Saturday, July 9, 2016

Two Balls, One Board

Thanks to FYVM for prodding me to go check out the website of "Puget Sound Collegiate League Baseball." It really, really is as lousy as he says! Wow! Or, as they might put it on their website - W oww!

You can check it out yourself, which is probably more than the members of the City Council did before signing up with these...Well, more on that in just a second. Here's the link to their website, though...

http://www.pugetsoundcollegiateleague.com/pscl/

Anyway, in checking out their website, I learned who the people behind this are. Both of them. Here's an almost complete listing (minus the typos!) of the PSCL Baseball Board of Directors:

President: Matt Acker
Director of Player Development: Brady Hoover
Tournament Director: Matt Acker
Camp Director: Brady Hoover
Youth League Director: Brady Hoover
High School Fall Ball Director: Matt Acker

Busy, busy Matt Acker. He also serves as
Bat Boy, Spittoon Shiner and Washer of Socks.

Yes, yes, I know - this doesn't look like a traditional "board of directors," does it? In fact, in looking at their website, I don't know what it all looks like, other than a mess. The kind of mess that a city like Port Angeles would go for wholeheartedly. (Well, six to one, as the case may be...) It's so shoddy and so incomplete and so utterly nonsensical a website that one would think that it would, at best, frighten and confuse a member of the City Council. But, addled though it may be, here we are, with the City in bed with Matt and Brady (those "fine young men" of Pat Downie's dreams), so I have to assume that no one from the Council, other than perhaps Lee Whetham, even bothered to look at the website at all.

Oh, and speaking of looking at their website...Other than a tab generically marked "Name the team," which links to the opportunity to name the Port Angeles team, I couldn't find any mention of Port Angeles on the website. Hmmm...In any case, here's the link to the "Name the team" page again.

http://tinyurl.com/PDN-PAnametheteam

Now, I'm not a baseball fan, and I never thought I'd be talking about it so much here, but...This whole scheme does seem to perfectly illustrate how the City Council will A) Latch onto any harebrained idea, no matter how farfetched, without B) Doing their homework, or C) Charging fair prices for their resources, while at the same time D) Trumpeting the whole harebrained, longshot, ripped off deal as some sort of success or sign of Great Things to Come.

But hey, maybe I'm being too cynical. Maybe this will all work out swell, just swell, and crowds of wealthy tourists will be taking the Aerial Tram from downtown to their box seats at Civic Field to watch the Port Angeles Panhandlers play.

Or maybe...

39 comments:

  1. And per FYVM...Go, Garbage Pail Kidds! Genius!

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  2. You forgot Director of Fine Young Men, Pat Downie. Oh, and Guardian of the Gavel, Cherie Kidd.

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  3. People often complain that their elected officials don't read the fine print on things, but our city council doesn't even look at the big, block print. Staff probably presents things to them in pictographs, so they can understand. Baseball + smiley face = council approval.

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    1. It doesn't take much imagination to visualize the council voting yes or no on things by holding up smiley face or frowny face cards. Unless they would count as signs, which are, of course, prohibited...

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  4. Yes, taking the Aerial Tram from the thriving, successful Pen Ply Plaza over Nathan West's Boondoggle Beach, giving you a grand view of the Glenn Cutler Memorial Turd Tank as you go.

    Port Angeles is the place bad ideas go to thrive. We are suckers ever single time.

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  5. Okay, okay, so I took a look at the website, too...

    Yep. It's pretty bad. Let's just say it doesn't have the air of success about it.

    Which, yes, makes it a perfect match for Port Angeles.

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  6. Downie's Dowagers.

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  7. Is the problem here that the City subsidized the baseball team by not charging enough rent or making other concessions that make it not a good deal financial, in their naive excitement? Does someone know, and can tell us the details. That would make a big difference because obviously this league and the team have no real economic value, but it might be fun for some people to watch.

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  8. "Play Ball" and scratch'em...

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  9. They must have Gaul Potleaf in charge of the PDN website today. It's all messed up. Almost every article is listed twice, sometimes with slightly different headlines. Maybe they think that listing things twice will make them twice as good a newspaper? (Which still would be a piece of...)

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    1. Speaking of worthless websites. The PDN website has been declining like the paper itself. I don't know why anybody wastes their time with either.

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    2. PDN is like any other unproductive addiction. I went cold turkey in February, and it worked. Won't even glance at it. Yet somehow still know what's going on about town. Then you wonder why you looked at it all along. Try living without it sometime, you just might like it.

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  10. More than ever, I am disappointed by the complete absence of anyone being noticed for doing anything right in this blog. Most all of these people you denigrate are honest folks, trying to make a difference, when doing so in public leaves one open to ridicule, and derision by you and many of your commenters (who are almost all anonymous, and so get to take their pot shots without suffering the same derision. It is too bad, you could have made a difference with your blogging efforts.

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    1. I guess you haven't noticed that this blog is NOT INTENDED TO BE a place to hand out Gold Stars and Blue Ribbons. That is not its purpose. For that you have the Chamber of Commerce, the PABA, and every other thing that falls out of the eager-to-please mouths of Pat Downie and Cherie Kidd. If you want Port Angeles praise, there's plenty of it to be had in other venues. "It's another GREAT day in Port Angeles!"

      However, having said all that, let me also note that this blog DOES offer praise where it is warranted, from time to time. For instance, regarding this latest subject, Lee Whetham came in for some praise for taking what seemed to be a common sense, let's take some more time position, and for voting NO. You know what? I don't even like Lee Whetham, but he did the right thing, and that was noted. GOOD JOB, LEE. In a six-to-one vote, he was the one that made sense. And it's not the first time, either, nor the first time such "atta boys" have been dispensed here.

      So, give me a bit of a break, and give us all the benefit of understanding the context, alright? Please?

      Now, in the interest of good cheer, thank you for writing, and participating.

      (However, if you think everyone on the City Council are "honest folks"...I suspect that there are those reading here who would disagree with you.)

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    2. @9:07: "Most all of these people you denigrate are honest folks, trying to make a difference."

      How naive can you be? Most all of these people we denigrate are outright CRIMINALS. The only "difference" they try for is to line their pockets at YOUR expense. They have voluntarily pulled the handle, and we're left swirling and sinking in this shell of a real town. Real leaders deal with the problems and take a shot at a fix, not show up with "the fix in". Wake up and smell the corruption!

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    3. Seems like you enjoy nothing but negative items and opinions and only enjoy putting down people who dont agree with you.You must be a very sad person since you are unable to chat here and have a reasonable discussion.So very sad. Im sure you will say you didnt get this either.

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    4. Anonymous 11:33 PM: Yes, I got your comment. Look, there it is! Hopefully you will get this comment in reply, urging you to learn about using proper punctuation and spacing in future comments. Thank you.

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    5. CK - I guess some trolls just want their certificates of participation. I know I have commented positively to praise the local businesses who are doing it right *despite* the big box stores and *despite* the City, PABA, downtown businesses association and all the others making every effort to stymie their efforts. I show my appreciation by spending my dollars there. Have never shopped at Walmart - never will.

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    6. Yes, CK, please do refrain from calling the crooks and incompetents who run this place names, unless they are things like "honest" and "intelligent." Because the only way to make change happen is to use polite, non-confrontational and meaningless language.

      Or so some would have us believe. Thanks for writing in, mayor Downie. We'll be more polite if you're less idiotic. Deal?

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  11. The name the team page is now down. I wonder if they didn't like the names being suggested..?

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    1. Ah, well...It was fun while it lasted. Good luck to the Port Angeles Pallbearers or Garbage Pail Kidds or Panhandlers...

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  12. Just for what it's worth and since I know accuracy is important to you...It's a West Coast League team that Council approved to come to Port Angeles, not a Puget Sound Collegiate League team. Not many differences, but at least a better website and more than two board members? http://westcoastleague.com/

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    1. Well now, for what it's worth...The PSCL were the ones with the "Name the Port Angeles team" page on their website...Their guy, Matt Acker, was the one whose picture was all over the stories about this...And there was nothing I could find about Port Angeles (in the news section or elsewhere) on the website you list. So...

      But you are correct that the WCL website is much, much better.

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    2. You're correct. The new Port Angeles team will take the Kitsap Blue Jackets' spot in the WCL and the Blue Jackets will be relegated to the PSCL. Matt Acker is the controlling partner of the Blue Jackets' Mack Athletics ownership and is driving this whole arrangement. He likely just used the PSCL website as a portal for his naming survey since he controls that too. The PA team will not be in the PSCL. He and Victoria Harborcats' top brass are creating a rivalry between the two teams just a ferry ride apart. I saw them playing golf together last weekend.

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    3. Since when has accuracy been important here?

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  13. It's a funny, defensive mechanism you have. When someone shines a bright light on your destructive nature, you default to grammer and punctuation attacks.

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    1. So, let me understand this...By trying to shine a bright light on the crooks, liars and nitwits who are looting and destroying an entire community, somehow I'M the one with a destructive nature? I'm just trying to expose bad people and bad behavior. If that makes me destructive, well then...I'm fine with that.

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    2. You aren't fine or you wouldn't hide behind the CK mask. Both you and the world are a better place without you.

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    3. "Both you and the world are a better place without you."

      You see the kind of troll trash I have to deal with every day? Things that don't even make sense.

      Sad, sad, troll...Sigh...

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    4. Just take a deep breath, and know there are all kinds of narrow minded creeps out there, CK. These days, you see morons like Trump being validated for incredibly non-American, non civilized human being pronouncements.

      And in a hillbilly town that few want anything to do with? What do you expect? Rational thought?

      You know you're doing the right thing, and doing a great public service. If you weren't successful, morons like the trolls wouldn't be trying to shut you down.

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    5. These losers aren't even worth a deep breath. I just let this one through to show the pathetic nature of the average troll comment. I don't know if such ludicrous displays are signs of a low IQ, mental illness, or both. All I know for sure is that it's pathetic, and a waste of the troll's time.

      But what else have they got to do, really?

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    6. You can be assured that any of us regularly here, are at heart much happier in our lives than these trolls. It is because we are happier, more productive members of society that we notice when our so called leaders fail us. whether through incompetence or outward manipulation for their own benefit. The trolls, hey I'll even go out on a limb and say some may be educated. But no amount of education can counter small-mindedness. These are the people who rarely venture out of the County and have virtually no exposure to the diverse and real world out there. They don't dare do that because it ruins their perception of themselves as big fish in the pond, revealing that they are sad tiny fish in a small brown dirty puddle. The fact that most of us have to stay anonymous is we do have good jobs but know how the good ol boy system of retaliation works in this county. We're really screwed in our ability to effect change.

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    7. Judging from some of the election results in this locale, I'd say both.

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  14. I thought it worth noting that when I came into Port Angeles on the Ferry (the family and I went over to Victoria Friday) on Sunday, arriving downtown at noon, the place was a ghost town.

    As the Ferry cruised into the harbor, I could see the waterfront trail from Rayonier to the Red Lion. Not a person to be seen. The weather was beautiful.

    I purposefully looked over at the pocket beaches. And that new waterfront park next to the Oak Street property. Not a person to be seen.

    Driving off the Ferry and into downtown, virtually no one. Anywhere.

    The Ferry itself was packed. It was sold out at 8:30 in the morning, for the 10:30 crossing. Living here, I was interested to see where everyone on the Ferry went, when they got off. They had announced the Hood Canal bridge was closed, so, going East was going to be challenging.

    But almost every vehicle getting off turned eastward, and headed out of town as directly as possible. Out of curiosity, I turned up Laurel, and drove down Front, then back on First to see if there were people taking those streets. Empty, everywhere.

    Driving east, I looked in the parking lots of the hotels as we drove by. Again, incredibly empty for the height of the summer tourism season.

    It isn't that there are no tourists in the area. But downtown? How do those merchants stay open?

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  15. Awhile back I asked the question how places like Budget Tapes and Records and The Family Shoe Store stay open. Somebody in the know was nice enough to answer my question about BT&R. It's obviously gone now. Like the poster above I'd truly like to know how some of these places remain. Anyone?

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    1. BT&R is Coog's now and it isn't gone. It moved into the basement of the LevX building because the old location was falling apart. I think it's a shame that the PDN doesn't do more coverage of local businesses, presumably because they would prefer those businesses to purchase overpriced print ads instead.

      Your question about how most of them stay open is still valid though.

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    2. They stay open the way every business stays open. They work hard every day. You should celebrate them instead of condem them

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    3. Troll @ 6:04 - I see no condemning of any local business. Simply a question of how they survive when the local politicians and business organizations seem to make every effort to stymie their success. Think of the few who are doing decently and imagine how much better they could do, the kind of growth and expansion they could experience, if they weren't being constantly whacked across the shins by our so called leaders. But I don't expect you to comprehend...

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    4. Oh! Look, businesses in Port Angeles manage to stay open, even though the millions of dollars spent to bring people down town have failed miserably, and resulted in less foot traffic. Hurray!

      Anon 6:04, how do you construe observing the tourists avoiding down town Port Angeles, and the almost constantly empty streets, as a condemnation of local businesses?

      From what I see here, the criticisms are mostly directed at the policy makers, and rightfully so.

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