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The Daily Digest for Wednesday, February 27, 2008 |
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February 27, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Yao: Out now, but back by Beijing? |
= 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 29-28 TrailBlazers are in Los Angeles today to play the 19-35 Clippers at Staples Center tonight. Portland’s Brandon Roy is out indefinitely with an ankle injury and Chris Kaman is doubtful and Sam Cassell is questionable for the Clippers, but Los Angeles has won seven of its last eight against the Blazers and Portland has lost seven of its last eight overall. So the Clips are a 2 1/2-point choice tonight, with an over-under of 182, meaning the sharpies have penciled in a 92-90 win for the home team.
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin: See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
>> 49er Find: Evan Longoria isn’t even a distant relation to the famed actress of “Desperate Housewives” fame. Instead, the former Long Beach State star is making a name for himself in the Tampa Bay Rays organization and could make the major league club this spring. SI.com’s Ben Reiter noted that over 171 games last season in Double-A, Triple-A, the Arizona Fall League and the IBF World Cup as a member of the U.S. team, he had 33 home runs, 115 runs batted in and 42 doubles.
One indication that the no. 3 pick in the June 2006 draft might be staying with Tampa Bay is the move of third baseman Akinori Iwamura to second base. Longoria plays third.
>> Talk of Troy: Former USC quarterback (1982-85) Sean Salisbury has moved on from ESPN after 12 seasons of speaking his mind, no matter what was on it. According to a note in Teddy Greenstein’s weekly media column in the Chicago Tribune, “Insiders say Salisbury’s contract was up and some at the network found his on-air style grating and were troubled by off-air issues.” Salisbury was suspended in 2006 for sending “inappropriate” pictures from his mobile phone. Now, he’s free to find another venue for the brash “brand” he’s created; maybe Howard Stern?
= Panorama =
>> The National Pastime: “Colon in shape? Fat chance” read the headline in the Boston Globe about Bartolo Colon, the former Angels’ star pitcher, who agreed to a minor-league contract with Boston. Gordon Edes noted that “Colon, who has always pitched big, could not conceal under his red warm-up that his girth has reached, and perhaps eclipsed, Guapo-like dimensions.” However, he threw the ball well but pitching coach John Farrell – who played with Colon in Cleveland, said “We’ve got some work to get him right. I don’t know the exact number of pounds to be lost here. I think there is some self-acknowledgment on his part that he’s overweight at this time and we have to arrive at a playing weight he’s accustomed to.”
>> NFL Ticker: “Yoi and double Yoi!” and the breathless question, “What’s goin’ on down there?” were phrases heard for years on the Jim Healy Show in Los Angeles. It was one of Pittsburgh radio broadcaster Myron Cope’s signature lines in a career which ran from 1970-2004. Cope passed away Wednesday morning in Pittsburgh at age 79.
Inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 2005, Cope was as much as part of Steeler football as cold weather. His first broadcast was the same game in which quarterback Terry Bradshaw debuted as a rookie with the Steelers and Cope created a team signature, “The Terrible Towel.” Cope was a freelance sports writer for two decades, then was hired on a whim to join the Steeler broadcast crew. During 35 years as a broadcaster, he worked with only two play-by-play announcers – Jack Fleming and Bill Hillgrove – and two Steeler coaches, Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher.
>> NBA Hoopla: “The Rockets’ season, for all intents and purposes, is effectively over.”
That’s the judgement of Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, who wrote “The Rockets have little shot of making the postseason without Yao [Ming]” and “the Rockets have no suitable replacement, unless you think 67-year-old Dikembe Mutombo is ready to log significant minutes.”
Houston currently stands seventh in the Western Conference, just 3 1/2 games ahead of ninth-place Denver, despite a glossy 37-20 record. Mannix notes “Houston’s competition won’t be feeling sorry for them. The cheers could be heard from Denver to Oakland, as the Nuggets and Warriors stand to benefit most from Houston’s misfortune. While the Rockets have a favorable schedule in the second half (nine games against sub-.500 teams), a three-or four-game skid could catapult them into the draft lottery.”
Also cheering, but for different reasons, is the Chinese Olympic Committee, which is concerned that Yao could miss the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing in August. However, his recovery from the stress fracture in his left foot is projected at about four months, leaving the hope that he could be walking in the Opening Ceremony on August 8.
>> NBA Losers: Here’s a headline to remember from the New York Daily News:
“Isiah Thomas and Michael Jordan’s losing ways are unrivaled.”
The story by Mitch Lawrence continues, “When Thomas’ Knicks host Jordan’s Bobcats on Wednesday night at the Garden, they will be freezing out winning basketball and putting on a case study of how two of the game’s biggest winners have flopped while trying to build successful teams.”
The Knicks are 17-39 and the Bobcats are 19-37; both might be better if their two legendary executives were still playing for them.
>> NBA Losers II: Miami Heat coach Pat Riley, whose team is now 10-44, still believes he can create a winner again. “I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony,” he told reporters. “I know what to do. I just don’t know where to start.” Now, does that inspire confidence or what?
>> College Hoopla: “A PR nightmare.”
That’s not exactly how you would expect Michigan State coach Tom Izzo to characterize the Big Ten Network, which is paying his school and the ten others in the league $6.1 million this season.
But he told reporters yesterday that “I think it has hurt all of us” and “I make more calls than I ever have this year to people who write me, really upset about it.” The network is available in 30 million homes, but Comcast, Time Warner and Charter Communications do not have it and hence the upset fans. Michigan State, in particular, has been hit hard as eight of its 14 conference games played so far have been on the Big Ten Network . . . and nowhere else.
“We have so many things right now that we’re trying to fight,” he said. “The price of tickets, the economy of our state . . . and then we throw this at them.”
>> More Hooping-It-Up: The ESPN telecast of the Memphis-Tennessee game last Saturday evening earned a 3.8 television rating, ESPN’s highest for a men’s college basketball game since the 3.9 for the Duke-Kentucky game of December 22, 1998.
>> Noise Pollution: “They told me to guarantee she won’t grunt or she can’t play,” said Duncan Edwards of his nine-year-old daughter, Lauryn Edwards, who apparently make a lot more noise with her mouth than her racket.
Wire service reports said that the young Edwards was told by officials at the Mt. Carmel Tennis Club in Sunbury, Australia to be quieter on the court after an opposing player complained about her grunting when she hits the ball. Officials from the club said they haven’t banned her, but no one is stepping up to play her, either. “When I don’t do it, I don’t play my best tennis,” she told the Melbourne Herald Sun. Apparently, when she does do it, no one else can play their best.
>> Who’s the dope? The new head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) told reporters in Lausanne, Switzerland, that “By the Olympic Games, there will be a capacity to detect HGH.”
Australian John Fahey said that a test for human growth hormone will not only be given in Beijing, but that samples will be frozen and stored for up to eight years, allowing retroactive tests as science and technology improves. Although HGH leaves the body quickly, Fahey said the new test would be able detect use of the drug for more than the prior 48 hours but wouldn’t say how much more. That’s what someone using HGH would want to know.
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
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