Not Just A Hat Rack

MLS' Best 48 Hours

 No, it's not the MLS Cup Final and the parties, meetings and celebrity signings that lead up to it that has MLS fans buzzing today.

Rather, it's Expansion Draft V - Sound the Alarm!  Today, MLS teams tepidly chatted with one another during a 3-hour trade window before submitting lists of protected and available players.  Adam Cristman and Jovan Kirovski were two notable players to change teams - the prospect going to KC (prospect central, I thought, until I saw their expansion list) and the just-about-finished guy going to the land of the dead, aka, the LA Galaxy.

According to reports, RSL missed the expansion filing deadline for the second time in three years - no doubt a bit of owner intervention driving the GM crazy at the last moment, or something like that.  Regardless, there's actually some talent to protect this time, and I see Salt Lake's pride being one of ten teams to lose a player come Wednesday.  (Of course, all of us in the blogosphere and fan-o-sphere can only speculate because all sorts of conspiracies, what-ifs and prayers are being conducted behind closed doors late into the night across the MLS landscape.) 

So, who does Seattle Sounders FC choose to add to the pipeline alongside GK Kasey Keller and MF Freddy Ljundberg?  Here's one scribe's choices, but I doubt I'm on the same wavelength as Chris Henderson and Adrian Hanauer in the Emerald City.

RSL - Dema Kovalenko/M.  Go for the bone-breaker to protect your high-priced midfielders and forward.
TFC - Carlos Ruiz or Johann Smith/F.  If your coach is Sigi Schmid and you think you can recapture the magic that led El Pescadito to score 39 goals in 2002-03, why not go for it?  Or if you have some tepid (today's catch word?) coach who doesn't like confrontation, pick the youngster with lots of potential.
SJ - James Riley/D. Why did this guy go from NE to SJ and find himself exposed again? On the field, I think he can play in this league - and several positions at that.
NE - Wow - Pat Phelan, Khano Smith or Wells Thompson?  Three young versatile midfielders. Pick any one.
DCU - Quavas Kirk/M.  But I'm biased because I saw him as a 13-year-old and think the has great god-given talent.  I'd invest in him.
CLB - Brad Evans. I think this young player is money.
COL - Tommy McManus/F. Between him and Terry Cooke, you have two Brits probably eager to get away from Denver's elevation - and Seattle's dreary weather suits them perfectly.
CHV - Lawson Vaughn/D. This guy, NY's Jeff Parke and FCD's Aaron Pitchkolan are some of the better mid-20's defenders available. Solid people, hard workers, experience.  Take at least one.
HOU - Ashe/Mulrooney or Barrett? Mulrooney and Barrett are two proven winners in MLS who are on the down sides of their careers but have 50 games to give to an expansion team. Take them for their leadership and groom them to be coaches.  Or take the quick young Ashe and hope he matures.

Finally, ruin some GM and coach's day by taking a veteran whose absence will create immediate problems on the 2009 roster.  Pat Onstad (HOU), Greg Sutton (TFC) or Zach Wells (DCU) fit this mold - none of them is Best XI material any longer, but if you don't have a definite #1 keeper, you have major problems.  Wonder if their owners said, "Leave him exposed... they'll never pick him!"

I've heard that before.

Team Obama

When was the last time you could name all the cabinet members of your president?  It's a sad statement about our interest in our government.  But I'm no better - I doubt that I could name half of Bush's cabinet these past four years. I've started reading Team of Rivals to get a jump on Obama's cabinet.

The New York Times' David Brooks writes this week that President Obama's Cabinet is taking shape as a collection of smart guys (and gals) from Harvard and Yale Law School.  I like what I've heard so far.  But in case you're not tuned in, here's your Cabinet Scorecard (not all are confirmed) and a brieft note about who they are:

Chief of Staff - Rahm Emmanuel (Rep. from Illinois State - Hillary Clinton (NY Senator, but still HIS wife)
Defense - Robert Gates (Incumbent from Bush era)
Treasury - Tim Geithner (NY Fed Bank President)
Commerce - Bill Richardson (ex NM governor)
Homeland Security - Janet Napolitano (AZ governor)
Health & Human Services - Tom Daschle (ex-SD senator)
Attorney General - Eric Holder (ex-Deputy AG)
Commerce - TBD
Agriculture - TBD
Education - TBD
Energy - TBD
HUD - TBD
Interior - TBD
Labor - TBD
Transportation - TBD
Veteran's Affairs - TBD
EPA - TBD
UN Ambassador - TBD

There are a slew of celebrity names under consideration... Schwarzenegger, two Kennedy's, Howard Dean, Colin Powell, Dick Gephardt and others.  There are also several members of the Chicago machine that helped propel Obama to power... including Jesse Jackson Jr., Bill Daley, Carol Moseley-Braun and Chicago Schools CEO Arne Duncan.  This should be fascinating...

PS - When did the cabinet get so large?

Sweet Sioux-yo-nara

I just read that Northwestern and Illinois are retiring the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk trophy after tomorrow's game at Ryan Field.  NU is 8-3 entering the game, and has a shot at a nine-win season for only the fourth time in school history.  Illinois is 5-6 and needs a win to become bowl-eligible.  And while the ESPN article suggests the trophy will reside permanently in Evanston, I say bragging rights are paramount and this win would be particularly sweet. Go Cats!

Surreal

A Portuguese-language talent show blares on a monitor attached eight-feet above the ground to a concrete pillar.  We look out on a concrete tarmac in Brazil.  I’m in Foz du Iguassu Airport – and I’ve just read about RSL’s 1-0 loss in the Western Conference final from Saturday night.  A shame, really, but there are many bright spots to take away from the 2008 season – not the least of which is the 20,008 attendance figure (a sellout) on 5 days notice in MLS’s smallest market, Salt Lake City.

I have spent the morning at the waterfalls for which this community is named.  Local boosters encourage visitors to vote for the falls as one of the “Seven Wonders of the World.”  It certainly bears consideration.

The weekend crash course in international handball is complete.  Eighteen countries.  Two dozen delegates.  The majority speak Spanish.  Our hosts speak Portuguese.  Five of us come from English-speaking North America – six if you include the Danish Greenland rep.

There was a comforting sense of familiarity with the group. My language ability endears me to them quickly.  That, and I could be useful.  I can understand them and laugh together.  But I can also translate. I have access to U.S. dollars, American sponsors and the promised land which they universally define in three syllables, “Obama.”

The education in Pan Am handball was thorough.  It was just enough of Brazil to want to come back – but I’m ready to see the coast.

I'm reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road on my birthday present - an Amazon Kindle from my wife.  Sure beats lugging 500 pages around.  I've read Newsweek and the Chicago Tribune on it as well.  Very cool.  But the book... and I hope to post a full review when I'm done with it this week ... is enough to give a grown man nightmares.  It's an amazing read.

Thomas Friedman on Reconstruction

And so it came to pass that on Nov. 4, 2008, shortly after 10 p.m. Eastern time, the American Civil War ended, as a black man — Barack Hussein Obama — won enough electoral votes to become president of the United States.

In Pictures...

 
 

 

 

It's Official.

When was the last time you saw millions of Americans with tears in their eyes?  Tears of joy and hope and pursuit of the American ideal?  Not tears of anger, loss, division and hopelessness?  

I'm proud to have voted for Barack Obama. I'm thrilled that my boys are up past their bedtimes to celebrate our new president.  And I think it's wonderful that Chicago has delivered a president to America.

Oh! Bama!  Oh! Mr. President.

Barack, Bowl Bids & Big-Time Goals

1) Barack Obama has been on this household radar for more than four years.  Now a lifetime of preparation comes down to fickle America's moment at the ballot box on Tuesday.  Here's hoping reason prevails, turnout is massive, the machines work and someone wins, fair and square - with no court filings to muddy the resolution in December,January, etc.

For the record, the 'Hat Rack cares about these races:

Obama for President!.  Of course.  I think David Broder, one of my favorite candidates, sums it up well today.  A transformational campaign for America.  Whether it will result in a transformational presidency, who knows.

  As soon as I saw him on the small-town circuit in Iowa, where he began his pursuit of office, two things became clear. He could generate votes by the force of his rhetoric and personality; he was not yet a celebrity, but he already had the capacity to convert strangers into friends.  And second, he had a cadre of people working for him who knew what they were doing. Though many of them were in their first presidential campaign, they were not amateurs. They understood their responsibilities and - reflecting Obama's own self-discipline - they went about their work with minimal waste of energy.

 Click here to read the whole thing.

Jean Welch Hill for State Attorney General.  Not that she has a chance, and Mark Shurtleff does a reasonable job - but I think she's got hutzpah for taking him on - and putting education prioroities first.

Throw out the Utah Senate establishment.  State Sens. Curt Bramble and Greg Curtis put their careers on the line to ramrod the RSL Stadium deal through.  Otherwise, I can't stand them.  Here's to their ambitious challengers.

 

2) The 'Cats are going to a bowl!  On the heels of yesterday's dramatic win over Minnesota, Northwestern is 7-2 with games left against Ohio State, Michigan and Illinois  Their QB, RB and several others are injured, but how can you not have faith in a brainy school's football team when their starting QB is named Kafka?  Here's hoping three wins gets them to the Fiesta Bowl, or one win and two losses puts them in the Insight Bowl - either way in Tempe, AZ! (Mike, left; Franz, right)

3) Yura Movsisyan's flair for the dramatic was demonstrated for a second consecutive week.  After 88 minutes of futility (how many bad first chances, too many dribbles or errant shots?) - the vulture pounced on a ball to give RSL the only victory in the four MLS first-round matchups this past week.  I think RSL will beat Chivas USA in LA next week, and earn a trip to Houston for the Conference Final in two weeks.