If you haven't seen Will Ferrell lately, well ... weren't you watching the Oscars?
That big bush of curly hair has been on top of his head since long before the release of his recent movie, "Stranger Than Fiction," and the reason is he's been growing it out for the role he's playing in the New Line Cinema movie, "Semi-Pro." He plays Jackie Moon, the owner and coach of a fictional old ABA team called the Flint (Mich.) Tropics that's trying to be among those that merges with the NBA in the late '70s. Woody Harrelson is the former NBA benchwarmer that joins the motley team in a late pursuit for glory before the merger takes place with the NBA. Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 from OutKast) is also in it.
And Will needs your help.
A company called Big Crowds, which assists movies that need people to fill in scenes with people, is looking for anyone willing to take part in the filming of "Semi-Pro." Ferrell, Harrelson, Benjamin and director Kent Alterman will be present for these scenes filmed at a location near Dodger Stadium on March 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 27 and 28. Those willing to be in it are asked to take shifts from 8am – 1pm, or from 2pm – 8pm.
To register for this, go to www.beinamovie.com and find out more -- espeically the stuff these guys are going to be doing during the filming.
Dancing around in pina colada outfits? It's a Ferrell movie. Consider all possibilities.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For $2.99 and a PayPal account, you too can get a sneak peak at some of the junk that former Hollywood madam Jody Babydol Gibson is throwing around on her website that'll be part of her new book, "Secrets of a Hollywood Super Madam" ($17.95 in paperback), which is set for release tomorrow.
Among the chapters available online that are making the rounds on sports blogs is her account of how former Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda comandeered one of her employees at the cost of $1,500 for an hour and a half of pleasure. What kind? Without getting specific, think Orel Hershiser.
Gibson, who was on with Joe McDonnell on his KLAC-AM (570) show last night, says the Lasorda encounter took place between 1993 and '97 -- she's hazy on the details, she says, because she only kept track of things by months, not years, in her record books and spending four years in jail at a maximum detention center in Chowchilla has caused her to be a bit disorientated about what year anything took place at this point.
With Chapter 12 focusing on one "La Sorda" (sic) trist, our favorite quote -- whether it's true or not -- is after Thomas the Train decides on the agreed-upon figure with someone named Nanna, he says:
“That sounds fine, Sash (Gibson's nickname). I’m looking to get together this week. I’m thinking Thursday late afternoon. I’ve got to get home to the wife for dinner.”
At least Tommy knows where to find good cooking, and a hearty meal, in one day. And Jo Lasorda can still cook, if you know what we mean.
Lasorda has hired an attorney to dispute the claims in the book, which was first revealed in the mainstream press by that tabloid wannabe, the Los Angeles Times.
"I have never heard of this woman and don't know why she would accuse me of something like this," Lasorda said in a statement issued by his attorney, Tony Capozzola. "But if she prints these lies, I intend to sue."
At which point, we may finally be able to ask Tommy the question: What did you think of Nanna's performance?

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As advertised, the guys at SCP Auctions held their Dodger Stadium press conference this morning to show off that 1909 Honus Wagner tobacco card that sold recently for the outrageous sum of $2.35 million.
As for the guy who shelled out for it? We don't know.
If Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall were once crazy enough to own up to it, why can't this guy? Or girl? Or circus freak?
The so-called "Mona Lisa" of baseball cards, a mere 2x2 1/2 inches, arrived with an armed guard and was put on display for all the photographers to snap pictures of it. But the owner decided he didn't pay for the publicity that goes with it.
"He said, 'Hey, let's let the world know and have a news conference, but I don't want my name out there,'" SCP president David Kohler said. "We have to respect that."
SCP bought a minority stake in the card.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 5:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If the Super Bowl and the Oscars are the two true TV holidays for this country, the NFL would like everyone to know that it rules.
According to a blurb sent out by the league offices today, more people watched this year's AFC Championship (46.7 million viewers) and NFC Championship (43.2 million viewers) games than watched the Academy Awards (40.2 million viewers) on Sunday.
Also, more women watched the Super Bowl (42.2 million) than total viewers watched the Academy Awards (40.2 million viewers). In fact, 66% more women watched the Super Bowl than the Academy Awards (25.4 million).
Now the league can get back to counting its money and trying to figure out who the next halftime show act will be (may we suggest Springsteen)?
And by the way, why was Lakers fan Jack Nicholson bald? Chemo?
Turns out the extreme haircut was just devotion to craft.
Seems he's filiming a movie called "The Bucket List" with Morgan Freeman. They are two terminally ill cancer victims who escape the hospital to finish a list of things they want to do before they die. The Rob Reiner film is supposed to come out in November.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's the famous T206 Honus Wagner tobacco baseball card that Wayne Gretzky and former Kings owner Bruce McNall once pooled their pennies together to buy as an investment more than 10 years ago. But as are the nature of cards, this one keeps getting traded. For big money. Now, someone else owns it. Who? We're supposed to find out tomorrow when the buyer reveals his identity and the cost of purchase at a press conference to be held at Dodger Stadium.
All we are told is that it is a "private California sports collector" who "paid a record-shattering price" for the card recognized by collectors as the most famous and valuable cards in existence. The AP has reported the sale to be in the $2.3 million range. The buyer is also a minority partner of the Mission Viejo-based SCP Auctions, Inc., a sports card and memorabila auction company.
A little history about this "Mona Lisa of Trading Cards"
-- Gretzky and McNall paid $451,000 for it in 1991.
-- In 1995 the card was sold to Wal-Mart for an undisclosed amount (reported to have been in excess of $500,000). The company used it in a nationally advertised sales contest. Patricia Gibbs, a postal worker from Florida, won it, but then offered it at auction to help pay the tax liability on the winnings.
--In 1996, collector Michael Gidwitz bought it for $641,500.
--In 2000, the card went on eBay.com and sold for $1.1 million, plus a buyer's premium of $165,000, to collector Brian Seigel.
It is believed that only about 50 or 60 Honus Wagner cards, No. 486 of the 514-card T206 set, were ever distributed, but only a handful have been sold publicly. According to the 25 highest recorded sales of significant baseball cards sold at public auction, three different T206 Honus Wagner in varying conditions are the most expensive trading cards ever sold.
The card's legend is inherent to its rarity and value. As part of its landmark 523 card T206 baseball issue, the American Tobacco Company intended to issue a trading card set - inserted into packs of cigarettes - including Wagner's likeness, as well as other baseball stars of the day. Wagner, however, reportedly objected to the use of his name in association with smoking and demanded that the company stop production and distribution of his likeness in the set.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 2:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back in June, it was the arrival of "Nacho Libre" that sparked the first debate over what was the best and worst so far for 2006 in the sports movie genre. It also gave us the excuse to show a photo of Ana de la Reguera that could be her calling card if "Monday Night Football" ever needed a real Latino sideline girl.

After writing in today's Daily News about all the frustration we had with 2006 sports flicks that were based on real stories but failed in some ways to deliver the truth, we've got a few lists on what sports did for our entertainment value last year. None may be Oscar-worthy, definitely thick in revisionist history, but many were worth the $10 movie ticket price:

TOP FIVE, OVERALL:
1. "Glory Road"
A story that needed to be told, even with some inaccuracies, about the 1966 Texas Western NCAA basketball championship team. Loved Josh Lucas as Don Haskins, with USC's Tim Floyd as a consultant.

2. "We Are Marshall"
The plane crash that claims the lives of the 1970 Marshall University football team and how they rebuilt. Matthew McConaughey as coach Jack Lengyel and Matthew Fox as assistant Red Dawson were outstanding.

3. "Gridiron Gang"
The Rock tames the deliquent kids at Camp Kilpatrick in Malibu. But did this guy, as coach Sean Porter, really start the football program? No, but we're OK with it. Because it still exists.

4. "Rocky Balboa"
Corny? Sure. Yet it ties together the series that started in 1976. It's over-the-top to hear Jim Lampley call the final bout: "One of the most outrageous and compelling events in boxing," but even more surreal to see Mike Tyson ringside at Mandalay Bay and see that Stu Nahan get a closing credit as the "Computer Fight commentator."

5. "Invincible"
See “Glory Road” in the authenticity department, but at least Marky Mark does a good Vince Papale, avoiding any Dirk Digler relapses. Definitely Disneyfied the bar scenes in South Philly. It ended up as the No. 1 box-office movie two weeks in a row during the fall.

TOP THREE DOCUMENTARIES:
1. "Heart of the Game"
Ludacris narrates in the story about a girls basketball team in Seattle starring Darneila Russell. Says coach Bill Reissler: “I couldn’t care less about winning or losing. But winning is more fun.”

2. "Once in a Lifetime"
The story of how the New York Cosmos came to represent what American soccer was all about: A puff of promotion, then gone, with Pele and a media guy named Steve Ross steering the ship.

3. “In the Crease”
Follow around a traveling 14-year-old hockey team, the California Wave, that practices at a rink in Lakewood and go to the national championships. Oscar-nominated filmmaker Matt Gannon: “We felt like no one had ever taken an inside look at youth sports and what it involves for coaches and families.”

Read on for more lists ....

TOP THREE SLEEPERS (FIND 'EM ON DVD):
1. "The Flying Scotsman"
Based on the story of Scottish cyclist Graeme Obree, who in 1993 broke the world one-hour record on a bike that he constructed out of scrap metal and parts of a washing machine, only to have his title stripped and send him into mental problems.

2. "The World's Fastest Indian"
Anthony Hopkins as Burt Munro, breaking the world land speed record in 1967 on a 1920 Indian motorcycle.

3. "Peaceful Warrior"
A college gymnasts seeks advice from a coach named Socrates (Nick Nolte). Bart Connor added for authenticity.

TOP SEVEN GUILTY PLEASURES (aka: Our seven deadly sins):
1. "Nacho Libre"
Tough to top Jack Black in turqoise spandex. He says he learned “the anaconda squeeze move from a coach in L.A." Coolest thing about the special edition DVDs is an actual luchador mask is included.

2. "Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby"
What does Laughing Clown Malt Liquor taste like?

3. "Stick It"
A rebellious gymnast named Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) flips out. Jeff Bridges does his best Kurt Russell (from “Miracle”) to be a nasty coach. The music from Adam Ant’s “Goody Two Shoes” works here.

4. "She’s the Man"
Amanda Bynes is all that trying to pass as a male college soccer player. Wear a cup.

5. "Beerfest"
The problem here is you can’t drink beer while you watch the movie because the concession stands don’t sell it.

6. "Akeelah and the Bee"
Is it a sports flick just because it’s on ESPN. Mark Cuban is the executive producer.

7. "Jackass 2"
Extreme sports, to the extreme. Johnny Knoxville was knocked unconsious three times during this one.

WORST FIVE, OVERALL:
1. "The Benchwarmers"
Jon Heder reprises Napolen Dynamite in dumbness, with David Spade and Rob Schneider. But too many weird male-sex references with Sean Salisbury.

2. "Goal: The Dream Begins"
Like a bad Telemundo soap opera. The first of a trilogy. Can't wait to miss the other two.

3. “Crossover”
Let others say it best: Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune: “(There is) more swooshing / zapping / whamming sound effects than a year’s worth of ‘The O’Reilly Factor.’ Nathan Lee of the New York Times: "(It) is a decent example of Sidekick Cinema: A movie to glace up at from time to time while you download ring tones or text-message your friends."

4. "Game 6"
Michael Keaton as a playwrite dealing with the 1986 World Series and the Boston Red Sox. We expected something far better with this cast and screenwriter Don DeLillo, but it was just like the ball that went through Buckner's legs: deflating.

5. "Cloud 9"
Burt Reynolds as a women's beach volleyball coach, with Angie Everhardt and Gabby Reece. All that's missing is Tom Arnold. Oh, wait. Here's there, too. Went straight to video at R-rated. For ridiculous.

Honorable mention: The basketball scenes involving Jesse Metcalfe in “John Tucker Must Die,” including a sommersalt to a slam dunk.

MOVIE WE WANTED TO SEE BUT COULDN'T FIND:
1. "Chuch Ball"
With Fred Willard, Gary Coleman, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Mark Eaton and Hot Rod Hundley, about a Mormon basketball team. We're still on a mission to find it, and will have to check the DVD giveaway shelf.

OUR FAVORITE LINES:
From "Akeelah and the Bee:
Akeelah Anderson (Keke Palmer), when asked by her middle-school principal if she'd go to the local spelling bee: "Why would I want to represent a school that can’t even put doors in the bathroom stalls?”

From "Scary Movie 4":
Shaquille O'Neal: "Boo-ya!" After he throws something that knocks a bank of lights onto the head of Dr. Phil. OK, we only saw that on the TV commercials.

From "Stick It!"
A friend of Haley, at a gymnastics meet after checking out the girls in tight leotards: “How did we not know about this sport?”

From "Talledaga Nights"
Ricky Bobby, after he opened the hook to look at the engine of his new race car: "That’s like looking up Yasmine Bleeth’s skirt”

From "Talledaga Nights"
One of Ricky Bobby's kids after he said a prayer at the dinner table: “You made that grace your bitch.”

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 4:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Author Randy Williams says his book, "Sports Cinema 100" may be in the process of being turned into a TV special. That'd be cool. The book itself is rich in research about 100 of the best sports-related movies ever made, and doesn't shy away from including two from the Marx Brothers and two from Buster Keaton among the usual "Hoosiers," "Field of Dreams" and "The Natural" naturals.
How about "Gladiator," with Russell Crowe. Sports? That made the list at No. 33.
"Absolutely," Williams said. "It was the Super Bowl, World Series and Daytona 500 of its day, only the stakes were higher. Losers went home in a coffin or were eaten. If pay-per-view television were available then, its revenue records would still stand today."
Sports-related movies coming out in 2007 that could make Williams' list include a Baldwin brothers production of Max Schmeling.
As for the current 100, here's how Williams decided they deserved to be ranked:

100. Million Dollar Legs
99. All the Right Moves
98. Knute Rockne: All-American
97. Mr. Baseball
96. The Love Bug
95. Remember the Titans
94. On Any Sunday
93. Friday Night Lights
92. Le Mans
91. The Freshman
90. The Black Stallion

89. Cool Runnings
88. Rollerball
87. Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream
86. Victory
85. The Bingo Long Traveling
All-Stars and Motor Kings
84. Junior Bonner
83. Bend It Like Beckham
82. It Happens Every Spring
81. Love and Basketball
80. Gregory's Girl

79. Kingpin
78. Blue Chips
77. Big Wednesday
76. Everybody's All-American
75. Personal Best
74. Dogtown and Z-Boys
73. Rudy
72. Enter the Dragon
71. Tin Cup
70. A League of Their Own

69. Major League
68. Fear Strikes Out
67. 16 Days of Glory
66. The Stratton Story
65. Damn Yankees
64. City for Conquest
63. Jim Thorpe: All-American
62. The Endless Summer
61. Battling Butler
60. The Champ

59. He Got Game
58. Bang the Drum Slowly
57. The Bad News Bears
56. The Great White Hope
55. Blood and Sand
54. Grand Prix
53. Cinderella Man
52. Cobb
51. Pat and Mike
50. White Men Can't Jump

49. Without Limits
48. The Color of Money
47. The Rookie
46. Soul of the Game
45. Jerry Maguire
44. Fat City
43. The Pride of the Yankees
42. Phar Lap
41. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner
40. National Velvet

39. Caddyshack
38. Here Comes Mr. Jordan
37. 61
36. Miracle
35. When We Were Kings
34. A Day at the Races
33. Gladiator
32. Million Dollar Baby
31. Horse Feathers
30. Downhill Racer

29. College
28. The Natural
27. The Harder They Fall
26. Eight Men Out
25. Night and the City

24. Field of Dreams
23. Seabit
22. Somebody Up There Likes Me
21. Heaven Can Wait
20. Hoosiers

19. Gentleman Jim
18. The Longest Yard
17. Body and Soul
16. Hoop Dreams
15. The Set-Up
14. Brian's Song
13. Tokyo Olympiad
12. North Dallas Forty
11. Champion
10. Slap Shot

9. Requiem for a Heavyweight
8. Breaking Away
7. Rocky
6. Olympia
5. Raging Bull
4. Chariots of Fire
3. This Sporting Life
2. Bull Durham
1. The Hustler

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By STEVE FRIESS
New York Times
LAS VEGAS — After resolving a lawsuit over his victory in the World Series of Poker last summer, Jamie Gold acknowledged he had some regrets about his experience at the tournament, although none of them were about his legal issues.
In his first interview since the settlement, Gold, a 38-year-old Hollywood producer from Paramus, N.J., said the lawsuit was not difficult to resolve, although the agreement bars him from disclosing the fate of the record-setting $12-million purse.
But Gold apologized for his previously undisclosed antics during the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em
tournament — antics that might have resulted in penalties if he had been caught.
The most significant admissions were that he flashed one of his cards at a competitor during the main event and that he tipped off a friend about one of his hands.
“You should never flash a card,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking, ‘Wow, I’m going to bend the rules.’ I was just so caught up in the excitement of what was happening and I kind of just lost myself and I regret doing that. And I basically told a friend of mine what I had because I didn’t want him to bust out and that was also really inappropriate. And I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen again. People are just going to have to forgive me.”
The admissions are likely to stir up new controversy for Gold, whose victory celebration was marred by a lawsuit filed against him by Crispin Leyser that led to a court order freezing $6 million of the prize.
Leyser said that Gold pledged to give him half his winnings in exchange for Leyser’s help in recruiting minor celebrities to play in the World Series of Poker under the banner of Gold’s sponsor, the poker Web site Bodog.com.
“The first moment we actually got into a room together, we settled it,” Gold said. “It’s just a misunderstanding and it’s behind me.”
Leyser could not be reached for comment.

Read on ...

The spokesman for the World Series of Poker, Gary Thompson, said the prize money had been dispersed since the Feb. 7 settlement and expressed surprise at Gold’s admissions. “Technically, it can be construed as collusion and is clearly a violation of the rules, as is flashing a card during the play of a hand,” Thompson said. Still, he said, “It’s over, it’s done.”
Phil Gordon, a professional poker player and the co-host of Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown, who had been critical of Gold’s conduct at the tournament, said, “It’s refreshing that Jamie can acknowledge
that his behavior was inappropriate.”
Gold said his focus in recent months has largely been on his parents. His father was in the final throes of a six-year
struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and died in December. Throughout the tournament, he spoke movingly about his desire to take care of his ailing father and to provide for his soon-to-be-widowed mother.
Gold, who as a talent agent in the 1990s represented the actors James Gandolfini, Donnie
Wahlberg, and Felicity Huffman, is also busy creating television shows through his
production company, Buzznation. One of its first shows is a reality contest, “America’s Hottest Mom,” which does not have a network yet.
With his father’s death and the legal issues behind him, Gold said he was looking forward to getting back into the games at his home casino, the Commerce Casino near downtown L.A., and gearing up for the next World Series of Poker, which starts in June.
Unlike other World Series of Poker champs who are rankled by the suggestion that they caught lucky breaks en route to their victories, Gold agreed that he had his share of good fortune in those blistering summer weeks in Las Vegas.
“I’m lucky in life, my whole life has been fortunate,” Gold said. “Every single great thing that’s happened to me I’ve
been really grateful. Maybe I was lucky. I don’t know how you can beat 9,000 people without being lucky.”

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 2:32 AM | Permalink

By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press Writer

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Dowdy, wimpy, elitist — that’s the stereotype of croquet, Bob Alman concedes. A former manager at the National Croquet Center, he knows his sport has an image problem.

But Alman has an answer, and another set of adjectives for a hybrid soccer and croquet game he’s helped invent: goofy, outrageous and all-terrain. He’s hoping the new sport can boost croquet’s image.

Played with colored soccer balls that are kicked instead of hit and jumbo-sized wickets, the hybrid game is called Toequet. Another version using standard croquet mallets has been dubbed Malletball.

“I think of it as an extreme form of croquet,” said Alman, who is also editor of a croquet magazine. “I think the super-size, the extreme factor, helps take away a little bit of the wimp.”

Read on, if you must ...

Schools, recreation departments, clubs and even a juvenile hall have already purchased sets of the balls and wickets Alman helps promote. And he has taken to staging games at and around the West Palm Beach croquet center, billed as the world’s largest. Beginning in March, he will take Malletball on the road, giving free lessons everywhere from the beach to a
banyan grove.
“I really thought it was a joke,” said West Palm Beach resident Margaret Mihlon of the new game.
Mihlon was one of a number of adult players who tried the sport for the first time at the croquet center in early February. A croquet player for 15 years, Mihlon said she changed her views after playing with the soccer balls. There’s strategy involved, she said.
The idea for jumbo croquet began a few years ago in Terre Haute, Ind. Croquet fan Denny Ridgway created a giant version of the game with basketballs but no mallets for a family reunion. Soon he was setting up courses for dinner parties, and friends urged him to market the game.
When Alman heard about the fledgling company, he obtained a set for the croquet center, originating Malletball by using standard croquet mallets to play. Ridgway later sold the game. It’s now owned by Canada-based croquet mallet manufacturer Don Oakley, who sells game equipment at the croquet center and online for $143. Mallets modified specifically for soccer balls cost extra.
Alman insists the game is ready to take off, and it isn’t the first time he has pushed the boundaries of traditional croquet. While living in San Francisco in the 1980s, he and friends sometimes dressed in white — required on tournament croquet courts and at some clubs — and set up their backyard set in places like an army base and the lawn of a major corporation, playing games of “guerrilla croquet.”
Toequet and Malletball are an extension of that irreverence and can be played almost anywhere, he said.
At the croquet center, the basic rules are: teams of two alternate turns kicking or knocking their ball through the
wickets. The first person through the wicket gets a point for the team, and the whole group moves on to the next.
A group of about 40 students from Meadow Park Elementary School testing Toequet for the first time at the center learned quickly. After a few minutes of instruction from Alman (nicknamed Mr. Wicket by the kids), the students were guiding the soccer balls through the course.
Nicolas Parra, 11, and his partner Andrew Buckmaster, 10, named their team the Vikings and strategized only one would shoot for the wicket in play while the other would set up for the following one. The team they were playing — Tori Perron and Emily Guzman, both 11 — tried standing behind their balls so they wouldn’t get knocked out of position.
“You have to use your brain and also your feet,” said Ramon Concepcion, 10.
Janet Catalano, who played Malletball several weeks later with a group of adults said she enjoyed the sport. But Catalano, who came wearing earrings with balls the colors used in croquet, was not ready to give up the traditional game.
“My choice is still the standard croquet,” she said.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 1:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back to matters of motor sports, golf, college hoops and other things the media world begs us to know about:

--Steve Rushin's mysterous departure from Sports Illustrated after 19 years, as evidenced by his farewell column posted in the latest (Feb. 26) issue, is just part of the recent layoffs Time Inc., has instituted at the magazine that continues to promote babes in bikinis over quality writing. Marc Isenberg, whose blog "Money Players" tries to deal with the business end of sports and how they affect amateur athletes, writes in new posting: "At least two other SI writers have been reportedly been let go. These departures appear to be part of a larger trend by SI to rid itself of much of its breathable 'Air and Space' and turn the magazine over to a higher power: swimsuit models.
Of course, a picture of a scantily clad woman tells a 1000 words. Now multiply by 10 or so. By that word count, Rick Reilly better up his game. I don't have a problem with magazines that show (tasteful) photos of beautiful woman, but leave it to the pros (Maxim, FHM, etc.). Sports Illustrated is Axe-ing readers to accept bread and circus over good writing. No subtlety here: 'Spray more. Get more.' So goodbye Steve Rushin. Get ready for more Jenn Sterger. The title 'Air and Space' remains appropriate, although now good writing will be replaced by gobs of silicon." We emailed the media relations department at SI when we got an advanced copy of the current issue on Tuesday, asking why Rushin was leaving. We were emailed back a copy of his column -- which didn't explain anything except that he was leaving. When we asked again for an explanation, we got no reply.

Read on ...

-- Those already in the know will know that Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Auto Club 500 from Fontana will go live on Fox (Channel 11) at 11 a.m. Last week's Daytona 500 on Fox chugged in with a reported 10.9 rating, a dip behind the 11.3 that NBC had for it a year ago. Aside from the five drivers one can see on DirecTV's amazing "Hot Pass", Sirius Satellite Radio will have, in addition to the live call on Channel 128, 10 additional channels with the "Driver2Crew Chatter" audio that let fans hear drivers talk to their pit. The racers who'll have audio scattered between channels 122 and 144 will be Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Denny Hamlin and a "fan's choice" to be determined.

-- Thanks to Sen. John Kerry's initive, the government started investigating a proposed deal between Major League Baseball and DirecTV over its exclusive deal that it is negotiating for its "Extra Innings" package of games. Disclosure of the FCC’s investigation of any such deal came in a letter from FCC chairman Kevin Martin that Kerry released Thursday. The programming option allows baseball fans who live outside the markets of their favorite teams to watch them play for an extra fee. It is currently available to a number of cable and satellite television providers. Kerry had asked Martin to investigate the “proposed $700 million television deal that could deny many consumers the ability to watch their favorite teams.” Martin, in reply, wrote Kerry: “I share your concerns regarding this proposed deal.” The chairman added that he understood the package had been available to 75 million cable and satellite viewers for the past several years, and would only be viewable by DirecTV customers if a deal were signed. “I am concerned whenever consumers cannot purchase the programming they want or are forced to purchase programming they don’t want,” Martin wrote. DirecTV has never
confirmed that the widely reported deal even exists.

--AP No. 1 Wisconsin vs. No. 2 Ohio State has piqued our interest, and CBS (Channel 2, 1 p.m. Sunday) has the contest. OSU, first in the coaches poll, and Wisconsin, which lost Tuesday to Michigan State, will mark the first time two teams ranked No. 1 in the polls have met during the regular season. Verne Lundquist and Billy Packer call the game. Saturday's lineup include Dick Enberg and Bill Rafery calling Oklahoma State-Texas Tech (9 a.m.), Tim Brando and Mike Gminski doing Pitt-Georgetown (11 a.m.) and Florida-LSU with Gus Johnson and Clark Kellogg at 1 p.m. Before Sunday's Wisconsin-Ohio State game, CBS has Louisville-UConn (9 a.m.) and Duke-St. John's (11 a.m.). Down the road leading into March Madness, CBS will also have UCLA-Washington on March 3 at 11 a.m. (with Kevin Harlan and Bob Wenzel), although UCLA-Washington State would have made more sense if they had stuck to the original Pac-10 schedule instead of anticipating the Bruins-Huskies actually meaning something.

--John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova will be in the TV booth when the Tennis Channel airs the French Open from May 27 to June 8. “We could not be more proud that two icons of professional tennis will lead Tennis Channel’s on-air team,” chairman and CEO Ken Solomon said Thursday. The two former stars will call singles and doubles matches, and give analysis from an anchor desk.

--In an interview with Golf World, Lanny Wadkins says until CBS hired Nick Faldo as its new 18th tower analyst, he believed he would retire working next to Jim Nantz. Wadkins signed a four-year extension with CBS before the 2006 season but said he received mixed signals from his bosses about how he should do his job. Says Watkins: “The guys who don’t want me there are the same guys who wanted Katie Couric (as anchor of the CBS nightly news).”

-- CBS claims the final-round coverage of the Tigerless-Nissan Open from Riviera Country Club that featured Phil Mickelson losing a three-hole playoff to Charles Howell III had a preliminary national household ratings/share of 3.4/7, up 31 percent from last year when it was on ABC. The highest the rating got was in the final extra half hour (4 to 4:24 p.m.) when it went to a 5.4/10.

--NBC has Tiger Woods' weekend appearance in the WGC Accenture Match Play in Tucson, Ariz., unless he falls in his match today. NBC's schedule runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Says NBC's Johnny Miller on Woods' current seven PGA Tour win streak: "The bottom line is that what he has been doing is off the charts. It's fantastic to watch him, he has really matured as a player, he seems like he is hitting on all cylinders. It will be fun to see if he can keep it going. It will be real interesting to see if Tiger does fall behind and if he can make his comeback because these guys get pretty inspired when they get a chance to beat him." NBC's Gary Koch, talking about Michelson's play at this event coming off his Nissan Open loss: "I kind of liken watching Phil Mickelson to why fans watch NASCAR. You're always waiting for the wreck to happen. It seems like with Phil, good or bad, he seems to provide some of those thrills for you, from some of the decisions he makes or even with the shots that he hits at the wrong time. But I certainly think there are a core group of people out there that love to watch him just for that reason."

-- TNT reports that the 2007 NBA All-Star Game delivered 6.8 million viewers and was the top cable show for the last week and the year-to-date. TNT had a 5.1 cable Nielsen rating for the exhibition.

-- Tony Kornheiser signed a deal with XM Satellite Radio to start a nationwide show starting March 5 on Channel 144 from 6 to 8 a.m. (PDT).

--In pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of violating a restraining order, HBO boxing broadcaster Jim Lampley received three years probation, a year-long domestic abuse violence recovery program stay, 40 hours of community service and a $700 fine earlier this week in the case involving former girlfriend Candice Sanders. Lampley still contends he did not commit the crime and said through a spokesman: "The thing that I am most guilty of is choosing the wrong woman."

--Where to avoid the weekend of March 2-4: Disney World in Orlando, Fla. ESPN has dubbed it the fourth annual "ESPN The Weekend" sponsored by a sporting goods company that'll make every 11-year-old boy giggle. A bunch of athletes are getting paid to make a personal appearance alongside Mickey Mouse and Pluto, but the goofiest part of all this is how the company makes their on-air talent come by to visit and mingle as if they're some kind of come-to-life Disney characters. The ESPN anchors/personalities schedule to appear: Linda Cohn, Jay Harris, Al Jaffe, Chris McKendry, Sal Paolantonio, Mark Schlereth, Howie Schwab, Stuart Scott, Bill Walton, Trey Wingo, Dan Patrick, Colin Cowherd, Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic, John Seibel, Matthew Berry and Eric Karabell. The last two are fantasy sports experts whose sites were bought out by ESPN.com. A press release trumpeting this whole thing has this caviat: "NOTE: not all athletes and ESPN personalities will appear all days; all appearances subject to change." Mickey, he'll be there all right. At least you can count on him.

-- ESPN2's "Cold Pizza" will move production from New York to Bristol, Conn., and be renamed by June 1 with more of an emphasis on news instead of smarmy "Today" show-like fodder, according to a note in today's USA Today. For those who watch and care...

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The thing about Tom Kelly," said one of his longtime Riviera Country Club friends who stopped by our table Wednesday while we interviewed the legendary voice of USC sports for more than 40 years, "is that he's never kissed anyone's ass."
And that may be the best explanation for a lot of things that have happened during the storied career of the 79-year-old, pictured above sharing a laugh with another Riviera friend, actor Peter Falk. We were somehow able to condense some of it into a piece for today's Daily News in relation to the conclusion of the 15th annual best-and-worst of L.A. sports media members, but one of the stories Kelly tells that illustrates how his stubborness may have cost him some work along the way is this one:
Read on ...

-- It was 1963 , and Kelly says he was coming out of the old Scandia restaurant on Sunset Blvd., where the Southern California Broadcasters used to have their regular get-togethers. Red Patterson, the Dodgers' vice president and team owner Walter O'Malley's right-hand man, approached him. "Mr. O'Malley would like a tape of your work," Patterson asked Kelly. To which Kelly responded: "Does Mr. O'Malley know that I'm on the radio Monday through Friday from 6-to-10 a.m on the Bob Crane Show?" "Yes," said Patterson. "Does Mr. O'Malley know that I'm on from 4-to-6 every Monday Through Friday doing the Elroy Hirsch Show for KNX?" "Yes," said Patterson. "Does he also know I'll be doing 12 USC football games and 30 basketball games on the radio this year?" "Yes," said Patterson. "Tell Mr. O'Malley that I'll buy him a G-- D-- radio." And Patterson walked away. Kelly wound up working at KTTV Channel 11 as the sports director, and they had a long relationship with the Dodgers. Fearing the team may someday leave the station, management had Kelly and others do a lot of Dodger-related programming in the offseason. Five years after that Kelly-Patterson encounter, Kelly found himself on a Vero Beach, Fla., golf course with O'Malley playing in a foursome that included Jerry Doggett. Kelly rode in the cart with O'Malley, who he called "the Artful Dodger." Out on the course, after several holes, "out of the clear blue," Kelly says, "O'Malley says, 'I havent' bought that G-- D--- radio.' " Kelly said nothing. O'Malley asked: "Did you really say that to Red Patterson?" Kelly: "Did Red tell you I said that?" O'Malley: "Yes." Kelly: "Has Red ever lied to you?" O'Malley: "No." Kelly: "Well, then it must be true."
Kelly adds to that story today: "I've done a lot of stupid things. But one of them that I eventually told to Vin Scully was that, 'You know, it could have been Scully and Kelly for all those years.' When I told that story at the Southern California Broadcasters Hall of Fame ceremony, Peter O'Malley was in the audience and he roared with laughter. He thanked me later for bringing up his father. And Peter knew that was a true story."

Jack Buck, the late Hall of Fame broadcaster, actualy recommended Kelly take the job at KNX-AM (1070) to do USC games after the station's program director asked Buck if he was interested in the job. Buck had just committed to doing the St. Louis Cardinals games on radio, a spot opened up when Joe Garagiola decided to leave to do a game show in New York, otherwise Buck may have ended up as the voice of USC sports. After his one year doing games as Chick Hearn's colorman, Hearn wanted to take the play-by-play job with the Lakers that had just opened up. USC had a rule enforced by athletic director Jess Hill that no broadcaster for the college could also cover a pro team. So when Hearn left, Kelly took over.
During his run covering USC sports, the Trojans had five Heisman Trophy winners and five national championships, including 14 Rose Bowls and 24 post-season games. He covered USC football, basketball, baseball, swimming, tennis and track and field as well as host the USC magazine show on FSN West. Kelly also won five Golden Mike Awards, was named California Sportscaster of the Year by both AP and UPI three times and has won five Emmy Awards, three of them for covering boxing on Prime Ticket and KCAL Channel 9.
Kelly, pictured here with Riviera friend Barry Sacks, will serve as master of ceremonies Saturday at the 16th annual Sports Legends Awards dinner that benefits spinal cord research for the Paralysis Project of America. Scully will be presented with the John R. Wooden Lifetime achievement award at the ceremony at the Omni Hotel in downtown L.A.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Marion Jones, the former Thousand Oaks High track star whose personal life has presented as many hurdles as her professional accomplishments, is pregant and about to remarry. Again on both counts.
Obadele Thompson, the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist winner in the 100 meters, announced his engagement to an expectant Jones and said the marriage will take place in private ceremony on Saturday in North Carolina with close friends and family in attendance.
Jones travelled to Barbados in February 2006 to train with Thompson but there was no indication that the two were romantically linked, according to new information posted on Jones' Wikipedia.com bio.
The three-time gold-medal winning sprinter who has battled performance enhancing drug charges, married shot putter C.J. Hunter in 1998. He ended up resigning as track coach at the University of North Carolina (because he was dating Tar Heels star Jones at the time) and ended up banned from the 2000 Olympics when he tested positive for nandrolone. They divorced a year later.
In 2003, Jones gave birth to a son, Tim Jr., named after his father Tim Montgomery, who broke the 100 meter world record in 2002. Montgomery was eventually banned from the sport after admitting to the use of performance enhancing drugs.
Now comes Thompson, a UTEP grad who scored the first-ever Olympic medal for his country.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The sports media story of last week may have been Tim Hardaway's coming-out party -- the one where he said he hated gays and could never accept playing with them had he known they were apart of any of the NBA teams he was with during his recently-ended career.

The sports media-related twist to that definitely was how that incident was the flash point for ESPN.com columnist Mary Buckheit to come out herself.

Her Friday, Feb. 16 column entitled "He hate me," the East Coast native Buckheit who now lives in Venice wrote: "I swore a long time ago that I would never write a "coming out" column. And believe it or not, this isn't intended to be one. It's just that this is the first time I've been provoked to the point of a certain ancillary admission. I've never had an inclination to disclose anything to anyone really. Sure, the frequent inaccurate assumptions can be frustrating, but in an age of too much information I prefer to err on the side of less rather than more. This isn't to say that I live out an especially clandestine operation, but I've never actually said those three declarative words to a boss or a coach … or even to my parents."

The point of her column wasn't to be self-serving, but to point out that athletes like Hardaway who becomes distracted by things such as whether a teammate or opponent is gay and could affect his performance really is where the news angle should be. The uproar shouldn't be focused so much on how he expressed such an ignorant attitude about the subject.

After we made note of this courageous act in an item for SportsByBrooks.com, we asked Buckheit if there was any backlash in the days that followed about what she wrote.

"No regrets yet," she said in an email. "About 700 emails found their way to my hotmail account in three days. I am still pretty overwhelmed. Overall, I was surprised to find that at least 3/4 of them were respectful of the argument and many were even outright supportive of the underlying truth. There was a fair share that I could hardly stomach, but that was expected, of course. Those had a way of jumping out at me, but they were balanced by kind words from people I never expected to hear from ... and the fact that my mother still hasn't seen it. :)

Read on ...

"People seemed to most appreciate that the story ultimately stuck to sports and was rooted in relativity to athletics -- not personal opinions or politics. I was happy reading the feedback from majority of readers who "got it". They understood what I was driving at as a sportswriter. While it was hard for me to not blast Hardaway and say that I think him to be an outspoken ignoramus, I knew that wasn't really relevant to ESPN's audience -- the people who know who Hardaway is because of what he did on the basketball court, not because of years of brilliant public discourse."

Buckheit says she grew upin Connecticut and went to Siena College, a small Catholic school outside of Albany, N.Y. before going to Bristol, Conn., for three years to work at ESPN. She has been writing her ESPN.com column from her home for almost a year.

"My friends have been really great -- all along, but the last few days especially," she said. "It's not like I have been going out of my way to fool anybody, but it just so happens that sometimes, unless you tell them otherwise, people take what they assume to be true as fact.

"My editors were probably the most surprised. I wasn't on deadline or asked to write this column. I had been watching the story on ESPNews develop all day and was having discussions with my friends ... then there I was home alone at 2 a.m. thinking 'If i don't write something tonight i never will.'

"So I filed to the folks in Bristol at about 4 a.m. my time. What's worse is that my comma key on my keyboard decided not to show up to work so my bosses received an unexpected file from me in the middle of the night where I came out in about 1000 words without one comma. I'm pretty sure they questioned my sobriety when they saw that one pop into their inbox at 7 a.m. ET."

No, but it was a sobering column indeed to read.

Interestingly, Buckheit's latest batch of columns that resumed Wednesday was the start of a series where she revisted the last four winners of the ESPN.com "Hottest Female Athletes" winners, that started with Jennie Finch (2003) and will continue with Heather Mitts (2004), Amanda Beard (2005) and Tanith Belbin (2006).

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you were fortunate enough to have access to DirecTV's free demo version of "Hot Pass" throughout the coverage of last Sunday's Daytona 500, there's little doubt you'd want to put up the dough to keep it running for this Sunday's NASCAR Nextel Cup Auto Club 500 at California Speedway in Fontana.

I decided to take the wild ride with Michael Waltrip's rig through most of the event because I had this feeling history would be made -- he was driving a Toyota in a field of Chevys and Fords -- but those who stuck with Kevin Harvick weren't disappointed as he took you right through the finish line in his front seat for that .02 second victory over Mark Martin. Nor would you have been bored following Tony Stewart's ride from going last to first at one point after being penalized early. Audio captured Stewart responding to his crew chief: "Don't worry, I'm about to put on a show," after the penalty for speeding out of the pits knocked him from first to the back of the field.

At Sunday's race, "Hot Pass" will go as follows:
Channel 795: Elliott Sadler
Channel 796: Jeff Burton
Channel 797: Juan Montoya
Channel 798: Matt Kenseth
Channel 799: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

If you're just buying it for this race (or any single event), it's $29.99. It also runs $99 for a full NASCAR season.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By CRAIG DOLCH
Palm Beach Post

Lacey Underall is back and hoping to soon be strutting across a fairway near you.

That's exciting news to the legion of "Caddyshack" fans who remember racy Lacey steaming up the screen in the 1980 comedy classic. Cindy Morgan, figuring she can capitalize on her "Caddyshack" character, has moved back to South Florida and settled in at Ocean Ridge - about 30 miles north of where the movie was filmed in Davie.

"I've returned to the scene of the crime," Morgan said, smiling.

She's also returning to her past by writing an autobiography, explaining how a little girl who grew up in a strict Catholic family in Chicago moved on to become the femme fatale of the fairways in a movie that grossed $39.8
million and became one of the most popular sports films in history.

But Morgan wants to do more than write about her experiences in "Caddyshack." She wants to share them. She is starting a venture where country clubs around the U.S. can have a "Caddyshack"-themed party that Morgan will attend - for a fee, of course - and she'll bring along Bushwood Country Club-themed memorabilia such as pin flags, caps, shirts, towels, coffee mugs, and even the oversized golf bag made famous by actor Rodney Dangerfield. She hopes to have other cast members join in.

"Clubs have been having these 'Caddyshack'-themed parties for years," Morgan said. "Why not have Lacey attend and make it truly memorable?"

(Maybe because Morgan is 52 now, is legally blind and wears corrective eyewear?)

Read on...

True to the movie's original intentions, Morgan (as she looks now, left) has teamed with an Illinois memorabilia group that will donate a portion of their revenues for a caddy scholarship fund. (The movie was centered around Danny Noonan, who
would do anything to earn a college scholarship.) Morgan is quick to point out she's not going to reunions to put on a golfing exhibition.
"I'm awful," she said of her golfing skills. "But nobody seems to care. Trust me, nobody cares."
Morgan doesn't mind cashing in on another 15 minutes of fame. While she has played many other roles - she was Yori in "Tron," and she also appeared regularly on "Falcon Crest "and "Matlock" - she knows what character people will always remember her for. On the coffee table of her home are publicity shots of her in sexy poses from "Caddyshack," one of them cuddling with one of the movie's stars, Bill Murray, who played crazy greenskeeper Carl Spackler.
"I call this my 'catnip,' " she said of the photos. "Once I walk in the room and hand these out, I usually get what I want. People have a hard time saying no to me."
Morgan calls "Caddyshack" "Animal House on a golf course", but even she is surprised about a cult following that's going strong 27 years later.
The film teamed four top comedians - Murray, Chevy Chase, Dangerfield and Ted Knight (who many believe stole the movie as Judge Smails) - with an ensemble cast of young actors. Morgan said the script was barely followed because most of the actors improvised.
Morgan, 25 at the time, was making her second movie. She had done work in radio and as a weathercaster
in Illinois before heading to Los Angeles to do commercials. When the six-week taping was finished at Rolling Hills Golf Club (now known as Grande Oaks), Morgan figured her film career wasn't off to an auspicious start.
"When the movie was over, we thought we were in a lot of trouble," Morgan said. "We were very bad every day."
She wasn't just talking about the acting. She said there was plenty of late-night "festivities" that went on between the cast and crew. Among the more memorable was the night golf carts were used to create an old war scene
in a fairway.
Morgan said the set was stressful for her - she didn't get along with Chase.
Plus, Chase and Murray, who almost came to blows once during an argument from their "Saturday Night Live" days, also weren't the best of friends.
Morgan said she hasn't spoken with Chase since the movie was finished, and they didn't have much to say during the filming.
"There was a lot of tension between us, which made for good scenes," Morgan said. "He was trying to steal every scene, and so was I. If the tension's not there, it's boring. Believe me, there was nothing boring about filming that movie. If the cameras had been turned around, they would have gotten a whole 'nother film."
Morgan, who is legally blind without corrective eyewear, recently appeared at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando to promote her new ventures. She said she's amazed at how many people - mostly middle-aged men - recognize her from the movie.
"If I got some of those reactions 25 years ago, it would have freaked me out," she said. "But I think it's very flattering and cool that people still remember the character. It was a fun, fantasy character. I mean, who
wouldn't want to be this woman that everyone wanted?"
While Morgan did a nude scene in the movie, she balked at allowing a Playboy photographer to take shots of her doing that scene. An angry producer threatened to fire her, but she wouldn't relent.
"It's one thing when it (nudity) goes by in four seconds," Morgan said. "It's another thing to be sitting on someone's coffee table forever."
But in a twist, she said she recently met with Playboy and said there's a possibility she might do nude photos to help promote her autobiography. Why the change?
"For the same reason I wouldn't do it 25 years ago, I would do it now because it's my choice," she said. "Nobody tells a woman when and where and how."
Morgan, whose father fought in World War II, also feels passionate about supporting the U.S. military. Last year she organized the Caddyshack Reunion Golf Tournament to raise money for Illinios-based soldiers who have recently
served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"We can't do enough for these people," she said.
Morgan is hoping a South Florida country club will "adopt Lacey" so she can get serious about playing golf. She played in Fuzzy Zoeller's pro-am last fall and was paired with Champions Tour pro Lonnie Nielson of Palm Beach
Gardens, who tried to help out with her swing.
"Since she was in the movie, a lot of people expect that she's a golfer," Nielson said. "She has a pretty good setup and a nice grip. She just needs some repetition of hitting the balls on a range."
Morgan knows her golf skills will never be a factor in keeping her name in the game.
"I know a lot of wonderful actors that never got a memorable role," she said. "I feel very lucky I got mine."
For more information on Cindy Morgan, go to www.cindy-morgan.com or wwwcaddyshack25.com.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 10:56 AM | Permalink

One of the testimonies included on the "First Church of Tiger Woods" website, TigerWoodsIsGod.com, refers to the Old Testament book of Regit, Chapter 4, versus 3-7, which was removed by the King James commission in 1611. That passage defines the savior coming from the masses in the Hebrew calendar 2000 – which happens to be 1976 in the Caesarean calendar. Which is the year Tiger Woods was born.
Even more profound is that Regit spelled backward is … figure it out.

Inspired to start the religious/social movement in 1997 as more than a tribute but also to collect evidence that there may be something to all these claims of divinity, John Ziegler admits he's been a bit lax about adding new material to his cybershrine, TigerWoodsIsGod.com. But with stuff like that above, it's hard to generate anything more mind bending.

The Good News is that some stuff he's been saving because he's pitching a new book -- OK, it'll be a Bible -- that'll contain much of the clever content already on the site, but add new material, expanding on the Ten Commandments of Tiger, the Chuch's philosophy and more evidence that may or may not convince you that there is some divine power behind Woods existence.

Ziegler is also trying to keep the site alive through the media. He recently wrote a letter to the editor at Sports Illustrated (Jan. 8 issue) in response to the magazine's annual Sportsman of the Year going to Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade. "How in 'God's' name could you possibly ignore Tiger's 2006, which was clearly the greatest comeback season in golf history," Ziegler wrote, indentifying his bias as "Pastor" and giving the web address.

Expanding on the column in today's Daily News sports section, here's more insightful Q-and-A with Ziegler, who can be heard weeknights on KFI-AM (640) from 7-to-10 p.m., once Bill Handel, Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura and John and Ken are done blathering:

Q: The site has some fresh stories on the home page about news relating to Tiger, but much of the content seems to have not been updated in recent years. Is there a reason for it?
A: Granted, I do need to dust up the content. But it's also interesting how jaded we get toward his success . The site hasn't created as much interest as it did in 2000 or 2001. Unless he does something that no one's ever done, no one seems to care.
I hope to collect all this stuff and sell it as a book to chronicle the journey. Tiger’s life is a journey and we’ve got just a slightly different perspective than anyone else. Tiger’s life has got many more chapters to go and breaking Jack Nicklaus’ unbreakable majors record only one of them. He’s living the most remarkable life our our time. I just want to know if he’s happy. If he's not, then we can all give up.

Q: Do you still have the same approach to the site as you did when you started it?
A: His life really is a social experiment. He's on a journey and sometimes it’s hard even for me to remember his life doesn’t belong to us. It's hard to question him. Everytime I dio, I look bad. Last year after the U.S. Open (and his father's passing), I almost dumped the site and never thought about it. I thought he had a resonable chance to catch Nicklaus (at 18 major victories) but it was looking like a longshot. Now, it could happen in a few years. It's probably the most remarkable turnaround in the history of sports. No one seems to care.
He sets an example for everyone. For a guy, especially in golf, to change his swing twice after reaching his level of expertise is remarkable and gutsy. Golf is littered with decapitated bodies of golfers who tried to get better but lost their game forever. He knows that, but amazingly he had the guts and ability do it twice. It's off the charts. If it had gone in the other direction, it wouldn't have been just him humiliated. He’s a multi-multi million dollar national corporation. There’d have been hundreds of people’s jobs lost if his game had gone in the tank. He has an enormous amount of pressure in a game where pressure is the most debilitating element there is. That’s one angle of his accomplishments I don’t understand. No one in the historyof sport, maybe man, ever lived with higher expectations than him but every time, he met or exceeded it. That's the most remarkable aspect of him.

Q: Can you expand more about why you started the site after Earl Woods made those "Chosen One" comments in Sports illustrated?
A: That really hit home for me. I knew something strange and odd and mysterous was going on here, but never did I think he was God or Godly. But his dad laid it all out. That article is the most undertalked thing in the history of sports journalism. I read it again every once and awhile, and some of the things Earl says are incredible. Why didn’t it create larger impact astounds me. And then the golf journalism community is in the tank for Tiger and so afraid to offend him, they'll never bring it up. But his father clearly believed his son was sent by God. His first three kids were training for Tiger.

Q: Will Tiger continue to get hands-off treatment from the media? Is your site something he'll ever acknowledge?
A: Tiger knows about the site. He was asked about it at the 2000 Masters and he said he had not heard of it. But he made no effort to deny his divinty. Had it denied it, maybe we'd see him in a different light.
(Associated Press writer) Doug Ferguson asked Tiger about it. I finally met Doug at the TPC in Jacksonville, but he almost ran away from me. That indicated to me there’d be some sort of connection, that Tiger was not happy about it.
(Read one of the latest stories Ferguson did defending Woods for skipping events).
I went to the Tiger Wood Learning Center opening in Anaheim. I didn't identify myself, but I was there representing KFI. I got as close as I could to him and asked about his dad’s comments. Obvious he's still sensative about it. But golf writers in general don't want to jeopardize their gig. Their lives are based on their access to Tiger. If he never gives you a one-on-one, what do you lose by criticizing him? You don't. He always gets a break in how the media types cover him.

Q: What does Tiger's absence from the Nissan Open this week tell you about his thinking?
A: It looks as if he's ducking the event. I don't think that's his thinking, but that's the way it looks and it's a shame. This could have been the greatest Nissan I think in a long time with the amount of top players. The field is still outstanding. Yet, its remarkable, when he decided not to play, there was no buzz at all at the event. It went from the most anticipated to a second-tier tournament, even with that field.
When I talk about how Tiger may have reached a point where he's a little too powerful for the Tour, the most underplayed story in years has been what happened with The International being canceled.
(For more on that, go to this link).
It's truly remarkable how one player, and the birth of one child -- talk about biblical -- elminated a PGA Tour event. That's not an understatment. They moved it specifically so they could attract him. And now that his wife is with child -- and we do doubt she's a virgin -- they canceled it forever.

Q: Now that he has a child on the way, do you see the ministry focusing on the son rather than the holy father?
A: It's funny how you assume it's a son who's coming. He did sort of let that slip in a recent interview. I'm somewhat surprised that didn’t create more attention. Tiger is so careful with words. A slip is very un-Tiger-like. It'll be the first golf child ever swarmed by paparizzi. If there's a star over the child’s birthplace, that'll be an interesting hint. As far as being visited by three wise men, I doubt the kid will be born in a manger.

Q: Do you think Tiger would miss playing in a major event because of the birth of his child?
A: You remember Jack Nicklaus had five kids and never missed a major. We're really not sure if it's the British Open or U.S. Open that he would miss, based on when news came out of her pregnancy. I think the U.S. Open is in more danger, but it provides more flexability. The chances are good he doesn't miss anything. If he ends up winning the Masters and U.S. Open and misses the British Open, perhaps that's all part of his plan to send to humanity a message about priorities. I hope that's not the case. I plan my year around watching him in the majors. Without him there, that'd be like missing a major holiday.

Q: Some think the reason he missed this event was because he couldn't pass on that $3 million guarantee to play in the Dubai Open two weeks ago, which he claims he needs time after that to readjust his body clock. Had he skipped that, he'd have been fresh for the Nissan event. What's your take on that?
A: Playing in the Al Qaeda Invitational is interesting. We've had that big controvery last year with the ports deal . (For an update on that story, go to this link). A lot of people, including those at my radio station, was claiming this was a way for terrorists to get access to our ports. To which I responded: If we wanted to blow off the terrorists, having Tiger Woods, (tennis star) Roger Federer and (champion driver) Michael Schumacher all there at the same time in their grip for a kidnappying, that's a far greater terrorist attack than taking our ports.
Perhaps Tiger is just making good will in an area where we need it. I don't know if people understand his world-wide impact. When you're the most recognized figure and most beloved on the planet today, it's impossible to measure, but hard to argue that he’s not. He's as big as it gets, not just in sports but humanity. No one hates Tiger. Some are just sick of him winning, but ...
Yeah, he's well known for wanting the money. Who wouldn’t? At least I've never seen it seeped into his competitive desire. I don't feel he wants to win for money, but his life is on a dfferent path than anyone else's, so eventually the money may be used for a greater cause. I’m sure the presidential campaign in 2020 will probably be expensive, and he may not want to accept contributions. Again, I don't know if he'd ever go into politics, but he'd make Barack Obama look like Phil Angelides.

More links to Tiger Woods and the supernatural:
= At rolemodel.net, a biography of Tiger Woods that includes a quote from Michael Jordan: "I really do believe he was put here for a bigger reason than just to play golf. I don't thin that he is a god, but I do believe that he was sent by One."
=A story from 2002 posted on Sports Illustrated.com from the Augusta Chronicle that says while Woods "is not God or Ghandi" but his competitors sure think he's something special.
=From The Postman, a blog "with a pop culture twist," is one writer who proclaims Tiger Woods is God.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For the first time since 1996, baseball will tweak a few things for the 2007 season, according to the MLB official website. None of them are major, but they will make you look smart if you're at a game and some Steve Lyons-type behind you claims to know what's going on down on the field but really isn't up to speed.
Such as:
= An automatic strike will be assessed each time a batter violates the rule requiring they keep one foot in the batter's box throughout his at-bat, except for certain game-play conditions, during which he is still not allowed to leave the dirt area surrounding the plate.
= A player may no longer step into a dugout to catch a foul ball. He still will be allowed to reach into a dugout.
= With no runners on, a pitcher will be required to pitch within 12 seconds, the timing starting when the pitcher is in possession of the ball and the batter is in the batter’s box, alert to the pitcher. It used to be 20 seconds.
= A major league position player who scuffs or defaces a baseball would be ejected and receive an automatic 10-game suspension. Previously, the penalty was to call the pitch a ball and warn the player. For pitchers, umpires have the discretion to issue only a warning if they determine the pitcher’s actions weren’t intended to alter the characteristics of a pitch.
= No more tie games. Before this year, when an official game was called due to weather and the score was tied, the statistics counted and a new game was replayed from the start. Under the change, when a game is tied in the bottom of the fifth inning or later and is called because of weather, it will be suspended and resumed before the next scheduled game between the teams at the same ballpark. If no more games remain between the teams at the same ballpark, it will be resumed when the teams meet at the visitor’s ballpark. If it is the final scheduled meeting between the teams, it will be replayed from the start if it is needed to determine a postseason berth.

= A batter running to first base also will be allowed to exit the 3-foot lane in foul territory “for the sole purpose of touching first base.'
= A batter will lose the ability to run to first on a dropped third strike if he leaves the dirt circle around home plate unless he does so while trying to reach first base. Previously, a player could run to first until he reached the dugout or his defensive position.
= A batter who hits an apparent game-ending home run with less than two outs would be allowed to circle the bases if a runner ahead of him doesn’t continue to home plate, thinking the game is over. If there are two outs when the play begins, however, the runner who abandons trying for home plate would be the third out and the home run would not count.
= A pitcher can wear a multicolored glove if the umpire determines it isn’t distracting.
= A pitcher in the stretch position instead of a windup with no runners on base no longer will have to come to a complete stop.
= For official scorers: The guidewords for deciding whether to credit a batter with a sacrifice bunt have changed from him being possibly retired on a "perfect play" to "ordinary effort" by the defense. And fans weary of hearing "defensive indifference" on stolen-base attempts will be heartened to learn that the scorer must now base that call on all game circumstances, not merely on whether someone covered the base or the catcher got off a throw.
And this may be the most significant:
= The rulebook now includes the disclaimer that references "to 'he,' 'him' or 'his' shall be deemed to be a reference to 'she,' 'her' or 'hers'" where applicable.
Your wife/girlfriend/mom is sure to point out that as an advancement long overdue.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 1:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HBO boxing announcer Jim Lampley was formally charged Friday with violating a temporary restraining order filed by a former beauty queen who was his girlfriend.
The 57-year-old Lampley faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted of the misdemeanor charge, the San Diego district attorney’s office said.
The charge stems from his January arrest in connection with a report of domestic violence. According to court records, 28-year-old Candice Sanders claimed that Lampley attacked her in her Encinitas apartment on New Year’s Eve.
“I received injuries to my head, neck and back from his throwing me against the walls and door,” she wrote in her request for a straining order.
Sanders, Miss California USA 2003, also alleged that Lampley had been drinking and smoking marijuana before attacking her. She claimed he threw her to the floor at a New York restaurant two months ago, something that was covered up because he had a fight to cover that weekend for HBO.
“I am terrified that he will harm me unless he is restrained,” Sanders wrote.
Lampley, scheduled for a court appearance on March 13, has denied any wrongdoing.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Adrian from Fullerton, a loyal Daily News reader noting the recent Top 10/Bottom 5 list of L.A. TV personalities, said he happened to be watching the KABC Channel 7 6 p.m. newscast a few days ago when Rob Fukuzaki was doing the sports segment.
Fuk has been one of our hot and cold favorites over the years. One year we decided that the whole idea of TV sportscasters was sex appeal, so we conducted a reader poll to determine the sexiest LA TV sportscaster. Fuk won.
More recently, we've kind of grown tired of the act and relegated him to bottom-feeder status. On the most recent poll, he was only good enough for horrible mention.

Now, for anyone who tries to watch sports news before 11 p.m., you know its about four minutes of filler, if that much, feature stuff that a staff of reporters can easily fill if they've got some juice, but sometimes just an awkward moment before they go to the weather guy.
So Fuk is focusing on the annual Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue with Beyonce on the cover. Fuk then notes that the issue came with 3D glasses, meant for the reader to wear to read a story on ... something stupid.
Acting as if he'd never seen 3D glasses, Fuk put them on, then made a goofy statement about how if you wear the glasses, you'll have Channel 7's HD in 3D.
He then tilted his head and made a goofy face.
And for the goodness of DVR, that TV frame was frozen, captured with a digital camera, emailed here, and presented for all to enjoy:

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We follow up our story today about Lakers analyst Stu Lantz (did you know he makes a one-hour, 45-minute drive in from San Diego up the 405 for every Laker home game, then gets home about midnight?), with the Top 10/Bottom 5 list of our best and worst of the L.A. sports media relating to those who talk over the play-by-play guy. And then there's these media nuggets that normally would have filled up page 2 of today's paper but didn't really fit into the big picture:

=FOR THE RECORD: Tim Harris was incorrectly identified in today's media column as the Lakers' vice president of broadcasting. Tim is the team's senior VP of business operations. Keith Harris is the VP of broadcasting. We regret the error appearing in the Daily News print editions and have corrected it for the online version.

=The announcement this week that Jose Mota and Mark Gubicza have been added to 50 Angels game broadcasts that'll be carried this summer on FSN West and KCOP-Channel 13 -- which cuts back the number of games that Steve Physioc and Rex Hudler will do to about 100 -- should be seen more as team owner Arte Moreno trying to groom Mota to be the primary billingual voice of the team. Whether or not that translates into a future for Hudler and/or Physioc remains to be seen, but it shouldn't cut in too deeply. Mota may find that play-by-play isn't for him and relent to wanting a fulltime analyst role, but this is a calculated move to see how it would work out for the longer haul. And for those who worry that Hudler might be climbing the walls of Angels Stadium on days he's not working, he says he's more than OK with the decision.
Hudman, who starts his ninth year as an Angels broadcaster, said when contacted at his home Thursday: "I thought they did a very classy thing when the Fox bosses and the Angels bosses came down to talk with me and Phyz and asked us what we thought about bringing in a new team. My first response was: It's about time! Jeez, 152 games a year from March to October is a mind grind finding something new to talk about every day. I kept asking privately, 'I wonder why we don't have another team.' That's a lot of games. Plus I have kids 12, 10, 5 and 4 and as much as I love my Angels job, I get the best of both worlds with my family. I'm doing all I can to be a good dad. And when they told me it was Mota and Gubby dong it, I was 100 percent for it. I don't feel threatened by it all. I'm relieved. We still get the lion's share of the games, and sure there's a financial setback, but that's just money. You can't put a value on being home and fathering. They assured us it had nothing to do with our skill levels, and they said they haven't made any changes in the past because they never needed to. There's always changes in TV. At least 15 or 20 teams have more than one TV broadcast team."

Read on ...

=About the Pete Arbogast blog on WeAreSc.com ... We try to look away. Really. We don't want to keep pounding on it week after week. But you give the somewhat employed USC football radio play-by-play guy enough time, a computer keyboard, and an offseason to rant about life looking for future employment, and it's just gold. We don't even have to go to the site anymore. We get emails from readers falling off their desk chairs in laughter/horror after the lastest postings.
For those who don't dare go over to that dark side, Petey says in his latest entry (and the longer you wait to read it, the more chance an editor there will change it to try to save some face for him and the site) that he's already having Trojan Radio Network meetings for the '07 season (aparently assuming he'll be there), and a nice a Valentine's Day sonnet about his latest pursuit of money.

"Being out of work has been frustrating and relaxing all at the same time. But it doesn’t pay very well, and I am looking forward to getting back to it. It doesn’t look like it will be in traditional radio—I have been forced out by a series of unfortunate circumstances. The station that USED to carry SC football lost the rights, and didn’t need me. The new station picked up the rights, and wouldn’t use me. EXCEPT they use my voice on their promos for SC football, so other stations all across Southern California THINK I work there. When I tell them I don’t, they say that since my voice is so closely associated with the new station, they can’t use me on their station. KNX, KFWB, KLOS, KLAC and maybe five others for this reason turned me down. Only two stations and their management have talked to me and say they won’t hold that against me or them, and I am still in negotiations with each in hopes of landing at least a part-time spot. Frustrating, indeed! Yet, I want to thank the hundreds of you who have come up to say you are rooting for me to land on my feet, in our (sic) out of the business, and the dozens who have offered help in getting started in rather lucrative business opportunities in other fields. None have panned out yet, but they will."
Arbo then throws Petros Papadakis under the bus for (what seems to be a smart thing) avoiding his phone calls:
"I’ve called my old friend and super broadcaster Petros just to say Hi a few times, a few other times to ask a favor. He never calls back. Maybe his phone is lost. So in hopes that he reads this blog: “Hey P! What’s happening in your life? How the heck ARE you? I miss working with you and the gang. Give me a call once in a while, just to keep in touch.” If any of you see him let him know I want to talk with him. And not just about weaseling tickets to a concert out of him."
Yea, sure. The Wiggles aren't that tough a ticket to get, by the way.

=If you really want to read between the lines, probably the most revealing part of the Arbogast blast is bragging about being invited to a $700-a-plate football recruing dinner on the dime of "my friend and benefactor" Brian Kennedy, the ethlically-challenged president of Regency Outdoor Advertising billboards. Kennedy funnels plenty of money into athletic director Mike Garrett's budget and has apparently bought himself a strong voice in Arbogast's future as a broadcaster. The decision makers at flagship station 710-AM are embarassed, to say the least, that Arbogast continues his misguided rants on the blog, slamming their decisions and making him and the station look foolish and it should come to a head sooner than later about who has more juice in whether Arbo keeps his position.

=The Golf Channel continues coverage ot the Nissan Open today (noon-to-3 p.m., replayed from 6-to-9 p.m.) and adds a twist that allows a live audience to its pre and post-game shows and Golf Central editions. Fans joined the stage for the show near the 10th tee at Riviera to watch the live broadcast, and the network says select golf fans will be able to view tournament coverage shot-by-shot in front of the stage throughout the duration of the tournament that continues this weekend on CBS (Channel 2, Saturday and Sunday, noon-to-3 p.m.) CBS' Gary McCord joins the Golf Channel's Kelly Tighman, Nick Faldo and Peter Ooosterhuis on the cable. The Golf Channel's post-game show starts each day at 3 p.m., with a one-hour wrapup Sunday starting at 3:30 p.m. A pregame show live from Riviera also airs on the Golf Channel Saturday and Sunday at 9:30 a.m.

= CBS' hiring of former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher explains to some extent why it didn't go hard after Tiki Barber when the bidding wars between the networks began almost immediately upon his announcement that this would be the final NFL season for the New York Giants. Barber, who gets a reported three-year, $6 million deal to be a studio analyst for Sunday Night Football and a "Today" show correspondent, said at his press conference Tuesday about his hiring by NBC: "I didn't come close to signing with anyone else. It was a long and arduous process. I had great opportunities from all three of the networks that were involved, Fox News on the news side and Fox Sports, ABC/ESPN and NBC and NBC Sports. What it came down to was what was right for me and what was going to feel most at home to me. NBC has been my dream job for many years since I first started thinking about it. While those other networks put in great offers, NBC was where I wanted to be." That, and the fact his infatuation with "Today" show host Matt Lauer, his "idol" growing up, steered him toward NBC. Cowher said Thursday his decision to join CBS' "The NFL Today" next year may be a one-year thing, but could be longer. He said he still plans to spend more time with his family in Raleigh, N.C., but just not on the weekends in the fall. Again. "I can still be part of (the NFL) but not have it consume your life,” Cowher said. “It’s an opportunity to remain a part of the NFL, and it may go a lot longer than that.” NBC adding Barber means no more for Sterling Sharpe, but CBS is adding Cowher to the show without any of the other analysts leaving — Dan Marino, Shannon Sharpe and Boomer Esiason will return, as will host James Brown and former NFL general manager Charlie Casserly.

=Anyone come across a YouTube.com video of actor Forest Whitaker portraying CBS' Greg Gumbel from last week's "Saturday Night Live" that rivaled Jeremy Piven's spot-on spoof of CBS' Jim Nantz from "SNL" a few weeks ago? Whitaker, as Gumbel wearing a grayish, curly hairpiece and speaking in that kind of monotone that Bryant's little brother likes to do, was on a skit called "Road to the Final Four" for the Animal Planet's "Man vs. Beast" series. Maybe the best line was from the post-match interview with a guy who just got torn up by a mountain lion. "I really got my ass handed to me today -- literally," he said, meaning, literally, his ass was torn off and handed to him.

=Versus starts its coverage of the Amgen Tour of California with the prologue on Sunday at 2 p.m. from San Francisco, following the cycling event over 650 miles with Phil Liggett, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll as the commentators. The rest of the TV schedule: Stage 1 and 2 (7-8 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday), Stage 3, 4 and 5 (8-9 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Feb. 23), Stage 6 that goes from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita is from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday Feb. 24 and the final Stage 7 in Long Beach is on from 2-4 p.m. on Feb. 25.

=The Daytona 500 might be a nice launching point for NASCAR on Fox, but network chair David Hill wishes he could have more a say in how the scheduling goes from this Sunday's Super Bowl of Stock Cars. The Nextel Cup series continues next week at California Speedway in Fontana, then goes to a Busch series race from Mexico and then ... a week off? "It's a huge stumbling block,"