Across the Great Divide

Were You Watching, Goldman Sachs?

Golfer Brian Davis calls a penalty on himself in a sudden death playoff that costs him nearly $400,000 in prize money, and even more in related earnings. 

How often do you see that kind of ethic in professional sports — and in the business world that includes professional sports?

Davis sensed that his back swing brushed a reed in a waste area and called over a rules official to check the television replay. Slow-motion replays confirmed the infraction, and Davis took a two-stroke penalty, handing the win to Jim Furyk.

"To have the tournament come down that way is definitely not the way I want to win the golf tournament," Furyk said. "It's obviously a tough loss for him, and I respect and admire what he did.

"To be there and be in the battle and have an opportunity to win, and then have to call a penalty on yourself has got to be extremely disappointing.

"It's a testament to our game and the people that play on the Tour, and that we have so many guys that do that.

"It's just awkward to see it happen at such a key moment. Awkward for him to lose that way, and a little awkward for me to win."

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, is suing to take over Sawgrass Resort, where the PGA Players Championship Tournament will be held next month.

In the Blink of an Ear.

Many moons ago, in the hand-held timing era, I went home from a conference track meet with the white ribbon instead of the green one because a coin toss was the only way officials could break down our "photo finish" in the 100-yard dash. With today's timing technology, they could probably have fitted the entire final of runners in the imperceptible gap between me and the other guy.

For spectators of many Winter Olympics events, it's extremely to difficult acquire a sensory appreciation of how the race concluded. Some are run as time trials rather than head-to-head, but even seeing racers together, it's difficult to discriminate when they hit the finish within hundredths of a second. Abstracting the result  to a number makes it clear, but not visceral.

Of course, television viewers can watch in-progress digital readouts and time comparisons, and we can rerun the "tape" and break it down in slow motion. These methods all rely on the visual sense to convey the information.

The New York Times takes an interesting approach to illustrating the very small differences among finalist finishers, using sound to portray the intervals. (The player for listening to several finishes is here.)

We experience races primarily in the visual realm, but our visual sense is best at discriminating totality. Our sense of hearing, the player demonstrates, is highly attuned to picking up these small differences that are very difficult to judge in a visual field.

Although we don't usually think of it this way, when we listen to music, we are perceiving the spaces between the time and intervals — exactly what race officials have to do. 

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One other thought about finishes after watching the end of the women's hockey final the other night. The gold-winning Canadians were joyous, naturally, and the second-best Americans seemed to hold onto disappointment bordering on despair.

Elite athletes in all sports want to win, of course, but I wonder if there is a psychological difference in the way competitors react to defeat, based on the style of competition — whether it is team vs. individual sport, and whether the final competition is against the field or a single opponent.

Shelter Report: Big Man.

The happy kid in the photo is D, one of the kids in my preschool class. (His mom is at right.) He was talking on New Years Eve about getting his picture taken with Viking Pro-Bowler Bryant McKinnie.

"He's this tall!" said D, stretching high, and putting the Viking's head just under my chin.

McKinnie was at the shelter for the kids' Christmas party and also volunteered at the Thanksgiving dinner.

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Continuing to develop my Unauthorized Pre-school Curriculum™, I added the Sleepy Hollow Monster to the Gym Monster activity, which also includes Scary Monster (all time favorite, but hard on the throat), Dodgeball Monster (for the more physically adventurous student; allows them to torment the monster in return, but watch out for the basketballs) and Zombie (not too scary or fast on his feet, so a good choice for semi-anxious new kids).

Sleepy Hollow Monster requires a soft, orange, dodgeball-sized ball slightly deflated, with enough texture to make it easy to grip. We just happened to have one. Also, a long-tailed t-shirt, preferably long sleeved and black.

Place ball on top of head. Pull up neck of shirt so back edge rests on top of ball, holding it in place, and orange "face" is framed in neck opening. Extend arms straight out. Chase children, moving at Frankenstein speed, which won't be difficult, since your vision will be impaired — and after a few minutes of breathing superheated carbon dioxide, you will become winded and dizzy.

Then, rapidly lower arms and thrust head upward, causing pumpkin head to fly away, revealing Scary Monster.

Kids will scatter, then return, crying, "do it again!"

Repeat.

Emmer Shows He's a GOP Prospect.

I left the comment below over at mnpACT!, where Dave Mindeman dropped a flag on Rep. Tom Emmer's "I don't know why someone hasn't floated taking some of that arts and entertainment tax and putting it toward the Vikings stadium."

Um, you just did, although in a way that allows you to step out of bounds and deny it was your idea if someone tries to tackle you. This maneuver shows Emmer is clearly GOP governor material.

Another commenter noted that Legacy amendment,  stuck in the state constitution by voters in 2008, says what the arts money is to be spent on "arts, arts education, arts access, and to preserve Minnesota’s history and cultural heritage."

Emmer is in the legislature, and he may not be the only one there who equates "arts" with "entertainment." Still, despite all the drama over the years, it's not going to be too difficult to cut the Vikings out of the arts definition.

"Cultural heritage," following "history" as it does, seems to mean Native Americans, German Turners, Slovak miners, Irish entrepreneurs, Norwegian ministers and Rondo dwellers, among others. But what about General Mills, Polaris snowmobiles and a sports franchise "meant to reflect Minnesota's place as a center of Scandinavian American culture" that has been around longer than most Minnesotans have been alive?

We can thank Rep. Emmer for illustrating so soon the folly of trying to work around legislative gutlessness by putting more bricks in the state constitution.

Running out of Xs for the XXLs?

Are men the new women?

This is totally unscientific, but I think men's sizes have started to go the way of women's.

Today, I bought a medium basic long-sleeved shirt made from a "performance fabric." Back in the day when I was actually performing, a medium t-shirt fit snugly but not at all constrictingly.

This shirt is not quite baggy, but let's say I could add another 20 pounds to the 20 pounds or so I've added to my marathoning weight before this shirt would fit me like a medium did in the old days.

Returning Tiger's Shirt.

I heard this conversation second-hand:

An early-shopping mother had bought a Sunday red Tiger Woods branded shirt as a Christmas present for her adult son. She was talking with a group of women about whether she should take it back to the store and exchange it for another brand.

One suggestion: It's his gift, let him take it back if he wants.

Mother: Well... I'd feel good if he did that, but what if he doesn't? Then I'd be annoyed whenever I saw him wear it.

Another said: It's your shirt until you give it to him. If it makes you feel icky, return it. He'll never know.

Mother: I'll take it back this afternoon.

That's the abridged version. No one really questioned why the mom would feel that way or that her desire to dump the shirt was at all off base.

Let me speculate here that a men's discussion might go differently, with the least noxious statement being to the effect that it's just a shirt. 

This discussion more or less confirms my hunch.

Lin says:

I, for one, have changed my buying pattern and no longer will purchase Nike, Gatorade or any Pepsi products, Gillette is a goner, AT&T will never be my cell phone carrier and I no longer use my AmEx credit card. [...]

And Jason responds:

give me a break, you expect us to believe that you will not purchase nike, pepsi, gillette, at&t, or amex products – this is a crock, and any educated consumer will base their purchase decisions on product quality and perceived value, not sponsorship

Kurt also rationalizes:

First of all, the sponsor companies did not know about Tiger’s actions until after the fact. This is why you are seeing and will continue to see certain sponsors drop Tiger. So you can’t really blame the consumer companies. They did what they thought to be best at the time of acquiring him as a spokesperson.

The sponsored athlete does not make the products good, the producing company does. The athlete is merely a marketing strategy.

Like Jason said, if you are dumb enough to buy or drop products solely because of the associated athlete, then you are NOT a smart, educated consumer.

These guys totally miss the fact that they are paying extra for the "perceived value" of a $75 to $100 TW shirt. They are ignoring their own response to the emotional dimension of brands, as well as the fact that women consumers may view Tiger's behavior differently than they do.

Bill has a more nuanced take:

I see Nike & Woods as actually four brands: 1) the Tiger Woods garments with his TW logo. These sales will suffer. 2) Nike golf clubs which had a poor image until Tiger won with them. These too may suffer, somewhat. 3) Nike golf clothing. Not a factor. You’re not going to switch to inferior fabrics/styles at Adidas etc. to avoid the swoosh. 4) Other Nike sporting goods. Not a factor. But back to #1 and 2…Nike has to think twice about its ads showing Tiger in a “heroic” follow-thru pose.

Given that a lot of menswear is purchased by women, Nike has to be concerned about the likelihood that its Tiger line of clothing is going to take a hit. For how long remains to be seen, but the value of his endorsement has to have plummeted.

And if sales do drop, it's certainly not a matter of women not being "smart, educated consumers."

Weekend Reading: Tiger, Taxes, Transit and Taliban.

This was the week of sports stars driving badly and state revenue forecasts behaving badly. Hmmm, where to start?

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The past criticism of Earl Woods for putting too much pressure on little Tiger has to be seen a fresh light this week. This obit for the senior Woods in 2006 was typical of how he was honored for his role in his son's success.

“I wanted to raise a good person,” Earl Woods told Golf Digest in November of 2000, and therein lies the real glory to a man whose life deserves to be celebrated.

[...]

“He has the power to do a lot of things with his charisma,” Earl Woods said on the eve of the 2003 Deutsche Bank Championship outside of Boston, a tournament that would benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation. “Some day, he will do a lot of great things. I don’t know what they are yet, but knowing Tiger Woods, they won’t be small.”

Whatever you think about the failings of sports stars and the temptations they face, the latest developments also reveal Tiger to be a conflicted and unhappy person. His legendary self-control, supposedly the product of his father's training, apparently applied only on the golf course — and may have left him poorly equipped with empathy and other strengths that come in handy, even for gods.

Fathers can get too much credit for success as well as failure of their children, but no one can accuse Tiger's dad of neglect.

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Didn't mean to leave you hanging if you were really after budget talk.

This month Wisconsin will pay close to $70 million to Minnesota because Wisconsin has about 20,000 more residents crossing the border to work in Minnesota. That annual payment includes an 8 percent interest charge. Almost $82 million was budgeted for this annual payment, but the recession with job losses has lowered the amount Wisconsin owes.

Backing out of a tax reciprocity agreement with Wisconsin is one other way Gov. Pawlenty sought to come up with revenue without "raising taxes." I don't necessarily disagree with Wisconsin residents who make their living here paying income taxes here, but note that this is a way to tax someone who can't vote against him. Pretty brave.

Govs. Pawlenty and Doyle announced a shared services agreement between the two states early this year that was supposed to net $10 million in annual savings for each. August news reports said Wisconsin could point to $74,313 in savings. The Minnesota savings were so paltry, a figure wasn't even tracked by the state. The cabinet member in charge of Pawlenty's Drive to Excellence effort, which included the shared services initiative, left his staff earlier this year — according to my sources, frustrated with Pawlenty's fiscal leadership.

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Bill Lindeke writes about how the hubris of the University of Minnesota continues to threaten light rail. And Matt at Twin Cities Streets for people posts about transit maps and schedules showing how Twin Cities transit riders 100 years ago were connected by rail all the way from Stillwater to Lake Minnetonka.

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Here's a summary of critiques of and from the left of Pres. Obama's Afghanistan strategy.

This failure is as much the fault of the left as it is the president's.  Somehow we managed to convince ourselves that simply by electing a new president, we could achieve a fundamental change of direction in America.  But, as usual, after being beaten at the ballot box, the right wing has redoubled its efforts to maintain control over the American political process, while the left remains just as impotent as it was during the Bush years.

Is Boehner a Reverse Sandbagger?

Politico says the well-tanned Ohio Rep. John Boehner is a prolific fundraiser and golfer whose political action committee has spent $82,998 on golf outings so far this year.

The story says Boehner is a "pretty good golfer" with a 7.9 handicap.

That would make him a decent golfer, provided he kept his handicap properly, but I'm suspicious.

The USGA records show that Boehner has posted all but one of his scores at his home course. His 20 scores go all the way back to June 2007, with only eight scores for this year.

Maybe he only plays in scrambles when he's away from home, so he can't post his scores, but I don't know any golfers with a single digit handicap who live in two places, travel and play so little, at just one course.

Boehner's handicap may be legitimate, but to me it has the markings of the "reverse sandbagger" who only posts his best scores so he can maintain his self-image as a pretty good golfer. 

For you non-golfers, a sandbagger is someone who inflates his scores in order to have a higher handicap that is advantageous in competitions. A reverse sandbagger is more concerned about looking good in the bar, so he's only cheating himself.

Come to think of it, that's not very GOP-like.

Stadium Without Team in Town Without People for Vikes?

A few miles outside of Los Angeles, in a business-tax-free haven of strip malls and strip clubs called the City of Industry -- under 800 residents and fewer than 100 voters -- ground is ready to be broken for an $800-million football stadium. The team to play there is yet to be determined.

[...]

As Neil deMause, coauthor of "Field of Schemes," told me: "It's a weird one, in large part because the City of Industry is so weird. Arnold's claim that it's entirely privately financed is a crock -- the land and infrastructure is being funded by property taxes -- but in a town with barely any actual people in it, you could legitimately argue that the industry in Industry is just voting to tax itself to bring the NFL to town."

– "If there's no team, it's bonkers to build a stadium," LA Times

The Minnesota Vikings are one of the teams the City of Industry hopes to attract, and the Wilfs are again making noises about how terrible their stadium situation is.

If the stadium without the team in the town without people attracts the Vikings, will the franchise be renamed City of Industry Migrants?

So far, in public, the negotiations haven't reached the blackmail stage, where the team threatens to move to the open arms of City of Industry. But wait for it.

The Vikes are so far riding a wave of winning unmarked this season by lap dances, assaults, drunk driving or steroid abuse. The lobbyists will try to point out how much business and tax revenue a team brings to a city — use that to justify public spending for a new venue.

But we have a governor who has given tax shuffles a bad name. The Vikings tax revenue is already going into state coffers, so moving it to stadium payments will take it away from somewhere. And we have plenty of more basic needs, such as health care for the poor, that are taking a hit in the coming year.

Public subsidies for sports teams don't work out any better than they do for corporations who want tax incentives to build plants or relocate jobs. But the teams have something more going for the. They can tap the emotion of fans, and not just raise the ire of taxpayers.

Tubby and His Players Could Learn Something There.

Hard to escape the contrast between two local college basketball programs featured on the front page of today's sports section.

A portion of Tubby Smith's team probably could've benefited from time on Jay Pivec's team. And some time across town probably wouldn't hurt the UofM men's coach, either.

But for lack of $118,000 to fund the program, the top community college program in the nation (in more ways than one) will shut down next year.

With his multi-million-dollars-a-year contract, Tubby will pick up more than that with his side jobs — or spill that much on his way to court hearings.