Read the entire article here on the Oregonian website

Living far from the madding, delirious crowd

By Steve Duin
The Oregonian
Tuesday, March 29, 2005

At the end of another glorious weekend of college basketball, on the eve of baseball's opening day, and, yes, by the light of the funeral pyre that is the Portland Trail Blazers, one can't help but reflect on the landscape of big-time sports in this country and Oregon's exile from Main Street.

When March madness peaks next weekend at the Final Four, and the Yankees and Red Sox return to the ring, Oregon will be, as usual, thousands of miles from where the action is. The NCAA basketball tournament survivors -- Illinois, Louisville, North Carolina and Michigan State -- all reside east of the Mississippi. So do six of the Elite Eight in the women's bracket, which finds Baylor and Rutgers playing at a level that the Pac-10 schools in Oregon cannot match.

Major League Baseball in Portland is still a dream, albeit an increasingly realistic one. Our minor league NBA franchise is worse than the perennially inept Los Angeles Clippers. The PGA Tour, which has golfing events in Greensboro, N.C.; Harrison, N.Y.; and Duluth, Ga., still has nothing for Oregon but a threadbare seniors tournament.

Has this state, in recent years, gained stature in the world of sports or slid ever deeper toward irrelevance?

Sweeping conclusions are dangerous, given all the players in the arena. The Trail Blazers, of course, are utterly hopeless. The city would do well to start from scratch with a new owner, a new management team, a new work ethic and a fresh roster.

The state is awash in small-college national champions -- Linfield in football, Oregon Tech in basketball -- but the major universities are treading water. Portland State was the Big Sky's regular season basketball champion, but the University of Oregon was painfully mediocre in the two money sports, football and men's basketball, and Oregon State only marginally better.

In the 2001-2002 season, the Ducks finished second in the nation in football and reached the Elite Eight in men's basketball. They failed to build on that success. Colin Cowherd, who left Portland last year to take his radio show national on ESPN, argues that the inability to establish traditions like those at Kentucky and Duke owes to a lack of passion and commitment.

"I've always felt Portland and the state of Oregon has never lacked for money and intelligence. They lack for commitment," Cowherd said. "If you want to be in the game, you must totally commit.

"The reason Carolina and Duke are so good is they have both feet in the pool. The Yankees have both feet in. Arizona basketball has both feet in. The places that don't get to the next level are those that aren't fully committed to winning. You have to win in football and men's basketball; they have to be your top two priorities and you can't be embarrassed by it. That's where all the money is."

What does Oregon miss when its citizens are more passionate about its coffee shops than its sports teams? Goosebumps, Cowherd said: "For all those Blazer fans in that championship year, when you won and carried Jack Ramsay off the floor? That's SEC football every Saturday. It's that same feeling. Sports can elevate people. Going to Fenway in the middle of this Yankee-Red Sox rivalry is the greatest thing I've ever been a part of. It's the Civil War every day."

David Kahn, who has led the effort to bring Major League Baseball to Portland, remains optimistic about this sports market because it is growing, not wilting on the vine like Cincinnati or Milwaukee. If most of the great college basketball programs are east of the Mississippi, 15 of the 24 best places to live are, according to the April issue of Men's Journal, west of the Rockies or perched on their shoulder.

"The nation is moving south and west. That's where the growth is," Kahn said. "I think someone at some point will understand that, buy a team and bring it here because of that."

Patience, then. If too many of the local sports fans have learned to live without goosebumps, we may soon be joined by reinforcements who haven't.

Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; Steveduin@aol.com; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201

No surprise. Other people see it as well. While many here are passionate about sports, far many others aren't especially those in positions of power. Take Potter for example. His priorities seem to lie in stupid politics involving pageants and the FBI. The man is clueless about real life. Or, I guess his idea of real life differs from mine. In fact, that is probably it. I find that many people in Portland have a different idea of what life is all about than I do. And their ideas don't tend to include major league sports.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJones:
No surprise. Other people see it as well. While many here are passionate about sports, far many others aren't especially those in positions of power. Take Potter for example. His priorities seem to lie in stupid politics involving pageants and the FBI. The man is clueless about real life. Or, I guess his idea of real life differs from mine. In fact, that is probably it. I find that many people in Portland have a different idea of what life is all about than I do. And their ideas don't tend to include major league sports.

Jonesie, you said it and I agree. Mayor Potter sees things differently than many of us. In my opinion his vision is very short sighted and shallow.

quote:

I've always felt Portland and the state of Oregon has never lacked for money and intelligence. They lack for commitment," Cowherd said. "If you want to be in the game, you must totally commit.

Bingo!

quote:

Originally posted by Roy:

quote:

Originally posted by MrJones:
No surprise. Other people see it as well. While many here are passionate about sports, far many others aren't especially those in positions of power. Take Potter for example. His priorities seem to lie in stupid politics involving pageants and the FBI. The man is clueless about real life. Or, I guess his idea of real life differs from mine. In fact, that is probably it. I find that many people in Portland have a different idea of what life is all about than I do. And their ideas don't tend to include major league sports.

Jonesie, you said it and I agree. Mayor Potter sees things differently than many of us. In my opinion his vision is very short sighted and shallow.

quote:

I've always felt Portland and the state of Oregon has never lacked for money and intelligence. They lack for commitment," Cowherd said. "If you want to be in the game, you must totally commit.

Bingo!

As a corollary to commitment, I would add focus. The Triad is a perfect example. You don't see them screaming for MLB or the NFL. They are focused on college basketball, NASCAR, and minor league baseball. Oklahoma and New Mexico are good examples as well. They know who they are and what they can/cannot be, and they go for it.

In Oregon we sit back, slam a latte and/or microbrew, and hire an ad agency to tell us who we are.

That being said, I still believe we're getting MLB. If not the A's or Twins, then if/when MLB goes to 32 teams. As long as we supply stadium funding, the economics are impossible to ignore.