I don't see the point in drudging this up again, but just so you don't have any misunderstandings about what I said... I said at the time and still believe there'd be no problem with it if Richard had wanted to walk away from the game or take a leave of absence. It's always one's perogative to do that, if the personal reasons, in their mind, dictate it. That's completely different than requesting a trade to suit yourself at the expense of someone else and their personal life. I think what Gretsky is doing is fine as long as he suffers whatever consequences based on his contract he has to incurr from breeching it.
Richard left between seasons. He asked and was granted permission from the Quakes, AEG, and MLS. Fans had nothing to do with this (though I strongly believe that this was in the back of his head), just as when AEG chose to uproot the team and move them to Houston. AEG also didn't give a crap about the players when they made their decision to move. Wayne Gretzky is leaving while his team is in the middle of the NHL season and just when Team Canada is being built. Wayne Gretzky isn't worried about a "contract." He's a national hero of Canada and hockey when the need him the most. He's one of the Phoenix Coyotes OWNERS!!! And he's walking away when they need him. This is not simply a contract violation. This is not Eli Manning nor John Elway saying they won't play for the team with the first draft pick and the worst record in the NFL. This is not Terell Owens saying he wants to be traded to the Eagles and no one else. This is not Roger Clemens demanding $15 million per year to pitch for the Houston Astros and asks to be left at home to avoid road trips (50% of the season).
I can't figure out what your point is here and it really doesn't matter. I only posted to stop you implying that people saying Ching could/should request a trade are hypocritical because of what was said and Richard in that I was nearly alone in saying that.
Oh come on, Andy has a point. Troy's look is as weird as Wade's lamb chops look and we accepted both. Insulting people in Houston because AEG cares more about the bottom line than soccer in the USA is like saying a frog with no legs is deaf.
You're comparing having your job transferred from one city to another to someone's mother dying? That's disgusting.
What deaf frog? Excuse me. The discussion was on Chinger requesting a trade to LA or Chivas. I asked why a player would request a trade for such a silly reason as personal reasons. His new wife is attending college and someone suggested that they both transfer to the LA area and they would still be together. I refered to the reaction of fans when two players had "transfers" one for personal reasons (the death of a mother) and the other to be closer to home (family reasons). I am not comparing the trading of a player from one city to another to the death of a parent. Gretzky has a legit reason to take a leave or walk away. Richard had a legit reason to ask for a trade. When it comes to beating a dead horse...I wasn't the one who got defensive.
It certainly is more honorable than taking a job and accepting moving expenses then moving out to take the job and deciding that you don't want the job after all and then taking more moving expenses to move back home. Nobody could be that slimy, could they? And no employer would be stupid enough to go along. Would they?
In that case, there is nothing to debate. Unless it's a Catholic university that has enough of a relationship with another such university in So Cal (same religious order, i.e., Jesuit) that she could take her studies down there without losing credits. Don't know if Jesuit schools have any kind of understanding of this sort. And I don't see any problem with Ching requesting a trade for this reason. There is no more San Jose Earthquakes, at least not until a brand new franchise is created. His first loyalty is to his family, not to a team-- and especially not to a team that will be remade within a year or two in a different city*-- and that is the way it should be. *After DeRo and Onstad go to Toronto for the 2007 season and after two more drafts and trades for players from Texas to give the team that "marketing edge", the team will look nothing like the 2005 Earthquakes.
Connect the dots Yeah, thats the problem all right. After 27 years of *that* nonsense, the problems that have resulted- (1) housing market completely distorted because people now have an incentive to upgrade their homes instead of selling and buying one that fits their needs- completely changing the inventory and availability of every class of house, gentrifying every previously affordable neighborhood- (2) not to mention what it has done to the tax base- beggaring the local cities who now have to put every possible new program and even maintenance for roads and schools out for bond measure approval, wearying the taxpayers, because the general revenue budgets no longer bring in enough from property tax to keep up with the increased costs of services that have all suffered 27 years worth of inflation in the prices of labor, property, capital, and consumables while the tax base hasn't kept up- show that Prop 13 has been and continues to be the single biggest disaster to our lifestyle in California. If San Jose and every other town in the state had a normal budget we might have seen a stadium years ago. Granted, that is giving our local leadership *wayyyyyy* more credit than they have ever shown they deserve, but then again they're working under the weight of 27 years of Prop 13-induced havoc. Do us a favor. When you're trying to indicate what California is doing right- don't pretend Prop 13 should be on the list. Sure, it allows people on fixed incomes not to lose their homes to outrageous property tax assessments. But the opportunity costs of that narrow success have been enormous. DougO
Re: Connect the dots I won't turn this thread into a debate on Proposition 13 but, suffice it to say, you are wrong. If you want to discuss why, send me a PM or start a new thread.
Re: Connect the dots I agree--and even worse, corporations are protected by Prop 13, and so their property is never reassessed. (I guess I've come to accept that fact that grandma gets to stay in her Atherton mansion and pay $500 in property taxes while young families are squeezed into undersized homes.) Our public schools were first-rate and they've gone down the toilet, except in communities where parents raise supplemental funds. That said, I don't blame Prop 13 for the fact that public leadership in this state is corrupt or inept or both. (Though it might be easier for them to stay honest if land costs weren't out of proportion to everything else.)
Re: Connect the dots Fairness is an issue as mentioned but pre-prop 13 people were being hammered by rising property taxes and the politicians refused to deal with it. And anyway, California is hardly starved for revenue. We have extremely high state income taxes that reach the maximum 9.3 % rate at a very low income level.