Daily Archives: August 22, 2007

The Fed Ex Cup enters the Tiger Chasm

Posted on by
Reply

FedExCup1.gifChronicle golf columnist Steve Campbell reports that the Fed Ex Cup — the PGA Tour’s new series of tournaments intended to breath life into the lifeless end of the golf season — has entered the dreaded Tiger Chasm even before the first tournament of the new series has commenced:

They haven’t yet hit a shot that counts in the FedEx Cup playoff series, and the whole thing is beginning to look like the kind of idea that got Ishtar, Gigli and The Adventures of Pluto Nash on the big screen.
Woods doomed the FedEx Cup, which was a risky proposition in the first place, to irrelevancy by opting to skip the first round of the so-called playoffs. At a time when the PGA Tour desperately needs to drum up interest in a radical overhaul of its season structure, Woods invited massive disinterest by passing on this week’s The Barclays at Westchester Country Club. Not so fresh off victories at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA Championship, Woods insists he needs another week of rest and relaxation. [. . .]
. . . what kind of playoff system allows a competitor to duck either an opponent or a site and still win the championship? Answer: not a legitimate one. The tour is damned if Woods wins the Cup, because it exposes the playoff system in place as a sham. The tour is damned if Woods doesn’t win the Cup, or at least stay in contention until the very end, because he’s head, shoulders, knees and toes above the rest of the players in accomplishments and fan appeal.

Meanwhile, PGA Tour member Jeff Maggert of The Woodlands lays the blame for the Fed Ex mess squarely on PGA Tour headquarters and Commissioner Tim Finchem:

Maggert . . . says none of the touring pros are enthusiastic about the tour’s playoff.
“Probably half the players out here couldn’t care less about [the FedEx Cup],” he told Hardin. “The other half are indifferent.”
Maggert said tour commissioner Tim Finchem should take the blame for the indifference in the clubhouse.
“I hear a lot being written, but I don’t see anybody writing anything about Finchem,” Maggert said. “I mean, this was his idea. He really didn’t consult any of the players. He kind of shoved it down our throats and said, ‘This is what we’re going to do.'”

But dispositive confirmation that the Fed Ex Cup is in serious trouble is the fact that The Onion is already making fun of the concept. Note the following statement at the end of this article spoofing that Tiger Woods was annoyed that his three month old daughter was “looking the other way when he won” the recent PGA Championship:

Woods later stated, however, that he couldn’t find fault with his daughter’s apathetic feelings towards the upcoming FedEx Cup events, saying that he himself thinks of it as a forced and unoriginal attempt to inject excitement into the final part of the golf season.

One of downtown Houston’s charms

Posted on by
Reply

tunnelmap.gifThe New York Times discovers one of the literally coolest characteristics of downtown Houston — the pedestrian tunnel system:

Where is everybody?
Seared by triple-digit heat and drenched by tropical storms, midday downtown Houston appears eerily deserted, the nationís fourth-largest city passing for a ghost town.
On the street, that is.
But below, there are tunnels at the end of the light ó nearly seven color-coded miles of them connecting 77 buildings ó aswarm with Houstonians lunching, shopping and power-walking in dry, air-chilled comfort. [. . .]
Other cities, notably Montreal, Toronto and Minneapolis, are renowned for their extensive tunnel and skyway networks. But Houston may be alone in the extent and nature of its pedestrian circulation system of tunnels and skywalks that become particularly popular on days like Aug. 12, 13 and 14 when temperatures hit 102 and 101, or last Thursday, when Tropical Storm Erin flooded many streets.
It was not centrally planned; it just grew, inspired by Rockefeller Center in New York. But it is not connected to a transit network. And, befitting Texansí distrust of government, most of it is private; each segment is controlled by the individual building owner who deigns to allow the public access during business hours ó and then locks the doors on nights and weekends. Some parts, like those belonging to the former Enron buildings now leased by Chevron, are closed to outsiders altogether.
Few claim mastery of the labyrinth.
ìItís one of Houstonís best-kept secrets,î said Sandra Lord, widely known as the Tunnel Lady, a Yankee transplant who dispels the mysteries for $10 a head and roams the downtown underworld with proprietary aplomb, sometimes stopping strangers to ask, ìAnd you are?î Corporations pay Ms. Lord to orient new employees below ground, and nearly 45,000 natives and visitors have taken her Discover Houston Tours since 1988. [. . .]
The tunnels are remarkably diverse, lined with restaurants and coffee bars, boutiques, florists, shoe-repair shops, jewelers, dry cleaners, dental clinics, optometrists, pharmacies, beauty salons, barbers, copy and printing services, banks and post offices.
And they are clearly amenities. ìItís extremely difficult to be a Class A building without being on a tunnel,î said Laura Van Ness, business development director of Central Houston Inc., the nonprofit downtown organization. . . .

As the article notes, the tunnel system is largely the product of private enterprise. Sort of makes you wish that the decision on whether to invest in this to private enterprise, as well.

Sports talk radio overload

Posted on by
1

radio_microphone_hg_wht.gifWhy on earth are there now four sports talk radio stations in Houston? Chronicle sports media columnist David Barron reports (related blog post here) on the rather rocky first day of the city’s newest sports talk radio station:

KGOW (1560 AM), the city’s fourth sports-talk station, launched Monday with the usual shakedown issues that accompany any new venture, plus a new glitch that prevented the station’s signal from being heard in parts of metropolitan Houston.
David Gow, the station’s president, said equipment called an exciter failed last weekend at the station’s 50,000-watt transmitter southwest of Houston. The station signed on Monday at 1,000 watts from a backup transmitter on the city’s south side.
“We anticipate the situation being remedied shortly,” said Richard Topper, KGOW’s general manager. “We hope to be at full strength as soon as possible.”
Listeners commenting at the Sports Media blog at www.chron.com reported hearing KGOW’s signal in Pearland, Kemah and Cypress, but others reported problems listening in downtown Houston, the Heights, Kingwood, Spring and northwest Harris County. [. . .]
Some hosts struggled with telephone problems. Chronicle columnist Richard Justice, the station’s late-morning host, began an interview with a greeting from Oklahoma football coach Bob Stoops, but Stoops was off the line by the time Justice finished asking his first question.
After a break for a station promotion, Justice returned with a telephone interview with baseball commissioner Bud Selig. [. . .]
After its last local talk show ended at 6 p.m. Monday, the station went to automated music rather than a syndicated sports talk show because it has not received the satellite equipment needed to download the program.

Having Richard Justice talk about sports is bad enough. But does anyone else have the sense that this latest venture in local sports talk radio sounds a bit like a junior high science project?
By the way, in other sports media news, Houston Chronicle sports columnist John Lopez announced yesterday that he is leaving the Chronicle after almost 20 years as a reporter and columnist.