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The Daily Digest for Tuesday, April 8, 2008 |
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April 08, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Yao: Trusting in traditional medicine! |
= 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 =
>> Portland, Or.: The 53-24 Lakers are in Portland for a match-up with the 38-39 Trailblazers, who have given Los Angeles a terrible time at the Rose Garden. The Lakers are a highly-publicized 0-5 and 6-18 in Portland over the last several years and the home team has won nine of the last 10 in this series. But the Lakers come in with a four-game win streak and the Blazers have lost five in a row, so the Lakers are favored by nine with an over-under of 203. Translation: the oddsmakers say the final will be Los Angeles 106, Portland 97.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: At Staples Center, the 23-54 Clippers are playing for pride, but 46-31 Denver desperately needs a win to hang onto the final playoff spot in the West. Los Angeles will be without Chris Kaman, Corey Maggette is doubtful and Tim Thomas is day-to-day and Denver is 4-1 in its last five against the Clippers. The Denver road record is nothing to get excited about at 15-23, but it’s better than the Clippers’ home mark of 13-26. So the Nuggets are favored by 13 with an over-under of 213, so the sharpies project a 113-100 win for the visitors.
>> Phoenix, Az.: The 4-3 Dodgers have Chad Billingsley (0-0, 3.86 ERA) on the hill tonight in the second game of their series at Arizona. Doug Davis (0-1, 4.91 ERA) will pitch for the 5–2 Diamondbacks and the oddsmakers aren’t impressed. They’ve made the Blue Crew the favorite: it takes $135 to try to win $100 on the Dodgers, but $100 on the home team could return $125.
>> Anaheim, Ca.: The 5-3 Angels were buoyed by Torri Hunter’s dramatic home runs in the eighth and ninth innings to win yesterday’s game with Cleveland and have Ervin Santana (1-0, 3.00 ERA) on the mound tonight against Jake Westbrook (0-1, 2.45 ERA) of Cleveland. The sharpies like the Angels again, especially with Santana pitching at home where he usually does well. It takes $120 to try to win $100 on the Halos, but $100 on the Tribe could earn $110.
= L.A. Stories =
What’s Bruin:
Hard-core Bruin fans will have more than a passing interest in tonight’s Stanford-Tennessee women’s national championship game. Although the Bruins were the first to win 100 team championships, Stanford is pressing hard to be the first to 101.
The Cardinal started this academic year with 94 titles to UCLA’s 100, but Stanford won the women’s cross-country championship in November, could win in basketball tonight and is no. 1 ranked in men’s gymnastics and will host the nationals on April 17. Three wins could bring the Cardinal to 97 against UCLA’s 100.
The Bruins, for their part, aren’t done yet, although they lost in the national semifinals in women’s soccer and men’s basketball. UCLA has championship chances remaining in women’s golf (they are ranked no. 1 in the nation), softball (also ranked first) and water polo (ranked 1st and undefeated) and in men’s tennis, where UCLA is ranked sixth but has lost only to top-ranked Virginia, 4-3, early in the season.
In tonight’s game, Tennessee is a two-point favorite.
Talk of Troy:
Reports from the USC Pro Day showed two Trojans making a stronger case for themselves in the upcoming NFL Draft and two continuing to slide.
According to Tony Pauline of TFYDraft.com, tailback Chauncey Washington “was the star” of the USC show for scouts and “solidified him as a top-75 pick and there’s a good chance he could break into the second round.” He also noted the linebacker Keith Rivers “looked terrific” and “looked every bit the part of a top 10 choice.”
The grades were lower for offensive lineman Sam Baker, who “significantly damaged his draft stock this week” due to a slow and sluggish performance and he was “considered a late first round prospect at one time but now could slip into the third frame.” Also moving lower on the charts was fellow lineman Chilo Rachal, who “looked stiff, unathletic and out of shape.” Trojan coach Pete Carroll had counseled Rachal to come back to school and it looks now like he knew what he was talking about.
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> San Francisco, Ca.: Home openers in baseball are supposed to be full of hope and optimism. Here’s the lead on the Giants’ home opener from Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle:
It was the Giants’ most exciting inning of the season. Eugenio Velez, Mercury with two skinny legs, smashed a ball into the right-center gap and tripled. Aaron Rowand walked. Bengie Molina cracked a two-run double to the center-field wall. For the first time in 2008, the Giants would have a three-run inning.
Of course, they were down 8-1 when it happened.
San Francisco lost, 8-4, and the game “portended a very long and painful summer at China Basin.”
>> Boston, Ma.: Former Angel Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon is on the seven-day disabled list after straining his right side while pitching for Triple-A Pawtucket last week. He was sharp in his only appearance, pitching five scoreless innings last Thursday against Indianapolis. Colon is to be re-examined today and could come off the D.L. as early as Friday.
College Hoopla:
>> Lawrence, Ks.: Those Jayhawks know how to celebrate a national title: sleep in!
The University of Kansas cancelled classes today after the men’s basketball team pulled a shocker with its comeback victory over Memphis in the national championship game Monday night. About 10,000 fans watched the game on the videoboards inside Allen Fieldhouse (capacity: 16,000) and then flooded the court after the win and then headed to Massachusetts Street to celebrate until at least 3 a.m. About 250 police officers were on hand for control purposes, but no significant problems were reported.
“We beat Roy Williams to get to the championship game and then we won in a great game in overtime," said Lawrence resident Chris Neverve in an interview with the Associated Press, “It doesn't get any sweeter. It can't get any sweeter than this.”
NBA Hoopla:
>> Beijing, China: You can take Yao Ming out of China, but you can’t take China out of Yao.
The Houston Rockets center is now in China seeking traditional Chinese medical help for the stress fracture in his left foot. “Traditional Chinese medicine has a history of thousands of years in our country, so there must be something to it,” Yao told the Associated Press. He said he thought he would complete his recovery in late June or early July, good news for Chinese basketball fans, who can’t bear the thought of Yao not being available for the Olympic tournament which begins August 8. The Chinese frontcourt is already decimated with injuries to former NBA center Wang Zhizhi (knee surgery) and Milwaukee Bucks rookie Yi Jianlian, who has a sprained left knee.
About rumors that he would carry the Olympic torch, perhaps during the Opening Ceremonies, he said “Of course it would be a huge honor to carry the torch, but in my present state, in my present condition I can't even run 200 meters.”
>> Charlotte, N.C.: In one of the most unusual deals of its kind, the Charlotte Bobcats will now play in Time Warner Cable Arena, but instead of getting a big rights payment, will likely get only an opportunity to sell their television rights to Fox Sports.
The Bobcats had sold their local television rights to a Time Warner start-up called Carolina Sports and Entertainment Television (C-SET) in 2004, but the company folded and Time Warner was carrying the games on its local news channel, which had very limited distribution and was only available to Time Warner cable subscribers. The arena naming rights deal – whose terms have not been disclosed – closes the C-SET deal and tonight’s game with Minnesota will be telecast on FSN South.
College Gridiron:
>> Baton Rouge, La.: Sophomore Richard Murphy is the new running back to know at defending national champion LSU as the Tigers’ Spring Game was played last Saturday. Murphy rushed for 145 yards in 11 carries and scored three times in a 38-10 win for the White (mostly first team) over the Purple (mostly second team). The most impressive statistic, however, was the attendance of 33,624 in Tiger Stadium for a game which started at 5 p.m. Eastern time, just an hour before the tip-off of the NCAA basketball Final Four games.
NFL Extra Points:
>> Cincinnati, Oh.: What started as a simple release of receiver Chris Henry after his fifth arrest while a member of the Bengals has begun to look like a house cleaning.
Second-year running back Quincy Wilson – who, like Henry, attended West Virginia University – was waived on Monday. He was arrested for disorderly conduct last June 17 and was the 10th Bengals player arrested in 14 months. He’s the second Bengal arrestee to be released within the past five days.
Kicker:
>> Rome, Italy: The latest American billionaire readying to sign a huge wire transfer for control of a marquee foreign soccer team is political activist George Soros. The founder of the left-wing MoveOn.org Web site and long-time financial supporter of the Democratic Party has been reported by the Italian all-sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, to be ready with a takeover bid for AS Roma as early as this week. The club is thought to be on the market because its parent company, Italpetroli, has taken on significant debt and selling the football club could ease its financial crisis. A meeting between representatives of the 78-year-old Soros and the club ownership group could come as early as tomorrow, after Roma’s Champions League quarterfinal match (second leg) with Manchester United.
Rings & Things:
>> Manchester, England: The international federation that governs swimming said today that the controversial Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit, worn by swimmers who set 18 of 19 world records set since its introduction in February, is legal and can be used by anyone.
The Associated Press said the federation stated that “There is no scientific proof that it helps somehow, to the best of FINA's knowledge.” Notably, FINA will meet with the major swimwear manufacturers – Speedo, Arena, Diana, Nike and adidas – this weekend at the World Short-Course Championships in Manchester and all of Speedo’s competitors have either release their own new suit, or will soon.
The leading critic of the LZR racer has been Italian coach Alberto Castagnetti, who told the AP, “It would be one thing if it was Michael Phelps setting all these records, but a lot of them have come from fifth- and sixth-ranked swimmers.” But now that the suits have been declared legal – they were banned at the recent Italian Championships – Castagnetti said "We certainly won't go to the Olympics at a disadvantage. That would be like conceding defeat. We'll have to adapt.”
>> London, England: The staggering cost of the London 2012 Games came into clearer focus today as the costs for construction of three sites – the Olympic Stadium, the aquatics center and the velopark – were announced by the government’s Olympic Delivery Authority at the equivalent of $1.73 billion!
The stadium is projected to cost $976.2 million, the aquatics center another $596.3 million (including landscaping and a permanent bridge) and the velopark, which will house indoor cycling and an outdoor BMX circuit, will cost $157.4 million. The costs include conversion for use after the Games.
By the time the 2016 Games take place – wherever they are staged – all Londoners will have to show for their money is a cycling track, a 2,500-seat swimming venue and a 25,000-seat facility for track & field. That’s it.
Scene and Heard:
>> Bristol, Ct.: Love him or hate him, Steven A Smith always has something interesting to say. Now he’ll be saying it more about the sport he knows best and less about others.
Reports up and down the East Coast have noted that Smith will leave ESPN Radio, with his last show coming this Thursday, and concentrate on television, specifically ESPN’s coverage of the NBA and related topics. Wrote Newsday:
Stephen A. Smith has lost his television show, his newspaper column and his radio show in the past 15 months. But on Friday, he did not sound like a man sweating career setbacks.
“I am relieved, because it will be a lot less crazy,” he said by phone from Bristol, Conn. “But I’m still going to have multiple jobs.”
By that he meant contributing in multiple ways at ESPN, including its Web site.
Smith’s contract was up and he was apparently asked to choose between radio and television and he chose television. Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News wrote that the contraction of Smith’s workload showed that he’s “not the first person, and won’t be the last, to achieve star status at ESPN only to wind up as a role player. . . . This is part of a pattern in which ESPN brass takes a particular talent and assigns him multiple gigs. Once the cat signs on the dotted line he is totally under control of the Worldwide Leader.”
~ Rich Perelman
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