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The Daily Digest for Wednesday, April 30, 2008 |
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April 30, 2008 |
≡ The Daily Digest ≡
 Scully: will consult with Sandy (not Koufax) on retirement! |
= To Our Readers =
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= Tonight’s Menu =
>> Miami, Fl.: The suddenly resurgent Dodgers, now 13-13 and winners of four in a row, are in Miami against tonight to face the 15-11 Marlins. Chad Billingsley (0-4, 6.53 ERA) will be on the hill for Los Angeles against Scott Olsen (3-0, 2.06). The Blue Crew is suddenly swinging the bat well, scoring 51 runs in its last eight games, a 6.4 rpg average. Add in that the Dodgers are 9-5 in their last 14 against Florida and the oddsmakers have L.A. a small favorite. It takes $120 to try to win $100 on the Dodgers, but $100 on the home team could return $105.
>> Anaheim, Ca.: The 17-11 Angels are tied with Oakland for the best record in the American League and continue their series at Angel Stadium tonight. Ervin Santana will try to match Joe Saunders’ achievement of starting the season 5-0; he’s 4-0 so far with a 2.97 ERA; Dana Eveland (3-1, 2.48 ERA) will pitch for Oakland. Even with last night’s loss, Oakland is on a 7-3 run, but the sharpies like Santana at home. It takes $150 to try to win $100 on the Halos, but $100 on the visitors could be worth $105 with an A’s win.
= L.A. Stories =
What’s Bruin:
>> New York., N.Y.: Before too many tears are shed for Ben Howland and the Bruin basketball team, SI.com’s Luke Winn has UCLA no. 2 in the nation on his Power Rankings for next season:
What happened in April: A declaration party. Kevin Love, Russell Westbrook, Lic Richard Mbah A Moute and Josh Shipp all put their names in the draft, but none hired an agent. Junior Darren Collison opted to stay. I’m evaluating the Bruins with the expectation that Mbah A Moute and Shipp will also be back in Westwood.
Impact: Given that Collison would have been a first-round pick, his return was the surprise of the draft-deadline weekend. He and [Tyler] Hansbrough will share the Roy Hibbert Spirit Trophy – for enhancing the college game as seniors, not improving their draft stock – and be locks for preseason first-team All-America status. Having Collison, Jrue Holiday and Josh Shipp at the 1-2-3 spots will make for a dangerous, perimeter-based offense that should run away with the Pac-10.
Wynn has Connecticut at no. 1, the Bruins no. 2 and then North Carolina, Duke, Purdue in his top five, followed by Pittsburgh, Louisville, Tennessee, Texas and Notre Dame in the top 10. The only other Pac-10 team ranked is USC at 15 (see below).
Talk of Troy:
>> New York, N.Y.: Here’s Winn’s take on the Trojan basketballers for 2008-09:
What happened in April: Two guard O.J. Mayo and his NBA-logoed socks turned pro, as did fellow freshman Davon Jefferson, who had the kindness to declare without even informing his team about it before the deadline. Sophomores Taj Gibson and Daniel Hackett kept their names out of the draft pool.
Impact: Mayo’s departure creates an offensive void – he took 34.4 percent of the Trojans’ shots, after all – but incoming freshman Demar Derozan is capable of filling it. He arrives with far less hype than Mayo, who was known nationally for his entire high school career, but the offensive skills to average 18-plus points per game in the Pac-10. Derozan was the U.S.’ top player at the Nike Hoop Summit in Portland, Ore., earlier this month, and should coexist better with Hackett than Mayo did. (If you recall, Mayo began his stay at USC by breaking Hackett’s jaw – allegedly by punching him – in a pickup game.)
The only other Pac-10 school listed in Wynn’s list is Arizona State, listed as a possible breakthrough team.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: USC is on its way to winning the Lexus Gauntlet this season, maintaining its supremacy in even-numbered years and evading what would have been a major collapse.
It takes 57 1/2 points to win the trophy and the Trojans raced out to a 50-12 1/2 lead during the fall and early winter months. But the Bruins came into April with a chance to win the trophy, but faltered on the golf course.
Trailing 47 1/2-37 1/2 going into last week’s Pac-10 women’s golf championship, no. 1-ranked UCLA finished second to third-ranked USC and lost five points to give the Trojans a 52 1/2-37 1/2 lead. The Bruin men entered the Pac-10 golf tourney ranked in the top three in the nation, but USC – also in the top five – has a 12-shot lead going into today’s final round. If the Trojans finish out the tourney ahead, they’ll clinch the Gauntlet with 57 1/2 points.
On Saturday, the Bruin and Trojan rowing teams face off and then the USC-UCLA dual track & field meet will be held at Drake Stadium in Westwood. Our dope sheet has the Bruin men winning a close one, 86-77, and the USC women ending Bruin coach Jeanette Bolden’s 73 dual-meet win streak with an 82-81 victory. In other words, both meets are too close to call.
>> Thinking Blue: As Russell Martin emerges from his season-opening slump and Andruw Jones continues his, the New York Times noted that during yesterday’s ceremonies for a lifetime achievement award, Vin Scully actually discussed retirement.
Yikes!
As Richard Sandomir wrote of the Dodger icon, “He is 80 and said he felt fine. He still loves calling baseball.
“But his contract expires after this season, and he said he would follow the advice of his wife, Sandy, about continuing a run that began in Brooklyn in 1950 and has spanned the ownership of the O’Malley family, Rupert Murdoch and Frank McCourt.
“‘I want to spend a lot of time with her,’ he said at the dinner at Sotheby’s that honored him and another renowned Fordham alumnus, Charles Osgood, of CBS News.
“‘There’s a lot of hoopla in this job, but it’s lonely for the wife,’ he said. ‘So I want to talk seriously with her about her feelings. I want to know what in her head. We’ll talk it out over the long summer and then we’ll talk to Frank.’”
Scully said he didn’t know what his wife will say, but told Sandomir, “She’s so selfless that she’ll probably say, ‘Whatever you feel you should do, we’ll do,’ and then we’ll be back at Square 1.”
= Panorama =
The National Pastime:
>> New York, N.Y.: Leave it to the New York Post to come up with a crackerjack headline so early in the season.
The Yankees’ Phil Hughes has had a terrible April. The 21-year-old from Mission Viejo is 0-4 with an ERA of 9.00 and the Yanks are in a quandry as to what to do with him. “I am struggling, big-time,” he said.
Says The Post: “Phils like time for a demotion.” Ouch.
College Hoopla:
>> Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina men’s basketball team played a pickup game on Tuesday with a unique ringer: Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
According to news reports, a member of Obama’s staff told the director of the Smith Center – a.k.a. The DeanDome – that the candidate would like to play basketball with the Tar Heels. Obama is in North Carolina in advance of Tuesday’s primary.
The scrimmage was set up and Carolina coach Roy Williams, prohibited by NCAA rules from watching any off-season games, showed up anyway to make sure nothing went wrong. However, because the session was voluntary, UNC maintained that no violation was committed and that these were “extraordinary circumstances.”
Apparently, the NCAA agrees as an organization spokesman wrote the Charlotte News and Observer and said that “This was a unique situation and not an NCAA issue.”
Passing the ball to Obama was. Williams was reported to have said, loudly, “You’ve got the future president of the United States wide open” and the Tar Heels started feeding the ball more frequently to the Illinois senator.
College Gridiron:
>> Berkeley, Ca.: Those underachieving Bears!
How could Cal finish with a 3-6 in the conference – tied for seventh – and with a 7-6 record overall? Bears fans are asking that question after six Cal players were picked in the first seven rounds of the NFL Draft last week, fourth-most in the nation. Only USC (10), Virginia Tech (8) and LSU (7) had more draftees and all three of those schools won 11 or more games!
Cal’s total of six players drafted is the most since 1977 (also six), but when the draft was 12 rounds instead of the current seven. Stanford had no players drafted, but had the same conference record as the Bears.
Batter up:
>> New Delhi, India: “The manner in which semi-clad girls keep shaking their limbs is in bad taste,” said Shiv Sena political party leader Uddhav Thackeray and so the cheerleading squad for the Delhi Daredevils of the Indian Premier (Cricket) League has been disbanded.
The argument over cheerleader clothing and routines has also hit Mumbai, which has drastically changed the cheerleader outfits to “cover them up.” However, the Washington Redskins’ cheerleaders are still planning to perform at matches for the Bangalore Royal Challengers.
No one seems to have asked the players yet if the cheerleaders make a difference . . . to them. Since NBA players have called the dance squads at some arenas distracting, perhaps it’s a competitive advantage for those teams which have the cheer squads.
Kicker:
>> Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Proving again that truth is stranger than fiction, Brazilian star Ronaldo is “in hiding” after a fracas with three cross-dressing prostitutes at a motel early Monday morning.
Ronaldo acknowledged to police that he knew he was with prostitutes (prostitution is legal in Brazil), but tried to get rid of them after it turned out they were men! The prostitutes refused $600 U.S. to leave and one demanded 50,000 Brazilian Reals (about $30,000) to keep the story away from the press. When Ronaldo would not pay the extortion demand, one of the prostitutes broke into his car.
Both the soccer star and the prostitutes will be questioned further next week. Ronaldo is under contract with AC Milan, but is recovering from knee surgery.
~ Rich Perelman
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