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The Daily Digest for Monday, February 25, 2008 |
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February 25, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Anyone know a 12-step program for cell-phone addicts? |
= 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 42-12 Boston Celtics, with the best record in the NBA, come to Staples Center tonight to plat the 15-34 Clippers, who started the season at 4-0. Ex-Trojan Brian Scalabrine is doubtful for Boston and Clipper center Chris Kaman is doubtful and guard Sam Cassell is probable. The Celts are 1-3 so far on their current road trip and even though the Clips have won three of their last four against Boston, the Celtics are favored by nine. With the over-under at 193, the projected final is Boston 101, Los Angeles 92.
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin: See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
>> Laker Lines: From Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Does Kobe Bryant want to leave the best team now? . . .
= Panorama =
>> The National Pastime: If you like turmoil, you’ve got to love the Yankees. The latest, thanks to the Andy Pettitte-related doping issues, according to a column in the New York Daily News:
With the possibility of new revelations out there, and the way any pressure affects Pettitte, the story will be hard for anyone to downplay.
Especially when it’s apparent it has already exposed a rift in the Yankees front office. This is the latest twist. Hank Steinbrenner clearly is agitated about Pettitte withholding information about how deep his involvement was in the steroids scandal. Hankenstein has not been shy about saying he wanted to get Johan Santana.
Every time Pettitte goes to the mound, it was also be a referendum on Brian Cashman’s decision-making. Just another pressure point for Pettitte. And part of a story.
In sum, says the News, “That ain’t going away.”
>> Mission in Miami: With the demise of the Orange Bowl in Miami, the way is clear for a new baseball stadium for the Marlins. It will have a retractable roof and is expected to cost about $525 million. It is projected to open in 2011 with a capacity of 37,000 and 6,000 surrounding parking spaces.
The Marlins have one of the lowest payrolls in baseball at $30 million last year and $23 million expected for this season, but team president David Samson told the Miami Herald that he expects to have an “average payroll” for the 2011 team. That would put the Marlins at about $80 million or so.
Agents are now programming Samson’s number into their speed dialers.
>> NFL Ticker: It’s clear that the NFL Combine has an impact on draft selections and that’s why it’s become such big business. Jarrett Bell of USA Today wrote that the average “guaranteed contract value” for first-round choices was $10.853 million last season, falling to $1.8 million for second-rounders and $662,000 for third-round choices. No wonder college players ditch school for personal trainers to get ready for the Combine; they understand their business a lot better than most students: the Combine is an audition, job interview and competition all rolled into one.
>> College Hoopla: An unbelievable story from Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times:
The first sign that Indiana’s problems aren’t over, but really just beginning, was a startling revelation Saturday night. Armon Bassett, one of the many terrific players on a team in mid-scandal limbo, said he received a text message from an admirer after a tense victory over Northwestern.
“He told me he loved me, he’s happy for me and good win,” Bassett said.
The texter: Kelvin Sampson.
Insert your punchline here about the serial cell-phone monster who can’t help himself, but this is neither humorous nor encouraging for the immediate future of a potential Final Four team. Only a day after he was bought out as a repeat rules offender who shamed a legendary basketball program, Sampson still was associating with his former players via the very technological toys that doomed him.
The Hoosiers got quite a welcome in Evanston on Saturday with the Wildcat students (such as were there) screaming “Where’s your coach?,” “Hoosier Coach?” and “Sampson’s calling.” It was just the first game of the rest of Indiana’s season.
>> NBA Hoopla: There was good news for the NBA from the All-Star Game in New Orleans, where the television ratings in the key 18-49 adult demographic was up 5% and the All-Star Saturday skills contests showed viewership in the same category rise by 13%. In addition, Turner Sports said that 3.2 million people visited the TNT NBA Overtime channel during the Friday-Sunday weekend program.
The other good news about the weekend was that, unlike the melees, shootings and rudeness that washed over last year’s gathering in Las Vegas, very little was heard about police activity in The Big Easy. For commissioner David Stern, that had to be just as important as good ratings.
>> College Gridiron: Times are tough for San Diego State football, which not only suffered through another losing season, but is having plenty of problems off the field.
First, the athletic department is in continual need of university funds to balance its almost $31 million annual budget thanks to pathetic ticket sales for Aztecs football. The San Diego Union-Tribune noted that against a modest projection of $2.25 million in ticket revenue for 2007, the school took in only $1.89 million, which is less than head coach Chuck Long’s first-season salary in 2006!
A proposal to eliminate football got a hearing in a faculty committee, but ultimately died. But now Long, entering the third year of a five-year contract, needs to win to revive the athletic department’s financial fortunes and he’s 7-17 in two years and showing no signs of being able to revive the Aztecs.
“We will balance our budget,” said SDSU athletic director Jeff Schemmel in the Union-Tribune. “We’ll do it by over-realizing in other areas like corporate sponsorship dollars. Fundraising is ahead of where it was a year ago. We’re optimistic there, and we’ll cut on the expense side.”
A balanced budget may be no more achievable in San Diego than it is in Washington.
>> Rings & Things: Columnist Harry Pearson of The Guardian of London is miffed about the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the Opening Ceremony isn’t until August.
Noting that former British middle-distance star Steve Cram had appealed for politics to be kept out of the Games, Pearson wrote “I believe it would actually be far easier to keep sport out of the Beijing Olympics instead.
“Yes, get rid of the grubby and divisive world of small-bore shooting, white-water canoeing and synchronized diving and just focus on ideologies and The Legacy.” However, Pearson admitted it would be hard to do, since “Like rust, or Sharon Osborne, sport has a way of creeping into everything.”
He’s also irritated about rhythmic clapping for events like the triple jump. “I would also like the BOA [British Olympic Association] to make a stand to stop British athletes bringing rhythmic clapping to Beijing. I’m not really sure when the habit of athletes inviting the crowd to clap started, though I’m going to blame 1970s U.S. high jumper Dwight Stone [sic] for it, if only because he looked like one of the Partridge Family and wore spotty shorts.”
Maybe Pearson should stay home during the Games.
>> Cash Count: Remember the outrage from Parliament when the public costs for the 2012 Olympic Games in London were announced to have tripled since the bid books were submitted? Looks like inflation is rapidly becoming an Olympic tradition as the chair of the Russian Audit Chamber, Sergei Stepashin, told a Duma committee that the governmental costs for support of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi have doubled since it selection last July 4!
The Sochi organizers dispute the finding, saying in a statement that “They are not Olympic-related costs as they are long-term projects for the regeneration of the [Krasnodar] region into a year-round resort destination.” There will be a follow-up report within 60 days.
>> Great Firewall of China: Tech columnist Jacqui Cheng, writing on the Ars Technica Web site noted that even though the International Olympic Committee has allowed athletes to write blogs during the Games, getting such items posted may be a problem thanks to the “Great Firewall of China.” Although the IOC may be OK with blogs, “Unfortunately, China's Public Security Bureau doesn't usually take such a liberal view of ‘personal expression.’ Blogs from common hosts, such as Blogspot and WordPress, have been blocked off and on within China for some time now, so Olympic athletes looking to post about their experiences may not even be able to access their sites without some sort of contingency plan. That's not the only place they'll have to compromise, either—other taboo topics include the local police, government, as well as the likes of Falun Gong, Nazi Germany, and Tiananmen Square.”
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
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