Rants and randomness - Monday night edition

• Watched '24' tonight. This season continues to make up for the debacle that was season 6. Favorite line from tonight's show, "if you ever pull a gun on me again, you'd better be prepared to use it."
• Devils won their fourth in a row over Tucson City College in hoops. Great game, although the Devils almost blew it at the end. Big lead during second half evaporated quickly and Tucson eventually took the lead. Devils found a way to win. I've always been told by sportscasters and other industry watchers that "good teams find a way to win." Does that mean the Devils are now officially a "good team" or is Tucson just that bad of a team? I'm inclined to say it's a little of both.
  
• I'm still laughing at this excerpt from Jim Rome's radio show last Friday it's travel tips for Tucson citizens traveling up to Tempe for last night's ASU-Tucson game.
  

• I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" a few weeks ago. I thought it was a good movie, but I just don't get all the hype around it. Personally I liked "The Reader" better, although I was surprised to see Winslet beat out Streep for Best Actress. Also, thought Frank Langella (Frost-Nixon) or Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) should have won Best Actor.
• I have not talked to anyone who likes the new U2 song "Get on your boots"
• Favorite song in my ipod rotation these days is "Bixby Canyon Bridge" by Death Cab for Cutie
• Band I recently stumbled across that I really like is The Myriad. Check out "Perfect Obligation"
• They had chicken fried steak in our work cafeteria today. I passed.

"This is my office, not some misguided recreation room"

Catching up on Flight of the Conchords today. Saw the best one yet. If you haven't watched this show ever, start with this episode (season 2, episode 4.) The storyline in this one is Murray, who is the funniest character on the show in my opinion, decides he wants to be the band's friend as well as their manager.

Bring the heat

Today Chandler Bess had her first softball practice. New team, new coach and it will be her last season in coach pitch. I'm really proud of how she has continued to improve each season. She seems more and more confident out on the field and genuinely looks like she is having fun out there. One of the coaches on her team this season was a coach on her team last season, Coach James.

I'm really glad Coach James was there tonight because he picked up on something when Chandler was hitting that I never would have. When Chandler started off, she was swinging and missing at everything which is not normal for her. After about 6 or 7 pitches, James told the coach to throw the ball harder. He told the coach who was pitching that he pitched to her last season and she likes it fast. Sure enough, she starting hitting line drives all over the field.

Sometimes it's the little things other people can pick up on that make all the difference. I wonder how this season would have progressed for Chandler at the plate had James not pointed out how to pitch to her? I'm sure it would have ultimately been fine but I'm really appreciative of the fact that Coach James was there tonight. In fact, I'm also really glad that there are good people like Coach James in our league who take the time to help coach my daughter and actually pay attention to the little things.

Why University of Tucson alums should be banned from the NBA (or any other professional sports league)

With the firing of head coach Terry Porter today after about 50 games, I embark on a long overdue rant on the Suns. Below is an excerpt from the Suns' 2008-09 media guide with some of my commentary in bold integrated into it:

"On June 30, 2004, Robert Sarver, a banking and real estate executive, AND a University of Tucson graduate, purchased the club from Jerry Colangelo after Colangelo set into motion a plan to ensure the team’s legacy by seeking out a new owner who shared his vision and commitment to both the game of basketball and community. That "commitment" was put into action when Sarver wanted to save a few million and chose not to re-sign Joe Johnson. An injured Johnson was unable to play in the conference finals against the Spurs that year and probably was the reason the Suns fell short in that series.

In the four seasons since Sarver, an Arizona native (did I mention that he graduated from Tucson), took ownership of the Suns, Phoenix has won 50 or more games each season and enjoyed the winningest four-year period in the franchise’s proud history (232 victories). Yes, the Suns did indeed win a lot of games during the regular season under the guidance of head coach Mike D'Antoni and thanks to a couple of MVP seasons from Steve Nash. The key thing is that under D'Antoni, the team was competitive, exciting to watch and was one of the top seeds in the Western Conference every season. The span includes two 60-plus win seasons (franchise-record tying 62 in 2004-05 and 61 in 2006-07) and three Pacific Division titles. Over the last four seasons, the Suns have complied (sic) a 232-96 (.707) regular season record, which trails only the Dallas Mavericks (236-92, .720) and San Antonio Spurs (236-92, .720) for the NBA’s best record in that stretch." So what was D'Antoni's reward for the team's best four year stretch ever? Sarver and fellow Tucson alum Steve Kerr pushed him out the door. Granted, D'Antoni was not officially fired but the Tucson Terrible Two made it clear he wasn't welcome back.

In addition to letting Joe Johnson leave, pushing D'Antoni out the door, Sarver also made it clear that he wanted to erase the Jerry Colangelo influence from the Suns franchise. Colangelo is the guy who most recently helped resurrect USA Basketball, you know, those guys who won gold medals this past summer in Beijing. His first step in scrubbing the franchise of Colangelo's influence was to nudge 2005 NBA Executive of the Year Bryan Colangelo to leave during the 2006 season for the Toronto Raptors:

From February 26, 2006 USA Today:

Bryan Colangelo's relationship with Sarver soured amid reports that the two men had been unable to come to terms on an extension of Colangelo's contract. Sarver said Colangelo had to go through an "adjustment" in dealing with a new boss who wasn't his father.

Brilliant move Wildcat, kick the reigning NBA Executive of the Year to the curb. Oh btw, Colangelo won the award again in 2007 with Toronto. Look, I know Sarver paid a few hundred million for the franchise and it's his team, he can do what he wants with it and hire who he wants to run it, but at some point, common sense should come into play.

Unfortunately Sarver brought his boy Kerr, who prior to joining the Suns as GM, had as much NBA front office experience as I do. That would be zilch in case anyone is keeping track. Now he did have a nice 15-year NBA career, which is 15 more years than I played in the NBA, but bringing in a rookie GM with no front office experience to call the shots for one of the best teams in the league? Really? Again, there's that lack of common sense thing again. Oh, and he let Kerr work from San Diego during his first year at the helm. Yeah, don't bother building chemistry with your coach or anything sensible like that.

Here are Kerr's moves during his tenure that have led to the Suns playing at the mediocre levels you see today.

• Shawn Marion for Shaq. Full disclosure here, I fully supported trading Marion. The guy was a malcontent and he didn't want to be in Phoenix anymore. However, I'm pretty sure he could have scored better than the Diesel and his overweight and overpaid self.
  
• Not supporting Mike D'Antoni and letting him go to New York. A team most league watchers feel is overachieving this season, largely due in part to D'Antoni's run and gun system.
  
• Terry Porter. Guy was fired today after four and half months. That one speaks for itself.
  
• Trading Boris Diaw and Raja Bell to Charlotte for Jason Richardson. Bell was the best defender the Suns had but apparently he didn't fit in Terry Porter's system which emphasized what? Oh yeah, defense. He's been such an upstanding citizen thus far for the Suns, he recently earned himself a day off.
  

Yes folks, life on Planet Orange kind of sucks right now. All of this drama with Porter getting canned and rumors of Amare Stoudamire and Shaq getting traded happened during what was supposed to be a great weekend for Suns fans in Phoenix as they hosted the NBA All-Star activities.

Fortunately, Phoenicians didn't have to travel far to watch good hometown hoops as the Sun Devils swept the SoCal schools this past weekend and are back in the Top 15. This of course means they will promptly lose and drop like a rock again.

Know thy enemy

Ok, maybe enemy is too harsh of a term, I'll go with competitive colleague when referring to folks over on the Intel PR team who I have always had a healthy respect for during my time at AMD.

Recently I started following a few of my competitive colleagues from Intel on Twitter including Intel's social media strategist, Michael Brito. Last Friday, Michael posted a blog on finding and following friends from competitors on Twitter or other social media channels. I found it to be an interesting read, not only because it mentioned your's truly but also because it forced yet another reflection (they seem to be a daily happening) on how social media continues to change the role of the PR professional.

I've only been on Twitter for about 3 weeks but I have found it already to be an invaluable tool. In the case of my competitive colleagues, following them enables me to stay on top of the vast amounts of news they issue. As far as the press, bloggers and other industry-watchers, it has helped my team and I develop all kinds of new ideas for blogs or other campaigns that are geared toward the dynamic social media environment.

I really need to rant on the Suns and the Astros...

...but the Sun Devil hoops team keeps bringing me joy. No Pac-10 had swept UCLA in a season series over the past 3 seasons, until last night when the Devils dropped the Bruins 74-67.

Some may say "big deal" as the Pac-10 and UCLA are down this year but I really don't care. People who haven't followed this program cannot appreciate the ineptitude that Sun Devil nation has endured over the past 30 years with respect to our hoops team.

I can't ever remember a time when ASU fielded a basketball team that could probably hang or beat any team in the country right now with maybe the exception of Duke and UNC. Most teams who turn the ball over 17 times, like the Devils did last night, particularly against a Top 10 team, are probably going to get buried. Also, to see them do it on a nationally televised ESPN game in front of a packed house at WFA and then to watch the students storm the court, frankly I got a little choked up. It's kind of that same feeling I get when I know that a dual-core server I bought back in 2006 would be easily refreshed with quad- or six-core processors in 2009 without any chipset or board changes (sorry, shameless work-related self-promotion.)

Back to the Sun Devils, hopefully they helped hoops fans in the Valley forget for the weekend about how awful the Suns are and helped remind all of Arizona (and the Pac-10) that you have officially now seen a changing of the guard in Arizona college hoops. Sorry Tucson, as Lute goes, so goes your program.

Rants and randomness

• A-rod alledgedly used steroids in 2003. Yawn. I'm so ready for the media to turn the page on steroids in baseball. Dont they have better things to focus on such as why Bud Selig gets paid $18 million per year for overseeing a league full of juicers?
• I will say this about Selig, whether this is his doing or not, I for one am glad there seems to be some new blood in the World Series each year and we have some decent parity in baseball.
• My son is going is wearing his YMCA hoops jersey from last summer to bed tonight. Not sure what that's all about.
  
• Favorite song in my ipod this week is "Sometime around midnight" by the Airborne Toxic Event. Check out awesome performance from last month on Letterman show.
  
• Sun Devil hoops swept the Oregon schools this weekend. Unfortunately so did Tucson which diminishes the achievement. At least the Devils got back on track after their lost weekend against the Washington schools. Nice game from Harden in Eugene against Oregon and Jamelle McMillan stepped up for injured Derek Glasser. Hope that is a sign of things to come from the sophomore and he didn't play well just because the Portland Trailblazers coach was in attendance.
  
• Survived my long weekend as a single dad. Wasn't too bad. Kids were pretty good for the most part. It did suck being away from Tricia on our anniversary. 11 years in the books as of yesterday.
  
• Someone asked me today at church if I thought the Cardinals were a one-hit wonder. My initial reaction is I think they are. Until the organization proves that they are willing to step up and keep the nucleus together. Both offensive and defensive coordinators are gone, Boldin says his relationship with team is not fixable and Warner is on the fence about coming back. With that kind of activity already in the first week post-Superbowl, initial indicators are a quick slipslide back into mediocrity. I want to be an optimist, I really do, but as long as Bidwell family remains in charge, I'm afraid I have to err on the side of pessimism. Funny how you haven't heard a peep out of the Steelers this week.
  
• If this year's version of the Cardinals were a computing platform, I'm pretty sure they would be AMD's "Dragon" platform. You have the QB (Warner) who despite not being the overall raw performance leader, gets outstanding results and is the right fit for the team. Oh and he was the 15th highest paid QB in the league. You surround him with all-pro receivers and a good enough running back and offensive line and you have the NFC champs. Think of this way: Warner = Phenom II, Fitzgerald and Boldin = Radeon HD 4870 X2 and strong core of RBs are the 790 GX chipset. Hey, I have to figure out some way to get mileage out of my post-graduate sports management schooling.
  
• Took the kids to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop yesterday. Didn't suck that bad. Kind of like Home Alone in a mall.
  
• I'm so disgusted by the play of the Phoenix Suns and the direction of the organization, I foresee a much longer rant on them this week. Sad that the All-Star game will be in Phoenix too and the fans there can't get excited about the home team.
  
• I'm trying really really really hard to get excited about the Astros this season.
  

The Lost Weekend...

It's the morning after the weekend in which will probably go down as one of the most memorable and yet forgettable ones for sports fans in Phoenix.

First and foremost, there is the Cardinals. What can you say, it was one of the best and worst Superbowls ever if you were a Cards fan. The range of emotions that myself and other Cards (and probably Steeler fans) experienced in those final 15 minutes were turbulent to say the least. Right after the game was over, I really wanted to lay this one all on the refs, but frankly, the Cards were their own worst enemy and plagued themselves with numerous mistakes and missed tackling. Despite, all that, they were still in a position to win the game when many teams may have folded. The loss stings and it hurts, but as Deadspin's Will Leitch put it, it's a good hurt.

For me personally, I was glad to have been able to be in Phoenix during the Cards Superbowl weekend. To ride that roller coaster together with friends (thanks Goodell family for hosting) who all have the same rooting passion, that's one of the things I will always remember about the Cards first Superbowl.

Now, on to the Suns, who really aren't even worth writing about given how awful they are right now. Friends, this is what happens when you let U of Tucson alums take control of an NBA franchise. Robert Sarver and Steve Kerr have managed to take the franchise from the league's elite to riding on a bullet-train to Clipperland. Nice job against Chachi and the woeful Bulls at home this weekend.

As for the Sun Devil hoopsters, I'm trying to stay optimistic that their back to back home losses to the state of Washington was their low-point of the season and they will get back to playing the smart, somewhat mistake-free ball they were playing earlier in the season. I've always felt Herb Sendek was one of the smartest coaches in the Pac-10, but he was outcoached by Bennett and Romar these last two games.