Brandon's secret

If you were following facebook or twitter last night you would have gotten the image that Brandon has a strong distaste for Portland, Oregon.

But the truth is that distaste is just for the Timbers.

I have proof that he is a Portland Trailblazers fan.

This photo is from a post back in 2008 in which Brandon attended a Portland Trailblazers game and, with the soon-to-be departure of the Seattle Sonics, he became a fan of Portland.

A quote from Brandon: "Portland sure does support their team, as their state-of-the-art arena of over 20,000 seats was nearly sold out on a Tuesday. Looks like when the Sonics move to Oklahoma, I'll have to jump ship here. Or maybe I already have"

So while he may dislike the Timbers with every fiber of his being, deep down Brandon does like Portland.

Save the Memorial Coliseum

You've heard about the Pontiac Silverdome going to a half a million dollars, you see the Key Arena sitting dormant (except for a few Gonzaga, WSU and WNBA games) and you wonder why the St. Louis Rams need a new stadium even though the one there in was built in the mid-nineties. This sort of waste and discarding of monumental buildings is absolutely ridiculous and a testament to the greed and lack of foresight of professional sports owners.

The Wall Street Journal recently did a story of the available vacant sports arenas, perhaps you'd like to buy one?

One particular sports arena I would like to highlight is the former home of the Portland Trailblazers. The Memorial Coliseum was built in the 1960s and hailed as the premiere sports arena in the Northwest. The Blazers won the 1977 NBA title in there, and fans sold out the building on a regular basis. In the 1990s, the team moved into the state-of-the-art Rose Garden which is an incredible building by first hand accounts (I watched an NBA game in there, although I was very hungover). Portland did a strange thing though, instead of blowing up or tearing down the Coliseum, they let it stand and the WHL team in town continued to use it as a venue.

Now I have never been in the building, and I talked with one sportscaster covering the Chiefs who said the Memorial Coliseum was much too cramped, but after the Blazers played a preseason game there, I have a feeling that the place was just freakin' magical back in the day.

You'll noticed the large glass walls, which is a unique and breathtaking feature of the building. All of the seats in the building are also very close to the court. The last row in the Memorial Coliseum would probably be considered really good seats in the Rose Garden.

There has been talk of tearing the building down, and that almost happened to make way for a new minor-league baseball park, but thankfully, the MC is still with us. What drives me nuts is why we need all these brand-spanking new stadiums when the older ones serve us just fine and have some character. I know the answer... money, luxury boxes, wider concourses, easier access but it just seems wasteful to me to tear down these perfectly fine buildings that are still capable of hosting sporting events.

Now the Blazers use to have a curtain around the top of the arena to block out the windows but for some reason they left the curtain down and everyone was able to take in the view. I hope that the MC is around for years to come and maybe someday I'll catch a Blazers game in there.

Something tells me its a much better experience in that building anyways.

The last time I went to Portland...

I'm headed out for the weekend to Portland today where I'll be attending a good friend's wedding. While I'm certainly excited to go to the wedding, the last time I went to Portland, I had what you would call an EPIC Hangover.

EPIC Hangover - When you are incapacitated or feeling the effects of alcohol consumption for at least two days, the first day involving the inability for you to stand up without wanting to hurl.

And the problem with having this EPIC Hangover, was the fact that we had tickets to a Portland Trailblazers game. So I had to somehow go from this...


To this...


After roughly a four hour nap, enough meds to make me the next Heath Ledger, I made my triumphant entrance into the Rose Garden.


Time for Round 2, Portland.

Hedo changes his mind

So apparently Hedo Turkoglu is NOT going to be a Portland Trailblazer. Instead he's going to Toronto because he likes it better there.

Turkoglu will make about $3 million more over the life of the contract than he would have made in Portland, but a bigger reason for his change of heart, a source told ESPN.com, was his desire to play in Toronto, a more international and cosmopolitan city -- one with a large Turkish population -- and his familiarity with the Eastern Conference after having spent the last five seasons with the Magic.

Ouch, Portland got burned in this article. Couldn't ESPN have said "Hedo doesn't want to play in a cow town" since that basically has the same effect as calling Toronto "a more international and cosmopolitan city?"

So about that whole Oden being the franchise savior thing

Nothing against Oden, he's been a solid contributor for the Portland Trailblazers during their 17-10 start this season. However, we may have been a bit off with the whole franchise savior thing because that's actually Brandon Roy.

That's pretty clear after Roy dropped 52 points against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday Night.

Quickly and silently he's becoming one of the best guards in the league and NOBODY saw this coming. Seriously, where are the "Here comes Brandon Roy!" articles? Even Skip Bayless couldn't even deny this complete meltdown in media ignorance.

If you watch a Blazers game, count how many time the announcers gush over Roy, because the man seems like he's making plays everywhere on the court even when he's sitting on the bench. The great thing about the NBA is that there are players that you just like watching play, simply because it's enjoyable, and Roy is one of those guys.

Just warning you all in advance, in case you were too busy watching Kobe Bryant bite his lip and ignore teammates.

Stadiums that shouldn't have been replaced...

Boston Garden Built 1928, Demolished 1997- The historical epicenter of NBA basketball for many years this was where the great Boston Celtics dynasty was built, and that could have been largely due to the building itself. Also hosting the Boston Bruins, the 15,000 seat arena was built with neither hockey or basketball in mind, it was built for boxing with the intent of allowing every person to be able to get a close look at the action.

This of course resulted in the seats being right on top of the players and the playing areas, giving it a very intimate and intimidating atmosphere. And speaking of atmosphere, there was no atmosphere in the garden, so a fog would develop over the ice during hockey games and it reached 97 degrees during the 1984 NBA Finals, and players were given oxygen to fight the heat.

It was rat infested, the electrical system occasionally failed and visitors lockers room were horrible. However, it hosted 16 Stanley Cup Finals and 20 NBA Finals and that may have had something to do with the fact that fans in the last row of the stadium was still close enough to the action to get the opposing coach to flip them off (true story) for their heckling. In Boston Sports lore, this is Holy Ground - and yet they had to tear it down for a brand new, soulless arena. What a shame...

Chicago Stadium Built 1929, Demolished 1994- Believe or not, Chicago Stadium is the breeding ground for Arena Football... kinda. Due to weather conditions outside, the first NFL playoff game was played inside its walls in 1932 on an 80-yard field.

While original capacity was 17,000, the record for an NHL game was set inside the stadium when over 20,000 people watched a Blackhawks playoff game in 1982. That record stood until 1996. The place was mammoth, and featured an grand organ that was played during hockey games which gave fan noise a loud ringing noise.

And they had plenty to cheer about when Michael Jordan and the Bulls brought some NBA Championships to Chicago. The grand scale of this venerable arena was the perfect backdrop for the budding years of the best basketball player ever.

How attached were fans? When CNN broadcasted the stadium's demolition, they showed footage of Blackhawks and Bulls fans crying.


Spokane Coliseum Built 1954, Demolished 1995 - While the Spokane Arena is probably one of the best things ever to happen to the Lilac City, there were plenty of memories to be had in the Coliseum. Affectionately called the "Boone Street Barn" many Chiefs fans were born in this building as the team really rose to prominence in the 5,400 stadium.

Ironically though, it was the Chiefs who lobbied for a new stadium but even team owner Bobby Brett expressed the opinion that he didn't want to see the Coliseum torn down. If it were still standing today, it would have provided Spokane a wonderful mid-sized arena with plenty of character and history to go along with it.

Foxboro Stadium Built 1971, Demolished 2001 - So it may have been one of the worst stadiums in the NFL, according to some (probably team owners), but Foxboro Stadium had plenty of memories. It was the site for the infamous Snow Plow Game, home of the Patriots during their mid-90s Super Bowl Run with Drew Bledsoe and the last game played in the place was the Tuck Rule Game which was a stroke of luck that allowed the New England Patriots to become the dynasty that they are today.

Why was it one of the worst stadiums? Because it was build cheaply, meaning that their were bleacher seats instead of individual premium box seating, no luxury boxes and no fancy locker rooms. Meaning that the fans that showed up to the games were true fans, not the corporate Disneyland crew that shows up to Patriot games now at Gillette Stadium, leading to many criticisms about the atmosphere at those games.

Sure it wasn't pretty, but it was a 60,000 seat snowbank that allowed fans to be fans. New England couldn't overcharge for tickets and therefore the real fans got to go to the stadium. Patriot fans long complained about their digs until it was finally gone and now they've lost something special forever.

Mile High Stadium Built 1948, Demolished 2002 - Originally built as a baseball stadium, Mile High was one of those weird multi-use stadium that worked well. Mainly because they didn't host a major league baseball team until the 90s, and mainly because the Denver Broncos provided so many memories in the place.

The high altitude, combined with the home field advantage of 76,000 fans was pretty tough for visiting teams to overcome. I know, watched many Seahawks teams go kaput there. The playing field would actually shake from fan noise and movement during games.

One of the grandstands could move so it could host baseball and when the Colorado Rockies were formed, Mile High set an all-season attendance record of close to 4.5 million that will never be broken.

While Invesco Field has tried to recreate that shaking effect, it's just not the same as the Broncos lost a certain mystique when they moved out of Mile High.

Memorial Coliseum Built 1960, still standing - The Portland Trailblazers have since moved into the state-of-the art confines of the Rose Garden, which is a marvelous facility, but there's still a special spot in Portland fans for Memorial Coliseum.

Due to its somewhat small size, just under 13,000, the place had quite the record for sell-outs when it came to Blazer games. However don't tell opposing teams that the crowd was small as Rip City has some of the most electric fans in the NBA.

Still a great facility, lets hope Portland doesn't tear it down. And what about the Blazers playing a throwback game there?

Jumping ship...

My distaste for the current Sonics ownership is much like my distaste for getting hit in the crotch with a golf club.

And after care consideration, I've decided to jump ship to the Portland Trailblazers. You can read my post on the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes here.

My Northwest Spring Break Adventure

It's been three days into this spring break adventure of mine, and it's already been more than eventful enough. But first, you guys must meet my trusty traveling companions.

James T. Caddey "Hollywood" as I like to call him, you might have seen his blog, The Collegiate Handyman.

Anna Arleen Koenig, or better known as Whaleus maximus. She doesn't have an Internet blog because she uses a Macintosh.

I've been lucky enough to tag along with these two, eating their snack food that they packed and generally sleeping in the back seat of Anna's car. Also can't forget the all important:

Katie Scalibrine Koenig, sister of the Wahleus Maximus and purchaser of our hotel room when we stayed in Portland.

The first day consisted of Anna, James and I roadtripping it from Cheney, Wash. to Portland. Along the way we got to see such Washington tourist traps like Ritzville, Tri-Cities and The Dalles.

Anyone from the Northwest knows what kind of money these places bring in based on their attractiveness and foreigners wanting to get their photos in from of the "Welcome to the 250th largest metropolitan area in the United States" sign.

Also a word of warning for you that decided to vacation in Oregon. People are required by law to pump your gas here. So when they approach your vehicle, avoid spraying them with a can of raid and drop kicking them in the sweet spot. They're just trying to fill up your tank.

Also Oregon tends to turn a bunch of people into wine snobs, I was no exception as I got five free samples of some fine Oregon wine at a local vineyard just outside of Portland. It also gave me an excuse to drink at two in the afternoon.

Just before we got into Portland we passed by Multnomah Falls (pictured above), to which the whale commented as "not being that big of deal"

However after further research (wikipedia) I discovered that Multnomah Falls is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States after Yosemite Falls.

The third being David Hasselhof's drool when he's drunk.

Once we were settled in at our hotel, where Katie had met us from driving down from Bellingham, we met up with her friend Brittney and decided that 5:30 p.m. was an excellent time to start drinking (again).

First was Rogue (makers of Dead Guy Ale) Public House, which is local Oregon brewer. We chowed down dinner there and had some fancy beers (Or as I like to say "burs") and also went to the Bridgeport Brewery for some more fancy "burs" all in downtown Portland.

Feeling subsequently nice, we then were dropped off by Brittney at the Cellar bar which was an underground Mecca for Guinness-like beer, stories about high school athletics (?!?!?!) and good directions for more bars.

Our next bar, Ground Kontrol was heaven on earth for emo kids. It had essentially every classic arcade game you could think of, nintendos, ataris and playstations for sale. Games too. A nicely stocked bar with goodies. And techno music.

Not sure if enjoyed the techno music, but I did like to judge which emo kid were wearing girls pants and which weren't.

After this we snuck down into some wonderfully seedy bar called the Shanghi Tunnel where we ate fries with chopsticks.

And then, the Jupiter Bar.

Three mixed drinks later it was time to go home. Final count: 2 breweries, 4 bars and one vineyard. Hell of a night.

The next day can be completely written off as mentioned in the earlier blog, except for the Trailblazers game...

Portland sure does support their team, as their state-of-the-art arena of over 20,000 seats was nearly sold out on a Tuesday. Looks like when the Sonics move to Oklahoma, I'll have to jump ship here. Or maybe I already have.

The Oregon Trail

I'll have further details tomorrow when I find a coffee shop and a wonderful bagel. But I would just like to say this.

Portland kicked my ass.

After hitting the bars (and I do mean bars, numerous, more bars than Bill Clinton mistresses) on Monday night, I awoke on Tuesday to find that my body had apparently decided to act like it was going through its final death spasms.

I barely was able to get it together to make it to the Portland Trailblazers game on Tuesday night, which was almost sold out and the usher found three empty alcohol fifths in the row in front of us. Good times.

And then after the game while walking back to our hotel (We were like three blocks from the Rose Garden), I watched this girl smack here head against a transfer box on a stoplight post because she wasn't looking where she was going.

Boy do I love this city.