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The Daily Digest for Friday, April 18, 2008 |
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April 18, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Redskins cheer: is this cricket? |
= 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 =
>> Anaheim, Ca.: It literally is do-or-die for the Anaheim Ducks tonight, as they face Dallas in game five of their first-round playoff series with the Stars up, 3-1. Dallas has outscored the Ducks, 14-7 in the four games so far and of the 219 instances where teams have been down 3-1, only 20 have come back to win the series. The sharpies like the Ducks, however and have Anaheim as the favorite: it takes $150 to try to win $100 on the home team, but $120 on the Stars could earn the same $100.
>> Atlanta, Ga.: The 7-8 Dodgers are at Turner Field (once the Olympic Stadium in 1996) tonight for the first of three with the 6-9 Braves. Derek Lowe (1-0, 1.88 ERA) will go for the Dodgers against Jeff Bennett (0-0, 5.52) for Atlanta. Lowe hasn’t gotten much run support in his Dodger tenure, but the Blue Crew produced 11 in his last start against San Diego. The Braves were 4-3 against Los Angeles last season, but Lowe and the Dodgers are favored: it takes $110 to try to win $100 on the Dodgers, but $100 on the home team could return $120.
>> Anaheim, Ca.: The 10-7 Angels will face their likely challenger for the American League West crown, 9-8 Seattle, at Angel Stadium tonight with Joe Saunders (2-0, 1.27 ERA) on the hill. Seattle will have R.A. Dickey (0-0, 0.00) on the mound (who?), making his first start of the season; he’s pitched one inning of relief so far this season. The Angels are 12-8 in their last 20 against Seattle, but lost two out of three last week at Safeco Field. Ichiro Suzuki is in a rare season-starting slump; he’s a .332 career hitter, but is batting only .231 so far. That helps make the Angels a favorite: it takes $160 to try to win $100 on the home team, or $120 on the visitors could return the same $100.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The Lakers, top seed in the Western Conference opened as an 8 1/2-point favorite in their first playoff game on Sunday against Denver at Staples Center. With an over-under of 124, the projected final is Los Angeles 116, Nuggets 108.
Although some commentators are picking Denver to upset the Lakers – as eighth-seed Golden State did to Dallas last season – the Lakers won all three games against the Nuggets this season. The scores in Los Angeles weren’t close, as the Lakers won by 28 points in November and 17 in January, and by four in Denver in December. In each case, that was before the Lakers acquired Pau Gasol.
= L.A. Stories =
What’s Bruin:
>> Eugene, Or.: A taste of what collegiate track & field used to be when the sport actually mattered is on at Hayward Field tomorrow when UCLA meets Oregon in an old-fashioned dual meet.
The Bruins are ranked no. 3 in the nation at this early point of the season and are making a heavy push to beat the 25th-ranked Ducks. Thrower Darius Savage, an indoor All-American in the shot put this season, is deeply involved in spring practice as an offensive guard on the football team, but will finish a scrimmage this evening and then get on a 6 a.m. flight to Eugene tomorrow morning to help the Bruins in the shot and discus. They’ll need him.
Our quick-look Dope Sheet has the Bruins winning, 84-79, in part thanks to sweeps in the Shot Put and Discus. The Bruins hold an 11-4 edge in the series; the last one-on-one dual match between the teams was in 1985.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: Bruin fans are happy that defensive tackle Brigham Harwell is returning for his senior season after having his 2007 season cut short by injury. But Harwell’s best performance might have been during the Winter Quarter: he earned a 4.0 grade-point average!
Harwell was one of two footballers who achieved a 4.0 – center Chris Joseph was the other – and a total of 13 Bruin athletes earned straight-As. All together, 268 Bruin athletes had GPAs of 3.00 or better.
Money Matters:
>> New York, N.Y.: Newspapers across the country made a big splash when Forbes came out with its annual team valuations. As usual, the Yankees were no. 1 at $1.3 billion, but local teams were no. 4 (Dodgers, $694 million) and no. 6 (Angels, $500 million). However, those numbers don’t really mean much because neither team is for sale.
More troubling is the operating revenue estimate, which shows Forbes’ estimate of what each team is actually banking each season:
The Dodgers, according to the magazine, grossed $224 million last season and had operating revenues of $20.0 million. That’s 8.9 percent; good, but hardly exciting compared to double-digit profit margins for industries in distress such as newspapers and tobacco companies!
The Angels, with a perennial playoff contender, grossed $200 million last season according to Forbes but had a very thin operating margin of $15.2 million or 7.6%. Owner Arte Moreno did a lot better than that in his outdoor advertising business. However, it should be noted that to gross $200 million – just 11 percent less than the Dodgers – with a ballpark that seats only 45,050, compared to 56,000 in Chavez Ravine, is quite impressive.
In comparison to their competitors, the operating income for the two local clubs is decidedly average. The Dodgers rank 14th out of 30 clubs and the Angels are 21st. The most profitable teams are Washington at $43.7 million, the Florida Marlins at $35.6 million (thanks to by far the lowest payroll in baseball) and the Chicago White Sox at $30.6 million. On the other hand, Forbes estimates that the Yankees and Red Sox led the majors in losses: $47.3 million for New York and $19.1 for Boston.
= Panorama =
College Gridiron:
>> Washington, D.C.: “Forget government corruption or corporate fraud. Three members of Congress want the Justice Department to investigate whether college football’s Bowl Championship Series is an illegal enterprise.”
That’s how the Associated Press opened its story on the resolution being introduced by Reps. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Lynn Westmoreland (R-Georgia) and Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) asking for a determination whether the BCS is an illegal restriction on trade.
The answer is no and the three reps might want to consider what would happen to their schools if the BCS were to disband and the NCAA does not institute a championship playoff (which it has shown little interest in):
Abercrombie’s Hawaii team and Simpson’s Boise State team will never, ever be selected to play in major bowls like the Sugar (Hawaii, 2008) and Fiesta (Boise State, 2007). Instead, those bowls would have invited teams from major conferences to play against their committed conference champions from the SEC and Big 12. The BCS is the only reason that Hawaii and Boise State got to play on January 1 or later.
Without a BCS selection process that advanced LSU to the national championship game, Georgia would not have played in the Sugar Bowl, where SEC champion LSU would have been. Instead, the Bulldogs would have been in Tampa for the Outback Bowl (where SEC West champ Tennessee played) or in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl (where Arkansas ended up).
Remember, representatives, that when BYU won its 1984 national title, its bowl game was the second-tier Holiday Bowl in San Diego, where the Cougars defeated Michigan, 24-17. Without the BCS, that’s about all a team from a second-tier conference can hope for, because there are plenty of bowl folks – starting in Pasadena – who would be happy if things went back to the way they were before the BCS started scrambling the mix.
NFL Extra Points:
>> Eugene, Or.: Sometimes college kids are smart. Take quarterback Dennis Dixon of Oregon, for example.
Dixon was piloting the Ducks toward the national championship game last November when his left ACL gave out during a 34-24 loss at Arizona. He had surgery on December 15 and his draft position will depend, in large part, on his recovery.
So he – or his agent? – has created DennisDixon10.com, a Web site devoted to showcasing Dixon’s progress, showing video of his workouts, listing his workout program and giving contact information for his medical treatment team so that any interested club can contact them directly.
There’s only one of Dixon and he needs to concentrate on his rehab, but interested scouts can see where Dixon is anytime thanks to the site. It may be the first of its kind, but it won’t be the last. The former Oregon QB is currently projected as a third or fourth-round pick in next week’s Draft.
NBA Hoopla:
>> Las Vegas, Nv.: Odds are out to win the NBA Championship and Boston, with the best record in the regular season, is a 3-2 favorite with the Lakers right behind at 3-1. San Antonio (11-2), Detroit (6-1) and Phoenix (8-1) are the top five.
At the other end of the spectrum, Atlanta is a 150-1 choice and Philadelphia is 100-1. Although New Orleans finished with the second seed in the Western Conference, the Hornets are only seventh choice (and sixth from the West) to win the title, at 11-1.
Batting Around:
>> Bangalore, India: The newest super sport is cricket. Indian cricket.
Domestic television rights for the Indian Premier League brought $1 billion and franchise fees for eight new teams totaled $720 million, not to mention a $111.6 million sale of the Bangalore club to a liquor baron named Vijay Mallya.
The Bangalore Royal Challengers will face the Kolkata Night Riders beginning today with another first for cricket: cheerleaders! The Washington Redskins’ cheerleading squad will be on hand with what the Times of London called “an entirely novel form of motivational dance – a blend of traditional all-American cheerleading moves and Indian ‘Bollywood hip-hop’ steps, to add razzmatazz to the IPL.”
Moreover, Donald Wells, the Redskins’ director of entertainment, is to coach a group of local women, selected by tryouts, who will become permanent cheerleaders for the Royal Challengers.
Wrote Rhys Blakely in The Times: “The thud you can hear is the sound of jaws dropping.”
Eatertainment:
>> Houston, Tx.: In an overlooked contest that’s quite timely as the Jewish holiday of Passover begins tomorrow, American vacuum cleaner Joey Chestnut set a new world record at the Kenny & Ziggy’s World Matzah Ball Eating Championship on March 2.
Chestnut downed a ridiculous 78 matzah balls in eight minutes, easily eclipsing the previous standard of just 21 balls in five minutes and 25 seconds, set by Eric “Badlands” Booker. Second place in the contest went to a very competitive Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti, who downed 76 and third went a new eater, Doctor Bigtime, who ate 40. A total of $1,500 in prizes was distributed, but the winners were not provided with a take-home turine of chicken soup to ease their coming stomach pains.
~ Rich Perelman
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