≡ Fun & Games ≡
 Lee: already has his first assist as a Bruin! |
= To Our Readers =
You can now find us in two different places on the Web: in addition to The Sports Examiner, we now write three times a week on Olympic sports for the World Championship Sports Network site, WCSN.com in a column called “Inside the Rings.”
Here at The Sports Examiner, we have changed our format to include a weekly intelligence briefing, with commentary, for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and a bonus posting called “Fun & Games” during the week. We’re delighted that Al Brooks Tickets is continuing as a 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.
= The Top Story =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: Scott Wolf’s blog about USC in the Los Angeles Daily News is usually about Trojan football and basketball exploits, but of late, it’s been all about the USC song girl squad.
Wolf and the various commenters on the site have been red-hot over the past few weeks about the lack of “cute” or “attractive” or “pretty” girls on the squad. On Tuesday, this question from a reader:
Q: What do you know about the theory going around that the coach of the song girls deliberately picked ugly members for the squad so that her own daughter would stand out in comparison and it would help out her career in the modeling and entertainment industry? Subsequently, she had the choreographers come up with routines where her daughter would be highlighted, always dancing front and center for each song, while the other girls danced around her.
A: Sure, why not? The process is a joke.
As if to underline the importance of this matter, Wolf ran a poll on the blog on Wednesday, asking “What’s the biggest problem at USC right now?” with four choices: the song girls; the baseball program; the O.J. Mayo investigation and the Reggie Bush investigation.
By 10 p.m., 526 votes had been cast and the poll leader (barely) was the Bush investigation with 178 votes (34%), followed by the song girls (177 votes, 34%), the baseball program (95 votes, 18%) and the Mayo investigation (76 votes, 14%).
Unbelievable.
= The National Pastime =
>> New York, N.Y.: Things are really rough for Willie Randolph as manager of the New York Mets, judging by Joel Sherman’s lead in the New York Post on Tuesday:
“You get the feeling there is greater passion left in Bill and Hillary Clinton’s bedroom than the Mets mustered yesterday in kind of - sort of - saying Willie Randolph will remain as their manager.
“Randolph sat next to GM Omar Minaya at a late-afternoon Shea press conference looking more stone-faced prisoner of war than a lucky recipient of yet another reprieve. You half expected him to start blinking Morse code to express his true feelings.”
But Sherman noted that “This was more stay of execution than endorsement” so the question is not whether but when. Randolph’s contract extends through next season.
>> Arlington, Tx.: The story of Josh Hamilton, who could challenge for the Triple Crown this season, is all the more amazing when one considers how bad his addiction problems were. Albert Chen wrote on SI.com that “he had been banished from baseball in 2004 and was doing coke, downing a bottle of Crown Royal a day and burning through his entire $4 million signing bonus” with no end in sight.
After being the no. 1 pick in the draft in 1999 by Tampa Bay, he was suspended beginning in 2002 because of his drug use; his last suspension finally ended in 2006. Texas traded with Cincinnati to get Hamilton after last season, but before the Rangers would take him on, Chen reported that “they secretly sent scouts to hear him speak to community groups about his recovery and they liked what they heard.” He must provide a urine sample for testing every three days and will do so “until MLB says I don’t have to anymore. It reassures the people who made the decision to let be back in the game that things are good.”
>> New York, N.Y.: From media critic Phil Mushnick of the New York Post: “After reading a piece in this space about Steiner Collectibles charging $120 for framed Yankee Stadium batter’s box dirt, reader David Wilde of Syracuse writes: ‘Considering that George Steinbrenner paid Howie Spira $40,000 for Yankee dirt, $120 isn’t such a bad deal.’”
Spira was a confessed gambler paid by Steinbrenner to find damaging information about then-Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield. The incident led to Steinbrenner’s suspension from baseball “for life” in 1990, a sentence which was later commuted to three years.
= The NBA =
>> San Antonio, Tx.: Robert Horry of the Spurs played in his 244th career playoff game against the Lakers on Tuesday, with the Rockets, Lakers and Spurs. If San Antonio can extend their Western Conference final series against the Lakers to six games, he will have played in 246 career playoff games, the equivalent of three extra seasons in the league, on top of his 15 regular seasons.
>> Miami, Fl.: The rumor mill is already turning. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported that “One Heat official expressed concern that Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni will try to ingratiate himself to Dwyane Wade (and LeBron James) as a U.S. Olympic assistant coach this summer in case the Knicks can clear cap space to pursue either as free agents in 2010.”
>> Cleveland, Oh.: Cavaliers fans are already worried about James declaring for free agency in a couple of years and are looking for moves to make the team a better contender right now. The latest whisper is unhappy Milwaukee Bucks sharpshooter Michael Redd, who played at Ohio State. The 6-6 Redd averaged 22.7 points per game this past season, shot 44.2% on his field goals (36.2% on three-pointers) and made 82.0% of his foul shots. He could be the second scorer that Cleveland needs, but he won’t be cheap at $15.8 million next season and $17.0 million in 2009-10. Anyone want Ben Wallace for $14 million?
= College Basketball =
>> Louisville, Ky.: This is a little different: a college basketball coach telling a player, publicly, “The best thing for him would be to go to a different place.”
That’s Rick Pitino’s advice for 6-8 reserve center Derrick Caracter, a sophomore last season, whose career at Louisville was characterized by Brian Bennett of the Louisville Courier-Journal as “a near-constant distraction.” In April, Pitino called Caracter “a major thorn in my side.”
Caracter’s mother says the player wants to return to school, but Pitino said “He has just too many issues to overcome, academically and otherwise, to be a Louisville Cardinal.” Caracter was declared academically ineligible this week, apparently the final straw for Pitino.
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: Although UCLA coaches communicated their interest in high school star J’Mison Morgan quietly after he was released from his National Letter of Intent to attend LSU, Jeff Eisenberg of the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported:
The coaching staff also got a big assist from incoming recruit Malcolm Lee of Riverside North, who developed a rapport with Morgan during AAU camps and repeatedly called the big man the past few months in hopes of persuading him to come to UCLA.
“Malcolm kept saying, ‘You’ve got to come down here with me. I need a big man,’ Morgan said. “I was really comfortable with Malcolm, so that made a big difference.”
Chalk up Lee’s first assist as a Bruin.
>> Orlando, Fl.: A continuing measure of the quality of the 2007-08 Pac-10 Conference, called the best in the nation by many observers, will be the opening picks of the upcoming NBA Draft. The latest imprimatur of quality was noted by Scott Howard-Cooper of the Sacramento Bee, who reported that of the 15 players asked to come to Orlando only for interviews and physicals and not have to play because of their expected early selection, five were from the league: Kevin Love and Russell Westbrook of UCLA, Jerryd Bayless of Arizona, Brook Lopez of Stanford and O.J. Mayo of USC. All are expected to be lottery picks and three could be in the top five after Michael Beasley (Kansas State) and Derrick Rose (Memphis).
= College Football =
>> New York, N.Y.: The latest to hazard a guess on the status of college football coaches around the country is CBSSports.com’s Dennis Dodd. He ranked all 120 head coaches from “can’t be touched” to “warm seat – feeling the pressure.”
On the warm seat are five coaches: Mike Stoops (Arizona), Greg Robinson (Syracuse), Mike Sanford (UNLV), Brent Guy (Utah State) and at the top of the list, Tyrone Willingham of Washington.
Dodd has 25 coaches listed as totally safe, with the safest being Chris Peterson (Boise State), Brian Kelly (Cincinnati), Urban Meyer (Florida), Mark Richt (Georgia), Mark Mangino (Kansas), Les Miles (LSU), Bo Pelini (Nebraska – new), Jim Tressel (Ohio State), Bob Stoops (Oklahoma), Pete Carroll (USC), June Jones (SMU – new) and Jim Grobe at Wake Forest.
>> Columbus, Oh.: Ohio State has not only beaten Michigan four straight times and six out of seven on the field, but what about the drubbing the Wolverines are taking at the finance office?
Revenue figures for the Big Ten schools show that for 2006 (the most recent year for which reports are available), Ohio State took in $59.14 million in football with Michigan a distant second at $50.98 million. Iowa was a surprising third ($45.34 million), ahead of Penn State ($44.01 million) and Michigan State ($40.79 million). As you might expect, Northwestern was last at $15.51 million.
>> Miami, Fl.: If you’re thinking about going to the 2009 BCS championship game on January 8 at Dolphin Stadium, it’s going to cost you. Not only do you have to buy a ticket for that game at $250 to $325 per seat, but you’ll also be required to purchase a ticket for $110-210 for the January 1 Orange Bowl game. That’s if there are any seats left after last year’s Orange Bowl ticket purchasers get first crack at the championship game tickets.
= Kicker =
>> London, England: That the U.S. national team lost to England, 2-0, at Wembley Stadium yesterday was no surprise. The U.S. can’t score on the road and playing without the injured Landon Donovan didn’t help.
Throughout 2007 and so far in 2008, the U.S. national team has played 22 games. In their 14 homes games, they’re 11-1 plus two draws and have outscored their opponents, 31-12. That’s a per-game average of 2.21 to 0.86.
On the road, the USA is 3-5 and has scored just seven goals against 11 for the opponents, a per-game average of 0.64 to 2..2. Less than two-third a goal per game is not going to get it done, fellas.
>> Tel Aviv, Israel: Avram Grant was fired as manager of Chelsea of the English Premier League after taking the team from fifth place in the standings to just short of the title and then finishing second in the Champions League final, losing to Manchester United last week in Moscow.
Grant told The Sun of London, “No one expected Chelsea to win things because when I took over, the team were fifth and had just been held to a Champions League draw by Rosenborg. No one believe we would have finished second and reached the Champions League final in Moscow.”
Grant, however, isn’t angry, even at Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich. “Roman is a very good friend,” he said.
Maybe that’s because Grant will receive about $8 million for the remaining time on his contract. He won’t have to worry about wins and loss on the field, but only with the Israeli tax authorities.
= Potpourri =
>> Elmont, N.Y.: If Big Brown is ready to go for the Belmont Stakes, track officials expect perhaps 120,000 at Belmont Park for the race on June 7. If not, the crowd could be as low as 50,000. Wow.
>> Bristol, Ct.: ESPN has announced that it will provide coverage of the preliminary rounds of the National Spelling Bee this week from Washington, D.C. with the championship round being shown live on ABC on Friday.
If you have any doubt that this is a competition – although perhaps not a sporting event – just look at the prizes for the 288 participants. Everyone receives a commemorative watch, a $100 U.S. Savings Bond and Webster’s Third International Dictionary (unabridged, of course) on CD.
The national champion receives $30,000 in cash, a trophy, a $5,000 scholarship, a $2,500 U.S. savings bond, a reference library plus additional reference materials from the Encyclopedia Britannica worth more than $3,800 at retail: that’s more than $41,000 and counting. No word on whether H&R Block will provide tax counseling to the winner as well.
~ Rich Perelman
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