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The Daily Digest for Tuesday, April 22, 2008 |
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April 22, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 All this for a first-round win? What if the Canadiens win the Cup? |
= 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 =
>> Boston, Ma.: The 12-8 Angels are in Boston to play their nemesis, the 14-7 Boston Red Sox in a three-game series at Fenway Park. Jered Weaver (1-3, 3.60 ERA) will pitch for the Halos against Sox ace Josh Beckett (2-1, 5.12). The last three times the two teams met was in the 2007 American League Division Series and the Red Sox outscored the Angels, 19-4, to sweep the series. In fact, Boston is 11-4 against the Angels in their last 15 meetings. So Boston is a big favorite: it takes $175 to try to win $100 on the home team, but $105 on the Halos could return the same $100.
>> Cincinnati, Oh.: After yesterday’s shocking nine-run output, the 8-11 Dodgers will try for another win tonight at the Great American Ballpark against the 8-12 Reds. Hong-Chih Kuo (0-0, 0.79 ERA) will start for Los Angeles against Edinson Volquez (2-0, 1.17), who was the minor league pitcher of the year for Texas in 2007 and came to Cincinnati in the Josh Hamilton deal. The Blue Crew has won 11 of its last 13 against the Reds, but Cincy is favored: it takes $110 to try to win $100 on the home team, but the Dodgers are even money.
= L.A. Stories =
Laker Lines:
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: Denver may get the 6-11 Nene back for Game 2 with the Lakers tomorrow night, just in time to try to help the invisible Denver interior defense. The Brazilian star played in one 16 games during the regular season, battling injuries and surgery for a tumor.
As for the Nuggets’ defense, “we saw a lot of defensive mistakes that are easily corrected,” said Marcus Camby in the Denver Post. “It’s all about clogging up the middle and making those guys knock down some shots.” In the three games between the teams played at Staples Center this season, the Lakers have averaged 124 points and won all three by a combined 59 points.
>> NFL Longing: Savvy columnist Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune is worried about the Chargers going back where they came: Los Angeles.
Should San Diego Chargers fans worry about Ed Roski, Jr.? I’d say, yes, absolutely. He’s not only a billionaire, he’s not your everyday, nutty billionaire. Roski has a pedigree that does not include “rash.” He has a reputation of not doing things willy-nilly.
Last week, when Roski proposed building an $800 million NFL stadium on 600 acres of pre-zoned land he owns in the lovely City of Industry – about 20 miles east of L.A. – I wondered aloud: “What’s in it for him?”
Plenty for Roski, who would create a gigantic mixed-use development around the stadium. Canepa notes that the Qualcomm Stadium complex is just 166 acres, including the parking and that San Diego is down to its last card for a new stadium in a proposed development in Chula Vista that will be decided upon this summer.
Roski has business ties to the Spanos family and Canepa thinks he could get $450 million in seat licenses, plus, of course, the Chargers “are looking for new digs and can take off following the 2008 season. Do not rule that out.” A stadium in Industry – the environmental impact report has already been completed – could be ready as early as 2011, so under this scenario the Chargers would play in the Coliseum or Rose Bowl in 2009 and 2010 before moving into a new stadium.
What’s Bruin:
>> New York, N.Y.: The latest NBA mock draft from DraftExpress.com shows three Bruin stars going, going and gone.
All-American Kevin Love is projected at eighth, going to Charlotte; guard Russell Westbrook is shown at 12, going to Sacramento (which desperately needs a post-Mike Bibby point guard) and Darren Collison is shown at 21st, going to New Jersey (which makes no sense since they have two young point guards). In any case, at that level, all three will make the jump to the NBA.
Forward Luc Richard Mbah A Moute is not shown on the DraftExpress.com list for either round.
This mock draft shows how good the Pac-10 was this past season: four of the top 10 picks listed are from the league! Arizona guard Jerryd Bayless is projected going fourth to Minnesota; Stanford’s Brook Lopez, fifth to Memphis; USC’s O.J. Mayo at sixth to the Knicks, plus Love. In the first round, eight of the 30 selections are projected from the Pac-10, plus another four in the second round for 12 of the 60 total picks or 20% from one league!
Arizona State’s Jeff Pendergraph announced he was coming back to school for his senior season and if freshman guard James Harden stays in school – he is not shown on the DraftExpress.com list – Arizona State might be the favorite in the Pac-10 next season.
>> Las Vegas, Nv.: UCLA doesn’t have to worry about picking up the unexpired portion of ex-women’s basketball coach Kathy Olivier’s contract. She’s being hired as the head coach at UNLV, where she was an Honorable Mention All-American under her maiden name of Kathy Ricks. The Runnin’ Rebels have had two losing seasons in a row, so they turned to Olivier, dismissed as the UCLA coach after 15 seasons and a 232-208 record.
Exclaimed one wag, who felt the Bruins underachieved with Olivier (ya think?), “UNLV de-emphasizes women’s basketball!”
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: Osaar Rasshan may never be the starting quarterback at UCLA. But he’s a good interview and he gave a damning insight into last season’s offensive problems in comments to the Los Angeles Daily News:
Referring to offensive coordinator Norm Chow’s simpler system, Rasshan said “I’ve learned more in the last couple of months than I’ve learned since I’ve been at UCLA.”
On the difference between coaching staffs, “It can’t get too much worse than it was last year. I dealt with so much last year with certain people and having to overcome it. One thing I do commend these coaches on is they have been honest with me from [the beginning].”
= Panorama =
NBA Hoopla:
>> New York, N.Y.: In one of the stranger twists to the already-strange story of the New York Knicks, Isiah Thomas – the team’s president a month ago and its coach a week ago – “has been barred from having any contact with the team as part of his reassignment agreement with Knicks president Donnie Walsh,” according to the New York Daily News.
According to the story, Walsh is still struggling with the corporate culture of the James Dolan-owned Knicks and reporter Frank Isola wrote that “less than a month into his job he has already been embarrassed twice by his own staff.” In the meantime, former Knick Mark Jackson appears to be headed toward the head coaching job after former Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy publicly endorsed him on ABC’s NBA telecast of the Lakers and Nuggets last Sunday.
Pucked Up:
>> Montreal, Quebec: Fans of Montreal’s Canadiens are really excited. Despite being the face of the NHL for generations, the Habs haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1993. This season, they led the Eastern Conference in points and defeated the Boston Bruins last night to win their first-round playoff series, 4-3.
So, of course, “fans” were rioting after the game and set three police cars on fire! After a first-round win?!?
“Many arrests have been made,” said police spokeswoman Annie Lemieux, “Fortunately, no one seems to have been seriously injured so far.” What happens if the Canadiens keep winning?
Keeping Track:
>> Boston, Ma.:World 100 m champion Tyson Gay, the co-favorite in the 100 meters at the Beijing Olympics this August, is already doing well in the race for sponsorships. The Sports Business Journal reported that he’s signed deals with Sega for its Beijing 2008 video game, with Omega for timepieces and McDonald’s for domestic use only so far. Gay will be promoting a new, Southern-style chicken sandwich for McDonald’s starting in June.
Gay’s major sponsor is adidas, which is doing a commercial featuring him and Jesse Owens. Gay is hardly an exciting speaker, but neither was Owens and the two could be a good match on the screen. Both spoke quietly and respectfully to others and Gay could benefit from the comparison, especially if he’s able to win gold medals in the 100 m, 200 m and the 4 x 100 m relay. Unlike Owens, he won’t long jump.
Rings & Things:
>> London, England: Not that it’s any surprise, but Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee chair, Edward Leigh, said that the budgeting for public sector support of the 2012 Olympic Games was “entirely unrealistic” and called the since-reduced estimates of private-sector assistance as “wishful thinking.”
Just to recap, the London bid estimated public sector support at $7.98 billion U.S. (converted from British pounds), but the 2007 estimate had more than doubled to $18.61 billion, although there are those who think this number is also understated. This does not count the money to be spent by the London organizing committee, which is privately funded and will spend about $2 billion to actually stage the Games. This will be one of the main issues to be fought over as soon as the torch is extinguished in Beijing on August 24.
Rassle Maniacs:
>> Greenville, S.C. On the eve of the crucial Pennsylvania Democratic primary, even the WWE got into the act during its “Monday Night Raw” show. The two Democratic contenders, Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, along with Republican nominee-to-be Sen. John McCain all read short scripts to introduce wrestlers on the show and were shown on an in-venue video screen. “Hill-Rod” introduced Hardcore Holly and Carlito; “Ba-Rock” introduced Lord William Regal and Fit Finley and “Jumpin’ Johnny” read a note about an upcoming WWE pay-per-view show and gave a weak rendition of a Ric Flair “wooo” to the crowd.
Clinton and Obama declined a WWE invitation to settle the nomination in a one-on-one match, so the WWE put together a match between impersonators wearing masks of the two candidates! Naturally, a Bill Clinton impersonator came to the ring as the second for Hillary, but the match ended in a double disqualification. Maybe that’s an omen for the forthcoming Democratic National Convention?
~ Rich Perelman
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