Gary Adams has two baseballs in his collection autographed by John Wooden, one of which is on the back cover of his new book.

“Just look at that penmanship,” marveled Adams, UCLA’s baseball coach for 30 seasons before retiring to Bear Valley Springs in the Tehachapi Mountains of Kern County in 2004. “He used to say you could put the NBA 24-second shot clock on him when he was asked to sign a basketball, but he needed the college’s 35-second shot clock when it came to signing a baseball. That certainly is a prized possession.”

Why the 74-year-old Adams would continue to cherish such a small token given to him by the legendary UCLA basketball coach speaks more to a 36-year relationship they started when they shared an office space on Westwood campus for eight years that many may not have known about.

Adams, who played baseball at UCLA from 1959-62, was hired by athletic director J.D. Morgan as the Bruins’ coach in 1975. That was also Wooden’s final season, capped by the last of his 10 NCAA championships.

Morgan wanted Wooden to keep an office at the athletic department, and asked Adams if he wouldn’t mind having a rather high-profile bunkmate.

“When I tell people the story of how J.D. asked this, I say, ‘Well, I’ll have to think about it and get back to you’,” Adams says before laughing.

As it turned out, Wooden made the request to give incoming basketball coach Gene Bartow his own space, and Wooden’s desire to hole up with Adams came from of his unrequited love of baseball.

And as the friendship grew, and the conversations continued, inevitably things would circle back to, of all things, baseball.

Adams’ new book, “Conversations With Coach Wooden: On Baseball, Heroes and Life” (Santa Monica Press, 439 pages, $24.95) reflects more on just the lessons learned by being in the presence of Wooden, who died at age 99 three summers ago, but, inspired by his Pyramid of Success, how he eventually created his own little-publicized Sphere of Commitment as a guide for his players in the late ‘90s.

QUESTION: This isn’t the first book, nor will it likely be the last, about John Wooden and the impact he had on someone’s life. Do you find yourself learning something new from those written before your book? Continue reading →

Magic Johnson and Don Mattingly chat before a game last season. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

The question surrounding if, when, why and how Don Mattingly will lose his prime leaning spot on the Dodgers dugout railing all go back to how decisions really are made in this gaggle of Guggenheimers that include money man Mark Walters, sound-bite Stan Kasten, some other Hollywood hanger-ons, and . . . .

Oh, that guy they’re honoring next week with a “Magic Johnson-themed” T-shirt giveaway, in hopes it might entice more customers to an otherwise off-the-radar Dodgers-Angels series contest.

No need to jog our memory of Magic’s history with coaching changes. Back in ’81, he soon tired of the person in charge got Paul Westhead thrown under Jerry Buss’ undercarriage.

With such a coach-killing track record, where’s Magic’s e-voice been lately with any twits of support for Donnie Baseball?

On May 8: “Dodger Nation: I’m disappointed with our slow start but, I still feel we are going to play better and have a good season.”

There’s someone with some real hardball know-how.

You ever think it’s probably best Magic doesn’t go to the mat for Mattingly? Consider his post on May 21: “I’m supporting Wendy Greuel for Mayor of Los Angeles! Don’t forget to get out and vote today!”

How’d that grueling experience turn out again? Continue reading →

What made it into this week’s media column offering:

Nope, Don Mattingly wasn’t fired Thursday. And a slimmed down version of the Kevin Kennedy piece we put on the blog late Thursday afternoon. And Kennedy does slim down well in an ink-and-paper suit.

What didn’t seem fit: Continue reading →

Kevin Kennedy managed the Boston Red Sox from 1994-1995, and had his team rebound from an 36-49 start his final season to just miss the playoffs with an 85-77 mark.

Let’s be clear about this: Kevin Kennedy isn’t campaigning to be the next manager of the Dodgers.

Can you blame him?

The perspective he has on a day-to-day basis looking down from the Dodgers press box and then having to hop on the air to co-host the “DodgerTalk” postgame show on KLAC-AM 570 gives him an extremely viable platform to do such an underhanded thing.

Instead, imbedded as a media member for the last 14 years since his two stints managing in Texas and Boston came and went, Kennedy isn’t going to grab the mike after watching another Dodgers implosion and say, “If I were managing this team, I would . . .”

“I’m not about that, and I’m not about to go there,” Kennedy said this afternoon. “I have my own ideas and feelings about what a lot of managers do, and I can talk about that sometimes (on his Sirius XM radio show). But on Dodger Talk, if a fan calls in, I let him say his piece and then try to explain it from the other side.

“They’re just seeing the end result, not all the other things that go on before and after, the meeting with the coaches. This is all about teaching the fans. That’s what I love about this job.” Continue reading →

Will Buxton, a British motorsports journalist who NBC has hired to help cover Formula One events, said it this week about the famed Monaco Grand Prix:

“If ever there is a moment at which you became disillusioned with the sport, you are reminded of the majesty and splendor of this incredible sport, it is standing trackside here in Monaco with cars flying past you over 100 mph, inches from your face.
“You can feel the working parts of the engine rise through your feet and your legs, up your spine, draw the breath out of your lungs as they fly past you. This place gives you a buzz for motorsports that nowhere else on earth gives you.”

That’s a legal buzz in Europe, by the way.

Some Americans may feel the same about the IRL’s iconic Indianapolis 500, or NASCAR’s longest race of the year, the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte, N.C. Interestingly, if your 3D flatscreen happens to have fume-a-vision, you’ll be able to experience all three of these races Sunday for the first time in one felled sniff.

The NBC Sports Network has added the Monaco Grand Prix live at 4:30 a.m. ESPN’s production of the Indy 500 for ABC follows at 8 a.m. (with the race at 9:15 a.m.). Fox then caps the pre-Memorial Day trifecta with the NASCAR Sprint Cup classic at 2:30 p.m.

And which one will Danica Patrick be in again? Continue reading →

Interesting timing with the St. Louis Cardinals about to play three at Dodger Stadium this weekend, and the team’s starting rotation appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week as a symbol of how “The Cardinal Way” is about a solid a blueprint as one could have in long-term success.

So, you mean it’s not buying a bunch of guys off the Red Sox roster and hoping they all figure it out somehow?

Writer Ben Reiter makes the case that the Cardinals “are the most consistent franchise in baseball due to an organizational philosophy dedicated to measured and constant evolution.”

Let’s point out: The Cardinals have the best record in the MLB with only nine players left from their 2012 championship team. And without their manager.

“When we think of the Cardinals, we think of a distinct organizational culture: Anodyne, diligent, supportive, resolute. Mostly, we think of consistency. Their 11 championships have been well distributed. No son or daughter of St Louis born since 1902 has reached the age of 25 without having lived through at least one victory parade.”

If you’re 25 years old in L.A., you probably don’t remember the last Dodgers’ World Series title was 25 years ago.

Adam Wainwright, Shelby Miller, Jamie Garcia, Lance Lynn and Jake Westbrook are on the SI cover, inspired by the Oct. 7, 1968 SI cover where “The Cardinal Way” was explored in a feature that had Roger Maris, Tim McCarver, Bob Gibson, Mike Shannon and Lou Brock on the cover.

Lynn (6-1, 3.27) is scheduled to start the opener of the three-game series Friday. Rookie John Gast (2-0, 4.76), replacing the injured Wainwright (inflamed elbow), starts Saturday. Miller (5-3, 1.74) goes Sunday against Clayton Kershaw.

Cards GM John Mozeliak, promoted in 2007, is quoted on why the team eventually let Albert Pujols go to the Angels after the 2012 season.

“Losing an iconic player was not easy — it was jolting,” says Mozeliak. “From a very simplistic standpoint, [once we let him go] we knew we had resources to deploy elsewhere.”

That was, contract extensions for Wainwright and Gold Glove catcher Yadier Molina.

“While an overriding ethos—the Cardinal way—has developed over the years, it is flexible enough to allow the team to capitalize on the game’s changing realities better than any other,” says Reiter.

Stan Kasten’s SI copy is in the mail, we presume.

Highlights of the week ahead, both near and afar:

THIS WEEK’S BEST BET:

NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMIFINALS:
KINGS vs. SAN JOSE
GAME 4: 7 p.m. Tuesday at San Jose, NBC Sports Network:

Slogging through the season finale of ABC’s “Shark Tank” leads us to the conclusion that, maybe not ironically, this thing is about ready to jump that proverbial shark.

Jonathan Quick blocks a goal attempt during the third period in Game 3 in San Jose on Saturday. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

Once a unique platform for some of the most ingenious entrepreneurs in the country, this one was reduced to a single woman pitching her high-end online dating service (apparently it hasn’t worked for her yet), an 11-year-old kid who baked dog treats (“but people can eat ‘em, too”), and a couple of clowns who started a tomato soup and cheese sandwich shop and were trying to market it as the next In-N-Out franchise model. Sadly, Mark Cuban jumped on that last one, bringing in another “shark” to fork over $600,000 for just a 30 percent of the business. “It’s not easy being cheese,” the Dallas Mavs owner said as he shook the hands of his new partners.  And how did the Mavs do in the NBA playoffs again?
Easy-cheesy isn’t how the Kings see their second-round matchup with San Jose’s Sharks shaping up. This reality show, featuring a school of Sharks trying to tank in the home tank (aka, HP Pavilion), reached new dramatic heights with the Game 3 OT decision. Logan Couture has become San Jose’s version of “Mr. Wonderful” with his heroics, while Kings goalie Jonthan Quick is quick to berate the refs for turning their heads to illegal business practices conducted by the San Jose skaters. This one will only get more chippy as the series reaches a far more climatic conclusion – who’s going to cash in on the most power plays?
The series continues this week:
Game 5: 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Staples Center
Game 6: TBA Sunday at San Jose
(A Game 7 would be Tuesday, May 28 at Staples Center)

BEST OF THE REST: Continue reading →

Billy Baldwin wrestles with the fact that there may no such win-win scenario in place to keep wrestling from breaking its own fall.

But he doesn’t act if there’s nothing he can do about.

The No. 3 brother in the Baldwin thespian franchise – behind Alec and Daniel, and ahead of Stephen – has rallied his Hollywood pals to the plight of the sport as the International Olympic Committee considers all kinds of factors as to whether it has a future past the 2016 Summer Games in Rio.

Many will hang out with Baldwin at today’s “United 4 Wrestling” event at the L.A. Sports Arena, where the U.S. national wrestling squad’s biggest names grapples with opponents from Russia and Canada, trying to stay positive after the Iranian team decided to go home early for a variety of reasons.

Baldwin, a high school and Division III college wrestler, explains better why he thinks his words and actions can be of some help:

Q: Ice cream needs to be refrigerated, screw drivers need to be straight-edge and Phillips head, the tires on your car need to be properly inflated, and wrestling needs to remain an Olympic sport. Why is that so hard to understand? And do you get tired of hearing that question all the time? Continue reading →

Head coach Zeke Jones talks to the U.S. national wrestling before practice at Harvard-Westlake High School on Friday. Members of the U.S. Canada and Russia national teams will meet for in exhibition 2 p.m. Sunday at the L.A. Sports Arena. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer) Find more staff photos at this link.

Grapple with this scenario: The sport of wrestling has become such an anachronistic, under-funded and stagnant exercise that the International Olympic Committee has put it on notice — be relevant or else you’ll be voted out as soon as the 2020 Summer Games.

Contrast that to the scene embraced at the Harvard-Westlake School’s historic Hamilton Gym late this afternoon: A few dozen junior high and high school wrestlers, their parents and coaches and other curiosity seekers patiently waited – you know how traffic can be — just to watch the U.S. national wrestling team conduct a two-hour workout on their own “H-W” matted floor laid across the old basketball court.

U.S. national wrestling team star Jordan Burroughs signs a shirt for Patrick Halkett following practice at Harvard-Westlake High School (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

A seven-man U.S. contingent, in New York a couple days earlier competing in a televised international match against Iran and Russia, continues on a “Save Our Sport” agenda with another exhibition planned for 2 p.m. at the L.A. Sports Arena on Sunday afternoon.

The only noticeable and controversial hitch to this one – the Iranian team was unexpectedly called back home by its government late Thursday, potentially derailing the Sunday event. Organizers scrambled to talk the Russian team into changing its plans and come West, as well as recruit some key members of the Canadian national team to join in and rescue it from another public relations nightmare.

Tyler Caldwell, left, and Jon Reader practice at Harvard-Westlake High School. (Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer)

Things can get messy when sports and politics intersect, but they can also motivate to join arms, knees and headlocks into forming a coalition that speaks toward doing more for the greater good as far as all athletes are concerned.

“We’ll adjust fine to the circumstances and keep our focus on the goal of making wrestling an important event on American soil,” said U.S. national coach Zeke Jones, who arranged for the team to shuttle over to the Studio City school from their hotel in El Segundo based on his longtime relationship with Harvard-Westlake coach Gary Bairos. Continue reading →

U.S. freestyle wrestler Obe Blanc, top, and Iran’s Hassan Rahimi kick off an international wrestling exhibition at Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday in New York. Rahami was declared the winner in the bout. The event dubbed “The Rumble on the Rails” raised money for wrestling nonprofit Beat the Streets but took on added significance because of the International Olympic Committee’s recent recommendation to drop the sport starting with the 2020 Games. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

ORIGINAL POST: 10:30 p.m. Thursday, May 16
UPDATED: 7 a.m. Friday, Friday May 17

Without an official explanation, the Iranian national wrestling team abruptly returned home Thursday and will not compete against a United States squad as planned Sunday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena.

First reported by the Daily News on Thursday night, the reason for the team’s departure a day after decisively winning an exhibition against the U.S. in an international meet in New York remains a mystery at a critical time in promoting the sport as its Olympic future hangs in the balance

Former Olympic gold medalist and professional wrestler Kurt Angle holds up a T-shirt during a three-nation wrestling exhibition at Grand Central Terminal on Wednesday (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

A goodwill tour ongoing this month involving the U.S., Russia and Iran was to boost awareness for Olympic wrestling, which might be canceled during the Summer Games starting in 2020. Wrestling is one of eight sports seeking to fill one spot in the 2020 Olympics and a key vote by the International Olympic Committee will take place May 29 in Russia to recommend three of eight sports to advance to a final vote  in September.

In a joint statement released this morning by USA Wrestling executive director Rich Bender and Bill Scheer, the chairman of the Committee for the Preservation of Olympic Wrestling, the program for the “United 4 Wrestling” 2 p.m. event Sunday has been changed to include the U.S. team facing a squad from Russia and Canada instead.

“We have been informed by the Iranian Wrestling Federation that the team’s schedule has changed and they have departed for Iran,” said the statement.

“We are thankful to the Iranian Wrestling Federation for their participation in New York. We had an outstanding competition with the three countries and the Iranians have assured us that they remain committed to the cause of keeping wrestling in the Olympics.”

The U.S. team is scheduled to train this afternoon at Harvard-Westlake High School in Studio City in preparation for Sunday’s event, which organizers had planned to attract many Iranian-Americans to attend as they did in New York.

Iranian fans cheer as Iranin wrestlers compete in an exhibition wrestling match at Grand Central Terminal, Wednesday in New York. “The Rumble on the Rails” exhibition, featuring teams from the United States, Iran and Russia, raised money for charity but is also aimed at drawing attention to the sport’s attempt to stay in the Olympics. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Wednesday, the Iranian team defeated the U.S. team, six matches to one, during their first visit to the U.S. in a decade. Fans waved Iranian flags and blew horns loudly.

“It was really loud in there,” said U.S. wrestler Kyle Drake afterward in an Associated Press story. “Feels like we were in Tehran. What’s going on? Where’s our USA folks?”