Daily Archives: September 11, 2004

Uh, oh II

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The Stros hitters continued to scruff this afternoon in Pittsburgh against someone named Ryan Vogelsong as he limited the Stros to one run over six innings in the Pirates’ 5-2 victory at PNC Park. It was the Stros’ third loss in four games following their 12-game winning streak that got them back in the race for the Wild Card playoff spot.
Bidg homered on the second pitch of the game and drove in both Houston runs. but the rest of the Stros’ hitters managed only two doubles and five singles. Biggio’s homer was his 22nd, which tied his season high and extended his National League record to 40 homers leading off games.
Roy O needs to play stopper on Sunday night in the final game of this disappointing series. The Stros get an off day in St. Louie on Monday before beginning their three game series with the Cards on Tuesday with the Rocket pitching the first game.

The demise of the Southwest Conference

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Kevin Whited has this interesting post over at PubliusTX.net about the demise of the old and beloved (at least in Texas) Southwest Conference, and how former University of Houston Athletic Director Bill Carr flubbed the chance to shoehorn UH into the Big 12 Conference.
I was quite close to the Jack Pardee–John Jenkins coaching staffs at UH, and I ended up representing Jenks in the settlement of his contract with UH (but that’s the subject of an entirely longer post!). The info in Kevin’s post is pretty much the way I remember it and his point about Baylor’s acceptance into the Big 12 as being a booby prize is right on the mark.
For most of their existence, UH’s athletic programs have generally competed very well despite fewer resources than most of their competitors. For years, several of the old Southwest Conference schools refused to agree to admitting UH until Darrell Royal and the few other statesmen in the SWC lobbied for UH’s admission. I’m sure that UH will continue to face similar obstacles in attempting to join one of the BCS Conferences (the Southeastern Conference probably makes the most sense). But it would be great for Houston to have UH’s athletic programs back in a major conference.

The Massachurian Candidate

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Professor Ribstein is already a formidable business law and business movie expert. However, from this post, it appears that he may also be a budding Hollywood screenwriter.

Anadarko nears completion of asset sale

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The Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced that it is selling a large number of its smaller oil and natural-gas properties in Texas and Oklahoma in return for $850 million and a stake in two Wyoming producing fields. Merit Energy Co., a Dallas-based privately held company, is buying the majority of the properties.
With the sale, Anadarko is nearing its previously announced goal of selling off $2.5 billion in North American assets. It plans to use the proceeds to lower debt and refocus on a plan to develop overseas and deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration.
The properties Anadarko is selling represent 30% of its fields world-wide, but only 4% of proven reserves and 7% of current production. The deal is scheduled to close by the beginning of December.
Merit owns and operates oil and natural-gas fields with $2.1 billion in oil and natural-gas reserves. The company had raised $2.5 billion for additional purchases of oil and gas properties.
It’s too early to say whether Anadarko’s ambitious plan to restructure the company is going to work. However, I am pulling for them. It’s always refreshing to see management of a company address a daunting problem — i.e., the uninviting future of an independent E&P company treading water while living off of declining reserves — and come up with a creative plan to redirect the company toward a potentially more profitable goal. The plan is not without substantial risk, but given Anadarko’s alternatives, it makes a lot of sense to me.