The recent story about a Portland man accused of passing himself off as a San Francisco 49ers player in order to defraud several women of a bag of money sparked a lot of memories for me.

Apparently he convinced women whom he developed a relationship with that he was wealthy and could make them rich by helping them with investments. His cohort then posed as his financial advisor and they were able to defraud many who trusted him.

Hey, football players do wear helmets with masks. Maybe that helps with the mystery.

It surprises me that this kind of thing still occurs because it’s so much easier to do a background check on people and their claims. A simple Google search will usually do the trick, but the internet, for a few dollars, also provides more in-depth searches..

In the old days, though, it was tougher to research such claims and people were more likely to attempt to make all sorts of claims about their background. Especially a career in sports.

Read more

So many thoughts and so little time…. my “few words” on a few things:

Read more

Tommy John, another one of those players who should have been enshrined is baseball’s Hall of Fame years ago (but never was) died Sunday.

People who may not have even known of his baseball success (288 major-league wins) recognize his name because of the tendon transplant surgery named after him. But I’m not writing about him today because of his pitching success or the surgery that saved his baseball career — and that of thousands of other pitchers.

He was the first to undergo the surgery and successfully return to pitching in the major leagues. I think, in some ways, the surgery overshadowed a great career.

Tommy John was briefly a member of the Pacific Coast League Portland Beavers, in fact, one of the most talented teams in Beaver history — the 1964 club that during that season featured a pitching staff including Sam McDowell, Luis Tiant, Tommy John, George Culver, Steve Hargan, Dave Tyriver, Wynn Hawkins, Jack Curtis and Bob Allen, among others.

Read more

I’ve been around the Trail Blazers on a regular basis for a long time. Suffice it to say I covered Sam Bowie in his rookie season.

And let me say I don’t think I’ve ever heard them portrayed in a negative fashion the way it’s happening right now. Tom Dundon has cast a giant shadow over the entire organization. People are actually saying, “Let the team leave. Who cares?”

But I have an idea for the Trail Blazers. Not that I have any real optimism that they will take my advice, but it’s worth a try. They can win a lot of fans back with one simple move that they can make right away:

Read more

And now, my friends, it’s time for the main event.

Portland’s City Council today will vote on a term sheet for negotiations for Moda Center renovations, including an additional add-on for the team to pay $2 million a year in rent to the city. At the end of the day, after the usual council wrangling, I expect a term sheet will be approved, in some form or another.

It’s important to keep in mind that the term sheet is non-binding and merely the starting point for what could end up being four months of negotiations between the Trail Blazers and the city.

That $2 million addition to the term sheet is new and a bit of a surprise, but I would guess it’s just a pretty adornment to appease the folks who think the city isn’t bargaining hard enough.

The real concern the city should have is the behavior of new Trail Blazer owner Tom Dundon. Since buying the team, Dundon has shown that he has no cares at all about what people — including his customers — might think of him. He’s a repo man, so what do you expect?

Read more

I never covered Don Nelson on a regular basis. But I wish I would have had that pleasure.

One of the greatest coaches in NBA history — and a man who changed the game with the way he manipulated it — died yesterday at 86. I did have the pleasure of interviewing him several times and it was usually a lot of fun.

I also had the rare opportunity of hanging out with him one night in Portland after a game between his Bucks and the Blazers. No need to detail where that happened, but it was just a common local nightspot where a guy could get a cold beverage after a long night of work.

Nellie was with my counterpart at a Milwaukee newspaper and the chatter was full of laughter and inside basketball stuff. But at one point, we were serious enough that I could ask him a question I had wondered about during that evening’s game.

Read more

(Dennis Rodman in an AI illustration as a WNBA player)

Let me start this off by saying I am definitely not trans-phobic. One of my best high-school friends and sports teammates decided after a wonderful college baseball career that he would begin living his life as a woman.

Back in the 1970s, I’m not sure you can understand what a difficult decision that must have been. But I supported him/her in that decision and kept in touch, at least until my friend made the decision to move to Southern California, when we lost contact. The only time I had a tiny problem, ironically, is when she told me how much she was dominating in a lesbian softball league she was playing in.

Didn’t seem fair to me. But live your life as you wish. I’m fine with that.

That brings us to a topic that has become so controversial — transexuals in women’s sports.

I will confess at this point that I cannot understand why so many women believe that trans men should be allowed to play against women. Is there no understanding of how difficult the battle was to pass Title IX, giving women equal rights to their own teams and leagues in amateur sports?

Read more

I watched a good portion of Thursday’s City Council “work session” before boredom and laughter got me back to my keyboard.

Yes, Council sessions are often boring. But I was more amused when the counselors talked frequently about ROI — return on investment — for the money they are being asked to fund Moda Center renovation.

Investment? Paul Allen built that arena in 1995 for an estimated $265 million. You bought it from the Allen estate a couple of years ago for about 10 percent of the price of a McDonald’s Happy Meal. But you aren’t happy with the return on that one dollar investment yet?

Read more

A few items you may not have heard about that I just haven’t been able to slip into a column lately:

• Did you know the Portland Trail Blazers will be paying Yang Hansen $643,520 more this season than the Philadelphia 76ers will be paying LeBron James? Sorry, I can’t stop laughing.

Read more

Let me tell you right now, if you are looking for a villain in this entire Moda Center renovation/city council/Trail Blazers/Tom Dundon mess, you may be missing out.

The real villains here are Jody Allen and her accomplice, Bert Kolde.

In early 2024, the Trail Blazers agreed to a five-year extension of their lease in Moda Center. Allen and Kolde knew they…

Read more

While the Trail Blazers’ battle with City Hall threatens to turn into a disastrous conclusion, the basketball side of the franchise is hiding in a safe house buried somewhere outside of town, hoping nobody notices its absence.

All the combat about Moda renovation has given very good cover for a front office that has failed miserably so far this off-season.

Read more

The City of Portland sent the Trail Blazers a “term sheet” late last week, outlining terms of an agreement with the team on a 20-year lease it expects to be signed in order to provide the city’s share of funds for the renovation of the Moda Center.

The City Council seemed to gain a lot of publicity for this move, which they say was intended to push the issue closer to completion. Which is one more example that this city is over its head when it comes to dealing with this sort of situation. The term sheet should never have been made public. Sharing it in the media certainly just meant it was a tool for the mayor and council to show the public they were trying to get a deal.

Read more

It occurs to me, after all the social media explaining I am constantly doing, that I need to detail the reality of acquiring and keeping professional sports in your city.

Portlanders, including those representing us in government, have never much been interested in chasing the NFL, MLB or NHL. And thus, they don’t seem to understand the cold, hard truth of enjoying those pastimes in their community.

Read more

That Tom Dundon is a real publicity magnet — and lately not necessarily in a good way.

The latest controversy for the new Trail Blazer owner springs from his biggest success as a franchise owner — the Stanley Cup that his Carolina Hurricanes won a few weeks ago. The Cup is probably the most cherished, longest running and iconic trophy in all of sports — the only one where the names of the team’s players and staff are actually engraved on the trophy.

Dundon took all of that a step further, though. As the team’s owner, his name is listed first on the cup — but is followed by the names of his wife and five mostly school-aged children.

Read more

Quick test: Who or what is the Portland Cascade?

a) A hot new nightspot in Northwest Portland.

b) A garage band from outer Southeast you should find on YouTube.

c) A local ice cream shop intent on dethroning Salt & Straw.

d) A very high-level pro women’s softball team that plays its puzzling home schedule of games in Hillsboro.

If you have a daughter playing softball you probably already know the answer is “d,” but otherwise you may not have heard of the Cascade.

But you should.

The Cascade is in its first expansion-team season in the AUSL — which should be another quick quiz. It stands for Athletes Unlimited Softball League. Athletes Unlimited is an umbrella organization whose intent is to offer women professional sports opportunities in a variety of sports.

But from what I have seen, for marketing purposes, I think I would have just called the league “Major League Softball” — or MLSB for short. It’s a high-level brand of the sport, filled with college stars and veteran players with big-time credentials.

The Cascade features former UCLA All-America Megan Grant, who you might remember as a basketball player for the Bruins, too. She set the NCAA record for home runs last season with 42.

All she has done for the Cascade so far is hit seven homers in 16 games while logging a 1.246 OPS. Incredible stuff.

The league has a bewildering 25-game schedule, seemingly dictated by a desire to cut expenses. The good news for local fans is that the team has eight games remaining and all are at home — which is Hillsboro Ballpark, the recently departed yard of the Hops.

And if you can’t make it, the games are televised on a mix of CBS Sports Network, ESPN2 and MLB Network.

But get tickets early — the team (in third place in the six-team league) has been very popular and most games either sell out or are close to it. I highly recommend it.

Refer a friend

Give a gift subscription

You know, after thinking about the whole Trail Blazer ownership vs. City of Portland thing for a few months, I’ve come to a conclusion. Now this is strictly an opinion and maybe even more of a hunch. I could be wrong and I’ll admit that up front. Here’s my thought:

Tom Dundon absolutely does not want his team to be here. And let me tell you why I believe that.

Read more

Jaylen Brown? Gone. Giannis Antetokounmpo? Gone. LaMelo Ball? Gone. Julius Randle? Gone. Paul George? Gone.

A lot of big-name players have been traded in the last few weeks but the Trail Blazers, supposedly out there big-game hunting, didn’t land any of them.

So much for the much-anticipated “Big Swing” by the local NBA squad.

Sure, there is one more plum out there — New Orleans’ 6-8 small forward Trey Murphy III. But it’s hard to believe the Pelicans would part with such a talented young player while in a rebuilding mode. They are said to be taking offers but wanting five first-round picks.

Of all the players mentioned, Murphy would be the best fit, because of his marksmanship from the outside. Oh wait — maybe LeBron instead?

Sure.

Meanwhile, Brown went to Philadelphia Wednesday for George, along with two first-round picks and two seconds. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that Portland — rumored to have made the best offer for Brown — must have pulled its proposal off the table. Or didn’t actually offer as much as we thought and was outbid.

I have so many questions.

Read more

Ja Morant to Portland?

That wasn’t exactly what I expected today.

Morant has faced a litany of off-court problems during his time in Memphis. But new Portland owner Tom Dundon has a history of not being deterred by that sort of thing, if a player has value that makes it worth the gamble.

Read more

Boston forward Jaylen Brown is being rumored to be the Trail Blazers’ target in an upcoming trade and ESPN’s Bobby Marks had something to say about that.

Brown countered quickly with this message of his own.

But before Blazer fans go all crazy on Marks — and he did take it a bit too far — you should know that there are some analytics that don’t really show Brown as being as valuable as most people think.

Read more