Tuesday, March 27, 2007

IU star recruit Eric Gordon sounds like THE REAL DEAL

After years of getting kids into Blooomington with great HS and all-star resumes, who "talked the talk" on paper, but who couldn't "walk the walk" in important Big Ten games, we can finally
look forward to a talented and dynamic kid like Eric Gordon coming to Bloomington who wants to be THE person who connects the dots under pressure.
Gordon, the 6-foot-3 shooting guard from North Central that Illini fans thought they had signed, sealed and delivered, answered questions on Tuesday at the McDonald's All America Game Media Day event at Freedom Hall in Louisville, and Mike Hutsell takes it from there: Finally some good news for suffering Hoosier fans!

Color South Beach Hoosier cream and crimson with delight!

http://www.sapulpadailyherald.com/collegesports/cnhisnscolsports_story_086155645.html
Gordon: ‘I’m just looking forward’
By MIKE HUTSELL
THE EVENING NEWS AND THE TRIBUNE (JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind.)

LOUISVILLE, Ky.— Eric Gordon is relaxed now.
To him, it’s just a matter of what’s ahead. It’s not what happened.
Perhaps the most talked about men’s basketball recruit in a much-heralded Class of 2007, the Indianapolis star doesn’t like to discuss much about the past.
He’d rather not talk about his much-debated switch on a verbal commitment from the University of Illinois to a signed letter of intent with Indiana University.
“To me, that’s all behind me,” said Gordon.
“I know there’s questions about that wherever I go. People want to talk about it, I know it’s going to happen. But for me, I’m working toward moving ahead.”
At Tuesday’s McDonald’s All-American Media Day, Gordon was quiet, almost soft-spoken. Almost an exact opposite of the public perception of the North Central High School star — who said following his junior season that he would attend Illinois but then started visiting Indiana following the hiring of new head coach Kelvin Sampson in the summer before his senior year.
After a full summer and fall of questions concerning the status of his commitment to the Illini, Gordon announced on the day of Indiana’s Midnight Madness that he had changed his mind and he would sign with his home-state Hoosiers.
The change sparked a nationwide debate that spanned from message boards to national news outlets about his recruiting saga.
The questions centered around him visiting other campuses while being committed to a school and about accepting phone calls from another coaching staff without letting the Illinois staff know his decision was wavering.
“The decisions that I made, I made because I thought they were what was best for me and for my family,” Gordon said.
“When I said Illinois, it was what was best for me at that time.
“I talked with my family when Indiana made its coaching change and I visited the school a few times. After I weighed everything, it just seemed more like the program that I wanted to be a part of. It was the most comfortable fit for me.”
And about that perception that Gordon left Illinois hanging while deciding to make the change — he swears it was never the case.
“The people that needed to know what I was doing, I was up front with,” Gordon said. “All of the coaches knew what I was doing. The people that were most upset about it were the ones that had no idea what was going on the whole time.”
Those people also were likely the most vocal about the ordeal. Within days of his switch, Gordon started receiving letters from a disgruntled Illinois fan base. It was within minutes of the choice that he started hearing media debates about the ethics of the whole process.
“People were mailing me quotes from newspapers saying ‘this is what you said,’” and basically calling me a liar,” Gordon said.
“That type of thing hurts when you hear it, because I honestly wasn’t trying to hurt anybody. I was just doing what I thought was best for me.”
And it’s those type of responses he says he’s expecting the first time he enters the Illinois campus as a Hoosier next season.
“It will be like I’m on ‘America’s Most Wanted’ or something,” Gordon said, slightly smiling at the notion. “I know they’re going to be ready for me. I can’t say I’m looking forward to it, but at the same time I’m going have to realize it’s just another game. It’s 40 minutes, just like every other game we’ll play.”
That’s what Gordon wants to believe. That it is time to move ahead. He’d like to bury the perception of the Illini fans and become just another Big Ten basketball player next season.
That could happen, if Gordon was just another basketball recruit. The reality is that Gordon is a kid who the McDonald’s All-America media guide dubs “the best all-around high school basketball player in all of the country.”
He’s a player likely to be the run-away winner of the Indiana Mr. Basketball vote after a senior season that saw him average 28.9 points per game while leading North Central to a 21-5 record and runner-up finish in the state finals.
And it definitely won’t happen after nights like the one Gordon had on Feb. 1, when he poured 47 points on a Loyala (Ill.) Academy team featuring Michael Jordan’s two sons in front of a national-television audience on ESPN with Jordan sitting in attendance — a game in which the Panthers cruised, 88-47.
“I knew he was there,” Gordon said about playing in front of Jordan that night. “I didn’t want to say I was putting on a show in front of him, but it was sort of neat that it happened that way.
“I didn’t get to talk to him that night. I would have loved to meet him but he got out of there before I had a chance.”
All of that, though, is part of the past Gordon is trying to learn from but at the same time move ahead.
For now, he only worries about the things that are in his own hands. After Wednesday’s McDonald’s Game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, he’ll focus on finishing out his senior year and picking up his diploma in May.
After that, he’s got a scheduled appearance in Michael Jordan’s Roundball Classic this June and by the time the summer semester commences in Bloomington, he’ll be ready for his full-time role as a Hoosier.“I’m ready,” he said.
“I’m ready to get down there, to be a part of the program. To start practicing and play for a great coaching staff, to play at Assembly Hall in front of the fans.
“It’s where I want to be. I’m just looking forward.”

Mike Hutsell writes for The Evening News in Jeffersonville, Ind.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
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Meanwhile, Jody Demling of the Courier-Journal, covering the McDonald's All American Game, reports that Gordon is looking forward to the high-caliber competition this week.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703260482
Indiana HS Headline: Gordon has a quick turnaround
mcdonald's all american game
By Jody Demling jdemling@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

It's been a long and tiring weekend for Indianapolis North Central standout shooting guard Eric Gordon.
The 6-foot-3 Gordon started on Saturday in Indianapolis playing for Indiana's Class 4-A state championship. He scored 25 points, but his team dropped an 87-83 decision in the title game to East Chicago.

Gordon left Indianapolis early yesterday and by midafternoon was at Hoops Basketball Academy practicing with the West squad in preparation for Wednesday's McDonald's All American game.
"I'm sore and tired," he said. "I didn't know it was going to be this quick where the McDonald's game was going to be right after the state championship game. But I've been looking forward to this. I was sore, but I'm OK."
He tweaked his hamstring in the state final but will play this week.
Gordon, who averaged a state-best 29.1 points a game, said he's been looking forward to showcasing his skills with the nation's top players.
The boys' game will be played at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Freedom Hall.
During practice, Gordon was working for a while with a dream group that included Memphis-bound Derrick Rose, Kyle Singler (Duke), Kevin Love (UCLA) and Michael Beasley (Kansas State).
"I've known these guys for a long time," Gordon said. "This will be fun."
Gordon, who committed to Illinois before signing with Indiana after coach Kelvin Sampson was hired, talked with the media about his decision.
"It was tough," he said. "I mean I was going to give IU a chance throughout my whole recruiting process, but Kelvin Sampson showed me different ways and what I could do. I'm really excited to get there."

Mark Cuban on Isiah's future with Knicks; NY Times profile

Came across these interesting items last week, which prove rather conclusively not only what a human quote-machine IU grad and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has become nationally, but also how after so many years of constant media mis-reporting and resentment of him, his personality is finally starting to be better understood and put in its proper perspective.
Mark's blog, http://www.blogmaverick.com/ has been a MUST-READ for me since it started.
It's by far one of THE most interesting on the internet, not merely because of Mark's well-honed intuition about the intersection of business technology, marketing and consumer tastes, but also because his judgment about what is sensible and practical and what is merely excessive PR hype is seldom wrong.
Mark's own experience with failure and success has earned him the right to be known as one of the few personalities in the country who truly "says what he means" and "means what he says," and "puts his money where his mouth is," to combine three useful cliches in a meaningful way.

These stories all appeared after yet another Knicks loss at MSG last week, with the New York Times' Howard Beck , New York Post's Marc Berman and New York Daily News' Filip Bondy commenting on Mark's positive remarks last week about Isiah Thomas' future as Knicks head coach.
The Times' Selena Roberts meanwhile paints an interesting "Prince and the Pauper" storyline, with Mark cast as the savvy, understanding underdog, and MSG head James L. Dolan as the spoiled and over-indulged pig of a prince who knows the cost of everything, but the value of nothing.

South Beach Hoosier first met Isiah early on in his first semester at IU in the fall of 1979, when his new friend, IU basketballer Jim Thomas, a fellow South Floridian from Ft. Lauderdale, introduced him when they were walking from the IU Library over to the middle part of campus, and ran into Isiah holding court with some friends of his near the HPER -while other IU students on their way to class stopped and gawked at the new IU wunderkind they'd heard and read so much about.
(This was at that ridiculous walkway of gravel -masquerading as a sidewalk!- located between the HPER's east entrance and the construction delivery area for the IU Arts Museum
-http://www.indiana.edu/~iuam/iuam_intro.htm ,featuring world-renowned architect I.M. Pei's soaring triangular atrium- when it was being built, which was an absolute mess when it rained, and a disaster when it snowed.)

After Jim introduced me to him, Isiah's first words to me, as we shook hands and he smiled at Jim, were "Hey Dave, nice to meet you. Call me Zeke."
It was the first of many conversations, and Isiah's magnetic smile was, as always, very powerful.
The Berman & Beck nuggets are excerpts, so go to the URLs if you want the entire story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/sports/basketball/21knicks.html
March 21, 2007
Mavericks 92, Knicks 77
Dallas Leaves Knicks Battered and Bruised
By HOWARD BECK

REBOUNDS
... Mark Cuban is renowned as a risk-taker, so it should perhaps come as no surprise that he endorsed the Knicks’ much-criticized decision to extend Isiah Thomas’s contract. “It’s not just about, ‘Should he stay or should he go?’ It’s ‘Who’s next?’ ” said Cuban, the Mavericks’ owner. “Who’s next isn’t always who’s better. Working with a guy and letting him develop and letting him get to a point where he can succeed, and giving him the tools he needs, in the N.B.A., is a far better strategy than just saying, ‘O.K., next, next, next.’ “ Cuban praised the Knicks’ progress. He said their better chemistry and camaraderie was evident. “As an owner, I see that that’s a cultural change. That’s going from a place where people didn’t want to be, where there was so much drama, and no one wanted to be, to a scenario where people want to be here and are glad to be here. That’s huge.” ... Cuban and Thomas overlapped for one year at Indiana University, but Cuban said they never met. “He was the stud on campus,” Cuban said. “I was just a freshman alcoholic.” Cuban later clarified that remark: He was a senior when Thomas was a freshman.
________________________________________________________________
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03212007/sports/knicks/cuban__zeke_pact_merited_knicks_marc_berman.htm New York Post
CUBAN: ZEKE PACT MERITED
By MARC BERMAN

March 21, 2007 -- Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban, wearing a pair of the Stephon Marbury-brand $14.98 sneakers, supports Knick owner James Dolan's decision to give Isiah Thomas a new contract.
"You see chemistry-wise how guys are getting along out there on the court, laughing on the bench, supporting each other," Cuban, an Indiana University senior when Thomas was a freshman, said at the Garden last night before his Mavs throttled the Knicks 92-77.
Thomas is 1-3 since he got his extension.
"As an owner, when I see that, that's a cultural change. Going from a place where people don't want to be because there's so much drama, to a scenario where people want to be here, that's huge," Cuban added - referring to last year's Knicks fiasco under coach Larry Brown.
Cuban taped an edition of Marbury's "Stars on Stars" TV talk show Monday and reiterated Marbury's discount sneaker was one of the smartest business idea of 2006. Cuban also reiterated he explored selling the team over the summer because of his outrage over the officiating in the Mavericks-Heat Finals.
"I told [Commissioner David] Stern, I told other owners that I was out given what happened in June," Cuban said. "There was a lot of things that I wasn't comfortable with. But as I told the guys in Dallas, there's more to it than just that. It's a connection to the players, and obligation to the players. I felt I owed them more."
Cuban did not rip anyone in a 20-minute spiel, but joked that, "Dolan has lost his marbles" for taking high-definition off his cable system. High-def TV is another Cuban venture.


Copyright 2007 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
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http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/knicks/2007/03/21/2007-03-21_they_try_so_hard_it_hurts_to_watch-1.html
They try so hard, it hurts to watch
BY FILIP BONDYDAILY NEWS SPORTS COLUMNIST
March 21st 2007

This is an Eastern Conference playoff race by attrition. The team that has the night off is generally the team that gains ground in the standings. And so the idea last night for the Knicks was not so much to beat the Dallas Mavericks as to emerge healthy, feeling good about themselves and prepared to feast tomorrow on Portland in a must win.
That was the plan, anyway, until the body count started rising again and the Knicks ended the game holding onto their ice packs for dear life. Channing Frye was scraped in the cornea. Stephon Marbury's shoulder became a trampoline for Josh Howard. What might have been a giddy gravy game turned instead into another reason to sharply inhale.
There are 15 games left in the season now, and the Knicks probably need to win seven or eight of them with a shredded lineup that is galloping with a limp and keeps missing its foul shots.
"We can't really use this game as a barometer game," Marbury insisted, after the 92-77 loss. "Those guys are a really good team. They've been playing together for a long time."
Sounds like a barometer, with the pressure rising.
Of the two injuries last night, Marbury's appeared to be the less serious. He won't miss a game with his stinger, while Frye will be reexamined today. Regardless, this is now a very thin group sliced even thinner. Isiah Thomas came into the game already worried about the state of Eddy Curry's back. Now, he has other concerns.
"We'll recover," Thomas declared. "And when we recover, we'll play well."
The Knicks didn't play so hot last night at the Garden, where the talent gap and miscues were obvious. There are two conferences and realities in the NBA: East and West, matter and anti-matter, plodding mediocrity and explosive grace. The Knicks crossed over, faced a very different kind of entity in the Mavericks. They lasted two-plus quarters, then evaporated into thin air.
Before the game, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban had chastised the New York press again, this time for being too impatient with the home team. He said he would have been "crucified" in this city for his management style, and that success was all about showing progress.
He basically sounded like Jim Dolan, only without the prepared script.
But Cuban's deep roster looked very different than the Knicks' current lineup
. There was but one bright spot: Curry appeared OK, despite escalating back pain. The Knicks' bulky pivotman finished with 22 points and 12rebounds, looking more energetic than usual. He blew eight of 12 free throws, or he might have fared even better.
The Knicks have proved to be extremely resilient this season, rebounding from their slow start and then a series of injuries. When David Lee and Jamal Crawford both went down with stress injuries, the roster bent but did not break.
Now there is Frye's eye and Curry's sore back, potential disasters. Thomas had a theory about Curry's problems, that his troubles were caused by the rough double-teams he'd faced in recent weeks.
"The pounding and the beating," Thomas said. "People play a different kind of game with him than they're allowed to play against other guys."
The Mavericks didn't seem to go hard at Curry. They just played as the Mavs usually play. They stormed out at the start, scoring 30 points on 70% shooting in the first quarter. They dissected the Knicks around the paint, spreading the floor and then launching back-door cuts that caught the home team looking dumb and flat-footed.
The Knicks slowed down this textbook display with some stubborn offensive rebounding and the long-range bombs of Nate Robinson. Jared Jeffries hounded Dirk Nowitzki, bodying the 7-foot forward off his designated shooting spots. They probably did as well as can be expected against a team that has lost 11 games all season and is the early favorite for an NBA title.
Realistically, though, these teams were as different as their records and their owners' personalities. The Mavs are now 25-1/2 games better than the Knicks. For the home team, this result was always likely to fall into the wrong column.
"We're going to need everything tonight," Thomas had said. "A team effort, the fans, and hopefully a little help from Dallas."
They got the effort. The fans were spotty. Dallas didn't help much at all. Worst of all, Portland doesn't look like such a gimme anymore.

fjbondy@netscape.net
________________________________
New York Times
There Are Messages in All That Money
March 21, 2007
SELENA ROBERTS

One N.B.A. big spender is the son of an automobile upholsterer. He sold garbage bags as a boy to raise money for a pair of Puma sneakers and financed his college years by teaching dance lessons to any clunky, corn-fed Midwesterner with a spare dollar.
Mark Cuban graduated from Indiana University but hardly upgraded from his peanut-butter budget, forced to share a house with a half-dozen guys when he moved to Dallas in the '80s. He left Hoosier hoops behind, or did he? Cuban and his buddy Todd Wagner had a geeky dream: What if they could stream live games over the Internet? Cuban is a billionaire now -- self-made.
The other N.B.A. big spender grew up among the plush estates of Long Island with all the luxury perks of his father's Cablevision monopoly: staffed yachts, catered limos and free HBO.

James L. Dolan strummed a guitar, but needed a worthy hobby. So Daddy Dolan gifted his son with Madison Square Garden. Jim Dolan doesn't possess brilliant ideas. He has money, which, to him, is as good as intellectual capital.
Dolan is a billionaire -- an inherited perch.
Fat cats collided last night. If only in terms of league payroll, Dolan and Cuban were joined at the wallet as the N.B.A.'s fully loaded teams met at Madison Square Garden, with the Mavericks breaking free for a 92-77 victory.
The Knicks (30-37) lead the league with a $117 million payroll and the Mavericks (55-11) are No. 2 at around $92 million.
Money talks with different messages, though. With his team of past castoffs and foreign risks -- including three undrafted players and a certain German who nearly exited as a flop a few years ago -- all focused on a championship run, Cuban's payroll is a meritocracy.
With his team of erratic, Starbury-esque superstars -- some on the roster, while others have vanished into a buyout abyss -- all seeking love pats for mediocrity, Dolan's roster money is rooted in entitlement.
Cuban uses his wealth to forge a vision; Dolan wields it as a tool of vengeance.
Dolan indulged his contrarian muse when he recently extended Isiah Thomas's contract by conveniently measuring him against Larry Brown when his bar should have been Lenny Wilkens. Three years ago, Dolan fired Wilkens, whom Thomas hired, after the Knicks finished the 2003-4 season with 39 wins and a playoff spot. Dolan fumed when the Knicks started the next season at five games below .500, so Wilkens was out.
Dolan's pay scale slides on a whim. Dolan celebrated Thomas for a sub-.500 record and a possible cameo spot in the playoffs. The Knicks are 1-3 since the extension was announced.
It's not that Thomas deserved no consideration, but why would Dolan deliver a judgment so soon? Because he wanted to use his money as a bully stick, as an in-your-face response to skeptics. Dolan is an emotional spender, an investor in fool's gold. The Mavericks earn every amenity, every dime, with results.
"We don't work off of pedigree," Cuban said last night. "I've tried to set the tone by saying, if we need a free-throw coach, we'll get a free-throw coach. If we need a sports psychologist, we'll get a sports psychologist. If we need someone to teach you to dribble with your toes, we'll do it.
It's just so there are no excuses. The guys we bring in recognize that and really, really work at their game."
In the off-season, after his team's journey to the finals, Cuban rightly rewarded Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry with $160 million in contracts to maintain the soul of the Mavericks.
He also extended Coach Avery Johnson's contract with a $20 million thank-you for his skill and work ethic, the same qualities that defined Johnson's unlikely N.B.A. career.
"Avery knows what it's like to be the 15th guy on the roster; he knows what it's like to be cut on Christmas Day," Donnie Nelson, the Mavericks' president, said in a telephone interview, adding, "It's like starting a company and being the stock boy and working your way up and knowing every position, from the guy who empties the trash cans to the foreman to an executive, versus a guy who steps in as a made man, as a C.E.O. of a company."
So Johnson is a lot like Cuban. Different experiences, same self-made character. The Mavericks stand as a mirror to Cuban, all people of their own invention.
"It's like the Island of Misfit Toys," Nelson said. "We have all these guys who have had these mountaintop, soul-searching situations. They were at the bottom of their barrel and they picked themselves up by the bootstraps."
Dolan didn't need bootstraps. He grew up Gucci. As Sports Illustrated reported last month, Dolan once broke out into song at a corporate outing that included this verse: "We'll have some fun. As long as you remember: I'm Chuck Do-lan's son!"
The son of Charles Dolan was missing last night. Usually, he sits impassively on the Knicks' baseline, but he has been known to berate an employee for serving stale Diet Coke.
The son of an auto upholsterer was in a T-shirt and jeans behind his team's bench. Cuban will scream at officials, but he respects the employees under his roof.
Cuban versus Dolan, billionaire versus billionaire, meritocracy versus entitlement. The reflection of each man is in the standings.

Copyright (c) 2007 The New York Times Company

In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation

In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation
"In the Heart of a Great Country, Beats the Soul of Hoosier Nation." -South Beach Hoosier, 2007

#IUBB, #bannersix

#IUBB, #bannersix
Assembly Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana; Click photo to see video of Straight No Chaser's version of Back Home Again In Indiana, 2:37
The South Florida I Grew Up In

Excerpts from Joan Didion's Miami, 1987, Simon & Schuster:

In the continuing opera still called, even by Cubans who have now lived the largest part of their lives in this country, el exilo, the exile, meetings at private homes in Miami Beach are seen to have consequences. The actions of individuals are seen to affect events directly. Revolutions and counter-revolutions are framed in the private sector, and the state security apparatus exists exclusively to be enlisted by one or another private player. That this particular political style, indigenous to the Caribbean and to Central America, has now been naturalized in the United States is one reason why, on the flat coastal swamps of South Florida, where the palmettos once blew over the detritus of a dozen failed booms and the hotels were boarded up six months a year, there has evolved since the early New Year's morning in 1959 when Fulgencio Batista flew for the last time out of Havana a settlement of considerable interest, not exactly an American city as American cities have until recently been understood but a tropical capital: long on rumor, short on memory, overbuilt on the chimera of runaway money and referring not to New York or Boston or Los Angeles or Atlanta but to Caracas and Mexico, to Havana and to Bogota and to Paris and Madrid. Of American cities Miami has since 1959 connected only to Washington, which is the peculiarity of both places, and increasingly the warp...

"The general wildness, the eternal labyrinths of waters and marshes, interlocked and apparently neverending; the whole surrounded by interminable swamps... Here I am then in the Floridas, thought I," John James Audobon wrote to the editor of The Monthly American Journal of Geology and Natural Science during the course of an 1831 foray in the territory then still called the Floridas. The place came first, and to touch down there is to begin to understand why at least six administations now have found South Florida so fecund a colony. I never passed through security for a flight to Miami without experiencing a certain weightlessness, the heightened wariness of having left the developed world for a more fluid atmosphere, one in which the native distrust of extreme possibilities that tended to ground the temperate United States in an obeisance to democratic institutions seemed rooted, if at all, only shallowly.

At the gate for such flights the preferred language was already Spanish. Delays were explained by weather in Panama. The very names of the scheduled destinations suggested a world in which many evangelical inclinations had historically been accomodated, many yearnings toward empire indulged...

In this mood Miami seemed not a city at all but a tale, a romance of the tropics, a kind of waking dream in which any possibility could and would be accomodated...
Hallandale Beach Blog
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Hallandale Beach Blog is where I try to inject or otherwise superimpose a degree of accountability, transparency and much-needed insight onto local Broward County government and public policy issues, which I feel is sorely lacking in local media now, despite all the technological advances that have taken place since I grew-up in South Florida in the 1970's. On this blog, I concentrate my energy, enthusiasm, anger, disdain and laser-like attention primarily on the coastal cities of Aventura, Hollywood and Hallandale Beach.

IF you lived in this part of South Florida, you'd ALREADY be in stultifying traffic, be paying higher-than-necessary taxes, and be continually musing about the chronic lack of any real accountability or transparency among not only elected govt. officials, but also of City, County and State employees as well. Collectively, with a few rare exceptions, they couldn't be farther from the sort of strong results-oriented, work-ethic mentality that citizens here deserve and are paying for.

This is particularly true in the town I live in, the City of Hallandale Beach, just north of Aventura and south of Hollywood. There, the Perfect Storm of years of apathy, incompetency and cronyism are all too readily apparent.
Sadly for its residents, Hallandale Beach is where even the easily-solved or entirely predictable quality-of-life problems are left to fester for YEARS on end, because of myopia, lack of common sense and the unsatisfactory management and coordination of resources and personnel.

It's a city with tremendous potential because of its terrific location and weather, yet its citizens have become numb to its outrages and screw-ups after years of the worst kind of chronic mismanagement and lack of foresight. On a daily basis, they wake up and see the same old problems again that have never being adequately resolved by the city in a logical and responsible fashion. Instead the city government either closes their eyes and hopes you'll forget the problem, or kicks them -once again- further down the road.

I used to ask myself, and not at all rhetorically, "Where are all the enterprising young reporters who want to show through their own hard work and enterprise, what REAL investigative reporting can produce?"

Hearing no response, I decided to start a blog that could do some of these things, taking the p.o.v. of a reasonable-but-skeptical person seeing the situation for the first time.
Someone who wanted questions answered in a honest and forthright fashion that citizens have the right to expect.

Hallandale Beach Blog intends to be a catalyst for positive change. http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Hallandale Beach's iconic beachball-colored Water Tower, between beach and A1A/South Ocean Drive

Hallandale Beach's iconic beachball-colored Water Tower, between beach and A1A/South Ocean Drive
Hallandale Beach, FL; February 16, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker
"Gentlemen, I am happy to announce that as of today we are closing down our Washington news bureau and moving the entire operation to L.A."

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker

Hollywood in Cartoons, The New Yorker
"O.K., so I dig a hole and put the bone in the hole. But what's my motivation for burying it?"

Hollywood in cartoons, 10-21-06 Non-Sequitur by Wiley, www-NON-SEQUITUR.COM

Hollywood in cartoons, 10-21-06 Non-Sequitur by Wiley, www-NON-SEQUITUR.COM
The Magic of Hollywood: A motion has been put forth that we should seek to create rather than imitate. All in favor of killing this silly notion, nod in mindless agreement...

Miami Dolphins

Miami Dolphins
South Beach Hoosier's first Dolphin game at the Orange Bowl came in Dec. 1970, aged 9, a 45-3 win over Buffalo that propelled them into their first ever playoff appearance.

Sebastian the Ibis, the Spirited Mascot of the University of Miami Hurricanes

Sebastian the Ibis, the Spirited Mascot of the University of Miami Hurricanes
Before going to my first U-M game at the Orange Bowl in 1972, a friend's father often would bring me home an extra 'Canes game program. That's how I came to have the Alabama at U-M game program from Nov. 16, 1968, which was the first nationally-televised college football night game in color. (A 14-6 loss to the Crimson Tide.) After that first ballgame against Tulane, as l often did for Dolphin games if my father wasn't going, I'd get dropped off at the Levitz parking lot near the 836 & I-95 Cloverleaf in NMB, and catch a Dade County Park & Ride bus, going straight to the Orange Bowl. Onboard, I'd get next to the window and listen to WIOD's pre-game show on my Radio Shack transistor radio. A few times, I was just about the only person onboard besides the bus driver, which was alright by me. Once at the Orange Bowl, if I didn't already have a ticket, I'd buy a game program for myself and one or two for friends or teachers before heading to the ticket window, since you usually couldn't find a program vendor once inside. I probaly had a friend or my father with me for just under 40% of the U-M games I ever went to, but you have to remember that the team, though blessed with several talented players, like Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens, was just so-so to average at best, and the games were usually played on Friday nights, so it wasn't exactly high on everyone's list of things to do. Depending upon the opponent, if I was alone, I'd often have entire areas of the Orange Bowl to myself. (Wish I had photos of that now!) For instance, I had a good portion of the East (open) End Zone to myself against Oklahoma in the mid-70's, when the Boomer Schooner and the Schooner Crew went out on the field after an Oklahoma TD, and the Schooner received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the refs, as would happen years later in an Orangle Bowl Classic game. (Against FSU?) I was there for the wins and losses under Pete Elliott, Carl Selmer & Lou Saban, and the huge on-field fight in '73 when under eventual national champion Notre Dame (under Ara Parseghian), they called a time-out with less than a minute to go, and already up 37-0. Their rationale? To score another TD and impress the AP football writers; final score 44-0. Well, they got their wish and beat Alabama 24-23 for the title at the Sugar Bowl. A year later, thanks to my Mom's boss, she and I saw Ara's last game as head coach of the Irish in the Orange Bowl Game from the East End Zone -in front of the Alabama cheerleaders!!!- in an exciting 13-11 Notre Dame win over Alabama and Bear Bryant, a rematch of the '73 national title game. I was also present for the U-M's huge 20-15 win under Pete Elliott against Darrel Royal's Texas Longhorns, the week Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue came out with Texas on the cover, below. I was also present for lots of wins against schools called College of the Pacific, UNLV and Cal-Poly San Luis Obsispo, which I'd then never heard of before.

Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders, April 28, 2007

Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders, April 28, 2007
Photo by Mario J. Bermudez. April 28, 2007 at Dolphins NFL Draft Party at Dolphin HQ, Davie, FL

Of cheerleaders past and present

Given South Florida's unique version of the melting pot -con salsa- demographics and mindset, these women in the photo above are surely what most South Floridians would consider attractive women. But for this observer, who's spent hours & hours at IU cheerleader tryouts and who has known dozens of cheerleaders -and wannabes- in North Miami Beach, Bloomington, Evanston and Washington, D.C., the whole time I was watching these members of the Dolphins' squad perform, I couldn't help but compare them and their routines to those of some IU friends of mine who ALWAYS showed true Hoosier spirit & enthusiasm. Sitting at my table right near the stage and still later, while watching the long lines of Dolphin fans of all ages waiting to snap photos of themselves with the cheerleaders, I couldn't help but think about those friends who always left me and other Hoosier fans feeling positive & optimistic. Was there anyone I saw in Davie who possessed these valuable intangibles: the dancing precision of IU Red Stepper -and Captain- Gail Amster, my talented and spirited Phi Beta Kappa pal from Deerfield (IL), who always sat next to me in our Telecom. classes as we took turns entertaining the other; the ebullient spirit & energy of two Hoosier cheerleaders -and captains- from Bloomington, Wendy (Mulholland) Moyle & Sara Cox; the hypnotic, Midwestern, girl-next-door sexiness of Hoosier cheerleader Julie Bymaster, from Brownsburg; or, the adorable Southern girl-next-door appeal of former Hoosier Pom squader Jennifer Grimes, of Louisville, always such a clear distraction while sitting underneath the basket? Nope, not that I could see. But then they were VERY tough acts to follow!!! And that's not to mention my talented & spirited friends like Denise Andrews of Portage, Jody Kosanovich of Hammond & Linda Ahlbrand of Chesterton, all of whom were dynamic cheerleaders -and captains- at very large Hoosier high schools that were always in the championship mix, with Denise's team winning the Ind. football championship her senior year when she was captain -just like in a movie. That Denise, Jody & Linda all lived on the same dorm floor, just three stories above me at Briscoe Quad our freshman year, was one of the greatest coincidences -and strokes of luck for me!- that I could've ever hoped for. You could hardly ask for better ambassadors of IU than THESE very smart, sweet and talented women. In a future SBH post, I'll tell the story of one of the greatest Hoosiers I ever met, the aforementioned Wendy Mulholland, the Bloomington-born captain and emotional heart of the great early '80's IU cheerleading squads, and the daughter of Jack Mulholland, IU's former longtime Treasurer. The acorn doesn't fall far from a tree built on a foundation of integrity & community service! (After he retired, Mr. Mulholland was the first executive director of the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County. I used to joke with Wendy that her dad's name was the one that was permanently affixed to the bottom of my work-study checks for years, while I worked at the Dept. of Political Science's Library, first, at the Student Building in the old part of campus, and then later, after it was refurbished, in magnificent Woodburn Hall, my favorite building on campus.) In that future post, I'll share some reflections on Wendy's great strength of character and personality; my intentions of returning to Bloomington a few weeks before Fall '82 classes started, so I could help Wendy train and work-out to rehab her knee, so she'd feel confident in trying-out for the squad again, following a bad knee injury that'd left her physically-unable to try-out for the squad the previous spring, a big disappointment to those of us who cared about both Wendy and the team; my incredulity at, quite literally, running into Wendy while walking down a sidewalk one afternoon a few years later in Evanston, IL, when we were astonished to discover we were both living there, with me trying to hook on with a Windy City advertising agency, and Wendy then-attending Kellogg (KGSM) at Northwestern, right when the WSJ had named Kellogg the #1 Business School in the country. I'll also share a story about Wendy performing a true act of kindness towards me in 1982, when I was having a real emergency, and she went above-and-beyond what I had any logical reason to expect. Yet, Wendy, along with her very helpful dad, Jack, came through for me when I was in a very bad time crunch. I've never forgotten Wendy's kindness towards me, and her true Hoosier spirit. There's NOTHING I wouldn't do for Wendy Mulholland.

It's All About "The U"

It's All About "The U"
South Beach Hoosier's first U-M football game at the Orange Bowl was in 1972, age 11, against Tulane in the infamous "Fifth Down" game. In order to drum up support and attendance for the U-M at the Orange Bowl, that game had a promotion whereby South Florida kids who were school safety patrols could get in for free IF they wore their sash. I did. Clearly they knew that it was better to let kids in for free, knowing their parents would give them money to buy food and souvenirs, perhaps become a fan and want to return for future games. The ballgame made an interesting impression on The New York Times, resulting in this gem from the "View of Sport" column of Oct, 14, 1990, labeled 'Fifth Down or Not, It's Over When It's Over.' -"In 1972, aided by a fifth-down officiating gift in the last moments of the game, Miami of Florida defeated Tulane, 24-21. The country and the world was a much different place that fall because The New York Times took time and space to editorialize on the subject. ''Is it right for sportsmen, particularly young athletes, to be penalized or deprived of the goals for which they earnestly competed because responsible officials make mistakes? The ideal of true sportsmanship would be better served if Miami forfeited last week's game.' South Beach Hoosier hardly needs to tell you that this was YET another New York Times editoral that was completely ignored!

The issue I took with me the night of U-M's 20-15 upset of #1 Texas at the Orange Bowl

The issue I took with me the night of U-M's 20-15 upset of #1 Texas at the Orange Bowl
College Football, Texas No. 1, Hook 'em Horns, Sept. 10, 1973. Living in North Miami Beach in the '70's, my Sports Illustrated usually showed up in my mailbox on the Thursday or Friday before the Monday cover date. And was read cover-to-cover by Sunday morning.

The Perfect Storm

The Perfect Storm
U-M QB Ken Dorsey, Miami Hurricanes Undefeated National Champions 2001, Jan. 2002

Miami's Romp in the Rose

Miami's Romp in the Rose
Miami running back Clinton Portis, Jan. 7, 2002

Why the University of Miami should drop football

Why the University of Miami should drop football
June 12, 1995

REVENGE!

REVENGE!
Steve McGuire and Miami Overpower No.1 Notre Dame, Dec. 4, 1989

How Sweet It Is!

How Sweet It Is!
Miami Whips Oklahoma For The National Championship, Pictured: Dennis Kelleher, Jan. 11, 1988

My, Oh My, Miami!

My, Oh My, Miami!
Steve Walsh and the Canes Stun FSU, Oct. 12, 1987

Why Is Miami No. 1?

Why Is Miami No. 1?
QB Vinny Testaverde, Nov. 24, 1986

Miracle In Miami

Miracle In Miami
The Hurricanes Storm Past Nebraska, Halfback Keith Griffin, Jan. 9, 1984

Special Issue: College Football

Special Issue: College Football
The Best Passer, George Mira of Miami, Sept. 23, 1963

1984 College & Pro Spectatcular

1984 College & Pro Spectatcular
A Pair Of Aces: U-M QB Bernie Kosar & Miami Dolphin QB Dan Marino, Sept. 5, 1984

Pro Football Hall of Fame Special Issue

Pro Football Hall of Fame Special Issue
Dan Marino, Class of 2005, Aug. 2005

FACES OF THE NFL

FACES OF THE NFL
A Portfolio by Walter Iooss Jr., Ricky Williams, Miami Dolphins, Dec. 9, 2002

Coming Back

Coming Back
Jay Fiedler rallies Miami to a last-second win over Oakland, Oct. 1, 2001

Dan's Last Stand

Dan's Last Stand
At 38 and under siege, Dan Marino refuses to go down without a fight, Dec. 13, 1999

The War Zone

The War Zone
In the NFL's toughest division, the surprising Dolphins are on top, Lamar Smith, Dec. 11, 2000

Down and Dirty

Down and Dirty
Jimmy Johnson's Dolphins Bury The Patriots, Steve Emtman, Sept. 9, 1996

The Sunshine Boys

The Sunshine Boys
Now Playing in Miami: The Dan Marino and Jimmy Johnson Show, May 11, 1996

HOT & NOT

HOT & NOT
Miami loves Pat Riley but wants to give Don Shula the boot, Dec. 11, 1995

NFL PREVIEW 1995

NFL PREVIEW 1995
Which of today's stars are locks for the Hall of Fame? Dan Marino for sure. But who else? To find out, we polled the men who do the voting. Sept. 14, 1995

Sportsman Of The Year

Sportsman Of The Year
Don Shula, Dec. 20, 1993

Dan The Man

Dan The Man
Dan Marino Saves The Day For The Dolphins, Jan. 14, 1991

Dangerous Dan

Dangerous Dan
Dan Marino Passes Miami Into The Super Bowl, Jan. 14, 1985

Super Duper!

Super Duper!
Wide Receiver Mark Duper Of The Undefeated Dolphins, Nov. 19, 1984

Air Raid! Miami Bombs Washington

Air Raid! Miami Bombs Washington
Mark Clayton (burning Darryl Green) Sept. 10, 1984

Rookies On The Rise

Rookies On The Rise
Dan Marino: Miami's Hot Quarterback, Nov. 14, 1983

New Life In The WFL

New Life In The WFL
Warfield, Csonka and Kiick of Memphis, July 28, 1975

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota

Zonk! Miami Massacres Minnesota
Larry Csonka, Jan. 21, 1974

Pro Football, Miami Is Rough And Ready

Pro Football, Miami Is Rough And Ready
Larry Csonka & Bob Griese, Sept. 17, 1973

Miami All The Way

Miami All The Way
Bob Griese, Jan. 22, 1973

It's Miami and Washington

It's Miami and Washington
Mercury Morris Speeds Past The Steelers, Jan. 8, 1973

Kiick and Csonka, Miami's Dynamic Duo

Kiick and Csonka, Miami's Dynamic Duo
Larry Csonka & Jim Kiick, Aug. 7, 1972

Sudden Death at Kansas City

Sudden Death at Kansas City
Miami's Garo Yepremian Ends the Longest Game; (kneeling) placekick holder Karl Noonan, Jan. 3, 1972

New Pro in a New Town

New Pro in a New Town
Miami's Frank Emanuel, Aug. 8, 1966

Old-style "Obie" the Orange Bowl Committee mascot

Old-style "Obie" the Orange Bowl Committee mascot
The iconic image I grew-up with in Miami, before FedEx got into the picture