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The Daily Digest for Tuesday, March 11, 2008 |
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March 11, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Came out ahead in 1-on-1 battle with Pat Summit! |
= To Our Readers =
Welcome to a new style for The Sports Examiner!
In addition to posting our regular daily column of news, observations and commentary, we will be sending out a .pdf-format newsletter – with bonus features – with the daily Tip Sheet that can be printed out to take with you or forwarded to your laptop to read later.
We hope you’ll enjoy it and we’re delighted to welcome Al Brooks Tickets as our initial sponsor. We hope to add more as we go; their support and that of others will help keep this site alive. Thanks once again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= Tonight’s Menu =
>> The 34-28 Toronto Raptors are in Los Angeles tonight to face the 44-19 Lakers, now tied with San Antonio for first place in the Western Conference. The Lakers have won eight of their last ten against the Raptors and Toronto has lost four of its last six overall. Los Angeles is a 12 1/2-point choice with an over-under of 212, so the projected final is Lakers 112, Raptors 100.
>> In Arizona, the surging Anaheim Ducks of Anaheim – 7-2 in their last nine – will play the 34-30-5 Coyotes at the Jobring.com arena in Glendale. The Ducks are 39-25-7 overall and 16-17-3 on the road, but the Coyotes are an even worse 14-17-3 at home! Anaheim’s Corey Perry, the team’s second leading scorer, is out indefinitely and Phoenix has three straight wins over the defending Stanley Cup champions. Still, the Ducks are favored: it takes $115 to try to win $100 on Anaheim, but $100 on the home team could return $125!.
= L.A. Stories =
What’s Bruin:
>> See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
Talk of Troy:
>> Can’t get enough of USC’s Pete Carroll? Now you can wear Pete Carroll T-shirts, polo shirts and sweat shirts that say “Rips It” and “Win Forever” from the PeteCarroll.com web site. Prices range from $19.99 for a T-shirt to $39.99 for a “Win Forever” hooded sweatshirt. The site says that proceeds will go to A Better L.A., a non-profit group working to reduce violence in South Los Angeles. The apparel could help that organization considerably if the Trojans keep winning, but what if they go on probation? Will the shirts say “win soon”?
>> As has been long surmised, the Los Angeles Daily News noted that Trojan coach Tim Floyd has been contacted by LSU for its open head basketball coaching position. Floyd is from Louisiana and coached the New Orleans Hornets of the NBA, but has said he wants to stay at USC. If he left, the Trojans might not be in such bad shape, however. Former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery has been whispered as a possible successor to Floyd.
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> Tampa, Fl.: Comedian Billy Crystal turns 60 on Friday and the Yankees announced that he was signed to a contract yesterday and will actually don the Yankees uniform during workouts today and play in Thursday’s spring training game against Pittsburgh. The New York Post’s Kevin Kernan was not impressed:
Isn’t this the kind of stunt the Rays or the Padres pull? I was there the night they handed out the press release that Rosanne Barr was going to sing the National Anthem. That didn’t go over so well if you remember Miss Barr’s antics, but she was Padres owner Tom Werner’s meal ticket and he let her on the field. But at least he didn’t let her play. Country singer Garth Brooks has been down this road before, playing in the spring with the Padres and the Mets and raising money for his charity.
Crystal was a fair player back in high school on Long Island, hitting .348 his senior season and Yankees manager Joe Girardi said “It’s ownership and our way of rewarding him, saying thanks for everything you’ve done.”
The biggest difference for Crystal will be that for once, he won’t be the biggest star on the stage when the first pitch is thrown on Thursday.
>> Medford, NJ: Former Phillies star reliever Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams lived up to his name in a Catholic Youth Organization basketball game on Saturday, screaming obscenities at a female referee during a game between St. Mary of the Lakes and Our Lady of Good Counsel. Williams’ daughter, a fifth-grader, plays for St. Mary and Williams yelled about the lack of fouls called. Dan Gross of the Philadelphia Daily News reported that the group which assigns officials will be on the look-out for Williams next season. Ron Martin told Gross that if Williams “is going to appear at any games next year, we will not officiate them. If he enters the gym in the middle of a game, we will stop officiating.”
Who else should be concerned about this? How about the two radio stations on which Williams appears, as a guest on 610 WIP-AM and The Big Talker 1210 AM, for which he will be hosting a Phillies’ pre-game show this season. Good thing there's the seven-second delay!
College Hoopla:
>> Chicago, Il.: The annual estimate of productivity loss during the NCAA men’s basketball tournament was issued by the interestingly-named Challenger, Gray & Christmas placement firm on Monday. This year’s estimate is that $1.7 billion worth of time will be spent on office pools by 37.3 million workers and on desktop viewing of daytime tournament games by 1.5 million workers. The Council on Competitive Gambling of New Jersey estimates that $750 million will be wagered in office pools alone.
The $1.7 billion estimate is based on average hourly wages nationwide and makes a lot of guesses about time spent on pools. But the real costs associated with the tournament are not included: a change in attitude and judgement if “your team” loses. Recent studies have noted changes in emotion when a person’s favorite team loses and when decisions are made in such an altered state, they’re not likely to be sober. That’s the real cost of the tournament, not the minutes spent picking a 7-10 game in the first round.
>> Knoxville, Tn.: A raccoon almost cost the University of Tennessee its legendary coach Pat Summitt for the NCAA Tournament.
Summitt dislocated her shoulder while chasing a raccoon off her back porch last Wednesday. “I momentarily lost it,” she told WBIR television. “The raccoon was about to attack. I just knocked it off the deck, and fortunately nothing happened but a dislocated shoulder and it’s back in place.” Summitt coached the Vols at the SEC Tournament and showed no signs of injury.
NFL Extra Points:
>> Dallas, Tx.: Great column today by Jean-Jacques Taylor in the Dallas Morning News:
Memo to Jerry Jones: Don’t even think about acquiring Pacman Jones.
Not today. Not next month. Not ever.
He ain’t worth it.
You can’t trust him. How could you? We have 44 strip clubs in Dallas. Another 14 in Fort Worth. And eight more in Arlington.
Jones, of course, got in trouble because of an altercation outside a Las Vegas strip club during the NBA’s out-of-control All-Star Weekend in Nevada last year which ended with shots being fired. If Taylor gets his way, Dallas might be the first team ever to skip signing a player because of the number of adult entertainment establishments in town. Taylor closes: “He’s proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s a knucklehead. All he can bring the Cowboys is embarrassment.”
Kicker:
>> Cali, Colombia: A riot among supporters of the America de Cali soccer club that resulted in 83 injuries and more than 20 people stabbed may have started because a man was jealous of his girlfriend flirting with another man!
“This is one of the theories,” said Cali secretary of sport Diego Cardona, in comments to the Associated Press. “But when you have so many people drunk, drugged up and looking for a fight, sometimes it’s hard to find out what really started it.”
Fighting broke out in the 65th minute of the match between America and Deportivo de Cali, expanded beyond the stand, onto the field and then into the streets surrounding the Pascual Guerrero Stadium. America will have to play its next three home matches in an empty stadium because of the fan behavior.
The fight started in the notorious southern stand, which has a ticket price of just $2.50 instead of $25 for most of the rest of the seats. Perhaps a price increase is in order? Or should fans be searched in Cali for homemade knives and explosives before they enter the stadium?
Rassle Maniacs:
>> Stamford, Ct.: The weigh-in for the Floyd Mayweather-Big Show bout at the upcoming Wrestlemania XXIV extravaganza at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida on March 30 took place last night and was literally over the top.
Welterweight champ Mayweather, who stands 5-8, weighed in at 159 pounds while the 7-2 Big Show countered at 441 pounds and then threw Mayweather over the top rope and into a gaggle of wrestlers surrounding the ring during the “Monday Night Raw” show. And that’s not even the main event; a Triple-Threat match between John Cena, Randy Orton and Triple H for the WWE title is at the top of the card. The WWE is anticipating about 1,000,000 pay-per-view buys for the event at $50 apiece.
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
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