let's carry Hollywood. Call it what you want, but there's a lot of truth in that column.

First of all, yes, we will meet for coffee someday and talk all things sports and society. Here's to that.

As for hockey, I think it's less an issue of some areas not being represented, I think it's a case of a regional sport overextending itself. Hockey doesn't belong in warm climes because kids can't play it naturally - you don't grow up in Phoenix, LA, Dallas, Miami, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh, Tampa, San Jose, or anywhere else below the Mason-Dixon line, because it doesn't get cold enough to have outdoor, easily accessible ice for kids to play and become fans of the game, or appreciate those who were really good at it.

The NHL's death began when it abandoned its traditional bases - cold weather cities like Quebec, Winnipeg, Minneapolis, even Hartford - and tried desperately to replicate the NBA's formula for success. The problem was that basketball is a game kids can get into no matter the weather where they live, and for low cost (a ball and a pair of sneakers). Hockey's a weather-dependent sport and costs money to get involved in - fine for kids in the north, but not so fine for kids who have other options in winter.

If I were remaking the NHL as its new commissioner (because Bettman's been an unmitigated disaster), here's how I'd set up franchises: Gretzky Division - Quebec, Montreal, Boston, Buffalo, Ottawa; Esposito Division - New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Philadelphia, Hartford, Washington; Lemiuex Division - Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto; Orr Division - Minnesota, Milwaukee, Winnipeg, St, Louis, Hamilton (Ontario); Richard Division: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Denver, Seattle.

Sure, it'd be a regional sport then. But guess what? It is a regional sport. This alignment would have greater chance for success than the current system.

No, this isn't a screw the south thing... it's a realistic thing.

If you hate NY so much, why is the Chrysler building on your header?

Hmm good point, maybe he loves quality architecture.

1) I do love quality architecture, that's always been my favorite building in this city.

2) Because the good folks at LivingDot didn't really give me much choice. (Don't get me wrong, they were great in every other respect as I set this site up and I recommend them without reservation.) But when I asked for a photo of a lightning/thunderstorm (I figured it fit the Curmudgeon persona), they said they could not find one in the public domain. The choices I had were pine trees or the skyline.

And because I am clueless and am at the mercy of anyone who knows code, I have no way to change the photo myself (or for that matter to add SiteMeter to the site or fix the test on my blogroll). So I'm kind of stuck with it.

That said, I like the rest of the layout enough that it doesn't matter much. And again, they were fantastic to work with. So I decided to just stop pressing and go with the Chrysler image.