Change would be good (but change can also suck)

Tired of the JailBlazers? So am I. As Pacino said, "Just when I think I'm out, they suck me back in."

Kinda how I feel about our hometown, uh, heroes.

Damon appears to have straigtened out. Appears to. You know, for as much trouble as Damon's been, and despite the fact that his dad may or may not have been part of his drug issues, I appreciate the fact that Mighty Mouse is here. First, he's great for the press, always willing to give a frank appraisal of what's up in the lockerroom. And, second, twice while I worked for Seattle's Best Coffee in law school, his dad invited me and my friends up to Damon's suite in the Garden to watch games. Free food, free fun, and Damon's family...er...fan club (I think he's s'posed to use it for the kids...) there to cheer him on. In fairness, there was a girl there one night who, it was claimed, was president of his fan club. Who can say?

But despite Damon's alleged rehabilitation, our club still has Ruben "The Nanny Stopper" Patterson, Darius "Let's brawl at the stip club" Miles, and Zach "What gun?" Randolph, who are all remnants of the group that continues to make my head hang in shame.

Our team sickens me. It won't stop 'til we've cleared some of this crap out.

Let me make this clear: Zach Randolph is a hell of a player. But if we give him a max contract, I'm done. I'm only worth $30 per year to theBlazers (if that), but I'm betting that there are a lot of people like me who are sick of us having these guys who just don't know how to stay out of trouble.

Anyway, all that inspired by this from Friday's Blazer Blog :

Jason Fleming of Hoopsworld.com sent me a heads-up to this forum post over at his site:
"This is trade rumor from Sports Radio 950 in Philadelphia. The Bucks would send Michael Redd, Desmond Mason, & Marcus Haislip to Portland in exchange for Zach Randolph, Derek Anderson, and Portland's 2005 1st rounder. The host said that discussions had been going on for a couple weeks, and that Portland was very hesitant when it came to dealing Randolph, but after Randolphs recent incident...."I've seen fans speculating about a Z-Bo-for-Redd trade, and this might be more fan talk...or it could be legit. Either way, you have to think after his recent incident it's with a lot less trepidation that Nash and Co. put Z-Bo on the market...at least to gauge his value.

I can only pray to dear sweet God this is true. Derek's a useless player (about the worst shooter in the league in the 2 position) and Zach's rapidly turning into a thug waiting for the chance to hold us hostage. Sharif would be great as our starting power forward, and he's a model citizen. We get good character (which we need), Milwaukie gets something interesting in town (which, face it, is the best Wisconsin can hope for), and I'll buy a ticket next year. Everyone wins!

Hey, one last question...

What happened to my afternoon drive-time radio show?

I work in the Gresham area, and live in the close-in SE area, so I spend 30 minutes on the road (on average) every evening. And, on that drive, I like to listen to 1080 The Fan, Portland's Sports Station. I like to listen because I enjoy the interplay between Ian Furness and Marc Amazon, two hosts that obviously disagree for more than just ratings and who take turns being right.

That is, I used to. Now, Primetime Sports has introduced a new co-host to join Ian, some boot-licker from Denver named Dennis. What's the deal? Why do they have to mess with a good thing? I know, I know, it's probably a contract issue, but I still hate it when they rock the boat. The staff at these radio stations changes regularly, and believe me, that's fine. But could you at least give me some warning?

And why, after the changes are made, do they pretend nothing happened? Dennis, the suck-up co-host that's being broken in, was brought in 3 weeks ago as a new "producer". Ian took a couple days off, and Marc had Dennis on with him. I miss a couple days of radio, and then Marc is completely gone. His ads are pulled, his name's not mentioned, and I'm convinced that as Dennis is taking an increasingly-more-prominent role, there are shenanigans. So I e-mailed the producer of the show, and asked him simply "Is Amazon gone?". No response. There never will be. I'll never sense closure on this chapter of my radio life.

When Colin Cowherd left town, the TV news covered it, it was telegraphed weeks ahead on The Fan, and The Tribune even ran an article about it. I knew what was happening, had time to get comfortable with it, and when change came I rolled with it. What's wrong with telling me that someone's been canned? Or sent to a new station? Why do I need to pretend that Marc Amazon (or that prior piece of radio death, Kenny Vance) never existed? Where is the courtesy of telling me why I'm adjusting my listening habits from the norm that I've had for 3 years to some high-voiced, long-question-asking Denver-phile who doesn't challenge his co-host and therefore makes the show uninteresting?

Enough ranting. Time to go back to X-Box.

Remember, if at any time you want to read about something relevant, you can go here.

Assuming you don't, I'll catch ya later.

UPDATE: Finally, more info on the changes at Primetime Sports here.