The Friday Five: A Quick Take. November 19th 2010

1) On Wednesday, I made a quick take on the Oden injury indicating that I foresee Paul Allen wanted to resign Oden, despite his string on injuries. Turns out I may have been correct. Larry Miller announced yesterday that the likelihood is that the Blazers will sign Oden to the $8.8 million dollar qualified offer that Oden is eligible to make. Many fans, reports, blazer insiders and facebook naysayers wrote Oden’s career in Portland as finished. I present 2 reasons why resigning Oden is a smart move;

· It’s only 1 year. After that year the Blazers could let Oden move on, but giving Oden another chance to prove what he showed flickers of last season may lead to be an extremely smart move for the Blazers in the long term. If Oden can remain healthy in his one year contract, the Blazers likely resign him to a long term deal and allow him to become the dominant man they hoped he would be.

· Oden is still a PR giant in the city of Portland. Many fans still support Oden as a Blazer and wish him a full recovery. Many commentators have suggested that letting Oden go will relive the burden of Oden on the minds of the fans. However to release a player, when the cost of keeping him (for someone like Paul Allen) is so low and the upside is so high. It would be foolish to not resign him, allowing him to go to other team and become successful. Which is a worse PR nightmare, holding on to a contract that really isn’t that large (they may get half of this years salary back through insurance anyway), or having him torch us in the playoffs for another team.

2) The New START Treaty may not get started after all. President Obama signed an updated treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev this past March, which updates the original START Treaty enacted under President Ronald Regan. This treaty supports a monitoring system for both countries to keep a watchful eye on the others nuclear arsenal. Recently Senator Jon Kyl, the Republican leader of these new START negotiations signaled he would oppose a vote for ratification of this treaty during the lame-duck session of congress. Many Republicans have indicated they will follow the lead of Kyl when voting for this ratification. If the ratification is not passed during this lame-duck session of Congress, the large Democratic majority will slip away, making it that much harder to pass proposed legislation.

The NObama approach the Republicans are taking in regards to President Obama’s domestic agenda is hampering progress within our nation’s borders. However, this ratification not only affects our own national interests but also the appearance of American powers abroad. Refusal to pass legislation for world affairs, not only makes Obama look weak in America, but it makes America look inept and unable to successfully run a country. Never in history has a congress applied such brash hatred toward international affairs. This refusal to pass the most basic international treaty increases America’s world stance, raising it from a point of utter hated during the Bush presidency. But these congressional Republicans, led by John Kyl are preventing foreign ties from being formed and a world partnership being established.

3) All hail King Felix! Felix Hernandez is the first player in Major League Baseball history to win the coveted Cy Young Award with less than 15 wins (13; Tim Lincecum had 15 last season). The fact that Hernandez won only 13 games backed by one of the worst offenses if American League history is astonishing. Hernandez, though fell far behind in the wins category was still able to notch 13 wins, which tied for 18^th place in the MLB. He also pitched 249.2 innings, struck out 232 batters and recorded a 2.27 ERA which were all first place efforts.

Hernandez gained 21 of 28 first place votes, though not all agree that Hernandez deserved the award. The National League Cy Young winner Roy Halladay praised Hernandez’s numbers but also felt he lacked a crucial aspect of being the best, “I think ultimately you look at how guys are able to win games. And sometimes the runs scoring isn’t there, but I think sometimes you just find ways to win games.” This sentiment was also expressed by Joe Girardi Yankees manager, who felt that to win in the AL East is far more difficult than the AL West and CC Sabathia (came in 3^rd place) still managed to notch 21 wins. Overall this win by King Felix marks the dawning of a new age in Major League Baseball, where wins aren’t the only thing that matters when you look at dominance. All hail the King.

4) Harry Who? If you are one of the 5 people on the planet earth (this is just an estimate, there could be up to 7) who has not heard of Harry Potter, you will soon. The Harry Potter film franchise reaches its final chapter…wait they broke it into 2 films, hmmmm. Harry Potter reaches the first part of the final chapter…there is talk of an epilogue short film, seriously. Harry Potter reaches the first part - of the final film - of the original book series today and fans have already flocked to movie theaters across the country to get a glimpse of what could be a record breaking film.

The Harry Potter franchise already holds the top spot for highest grossing film franchises (not counting inflation) and two more films will add to that already dominating total. The next highest franchise is the Bond series and it took them 22 films to come in second place to only 6 Potter films thus far. The average of all the Potter films is $902,850,679. If we were to assume that these final films will hit the average, they would add an additional $1,805,701,358 to the already first place franchise of $5,417,104,072. Not bad considering Warner Brothers only paid an estimated $2,000,000 for the rights to the first four books. I’m putting my estimate of $145,000,000 for a Potter 7.1 opening weekend.

5) Sandberg on Sports returned yesterday with the first article in over 4 months! Check it out as Sandberg describes the emotional roller coaster that is Greg Oden and enlightens us on his current injury (yet again, I know how depressing it is to point out it is another injury). Sandberg’s unique take as not only an exceptional sports journalist, but also an avid Blazers fan brings a special experience for those who share his pain, and the pain of the Portland Trail Blazers…Sandberg on Sports.