2005 Weekly local football review

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Rose_Bowl_stadium_sign.jpgTexas Longhorns 70 Colorado 3.

Just as this special Texas Longhorn football team exorcised the Stoops Curse earlier this season, the Horns annihilated Colorado and freed Longhorn fans everywhere from the nightmare of the 2001 Big 12 Championship game in delivering UT’s first Big 12 Football Championship to their long-suffering coach, Mack Brown.
This one was not as close as the score indicates as the Horns scored their 70th point midway through the third quarter and essentially went to the belly series on offense after that. Most of the accolades go to the spectacular Vince Young and the Horns’ offense, but the development of the Longhorn defense over the past two seasons is really what has set these past two Longhorn teams apart from Brown’s previous UT squads. Last season, long-time college defensive whiz Dick Tomey joined the Longhorns staff and the Horns’ defense displayed a toughness and tenacity that Brown’s previous defensive squads had lacked. Then, after Tomey and UT defensive coordinator Greg Robinson departed for other programs after the 2004 season, Brown hired former Auburn defensive coordinator Gene Chizik, and the result has been an even more aggressive and cohesive Horns defensive unit. Most of the focus on the upcoming Rose Bowl/National Championship Game will revolve around the spectacular Young and the equally phenomenal USC running back Reggie Bush, but my sense is that, if the Longhorns are to win their first national football championship in 36 years, then it will be the performance of the Horns’ defense that will be the difference.

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The Stros’ top ten minor league prospects

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Jason Hirsch.jpgMajor League Baseball’s winter meetings take place in Dallas this week, and that’s the time that the major league clubs really get serious about proposing and making free agent acquisitions and trades of players. Inasmuch as the Stros are definitely in the market for some hitting, it’s timely that venerable minor league baseball prospect evaluator Baseball America has published its annual top ten list ($) of the Stros’ minor league prospects.
The Stros organization has traditionally emphasized player development and current Stros GM Tim Purpura is a development guy, so expect that tradition to continue. The Stros farm system is best known for developing pitchers (think Larry Dierker, Don Wilson, J.R. Richard, Ken Forsch, Joe Sambito, Dave Smith, Shane Reynolds, Billy Wagner, Wade Miller, Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge, etc.), but the club during the Biggio-Bagwell era has also generated a number of productive hitters, including Bidg, Lance Berkman, Richard Hidalgo, Bobby Abreu, Morgan Ensberg, and Jason Lane. Similarly, the core of the key performers on the Stros’ 2005 World Series team were developed within the club’s farm system (Berkman, Bidg, Ensberg, Lane, Roy O, Lidge, Chris Burke and Chad Qualls), and six rookies were on the Stros’ World Series roster.

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Go Raiders!

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texas-tech-red-raiders.jpgTexas Tech’s football team (9-2) has had a fine season and will probably represent the Big 12 in the Cotton Bowl, although that final victory over Oklahoma was a bit tainted. Nevertheless, a mere tainted victory couldn’t stop a Tech fan in this hilarious video from proclaiming (loudly) his allegiance to the Red Raider nation during post-game media interviews. Hat tip to the Georgia Sports Blog for the link.

Hearing on Olis resentencing scheduled

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Jamie Olis4.jpgThis Chronicle article reports that the hearing on the re-sentencing of former Dynegy executive Jamie Olis will take place on Thursday January 5, 2006 before U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, with briefs due on the resentencing issues on December 20 and 27. The resentencing hearing follows the Fifth Circuit overturning Olis’ 24 year sentence last month in a widely-anticipated ruling.
Interestingly, the docket entry regarding Olis’ resentencing indicates that two other former Dynegy executives ó Olis’ former boss, Gene Foster, and former in-house accountant Helen Sharkey ó will also be sentenced with Olis on January 5. Both Foster and Sharkey pleaded guilty to conspiracy in August 2003 for their roles in the allegedly fraudulent Project Alpha deal that also ensnared Olis. Foster testified against Olis during Olis’ trial and implicated other former Dynegy executives ó including former finance chief Rob Doty ó but no one else has been charged to date. Under their plea deals, Foster and Sharkey face maximum sentences of five years.
According to the Chronicle article, Judge Lake declined Olis counsel’s request on Friday to have Olis released from prison pending the resentencing hearing. In so doing, Judge Lake signaled his intent on resentencing by commenting that, despite the 5th Circuit’s objection to the government’s damages figure, Olis still “has a number of years to serve even under the most liberal interpretation of laws.”

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Big private equity funds bet big on new Houston E&P company

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oil and gas well at sunset.jpgTwo large private equity funds — Carlyle/Riverstone and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners — announced yesterday that they are investing $500 million in Cobalt International Energy LP, a new Houston-based exploration company comprised mainly of former Unocal Corp. executives. Former Unocal president Joe Bryant orchestrated the deal and will be the CEO of Cobalt. The Chronicle article on the deal is here.
Although the investment is relatively small by oil and gas industry standards, the investment reflects an increasing trend of private equity funding a proven management team in a promising industry. Given the relatively small capitalization, Cobalt will identify new prospects and then hedge its risk by laying off a substantial portion of its interest in the prospect to investment partners who will share the risk of capital-intensive drilling and completion activities on the prospects, particularly in regard to the deepwater prospects in the Gulf of Mexico that will be one of the company’s target areas.

Unintended consequences of indulging the Lord of Regulation

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Spitzer40.jpgGreenberg15.jpgI wonder how many American International Group, Inc. shareholders are glad that the Lord of Regulation ridded the company of its supposedly fraud-indulging former CEO, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg?
This Wall Street Journal ($) article reports on some interesting new competition that AIG is facing in its key Chinese markets:

American International Group Chief Executive Martin Sullivan made the rounds at a gathering of multinational CEOs a month ago, meeting Chinese officials — some for the first time — whom he must cultivate to build up the insurance giant’s business here.
But across the room, a different American magnate was holding court, with a large group of Chinese officials he had known for decades. When they saw him, they warmly greeted their old friend — AIG’s longtime former chief, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg.

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The Horns’ recurring nightmares

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mackbrown2.jpgAs Houston prepares for the Texas Longhorns to win their first Big 12 Football Championship tomorrow at Reliant Stadium, I have detected an unusual reserve among the Longhorn supporters. It’s a bit hard to describe, but it’s definitely noticeable — sort of like UT fans are telling each other “let’s not get too excited just yet; there may still be a train wreck looming out there” as the Longhorns march on to to their widely-anticipated Rose Bowl game against USC for the BCS National Championship.
A friend who is a grizzled veteran of the college football wars described such uncharacteristic lack of confidence in the following manner: “The Horns have not really been a truly elite team in college football for over a generation now, since the strong teams of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Thus, among current college football fans, the Longhorn program is sort of like the Roman Empire — very good a long, long time ago.”

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More Enron indictments on the way?

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LaySkillingCausey4.gifAs anticipated in this earlier post, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake concluded in a hearing yesterday that the defense team of former key Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Richard Causey had not established in his mind that prosecutorial misconduct caused several clients of two Houston criminal defense attorneys not to assist the defense in preparation for the upcoming trial of the Enron Task Force’s legacy case of its four year Enron investigation.
Judge Lake’s ruling on the witness intimidation evidence was not surprising, as the Lay-Skilling-Causey defense team has struggled with the reality that no witness under the threat of retaliation from the Task Force is going to testify — or allow their attorney to testify — about that threat. However, compelling evidence of the Task Force’s intimidation of witnesses in Enron-related prosecuctions still exists (see also here), and the larger issue in the trial — the Task Force’s unprecedented fingering of over 100 unindicted co-conspirators — remains unresolved and clearly troubling to Judge Lake.
In addition to the chilling effect on exculpatory testimony from potential defense witnesses who have been fingered as unindicted co-conspirators, the Task Force intends to rely heavily during the Lay-Skilling-Causy trial on hearsay testimony from prosecution witnesses who have copped pleas about alleged statements made by various of those alleged co-conspirators. The defense is attempting to limit the prosecution’s use of such hearsay testimony, and Judge Lake ordered the parties yesterday to brief him as he wrestles with the issue of whether to allow any such testimony — and, if so, how much — to come into evidence during the trial.
Finally, during the hearing yesterday, comments of the Task Force prosecutors and the other attorneys involved in the hearing indicated that the Task Force is preparing to have the grand jury investigating Enron issue another indictment in the near future against other former Enron executives who have not yet been indicted on any charges. The timing of the new indictments is transparent, given that the Task Force knows that publicity about more Enron executives being arrested will be beneficial for the jury pool to hear immediately before the beginning of the upcoming Lay-Skilling-Causey trial. You might recall that the Task Force pulled a similar stunt by publicly announcing the plea bargain of former Enron North America executive Chris Calger on the day that the jury in the trial of the Enron Broadband case began deliberations. The subject of the upcoming indictments remains unclear, but I suspect that it probably relates to the transaction involved in the Calger plea bargain (related post here).

Indulging the Wright Amendment

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wright amendment.jpgWell, this year’s Congressional machinations over the Wright Amendment are over and the outcome is about as satisfying as one of those hard-fought football games that used to end in a tie before the era of overtime. Rather than simply repeal the damn thing, Congress decided in a transportation bill to lift only the Wright Amendment restrictions on Southwest Airlines flights out of Dallas’ Love Field to Missouri. Thus, north Texans will now be able to fly direct from Love Field to St. Louis and Kansas City.
This Ft. Worth Star Telegram article notes an expert’s estimate that the result of the modification of the Wright Amendment will be that American Airlines — which controls most of the D/FW Airport — will lose up to $115 million in revenue because of new competition, Southwest Airlines will pick up about $80 million and consumers — often overlooked in the debate over the Wright Amendment — will save about 25 percent on fares. So, not a bad result overall, particularly given that an outright repeal of the Wright Amendment is not politically feasible, at least as of yet.

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Houston’s Theater District

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theater district1.gifMy family and I enjoy attending events in Houston’s fine downtown theater district, so I am pleased to see that the district has put together this handy and good-looking website. Houston is one of only five U.S. cities with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines of opera, ballet, music and theater, and its theater district is wonderfully-centralized in a several block area of downtown Houston. Check out the website and attend a show in the theater district during the holiday season — it’s a great way to spend an evening or weekend afternoon.