Monthly Archives: November 2007

Nice guys on the PGA Tour

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01690.jpgGolfweek’s Jeff Rude provides this entertaining column in which he passes along some of his experiences with the truly nice fellows on the PGA Tour, the nicest of which, in Rude’s view, is Beaumont native and former University of Houston great, Bruce Lietzke:

[Lietzke] had all the attributes you want in a next-door neighbor: Self-deprecation, humor, a pleasant nature, a realness, a playfulness, a deep sense of family and a vintage car collection to die for. With Lietzke, you could walk next door and get a golf lesson, borrow a wrench and, for the umpteenth time, hear his famous banana-under-the headcover story or about the time he revved one of his hot cars up Magnolia Lane.
My favorite Lietzke story, and the one that clinched his status as No. 1 favorite, happened in 1995. I needed to interview him but our schedules were conflicting. I was leaving for the British Open, and he was going on one of his long summer vacations and time was running out. So I read him the list of questions while in a taxi on the way to the Dallas airport and asked him to leave his answers on my answering machine. I told him Iíd then listen to his answers and transcribe the quotes during a layover in Chicago on the way to Scotland.
When I retrieved messages at OíHare Airport, sure enough Lietzke had called. Problem was, my voice mail cut off after two minutes. So to make this work, Lietzke had to call back and continue with his answers. And call back and continue. And call back and continue. When I got done writing down his answers, I realized he had called my answering machine 13 times.
I mean, telemarketers looking for cash donít call my answering machine 13 times. And this was a PGA Tour player with 13 victories. I mean, some winless players donít have 13 seconds (as in time) for someone carrying a notepad and pen.
Professional athletes in need of media training donít need a seminar. They just need to hang out with Lietzke for a day.

Read the entire piece. I had the pleasure of playing a round with Liezke years ago at a University of Houston function and concur with Rude that he is a perfectly charming fellow.

An expensive illusion

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Arnold%20Kling%20110707.jpgAs I’ve noted several times previously, EconLog’s Arnold Kling is among the clearest thinkers in the U.S. on reform of the health care finance system. He has been addressing health care finance issues again this week, first in this podcast interview with Russ Roberts, and also in posts here and here addressing issues raised by Greg Mankiw’s NY Times article on the misleading nature of certain statistics that are frequently tossed around in the health care finance debates. But the most insightful Kling health care finance post this week was this Cato-at-Liberty post in which he analogizes the third party payor health care finance system to subsidized prostitution:

Suppose we were 20-year-old guys who hung out together, and one of our friends was down on his luck with women. Heís really depressed about it. We decideñnot necessarily the brightest ideañto hire him a prostitute. We donít want him to know sheís a prostitute, so we all chip in and pay her, tell her to meet our friend at a bar, and make him feel better about himself.
Next morning, we ask him how it went. He says, ìGreat. I really feel better about myself. In fact, Iím going to see her again tonight.î
As friends of the guy, we look at each other and realize that he will be devastated if he learns the truth. So we chip in again and pay the prostitute to make our friend feel better about himself. This keeps happening day after day, and eventually maintaining our friendís illusion about his love life gets to be really expensive.
Similarly, free health care is an attractive illusion. Itís just gotten to be really expensive to maintain the illusion.

Before the blogosphere, discussion and analysis of health care finance — which has become one of the key domestic issues of our time — was largely buried in technical books, economic or medical journals and an occasional op-ed on the editorial pages. As a result, health care finance was largely misunderstood by the public and even a large segment of the medical profession. Now, through the leadership of economic bloggers such as Kling, the important issues relating to health care finance reform are instantly available for the world to review as a virtual cornucopia of economic bloggers has emerged to provide commentary and insight. That’s a wonderful legacy for Kling, and one for which we should all be appreciative.

The DeBakey-Cooley rapprochement

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DeBakey%20and%20Cooley.jpgThe longtime feud and resulting intense competition between Houston cardiovascular surgeons Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley was a part of what catapulted Houston’s Texas Medical Center into the upper tier of the world’s great medical centers over the past 40 years.
Now, the Chronicle’s fine Texas Medical Center reporter, Todd Ackerman, reports in this article that the DeBakey-Cooley rift is no more:

It’s considered one of medicine’s best-known feuds: two brilliant and egotistical doctors on the frontiers of cardiovascular surgery, whose falling-out divided a community and became the stuff of legend.
Immortalized in a Life magazine cover story, the rift persisted for decades. Although the competition spurred them to achievements that transformed the Texas Medical Center into the world’s heart treatment center, the former collaborators avoided each other and barely spoke.
But recently, Michael DeBakey and Denton Cooley buried the hatchet.
“I’m glad the rivalry may have passed by,” Cooley said on Oct. 27, presenting DeBakey with a lifetime achievement award at a meeting of Cooley’s Cardiovascular Surgical Society. “I hope this is not just a temporary truce or cease-fire (but) … a permanent treaty between us.”
DeBakey, 99, responded that he was glad to be there for two reasons: “One is, I’m alive. And the other, of course, is to get this award. Denton, I am really touched by it.”

Read the entire article.

What’s really wrong with Ahman Green

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Ahman%20Green.jpgLeading Texans cheerleader, Chronicle pro football columnist John McClain, reports on the baffling nature of the injury that is holding back the Texans’ high-priced running back, Ahman Green:

Meanwhile, the Texans asked running back Ahman Green, 30, to have his sore right knee examined by [Dr. James] Andrews to see if he can find something that might help him stay on the field.
“We’re trying to find out what’s really going on, why it’s swelling and giving me pain and discomfort,” Green said after practice Tuesday. “I’ve had three MRIs, and they still don’t know from that, so I’m going to fly over there and see what we can find out.” [. . .]
“I’m hoping we’ll finally know,” Green said. “I hope we can find a solution for this. We’ll have our finger on the dot to see exactly what it is. Once we find the problem, we’ll have a solution.
“I know what I bring to this team, and my teammates depend on me a lot. And when I’m injured, I can’t do the things I know I can do.”

In reality, the acquisition of Green was a mistake — and a very expensive one at that — from the beginning. Moreover, that it was a mistake should not have been a surprise to anyone. As noted in my annual preview of the Texans’ season:

An example of the dubious decision-making regarding offensive personnel is the signing of RB Ahman Green, formerly of Green Bay. Green was a great running back in his prime with the Pack, but he has averaged less than four yards per carry for the past two seasons. Inasmuch as the Texans agreed to pay Green $23 million over four years ($8 million guaranteed in the first season), the chances that the 30-year old Green will be worth the value of this contract this season are tenuous, at best. The chances of him still being worth the contract a couple of years from now are so speculative as to be off the charts.

In short, you won’t read about it in McClain’s columns, but Green represents another indication that the hiring of current Texans coach Gary Kubiak has not changed the legacy of dubious personnel decisions over at Reliant Park.
Ahman Green = eventual salary cap hit.

Last weekend’s truly biggest game

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NAVY_Football.jpgThe grudge match between LSU and Alabama was certainly the most watched big college football game of this past weekend. But for my money, the most interesting game of the weekend was Navy’s dramatic 46-44 triple overtime victory over Notre Dame at South Bend, ending a 43 year losing streak by the Midshipmen against the Fighting Irish. The win was made even more satisfying for the Middies because a blatant “hometown” pass interference call by one of the referees gave Notre Dame another chance to tie the game at the end of the third overtime, but Navy stuffed the Irish on the retry to preserve the victory.
John Feinstein provides this excellent analysis of what Navy’s victory means:

Skeptics will point out that this is a bad (now 1-8) Notre Dame team. It doesn’t matter. Every Notre Dame team should dominate Navy on the football field. At one point during the game, NBC — also known as the Notre Dame Broadcasting Co. because it pays the school millions of dollars a year to televise all its home games — did a promo for a high school All-Star game it televises in January. Only the country’s top-rated high school seniors are invited to play.
“Twenty-one of the current Irish players have played in that game in past years,” NBC play-by-play announcer Tom Hammond said.
That would be exactly 21 more than are currently playing at Navy. Or, as Hammond’s partner Pat Haden pointed out: “With all due respect, Navy doesn’t get to recruit blue-chip football players.”
Just blue-chip people. [. . .]
The best description I ever heard of what it is like to play football at Navy, Army and Air Force came from Fred Goldsmith, who coached at Air Force: “At a civilian school the hardest part of a football player’s day is football practice,” he said. “At an academy, the easiest part of a football player’s day is football practice.”
Navy can’t possibly beat Notre Dame. Except on Saturday a group of youngsters who were too small or too slow (or both) to play big-time college football did just that.
With all due respect to Notre Dame and all its blue-chip players, Navy’s celebration should be our celebration.

By the way, the game included one of the worst coaching calls that I’ve ever seen. Notre Dame’s Charlie Weis decided to go for it on 4th and 8 at the Navy 24 yard line with 45 seconds remaining in regulation instead of attempting a 41-yard field goal that could have won the game. If a 1-8 record at Notre Dame doesn’t get Weis fired, then that type of coaching decision almost certainly will.

Bad judgment alert

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NFLNetwork_250-175.jpgAs if corruption in the Texas Youth Commission, the bursting state prison system, reform of the judicial selection system, or reorganization of TSU isn’t enough to keep Texas legislators occupied. Now, a local state legislator is teaming up with a colleague to confront a truly important issue — that Texans are not going to be able to watch certain NFL football games on certain cable television networks:

Cable companies and the NFL Network are competing for Texas lawmakers’ support in their national fight over whether cable customers should be charged extra for the football channel.
While some cable companies have agreed to carry the network’s eight regular-season games, Time Warner Cable, the largest in Texas, has not come to terms with the network.
Pressure has been mounting on all parties as the Dallas Cowboys’ Nov. 29 matchup with the Green Bay Packers approaches. The game will only be shown on the NFL Network.
“I’ve had a lot more people contact me about NFL football the last two months instead of child protective services, windstorm insurance or worker’s compensation, which are frankly more important issues,” said Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale, R-Tomball. “I don’t control what constituents call me about.” [. . .]
Van Arsdale and Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, said last week that they would consider introducing consumer-oriented legislation in the 2009 session if the two sides don’t reach an agreement.
“Cable companies need to focus on giving their customers what they want, which is football,” Brimer said. [. . .]
Five Democratic members of the Texas House from Bexar County have sent letters to the Federal Communication Commission asking it to intercede in the argument.

Of course, all of these games are readily available on the Dish Network, so no consumer is prevented from buying that product if they want to see these NFL Network games bad enough. However, that doesn’t stop the seemingly limitless amount of bad judgment in legislative circles over defining a legitimate legislative issue.

Final PGA Tour money lists

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PGA_TourLogo110707.gifAfter last weekend’s final PGA Tour tournament of the year, the PGA Tour money list has been finalized for purposes of qualifying for the 2008 PGA Tour events. The top 125 on the list are fully exempt next year and the top 30 gets into the Masters. The Nationwide Tour money list is also finalized. The top 25 on that list earn a PGA Tour card for 2008.
Players not otherwise exempt that finish between 126-150 on the money list usually still get into 16-20 events in the following year, but they have little control over their schedules because they do not know what tournaments will be available for them. Many of these players in that part of the list also rely on past champion and sponsor exemptions. The players who are really in a tough spot are those who finished outside of the top 150 and have no other type of exemption status.

30 year anniversary of the first angioplasty

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angioplasty.JPGAngioplasty has been a common topic on this blog, so it seems fitting to pass along this article and related video about Dolf Bachmann, the first patient to undergo balloon angioplasty. Bachmann was 38 years old when he underwent the procedure on September 16, 1977 and now is a healthy and happy 68 year-old who enjoys an “excellent life” that includes hobbies such as “hiking, Nordic walking, skiing, working in my garden and playing cards.”

Dell quietly complies

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dell_logo110607.pngOne of the fringe benefits of the turmoil at Merrill Lynch and Citigroup last week is that Austin-based Dell Inc quietly filed five 10-Qs, a proxy statement and last yearís 10-K (see this previous post about Dell’s delinquent filings). The filings contain restated financial information stretching from 2003 to the first fiscal quarter of 2007 and brings Dell into compliance with Nasdeq rules regarding filing of periodic financial reporting. Jack Ciesielski in this AAO Blog post does the heavy lifting in analyzing Dell’s filings.

Winning by losing

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Money%20in%20fist.jpgDr. Michael Lewis penned this NY Times op-ed last weekend in which he asserts that Major League Baseball’s present revenue-sharing formula does little to affect the quality of the various teams on average, even though small market teams do well now and then:

The Colorado Rockiesí appearance in the World Series last month may have looked like evidence of success for revenue-sharing. Like the Oakland Athletics, the Minnesota Twins, the Detroit Tigers and the San Diego Padres last year, a small-market team proved competitive enough to reach the playoffs. But revenue sharing, as it is now structured, actually makes lasting success less likely for all five of these teams. [. . .]
Since 1998, millions of dollars have been transferred from richer teams to poorer ones in an attempt to let all teams share in the economic advantages associated with playing in big markets ó a large fan base, lots of press coverage and lucrative local cable television contracts. Last year, more than $300 million was transferred.
Yet since revenue sharing began, at least one team from each of the big four markets ó New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston ó has appeared in every World Series except 2006. In the 10 years before 1998, in contrast, only two Series included one of those big-market teams.
The problem is that the teams receiving payments have come to use them as a primary source of income ó rather than to build winning teams. . .

As John Palmer sums up:

Revenue sharing has little impact on the expected marginal revenue and marginal costs of ticket sales, and it especially has little impact on the expected marginal revenue product and marginal factor costs of hiring more talent for the team. As a result, many teams like, say, Tampa Bay, respond to what is essentially a lump-sum transfer by pocketing the extra cash. [. . .]
So revenue-sharing also reduces the marginal revenue of an expected win, and not just for the big-market teams that are taxed to support the programme; it also reduces the incentive for small market teams, the recipients of revenue-sharing, to win too.