The city’s sports’ fans are down in the dumps right now, muttering the cursed name of “Sam Bowie” under their breath as Greg Oden undergoes surgery that will take him out of his rookie season.  Of course, the Sam Bowie comparison will only pan out if Greg Oden resurfaces as a bust, and Kevin Durant wins multiple titles in a Hall of Fame career for the Oklahoma City Sonics — a team that is currently located in Seattle.  Then that “Bowie — Jordan” dichotomy will be in effect — though, for the full effect the Chicago Bulls would have had to have moved to … I don’t know… Pittsburgh? back in 1988 or thereabouts.

On the other hand, this could all be a blip in the radar.  Oden comes back for his second season.  The team wins their promised dozen championship series through these next two decades.  And everything works out well.

But, for the moment, it is all doom and gloom.  I do have one bright spot for the sports fans of Portland.  Which is that the city never got one of those major league baseball franchises.

A taxing day for both teams ended in frustrating fashion for the
 Nationals, who played under unusual conditions. It's never easy for any team
 to get motivated to play a late-season getaway contest in front of a
 crowd that would have been disappointing for a JV high school football
 game. 

Attendance at Dolphin Stadium was officially announced as 10,121, but
 only a fraction of that number actually showed up. A couple of reporters
 in the press box did a head count as the afternoon's first pitch was
 being delivered and came up with 375 fans. 

"It looked like an extended spring game," Acta said. 

The crowd was so sparse, every word uttered could be heard throughout
 the stadium. One fan seated behind the plate got on umpire Paul
 Schrieber's case and wound up getting ejected from the facility. 

"He was chirping to everybody," Schneider said. "There's just no need
 for it. No matter what people were saying, you could hear everything.
 that was going on."

The significance for the city of Portland is that the two franchises involved in this little debacle — a real revenue generator — were the two teams that entertained offers from or toward Portland to come on over.  The Montreal Expos, treated nicely by mayor Vera Katz — feigning toward Portland to leverage a better deal from Washington.  The Florida Marlins, told to shove it by Mayor Tom Potter, feigning toward Portland trying to find their way — and never quite getting there — to Las Vegas.  So, you know, THIS TOO COULD BE ALL YOURS!  Catch the Excitement!  And it’s certainly going to revitalize the economy of Portland, Oregon — right?

The history of the Florida Marlins has always fascinated me.  They have won two championships.  These championships came so suddenly, particularly the second one which rolled from a great late season spurt, so as to catch Miami off-guard.  After both of their championship, particularly the first one — but the second one had a good one season lag — the team sold off all of their major Championship players and returned to the bottom of the heap.  Which all means that the market had a very short window of opportunity to purchase what they want — winning baseball team, and a long window of opportunity to purchase what they do not want — losing baseball team.

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