|
|
|
The Daily Digest: Wednesday, April 2, 2008 |
|
April 02, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Coward! |
= To Our Readers =
In addition to posting our regular daily column of news, observations and commentary, we now distribute The Sports Examiner DAILY, 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’re delighted to welcome Al Brooks Tickets as our initial sponsor; their support and that of others will help keep this site alive. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= Tonight’s Menu =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The 38-36 Portland Trailblazers, who are out of the Western Conference playoff picture – but would be tied for the fifth seed in the East – are in Los Angeles tonight to take on the 50-24 Lakers. Pau Gasol is likely to play tonight and the Lakers could use him: with Gasol in the line-up, they were 15-4; without him, 5-4. Portland’s leading scorer, Brandon Roy (19.3 ppg) is out with a groin strain, but the Blazers are 6-4 against the Lakers in their last 10 meetings. Even so, the home team is favored by 13 1/2 points, with an over-under of 205. Translation: Lakers 109, Blazers, 96.
>> Seattle, Wa.: The 22-52 Clippers will be without Elton Brand and Chris Kaman tonight in Seattle when they take on the 17-57 SuperSonics in a battle of clubs which are a combined 2-20 in their last 22 games. In addition, Los Angeles may not have the services of guard Cuttino Mobley or forward Tim Thomas, who are listed as day-to-day. Chris Wilcox is out for Seattle, which is 4-3 in its last seven against the Clips, but is favored tonight by five. With an over-under of 203, the sharpies have penciled in a final of Seattle 104, Clippers 99.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The 2-0 Dodgers have Chad Billingsley throwing at the 0-2 Giants tonight at Dodger Stadium, with the visitors pitching wunderkind Tim Lincecum, who is the same age as Billingsley: 23. The hedge-clippers say you have to put up $155 to try to win $100 on the Dodgers, but $100 on the visitors could return $145.
>> Minneapolis, Mn.: Joe Saunders will go for the 1-1 Angels tonight in the Metrodome against Nick Blackburn of 1-1 Minnesota; the latter had a 2007 record of 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA compared to Saunders’ 8-5 and 4.44. So the Halos are favored again; it takes $125 to try to win $100 on the visitors, but $100 on the Twins could return $115.
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin:
See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
>> Talk of Troy:
The latest projections of the NFL Draft later this month from Scouts, Inc.’s Todd McShay show two Trojans going in the first round: defensive lineman Sedrick Ellis to Cincinnati at no. 9 and linebacker Keith Rivers to New Orleans at no. 10. Offensive tackle Sam Baker is now in round two, going to Kansas City at no. 36, followed by tight end Fred Davis at no. 47 to Cincinnati, defensive end Lawrence Jackson to Minnesota at no. 48 and guard Chilo Rachal to Atlanta at no. 49.
The top two picks overall appear to be either tackle Jake Long of Michigan or defensive end Chris Long of Virginia to Miami or St. Louis.
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> Chicago, Il.: The widow of famed baseball broadcaster Haray Caray said she is “sick and disgusted” over an AT&T commercial which pictures comedian John Caponera impersonating Caray.
Dutchie Caray told television station WGN that she hadn’t seen the spots until just recently after returning to Chicago. AT&T pulled the ad, but you have to think their executives are shaking their heads on this one.
The company released a statement that read in part, “The Caray estate approved these ads and we initially believed that Dutchie Caray was part of that process. We learned that wasn't the case and have reached out to Mrs. Caray to apologize for any misunderstanding.” Moreover, Caponera had been impersonating Caray since 1982 and had even done the bit sitting next to the Hall of Fame broadcaster in an interview show in the 1980s.
AT&T showed considerable sensitivity in pulling the ad and swallowing the production costs. There will come a time in the not-too-distant future when the Caray Estate would be very happy to approve another commercial, but will anyone come calling?
College Hoopla:
>> New York, NY: Watching the NCAA Tournament in bars and restaurants is fairly widespread, but no one knew just how many people were watching until this week. It turns out a lot of people had the tournament on their minds at lunch and after work.
Nielsen Media Research released viewership information yesterday that showed total ratings for one unidentified first-round game last month were 23% more than the in-home-only rating of 2.96 or about 3.64. And the impact was even higher among the advertiser-coveted group of men aged 18-34.
That’s good for the NCAA and especially good for not only CBS, but also all sports-oriented broadcasters, which have long noted that in-home ratings only cover a portion of their audiences. Ad sales directors are already updating their rate cards for the fall football season.
>> Bloomington, In.: Indiana needed a squeaky-clean coach to follow the tumult of the Bob Knight, Mike Davis and Kelvin Sampson years and they got one in Marquette’s Tom Crean. But at what cost?
Crean – who took Marquette with Dwyane Wade to the Final Four in 2003 by defeating Ben Howland’s Pittsburgh club in the Elite Eight – compiled a 190-96 record at Marquette in nine years and is under contract there through the 2016-17 season. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that “Crean was making $1.65 million per year in salary through June 2005, but his total compensation package undoubtedly made him one of college basketball's highest-paid coaches.
“It's likely either Crean or Indiana will owe [Marquette] a contract buyout. Who will pay it and how much it would be is unclear.” What is clear: contracts with coaches aren’t worth the paper they’re written unless a school or team is willing to go to court to enforce them. On behalf of lawyers everywhere, we’re West Virginia fans!
A little irony: Crean will sign an eight-year contract with Indiana, which is one year less than he had remaining on his Marquette agreement!
>> Tucson, Az.: Remember when Kevin O’Neill was brought in by Arizona coach Lute Olson to tighten up the Wildcats’ defense and eventually succeed Olson? About 11 months ago?
“He won’t be on the staff,” said the 73-year-old Olson yesterday at a news conference. The divorce is now final after O’Neill was in charge for a 19-15 season that saw Arizona finish seventh in the Pac-10 and have to beat winless Oregon State to play into the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 Tournament. In the meantime, O’Neill has a two-year contract with Arizona that pays him $375,000 per year and still has one year to go, so he’ll have some time to look for a new job if Arizona doesn’t assign him to other duties in the athletic department or, more likely, negotiate a buy-out.
NBA Hoopla:
>> Chicago, Il.: How stupid can you be?
The Boston Globe reported that mascot Bennie the Bull hit Boston Celtics players Kevin Garnett and James Posey in the back with rolled-up T-shirts from a T-shirt gun in the fourth quarter of Boston’s 106-92 win over the Bulls at the United Center last night.
“We exchanged words,” said Garnett and Posey said “I felt threatened. They already don’t like me here.” Reporter Marc Spears noted that Bennie the Bull “was not available for comment.” Can the league send him to the stockyards?
Kicker:
>> Mexico City, Mexico: “If you thought this was difficult, can you imagine Mexico not being in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup?”
So said Justin Compean, head of the Mexican soccer federation on Monday in announcing the firing of Hugo Sanchez, one of Mexico’s best-ever players but not much of a coach. Mexico didn’t quality its under-23 team for the Olympic Tournament in Beijing and the national team was only two wins in its last seven games, along with three ties. It didn’t help that since Sanchez was hired in November 2006, the U.S. is 2-0-1 against Mexico, including a win in the CONCACAF Gold Cup last year.
“We want winners and leaders, we cannot accept another failure,” said Compean. The heat on Sanchez’s successor – possibly youth coach Jesus Ramirez or fabled Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari – will be a national matter in Mexico. That’s pressure.
Rings & Things:
>> Colorado Springs, Co.: “This is a home run for the community,” said U.S. Olympic Committee chair Peter Ueberroth, describing the $53 million deal that will keep the USOC in Colorado Springs for at least 15 years if not much longer.
A downtown building now being renovated will serve as the USOC’s headquarters and 158 new housing units and a refurbished visitor’s center will be added to the existing Olympic Training Center. Colorado Springs will get to use the Olympic rings and market itself as the U.S. Olympic headquarters city.
The question is whether the USOC got a good deal. No one is saying what Chicago – the other finalist in the Olympic Committee’s location derby – offered, but it’s probably less than what Colorado Springs did. But is the USOC best served by maintaining its headquarters in a remote Colorado town?
Ueberroth has noted that the current Olympic funding model – developed by him in Los Angeles in advance of the 1984 Olympic Games – is outdated and lags well behind professional sports leagues. If that’s true, why is America’s Olympic headquarters far away from where many of the country’s corporate and media headquarters are located – New York, Chicago and Los Angeles – and even removed from where most of the U.S. Olympic athletes train, in Sun Belt states like California, Arizona, Texas and Florida? So how does this agreement benefit anyone other than Colorado Springs, or was the USOC essentially for sale to the highest bidder?
>> San Francisco, Ca.: Attention SPCA and the rest of the animal activist world: “We wanted to give it to a human being . . . but we couldn’t do that on ethical grounds. But we were able to find a baboon colony and give it to a baboon.”
That’s how Dr. Don Catlin, formerly the head of the Ziffren Olympic Analytical Laboratory at UCLA, identified the performance-enhancing drug known as the “clear” that had been created by Illinois chemist Patrick Arnold. Catlin gave his account of the identification process in testimony in the federal trial of cyclist Tammy Thomas, accused of perjury and obstruction of justice.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle:
The animal was given a single injection of the drug and then urine samples were taken for a week, Catlin said outside court. Tests on the urine verified that scientists had learned the chemical structure of the clear and could test for it. Eventually, a dozen athletes, including Thomas herself, tested positive for the drug.
Catlin said the baboon did not suffer any ill effects.
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
|
|
