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The Daily Digest for Thursday, February 21, 2008 |
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February 21, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Item: IOC picks Singapore as host of 1st Youth Olympic Games! |
= To Our Readers =
We signed an agreement last August to place a daily audio show on a new Internet site to be called TheGoodSportsNetwork.tv. It was supposed to launch September 4, then September 24, but the site is still not live. Maybe some day it will launch, but we’re not optimistic.
We are delighted to say that our readership has never been stronger and our Web statistics program shows that TheSportsExaminer.com had more than 1,000,000 page views in December. Since you seem to like what we’re doing, we’ll continue for now, posting a weekday note and sending out the Tip Sheet to keep you informed. Thanks so much for your support.
= Tonight’s Menu =
>> The 25-34-3 Kings at home tonight to the 28-22-9 St. Louis Blues, who have enjoyed five straight wins over Los Angeles. St. Louis has a lot to play for as they’re just three points from a playoff berth; the Blues haven’t been in the playoffs since the 2003-04 season. On the money line, it takes $125 to try to win $100 on the visitors, but $110 on the Kings could return the same $100.
>> At the Galen Center, a thin USC squad (15-9) is a 4 1/2-point choice over 15-10 Oregon tonight. The Trojans are 6-5 in the Pac-10, but Oregon is only 4-6 and could really use a win to help their NCAA Tournament chances. The over-under is set at 140, so the projected final is USC 72, Ducks 68.
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin: See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
= Panorama =
>> The National Pastime: There’s no way we could make this up; it appeared in Newsday today:
“Mets reliever Ambiorix Burgos had a bag containing $270,000 worth of jewelry stolen from his room at the team hotel on Tuesday only to have it returned later that day by someone who dropped it off at the front desk. According to the Palm Beach Post, the bag contained rings, bracekets, chains and watches.”
Question: what is a third-year reliever from the Dominican Republic making $415,000 a year doing with a bag of jewelry worth $270,000? And why did he bring it to spring training?
>> College Hoopla: The eternal battle between North Carolina and Duke got even a little more heated this week with a shot at the Tar Heels by Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski on a radio show.
According to the Raleigh News-Observer, Krzyzewski told WRBZ-850 after his team’s 86-73 loss at Wake Forest last Sunday that 6-2 freshman guard Nolan Smith had been playing with a knee injury and said “[He] has been dealing with that since – and unlike other schools we don’t release our injuries – so I thought he played a strong game tonight.”
Carolina coach Roy Williams got exercised about the comments on his own radio show on Monday night and in comments on Tuesday. “I don’t give a crap about what somebody else says,” he said, adding that Krzyzewski should “coach his own damn team.” The two teams meet again on March 8.
>> College Coaching Carousel: The New York Daily News suggested today that the most likely outcome of the Kelvin Sampson violations fiasco at Indiana will be:
(1) Sampson will be suspended pending an appeal and eventually dismissed. He can pursue the school in a wrongful termination suit, but he won’t get his job back.
(2) Assistant Dan Dakich will take over as interim coach of a 22-4 team that’s a lock to make the NCAA Tournament absent sanctions which would eliminate the Hoosiers.
(3) Indiana’s search for a coach could turn to Washington State’s Tony Bennett, whose father was coach at Wisconsin.
Wrote reporter David Weiss: “This Indiana team could be special in March with 6-9 senior D.J. White – the likely Big Ten Player of the Year – and guard Eric Gordon, who might be the best freshman in the country. But unfortunately, it could be remembered as a team that was assembled by a coach who did not think it will necessary to follow the rules.
>> NBA Hoopla: In case you missed this from the New York Post:
Isiah Thomas should trade the whole damn roster at today’s 3 p.m. deadline, including himself, after the Knicks nauseated all of New York last night in hitting a new low.
. . .
Thomas’ jokers fell behind by a shocking 36 points at halftime to the mediocre Sixers and lost by 40 points, 124-84, in a rock-bottom, sickening showing at Wachovia Center that on its own should warrant his dismissal today at 3:01 p.m.
The headline to the story was “Pathetic.” Reporter Marc Berman noted that with the trade deadline today, “The trade values of [Eddy] Curry and [Zach] Randolph have fallen so sharply it would seem difficult to make a major trade involving them that makes sense. You couldn’t trade Curry today for a dozen chocolate-frosted donuts.”
>> NFL Ticker: Considering how hard Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector (R) is grilling the NFL about the “Spygate” scandal, it’s hardly a surprise that Commissioner Roger Goodell gave in on the issue of churches and other religious organizations showing the Super Bowl on large-screen televisions. Goodell sent a letter to Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R) stating that as long as no admission is charged, religious organizations are free to show the game. The league’s policy had been that public showing of the game – shown on over-the-air television – on screens larger than 55 inches violated the NFL’s copyright.
>> Rings & Things: The International Olympic Committee issued regulations about what athletes may post on blogs which they write for their own web site or for others. “It is required that, when accredited persons at the Games post any Olympic content, it be confined solely to their own personal Olympic-related experience.”
It’s a bow to the reality of the times, where in past years, athletes have been banned from doing any kind of “reporting.” The IOC still has a rule on its books that athletes may not also serve as reporters during the Games, so it recognizes blogs as a “legitimate form of personal expression and not a form of journalism.” This will come as a surprise to the hundreds or even thousands of blogs which will be written from Beijing by people who are professional journalists!
And, of course, the IOC wants to be sure that none of its commercial rights are infringed, so no pictures or video of competitions can be posted and “Blogs should be dignified and in good taste.” Let’s see how the IOC enforces that last edict.
>> Young Rings: The IOC announced that the first Youth Olympic Games will be staged in Singapore in 2010. The Asian city-state beat out Moscow, Russia in a postal vote of IOC members by a 53-44 count.
The Youth Olympic Games are designed to encourage young people to participate in sports and promote an active lifestyle. Does yawning count? How does a total of 3,200 athletes aged 14-18 competing in 26 sports get people excited? And while the IOC will foot a part of the bill, Singapore will spend an expected $75 million to put on the event.
Wouldn’t it have been better to have continental competitions or even regional youth games to try and make some localized impact, with just the winners going on to a much smaller final event? Of course, that idea was rejected.
>> Kung Pao Rings: One of the more intelligent commentaries we have seen on China and the 2008 Olympic Games was carried today by The Scotsman. It reads, towards the end:
[I]t’s perhaps to our credit that, hypocrites though we may be, our ambivalent attitude to China does leave us feeling rather uncomfortable. Of course, our tolerance of the Chinese regime, and even our complicity with it, are defensible. Talking and trading are better than fighting, and the hope that economic development and the spread of prosperity will eventually lead to a liberalisation of the regime is not necessarily vain, though one has to add there is precious little sign of a relaxation of political control or the emergence of even a fledgling democracy in the 20 years since the massacre in Tiananmen Square, no sign that the offering of a carrot is producing happy results.
But what else can we do? We can’t return China to isolation. We can’t bully China. The most we can attempt is to apply gentle pressure for reform and respect for human rights. It’s not what we might like, but that’s the reality of it.
All the same, it would be agreeable if, far from being a triumph, the Olympics proved just a bit of an embarrassment. Alas, this is unlikely. Even [Steven] Spielberg’s absence from the opening and closing ceremonies won’t prevent these Games from being the best choreographed since Berlin in 1936 – and one can’t see any equivalent of Jesse Owens to embarrass or anger the hosts.
If we remember our history, no one saw Owens making the impact that he did in 1936 prior to the Games. And how much warning was there for the opening of the Berlin Wall or the democratic takeover of Romania? Just asking.
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
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