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The Daily Digest for Friday, April 4, 2008 |
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April 04, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 It's official: you can cut down the nets now! |
= 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.
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= Tonight’s Menu =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The 51-24 Lakers are 1 1/2 games behind New Orleans for the best record in the Western Conference going into tonight’s game at Staples Center with 47-28 Dallas, which is two games ahead of Golden State for the final playoff spot. Jerry Stackhouse is questionable for the Mavericks, but they do have Dirk Nowitzki back in the line-up. Dallas has won five of its last eight from the Lakers, but is on a 3-5 skid in its last eight games while Los Angeles has won six of 10. The sharpies have penciled in the Lakers are a five-point favorite with an over-under line of 207, so the final is supposed to be Lakers 106, Mavericks 101.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: After a day off, the 2-1 Dodgers entertain the 3-1 San Diego Padres at Petco Park with Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda making his first big-league start against Justin Germano (7-10 in 2007. 4.45 ERA). The oddsmakers liked Kuroda’s shut-out work against Boston in the final exhibition game last Sunday, so the Dodgers are favored on the money line: it takes $110 to try to win $100 on the Blue Crew, but the visitors are even money.
>> Anaheim, Ca.: The 3-1 Angels start their 2008 home season against 1-2 Texas with Dustin Moseley (4-3 in 2007, 4.40 ERA) on the hill against Kason Gabbard (6-1, 4.65) of the Rangers. The hedge-clippers like the Halos: it takes $140 to try to win $100 on the home team, but a $100 wager on the Rangers could return $130.
>> San Antonio, Tx.: In the NCAA men’s national semifinals tomorrow, Memphis continues to be a two-point choice over UCLA with an over-under of 134 (68-66 final) while North Carolina is still 3 1/2 points over Kansas with an over-under of 160 (82-78).
= L.A. Stories =
>> What’s Bruin:
See our daily blog on UCLA sports at LATimes.com!
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: Here are the final standings – as of Opening Day – in the major league baseball payroll season from figures compiled by the Associated Press:
American League East:
1. New York Yankees, $209,081,579
2. Boston Red Sox, $133,440,037
3. Toronto Blue Jays, $98,641,957
4. Baltimore Orioles, $67,196,248
5. Tampa Bay Rays, $43,820,598
American League Central:
1. Detroit Tigers, $138,685,197
2. Chicago White Sox, $121,152,667
3. Cleveland Indians, $78,970, 067
4. Minnesota Twins, $62,182,767
5. Kansas City Royals, $58,245,500
American League West:
1. Los Angeles Angels, $119,216,333
2. Seattle Mariners, $117,993,982
3. Texas Rangers, $68,239,551
4. Oakland A’s, $47,967,126
National League East:
1. New York Mets, $138,293,378
2. Atlanta Braves, $102,424,018
3. Philadelphia Phillies, $98,269,881
4. Washington Nationals, $54,961,000
5. Florida Marlins, $21,836,500
National League Central:
1. Chicago Cubs, $118,595,833
2. St. Louis Cardinals, $100,624,450
3. Houston Astros, $88,930,415
4. Milwaukee Brewers, $81,004,167
5. Cincinnati Reds, $74,277,695
6. Pittsburgh Pirates, $49,365,283
National League West:
1. Los Angeles Dodgers, $118,536,038
2. San Francisco Giants, $76,904,500
3. San Diego Padres, $73,677,617
4. Colorado Rockies, $68.655,500
5. Arizona Diamondbacks, $66,202,713
So far, Detroit – which has the second-highest payroll in the majors – is winless at 0-3.
College Hoopla:
>> Berkeley, Ca.: In a turn almost no one saw coming, former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery is taking over the California basketball program.
Montgomery is 61 and made his name at Stanford, taking the Cardinal to the Final Four in 1998 and has won 547 games (against 244 losses, .692) in 26 years as a college coach. He coached the Golden State Warriors for two seasons in 2005 and 2006 and was dismissed and has done a little bit of everything since.
But as Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Chronicle notes, “he becomes the first member of the Stanford Hall of Fame to seek and find work up the 880 Corridor, and that will cause some brains to bend.” Despite his 18 years on The Farm, Montgomery’s roots are in Southern California as he is from Long Beach and graduated from Long Beach State in 1968. His son John, who is an assistant at Furman, could come west and coach with his Dad in an Eddie Sutton/Sean Sutton, Dick Bennett/Tony Bennett, Tom Davis/Keno Davis or Bob Knight/Pat Knight scenario and take over for Mike when he retires. The reported contract proposal for Mike Montgomery at Cal will pay around $10 million over six seasons ($1.667 million average).
Still, Montgomery can’t shoot or rebound and Ratto notes:
The challenge of Cal is a daunting one – not quite Oregon State, where San Diego’s Bill Grier just turned down the Beavs for the security of San Diego (!), but still a program in long and studied repose. Montgomery must pretty well hit the ground running, which will not be easy if [Ryan] Anderson leaves.
One positive: Anderson has not hired an agent and could return to Cal.
>> Indianapolis, In.: Cutting down the nets is the ultimate celebration of victory, right? So of course we now have the “Official Ladder of the NCAA Basketball Championships.”
In the latest sign that the end is near, Werner Ladder – the world’s leading maker of ladders and climbing equipment – is now an NCAA sponsor and will provide ladders for Monday’s men’s championship game in San Antonio. The announcement said nothing, however, about the women’s championship game on Tuesday in Tampa!
Still unsold but presumably available would be a sponsorship of the Official Scissors of the NCAA basketball net-cutting ceremony. More often than not, a bandage scissors provided by the winning team’s trainer is used to actually cut down the nets. Perhaps ShopScissors.com?
>> San Antonio, Tx.: The Associated Press named Drake’s Keno Davis its national coach of the year today, making he and father Tom Davis the first father-and-son winners of the award.
Keno Davis led Drake to a 28-5 record this season and its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1971 in his first year as head coach in Des Moines, where he succeeded his father. Tom Davis won the award when he was at Iowa in 1987. It’s the second straight year that the AP has picked a first-year coach who succeeded his father: Tony Bennett of Washington State won it last season after picking up the reins from his father, Dick Bennett.
Davis won with 29 votes from a 72-member panel, beating out Bo Ryan from Wisconsin (14 votes), Bruce Pearl of Tennessee (6) and John Calipari of Memphis and Matt Painter of Purdue (5 each).
College Gridiron:
>> Morgantown, WV: In the newest add-on to the 2008 college football season, lawyers for Rich Rodriguez will try to convince a jury in Morgantown that the ex-West Virginia coach was “fraudulently induced” into signing a contract with the school prior to the start of last season.
Rodriguez’s lawyers believe they can show that university president Mike Garrison told Rodriguez that the $4 million buyout clause would be removed if he signed the contract. University lawyers laughed at the idea, but also obtained the judge’s agreement that Rodriguez must turn over all documents he has that relate to his contacts with the University of Michigan, which hired him to run its football program.
Rodriguez’s lawyers, in lobbying to eliminate the $4 million buyout payment that WVU says he owes them, say that the actual damages to the university from Rodriguez’s movement from Morgantown to Ann Arbor are minimal. “They know what the costs of recruiting and interviewing other coaches for the jobs are and what the cost of plane fare is,” said attorney Marv Robon to Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily Mail. “Sometimes donations go down, but in this case donations have gone up tremendously during the past year and even in 2008. Ticket sales are at an all-time high. So where’s the harm?”
Since the trial will likely now go through the football season, Robon might be singing a different tune as West Virginia has a schedule that includes Rutgers, Cincinnati, Louisville, Pittsburgh, South Florida and, on October 23, a date with Auburn in Morgantown.
Rings & Things:
>> Athens, Greece: What if they had an Olympics and no one was eligible to compete?
Greek weightlifting officials are contemplating that very scenario today after out-of-competition drug testing by the World Anti-Doping Agency led to positive tests for 11 Greek lifters, including five men and six women. The national team consists of 14 lifters, so only three tested negative.
Names of those found to have positive tests were not released pending the testing of “B” specimens, but a Greek weightlifting federation official told Reuters that “Given the very large number of positive tests, and if the B samples are positive as well, then the team as a whole could be banned from competing in the Beijing Games.” No details on what substances were found were given, pending the B-sample testing.
Greece had not been a factor in weightlifting competitions between a medal in 1904 and the 1988 Games in Seoul. But Greek lifters won one medal in 1992, five in 1996 and 2000 and one more in 2004 for a total of 12 in four games. National coach Christos Iacovou has been running the Greek program during that time; he has resigned and has been suspended pending an investigation.
Comment: Look for the International Weightlifting Federation to throw the book at Greece and probably ban them for not only the Olympic Games this August, but possibly for an additional World Championships in 2009. Why? Because the IWF teetered on the brink of being thrown out of the Olympic Games altogether in the 1980s as the sport consistently yielded more positive tests than any other.
IWF President Tamas Ajan of Hungary has calmed things for weightlifting over the past 20 years and is widely respected internationally. He will maintain that position only if he implements stern discipline against a team in which 11 of 14 members tested positive.
But in the Olympic style, of course, expect an investigation, followed by a hearing and a likely final appeal – perhaps on the eve of the Games – to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
>> Paris, France: Sometimes it takes time to come up with the obvious solution, but that’s what French athletes did today in suggesting that the French team wear a “For a better world” badge on their uniforms during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
According to the Associated Press, the badge – unveiled in Paris today – shows the Olympic rings below the words “France” and “For a better world.” Two-time Olympic judo gold medalist David Douillet said France’s national Olympic committee chief Henri Serandour supports the badge and will lobby International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge for its approval.
Although the badge itself makes no specific reference to Tibet or Sudan or other issues involving Olympic host country China, it carries a clear message. “The situation in China is certainly intolerable,” said two-time canoeing gold medalist Tony Estanguet at the unveiling. “I can assure you that it is insupportable for us sports people.”
Comment: Under the rules of the Olympic Charter, the IOC – through its Executive Board – would have to give approval to the wearing of the badge. But that’s the beauty of the French proposal: it puts the onus on the IOC, the very body which awarded the Games to China in the first place and is places it squarely in the middle of the controversy.
Moreover, it does not threaten a boycott, which would be the worst outcome not only for the athletes, but also for those trying to change China. A boycott simply removes the unhappy participants from the scene and for China, may increase their medal count and add to the national feeling of euphoria over success at the Games. A badge keeps the athletes there and continues to promote their human rights agenda.
The current 15-member board has nine European members (a majority), two members from North American and the Caribbean, one member from Africa and three Asian members from China, Japan and Singapore. If they turn down the proposal, look for athletes and possibly some National Olympic Committees to try even more subtle means to keep the issues of independence for Tibet and the conflict in Darfur present during the Games. One concept: modify the national team uniforms to carry the colors of the flags of the affected regions: black, green, red and white for Darfur or red, yellow, blue and white for Tibet.
What can the Chinese do? A brilliant parry would be immediately accept the idea of the badge and ask that everyone wear it, including their 100,000 volunteers who will be working at the Games. It would be, say the hosts, an affirmation of China’s acceptance and allegiance to the principles of the Olympic Charter, that sport is about a better world and not about politics.
It would take a rather courageous and far-sighted politician to see the value in this, but perhaps the Chinese are up to this. This episode, in any case, will be an informative window into the mindset – whether more concerned with internal or external issues – of the Chinese organizers and of the Chinese government.
~ Rich Perelman
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