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The Daily Digest for Tuesday, November 6, 2007 |
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November 06, 2007 |
≡ Interim Report ≡
 Brand: Bulls like him better than Kobe? |
= Program Note =
We expected that TheGoodSportsNetwork.tv would be up and running on September 24, but the site is still not live. We have been told that TheGoodSportsNetwork.tv site will be up in November, but no firm date has been given.
While we wait, we’ll continue posting a weekday note and sending out the Tip Sheet to keep you informed. Stay tuned, and hope for the best.
= Tonight’s Menu =
>> The 2-0 Clippers are in Chicago to take on the surprising 0-3 Bulls, with Chicago papers trumpeting Elton Brand as the missing piece of the puzzle instead of Kobe Bryant! The Bulls are favored by eight at home and with an over-under line of 194, the sharpies have penciled in Chicago 101, Los Angeles, 93.
>> The almost-as-surprising Lakers (2-1) are at home against 3-0 New Orleans at Staples Center. Los Angeles will again be without forward Lamar Odom, who could be back as early as Friday’s game with Minnesota. For tonight, the Lakers are a three-point favorite with an over-under of 207, so the oddsmakers see the final as Los Angeles 105, New Orleans 102.
>> Opening line for USC and California in Berkeley has the Trojans as a 3 1/2-point favorite for Saturday’s evening’s game.
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin: See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
>> Thinking Blue: In case Dodger General Manager Ned Colletti is having any sleepless nights, ESPN analyst and former Mets General Manager Steve Phillips is here to help. He said yesterday that the Dodgers need to acquire third baseman Miguel Cabrera and a center fielder like Torii Hunter to shore up their line-up and defense (moving Juan Pierre to left field) and then trade some prospects for Minnesota’s Johan Santana. Do that, says Phillips, and “the Dodgers will be in the World Series next October.”
Great!. Now we know.
The 24-year-old Cabrera has averaged .327 with 31 home runs and 116 runs batted over the past three years, but has some history of being a problem child. Shouldn’t be a problem for Joe Torre, right? And Cabrera’s $7.4 million salary is sure to go higher in arbitration, but it’s a lot less than $25 million for Alex Rodriguez.
= Panorama =
>> NFL Ticker: Former Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula has his asterisk ready for the New England Patriots, should they finish the season undefeated. He told Gary Myers of the New York Daily News that “The Spygate thing has diminished what they’ve accomplished. You would hate to have [an asterisk] attached to your accomplishments. They’ve got it.” Shula, of course, is protecting the place of his 1972 Miami team which went 14-0 in the regular season and won three playoff games to finish as Super Bowl champions at 17-0.
“I guess you got the same thing as putting an asterisk by Barry Bonds’ home run record,” said Shula. “I guess it will be noted that the Patriots were fined and a no. 1 draft choice was taken away during the year of accomplishment. The sad thing is that Tom Brady looks so good, it doesn’t look like he needs any help.”
>> College Gridiron: How about a discount for moving to a better seat? Impossible?
Not at the University of Miami, where the Hurricane football team will move from the crumbling Orange Bowl to Dolphin Stadium next season. And the price of a 50-yard line season ticket will drop from $825 to $775!
Don’t fret for the Miami Athletic Department yet, however. All of those good seats will require a donation to the athletic fund and the second-level seats – which don’t exist in the Orange Bowl – will run $325 to $420 per season.
And the Miami folks are excited about selling luxury boxes for Hurricanes games at the Dolphins’ facility. “If you’ve been up to our boxes at the O.B., to use the word embarrassing . . .” said Athletic Director Paul Dee, “we’re going from worst to first.”
In the meantime, Miami President Donna Shalala and football coach Randy Shannon have issued a letter asking fans coming to Saturday’s game against Virginia – the last at the Orange Bowl – not to wreck the stadium by coming onto the field after the game. In case fans decide not to cooperate, a force of more than 300 Miami police officers will be on hand to keep the peace.
>> Immigration Station: Even though only 7,500 tickets were allocated to LSU in Alabama’s 85,000-seat Bryant-Denny Stadium lat Saturday, reports are that as many as 33,000 LSU fans descended on Tuscaloosa last weekend and found places to watch the Tigers and Tide in a 41-34 thriller.
Now that’s what you call traveling well . . .
>> Irish Eyes Aren’t Smiling: Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis’s team is 1-8 and his record in three years is 20-14 compared to 21-15 at the same juncture for his predecessor, Tyrone Willingham.
Said Weis this week, “I’ll be judged by what happens when I leave, so let’s see where I am when I walk out the door.” Despite his long-term contract, Weis is listed no. 2 on the CoachesHotSeat.com list of coaches in the most trouble. That’s ahead of Texas A&M’s Dennis Franchione and Nebraska’s Bill Callahan in third and fourth, but behind the coach of the only team Notre Dame beat this year, UCLA’s Karl Dorrell.
>> Dead Man Coaching: Texas newspapers are reporting that a buy-out of the remaining time on Dennis Franchione’s contract is being worked out and speculation on who will succeed him is running wild. Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman suggests Auburn’s Tommy Tuberville and warns against LSU defensive guru Bo Pelini, saying he’s “emotional, but doesn’t like recruiting and isn’t very media-friendly. Let Nebraska make that mistake.”
>> Rings & Things: With all the power of an ant, the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) sent its “Tehran Declaration on Media Coverage of the Olympic Games” to the International Olympic Committee, decrying the IOC’s idea to sell the rights to televise the Games to the highest bidder in each country in the ABU’s territory.
Translation: the IOC should continue to sell the Games to the ABU for a paltry sum so that it can distribute the broadcast to its members, almost all of whom are government-owned and government-supported broadcasters in the Arab states, India, Pakistan and nearby countries. Result: a yawn in Lausanne and some more intensive staff work to see if selling rights to cable and satellite broadcasters for those territories will yield enough money to make it worth bothering about.
~ Rich Perelman
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