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The Daily Digest for Wednesday, March 12, 2008 |
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March 12, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Will he swear on the air? Bet on it! |
= 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.
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= Tonight’s Menu =
>> The 21-41 Clippers are in Orlando tonight to play the 41-24 Magic in what appears to be a mismatch. Former Laker Smush Parker seems to be the leading candidate to replace Sam Cassell as the Los Angeles point guard; Clippers centers Chris Kaman and Aaron Williams are both questionable for tonight. Nevertheless, the Clips are 6-3 in their last nine against the Magic, but have won only two of their last 10 overall. The Magic is on a 7-2 surge and is favored tonight by 14 1/2 points. With an over-under of 204, that means the home team is supposed to win by a 109-95 final.
>> On the ice, the 35-24-10 Vancouver Canucks are in Anaheim to take on the 39-25-8 Ducks at the Honda Center. Vancouver has three straight wins against the Quack Attack and is on a three-game winning streak. Anaheim has lost three of its last four, but the sharpies have Anaheim as tonight’s favorite. It takes $125 to try to win $100 on the Ducks, but a $100 wager on the visitors could return $120.
>> At Staples Center tonight, the first round of the Pac-10 Tournament will take place with 8th-seeded California (15-14) playing 9th-seeded Washington (16-15) and 7th-seed Arizona (18-13) taking on winless Oregon State (6-24) in the nightcap. Even with star forward Jon Brockman doubtful, Washington is only a two-point underdog to Cal with an over-under of 152. The Huskies are 6-3 in their last nine against the Bears and Cal has lost five in a row, but the sharpies see the final as Bears 77, Huskies 75.
Arizona is an 18-point choice to strangle Oregon State and put the Beavers out of their misery this season with an 0-19 record in conference games and 21 losses to end the season. The Wildcats are favored by 18 and with the over-under at 130, Arizona is supposed to win, 74-56.
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin:
See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
>> Talk of Troy:
In what might be the start of a Mike Williams rerun, former USC star receiver Dwayne Jarrett was arrested Tuesday morning in Charlotte, North Carolina and charged with “driving while impaired.” A Carolina Panthers spokesman said the behavior was “unacceptable” and was still gathering information about the arrest. Jarrett caught only six passes for 73 yards during his rookie season with Carolina after being a second-round draft choice.
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> Kansas City, Mo.: The Royals are looking for ways to increase attendance and increasing waistlines seems to be an answer. The club is expanding its all-you-can-eat section to 500 seats for all home games this season. All the hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn and soft drinks you can inhale are yours for $45 per game, or as low as $30 for group seating. “The popularity of this program exceeded expectations last season, which is why are excited to bring it back for 80 home games in 2008,” said Mark Tilson, the club’s vice president of sales, in a statement. The all-you-can-eat seats are on the club level down the right field line at Royals Stadium.
>> Tampa, Fl.: Will Billy Crystal even make contact as a member of the Yankees in their exhibition game with Pittsburgh tomorrow? On Bodoglife.com, the money line says it takes $500 to try to win $100 on “no” but a $100 bet on “yes” could return $200. Remember, foul balls count for contact. Odds on whether he will get a hit in the same are longer: you have to put up $1,500 to try to win $100 on “no,” but $100 on “yes” could return $500!.
>> Seattle, Wa.: Writing from afar, Bob Matthews of the Rochester [N.Y.] Democrat & Chronicle suggests that “The Seattle Mariners are one team that would benefit from signing [Barry] Bonds as full-time designated hitter. He could be the difference in what figures to be a two-team race in the AL West.”
College Hoopla:
>> Milwaukee, Wi.: ESPN’s Joe Lunardi keeps track of who’s supposed to and not supposed to make it into the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and he now has a “vegetarians” list of which teams pile up wins by “grazing” on weak teams! Lunardi’s definition of a weak team is one with an RPI of 150 or lower, essentially in the lower half of Division I basketball. His top “vegetarians” are Stephen F. Austin and Oral Roberts, both 17-2 against such teams, but also on the list are BYU (17-0), Georgetown (12-0), Notre Dame (13-0), Purdue (12-2) and Wisconsin (13-0).
>> Philadelphia, Pa.: The hand-wringing has gotten heavier in the aftermath of San Diego’s upset of Gonzaga to win the West Coast Conference tournament, leaving one less spot for a team on the “bubble.” Writes John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News, “the probable domino effect of the Toreros beating second-seeded St. Mary’s and then top-seeded Gonzaga – the WCC likely goes from getting two teams into the Big Dance to getting three.
“That means there is one fewer at-large bid available for a mediocre team from a so-called power conference like the Atlantic Coast, Big East, Big Ten or Southeastern to whine about deserving.”
>> New York, NY: CBS’s network ad sales for the NCAA tournament has reached the 95% mark according to MediaWeek.com. All told, the network is expected to collect about $450 million in ad revenue, a 12% increase from last season, quite an achievement in a soft economy. A spot during the championship game on April 7 is priced at $1.4 million.
Worth noting in USA Today: “The tournament’s online evolution shows how you can make a lot more money when you quit charging people. Through online ads sold separately from its TV ads, CBS expects its online tournament revenue to reach $21 million – a nice jump from making $250,000 from its online tournament subscribers when it was charging users only three years ago.” CBS had 1.38 million users of its online service a year ago, but expects a 50% increase this year. All tournament games other than the play-in game will be available online and free to users.
>> Bristol, Ct.: Odds are out on Bodoglife.com on whether new ESPN commentator Bob Knight will swear on the air during an NCAA Tournament-related show: you have to put up $1,200 to try to win $100 if you say “no,” but a $100 wager could return $600 if you say “yes.”
>> Bristol. Ct.: The North Carolina at Duke game in Durham on March 8 set an ESPN record for the biggest audience ever for a college basketball game with a 4.0 rating and 5.6 million viewers. This season, ESPN averaged a 1.0 for its college games, up 11% over the 0.9 from last season.
NBA Hoopla:
>> East Rutherford, NJ: Jason Kidd is in Dallas now, but given his success with the Nets – six straight playoff berths and two NBA Finals appearances – he wondered aloud Monday night what might have been if he had been playing in New York instead of New Jersey.
“We were on the wrong side of the Hudson,”he said, after the Mavericks stomped on the Knicks, 108-79, in Dallas. “We were on the right side. If we were on the left side, I think things would have been funner. There would’ve been a lot more attention.
“There’s so much history there. So many things accomplished by past Knicks. Just the history alone can make you go out there and play hard.”
Marc Berman of the New York Post used that opening to take a shot at the current 18-46 Knicks: “And that is why the current Knick edition – Team Titanic II – is a filthy disgrace. The Knicks, after getting blown out wire to wire by the Mavericks, are 28 games below .500 with a chance to become the first Knick team ever to lose 60 games.”
College Gridiron:
>> Gainesville, Fl.: If you’re possibly the hottest coach in college football, money is no object. Florida coach Urban Meyer’s contract, obtained by the Florida Today Web site, includes a base salary of $245,863 from the school, but another $1.723 million from the Florida Athletic Association booster group and a long list of perks and bonuses:
A $100,000 “investment” which rises to $150,000 from 2009-12;
A $100,000 education cost benefit for his family;
A $200,000 payment for seven appearances at alumni group meetings;
A $200,000 payment from the school’s apparel contract;
A $60,000 expense account, plus automobiles for he and his wife;
12 tickets to all Florida games with the option to buy 40 more;
Bonuses up to $250,000 for winning the national championship;
Retention bonuses of $250,000 for 2008, $500,000 for 2009 and $750,000 for 2012.
In the meantime, Florida took in $58.9 million in football revenue alone in 2006 and spent $20.7 – including all the money it paid to Meyer – and still showed a profit of $38.2 million, which was more than the expenses for all other Gator sports combined!
Rings & Things:
>> Beijing, China: Actor George Clooney is the latest to chime in on China, the Olympics and Darfur. He told the New York Daily News that he’s putting pressure on Omega, the Swiss watch maker and an Olympic supplier, to pressure on China about the situation in Sudan. What’s Omega supposed to do? Come out with a watch that shows images of people being murdered in Darfur? Clooney has an endorsement deal with Omega.
~ Rich Perelman
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