|
|
|
The Daily Digest for Monday, April 14, 2008 |
|
April 14, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Jabba: bigger than Barkley, but can he rebound? |
= 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 =
>> Arlington, Tx.: The 7-6 Angels face off with 5-7 Texas tonight with Ervin Santana (1-0, 3.00 ERA) facing Jason Jennings (0-2, 7.45 ERA) of the Rangers. The Halos are batting 3.01 as a team, but are having trouble holding on in the late going as the bullpen has an ERA of 5.68. The Texas bullpen has been good with an ERA of 3.47, but the club is hitting only .246. That makes the Angels the favorites tonight: it takes $110 to try to win $100 on the visitors, but the home team is even money.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The 6-6 Pittsburgh Pirates are in Chavez Ravine tonight to play the 5-7 Dodgers with Zach Duke (0-0, 2.13 ERA) on the hill for the Bucs and Hiroki Kuroda (1-1, 2.13 ERA) pitching for the Blue Crew. Dodger pitching has a good 3.38 ERA so far this season and the club has won five of its last seven from the Pirates, but can L.A. score enough to win? Oddsmakers think so as the Dodgers are favored: it takes $175 to try to win $100 on the home squad, but only $120 to try for the same $100 on the visitors.
= L.A. Stories =
Thinking Blue:
>> Most commencement addresses are rarely worth listening to, but here’s one that might make you head west.
Dodger icon Vin Scully will give the commencement address at Pepperdine University in Malibu on Saturday, April 26 at 10:30 a.m. Scully will receive the university's highest honor, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree, and will be introduced by Tommy Lasorda, who also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pepperdine in 1996.
What’s Bruin:
>> The annual Rafer Johnson-Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational track & field meet was held on Friday and Saturday at UCLA’s Drake Stadium with a lot of athletes and very few spectators. But there were highlights:
Two brilliant anchor legs by sprinter Allyson Felix, the favorite in the 200 m in Beijing. She breezed down the straightaway on the anchor of the World Class Track Club’s 4 x 100 m relay that won in 43.02 and then ran a sensational 49.5 split on the final leg of the WCTC’s 4 x 400 m relay that won in a world-class 3:29.51.
An unexpected 3:59.96 mile by Bruin junior Laef Barnes, making him only the fourth Bruin after Bob Day, Ron Cornell and Jon Rankin to break the four-minute barrier.
A scary moment came when former Bruin coach Jim Bush, 81, had to be taken from the stadium by ambulance after getting dizzy in the 90-degree heat. Amazingly, when the paramedics came to treat him, the treatment leader was one of his old athletes, former 400 m star Donn Thompson of Gahr HS who ran for Bush in the late 1970s. Thompson is a Los Angeles City fireman stationed close to campus. Bush was held for observation overnight and released and is resting comfortably at home.
SoCal Hoopla:
>> Remember Taylor King of Mater Dei, who committed to UCLA as a ninth-grader, then went to Duke instead? He’s on his way to Philadelphia now, after leaving Duke following his freshman season. He’s a 6-6, 230-pound forward now who transferred after averaging just 5.5 points a game in 34 games for the Blue Devils. He scored in double figures in six of Duke’s first 13 games, but got less and less playing time as the ACC season wore on.
“Nothing against Duke,” King told Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News,, “but it’s time for a change. Villanova is a true family atmosphere where everyone’s got each other’s back.” King will sit out for a year and then join the Wildcats for the 2009-10 season. He has relatives in the Philadelphia area and noted “It’s a nice, big city that’s very supportive of Villanova basketball.”
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> Detroit, Mi.: “I didn’t think we’d get shut out four times all year, to be honest with you.”
That’s Tigers manager Jim Leyland, after Detroit was whitewashed by Chicago, 11-0, yesterday. It was the fourth time in 12 games that the 2-10 Tigers have gone scoreless. “We’re just in a funk,” said Leyland. “I accept full responsibility for this team’s performance, which has not been good. But it will be good.”
Not lost on local observers of the Tigers is that the club has the second-highest payroll in baseball this season at $138.7 million. Forbes estimated that the Tigers spent $91 million in payroll in 2006 and $98 million last season. By the way, Mike Ilitch of Little Caesar’s Pizza fame, bought the Tigers in 1992 for $82 million. He also owns – and is undoubtedly having more fun at present with – the Detroit Red Wings.
>> Rochester, N.Y.: A great note from Bob Matthews of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:
Soccer superstar Ronaldinho reportedly is close to leaving FC Barcelona for AC Milan. His salary would be $12.7 million per season through 2012. That’s less than half of what the New York Yankees pay Alex Rodriguez, but A-Rod has to use his legs AND arms.
College Hoopla:
>> Minneapolis, Mn.: There are never guarantees in this world when you’re talking about the money that Oklahoma State’s talking. I can’t match that kind of money and if it’s about money, he may leave. But I don’t think Tubby would leave for that reason.”
That’s an honest assessment from Minnesota athletic director Joel Maturi about his concerns over Gophers basketball coach Tubby Smith and the possibility that he could leave Minneapolis for Stillwater and a reported $6 million signing bonus and an annual salary of $3.5 million. Smith’s contract pays him $1.7 million per season and had a $3 million buyout this year.
NBA Hoopla:
>> Chicago, Il.: There was concern when Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy showed up for the Magic’s game in Chicago against the Bulls with a black left eye.
A fight? An attempted mugging? No, he got it while wrestling with his son Mike, a seventh-grader. “I wish I had a better story to tell you how I got it,” he told the Orlando Sentinel. “[Assistant coach] Brendan [Malone] said I ought to make up something. But I was fooling around with my son and he reared his head back.”
>> Oakland, Ca.: On TNT’s “Inside the NBA” halftime show last Thursday, analyst Charles Barkley reacted to a shot of the video screen inside the Oracle Arena comparing him as the corpulent Star Wars villain Jabba the Hutt:
“You know what Golden State? Yo Momma. Whoever put that up there, Yo Momma. That’s ghetto-ese for ‘Come and get me.’” Looks like they already did!
Kicker:
>> Groningen, the Netherlands: In what has to be one of the more unusual reasons for stopping a soccer match, a Dutch First Division game between Groningen and Ajax was postponed as “fans” lit rolls of toilet paper on fire and smoke filled the Euroborg Stadium. Fans ran onto the field to escape the fires and firemen ran through the stadium extinguishing the blazes. Groningen spokesman Jacques Wallage said “It is very distressing that this happened at a football match.” No kidding.
Keeping Track:
>> Brussels, Belgium: Old rumors about Maurice Greene and drugs surfaced again over the weekend and were reported by the New York Times. But the IAAF noted that Greene – now retired – never failed a drug test and spokesman Nick Davies noted “I read about this guy and this rumor four years ago.”
The accuser is a man named Angel Guillermo Heredia, who said he supplied drugs to coach Trevor Graham and athletes including Greene and Marion Jones. Heredia is cooperating with authorities to minimize his problems with drug trafficking and money-laundering charges. Greene said he had met Heredia, but told him that he didn’t believe in the use of performance-enhancing substances.
The Times story said Heredia said Greene paid him $40,000 in 2002 and 2003 for drugs for himself and his H.S.I. training team. Heredia is a witness against Graham, who has been charged with three counts of making false statements to government investigators.
Rings & Things:
>> Johannesburg, South Africa: South African national swim team captain Gerhard Zandberg thinks winning a medal in Beijing is more important than money. “I’m not going to sacrifice performance,” he told the Associated Press and acknowledged that he could be fined 3,000 Euro (about $4,750 U.S.) for wearing Speedo’s LZR Racer swimsuit, despite the fact that Arena has an agreement with the South African swim federation. He did say that if Arena came out with a comparable suit, he would wear it. Zandberg finished seventh in the 50 m Breaststroke finals at last week’s World Short-Course Swimming Championships in Manchester, England.
The mania over the LZR Racer suit, in which more than a dozen world records have been set in the past month, is also going to hit some U.S. stars, including four who are sponsored by Nike: Brendan Hansen, Aaron Piersol, Jason Lezak and Kaitlin Sandeno. U.S. national team coach Mark Schubert has said he will tell every swimmer to wear Speedo at the U.S. Trials in Omaha, Nebraska from June 29-July 6.
>> Muscat, Oman: The Olympic Torch run continues this week in Oman today, with more excitement (?) on tap for Wednesday in Islamabad, Pakistan and a wild scene expected on Thursday in Mumbai, India. It will also be interesting to see what kind of reception the torch gets on Saturday when it is run in Bangkok, Thailand.
~ Rich Perelman
>> Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
|
|
