This is a sports town. Houstonians' love for its teams runs deep; from luv ‘ya Blue in the 80s to back-to-back Rocket world championships in the 90s. The Astros found the finals last time, appearing in the 2005 World Series; however the teams, like the state are surviving a prolonged drought. I moved to Houston when the Texans opened their franchise in 2002, so I especially pull for them, yet mediocrity plagues the club a decade later. The current state of sports in Houston is as malevolent as the weather. Both Rice and UofH fail to add a much needed intercollegiate spark.
The Astros, just taken off the sales block, are far enough from .500 they reside in another zip code. The Texans never reach their potential, their affable coach unable to rouse the winning tradition of Oilers football last inspired by Bum Phillips, when he said, "Dallas Cowboys may be America's team, but the Houston Oilers are Texas' team." The Rockets invest their global dreams in the broken-down feet of a gentle giant, Yao Ming; who is great as a “branding” icon, but cannot play enough games to impact the western division.
Few major cities watch such disarray in the professional ranks. Sports venues, updated in the 90s, provide modern environments for the spectators here, with posh luxury boxes and air-conditioned comfort in which to observe lackadaisical play. Fewer fans commit to pay the heavy ticket prices in exchange for continual disappointment, because entertainment dollars are scarce even in an economy fueled by windfall energy profits. Besides, what is there to “cheer” for?!
Professional sports run like a business, however, they exist in the public sphere. Right now, labor struggles between employees and management obscure the customer service fans deserve. Greed, power, leverage, collective bargaining, and timing cause bigger issues to rise above general concern for fan feedback. Otherwise, the NFL would be readying for camp, and the NBA would not be changing the locks on their players’ lockers.
Baseball has settled its labor strife, recovering from their [PED] scandal, but still has a glaring problem with one of its most esteemed franchises the LA Dodgers, formerly of Brooklyn. Allowing Frank McCourt to leverage most of the $430 mil. purchase price in 2004 in order to become a member of the exclusive owner club might have been typical of the debt bubble wall street just foisted on financial institutions; however, now seems to be one of the worst management decisions in the league’s long history.
Having the storied Dodgers in bankruptcy court is the sad opposite of the pride brought to this country when the Dodgers’ Branch Rickey broke the MLB color-line by promoting Jackie Robinson to the big league club in 1947. It was a move that Jackie personified when he often “stole-home,” streaking toward the prize with reckless abandon, not worrying about the consequences of such risk. Trouble is, Frank McCourt is no Jackie Robinson.
photo credit: R. Morse
No comments:
Post a Comment