Continuing our reviews of what's new in baseball media:

The book: "101 Reasons to Love the Dodgers," by Ron Green Jr. (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 120 pages, $14.95)

The windup: The title pretty much says it all. Lots of pictures, a few words of history.

The pitch: Don't infer any sort of tome by a beloved Dodger fan. Ron Green Jr., has also cranked out "101 Reasons to Love the Yankees" and "101 Reasons to Love the Cardinals," and his brother, David, did "101 Reasons to Love the Red Sox" and "101 Reasons to Love the Cubs." Roy Green Jr., is a native of North Carolina, a sportswriter for The Charlotte Observer and the author of two previous books in a series called “101 Reasons to Love." Somewhere, there's probably 101 reasons to love the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but no one's got around to it yet. Don't assume there's any sort of ranking, either. Vin Scully is listed at No. 61 (with Jaime Jarrin at No. 62). Kirk Gibson's 1988 World Series homer is at No. 88 (coincidence?) It's as if they've taken much deeper researched books as "The Dodgers Encyclopedia" or "Illustrated History of the Dodgers" and condensed them into a children's book that apparently isn't intended for children. We'd love to give you 101 reasons to actually buy it, but you'd probably get all you're going to out if by thumbing through it in your local Barnes & Noble.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As part of the process of reviewing what's new in baseball media for this season, we'll take a tour of the local bookstores and video outlets for a sampling of what's worth the price of a DodgerDog and what should be left behind like a bad batch of nachos:
The book: "Dropping the Ball: Baseball's Troubles and How We Can and Must Solve Them," by Dave Winfield (with Michael Levin, Scribner, 224 pages, $25).

The windup: The Hall of Fame outfielder feels compelled to tackle some of the game's issues: Steroids, labor, the decline of African-American players, marketing and its future. "I want to share my observations about the current state of baseball, while the game appears by most standards to be in robust health but is in fact subtly declining in importance to Americans, especially African-Americans, and share my ideas for turning the trend around," he writes in the introduction. "If I don't say or do something soon, I'm afraid it will evolve into a sport and a business that I will not recognize, like, or even respect." The last seven pages are dedicated to his "Baseball United Plan," which includes: Offer rewards to local organizationsthat bring baseball to lower-income communities; Ownership should stop using the media as a tool for bashing the players prior to and during contract negotiations; Parents should commit to "cleaning up their act" in every aspect of youth sports and set a better example for their children; and kids should spend more time practicing their skills and less time playing computer games. "Start with a wall, a ball and your glove."

The pitch: Read the words of Winfield and listen if he's not channeling Bob Costas. Oh, wait. Costas gives it an endorsement on the back jacket: "Dave Winfield's genuine concern for the game he played so well and loves so much is evident on every page. Along the way he makes telling points and offers valuable suggestions for baseball's future." From Winfield, maybe the words cut deeper than if Costas was delivering these ideas (again). Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who in 1990 was banned from baseball by Commissioner Fay Vincent for paying $40,000 to a gambler named Howie Spira for derogatory information about Winfield, even endorses the book.

A comment: From someone named "Music Mogul" on Amazon.com: "I thought this was going to be another baseball bashing book focusing on the hot-button steroid issue. I was pleasantly surprised that Winfield discusses all the issues that we fans bring up on the various sports radio shows. It's nice to know someone on the 'inside' is listening. But the kicker is... he offers solutions -- from the grass-roots little league level to upper management. I was shocked to see George Steinbrenner's most flattering endorsement right on the cover. If these two can make peace, I suppose anything is possible."

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 1:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Goodyear, the tire company that's probably more famous for having blimps, took a representative from UCLA, Florida, Ohio State and Georgetown up in one of their airships Friday not too far from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to see who could make what would be called "the world's longest basketball shot."
Ohio State and Georgetown people did it. UCLA and Florida people didn't.
Before you check out the video at the Goodyear website, know this: UCLA (senior Chris Smith from South Lake Tahoe) and Florida (senior Alex Smith from Miami) were represented by guys; Ohio State (sophomore Stacey Freyer from Woodville, Ohio) and Georgetown (senior Jennifer Hanson from Turtle Lake, North Dakota, who's also a cheerleader) were represented by girls.
The way it worked: The four got up in the Goodyear blimp about 500 feet above a 100-foot goal, holding a regulation basketball.
"I thought it looked makeable," said OSU's Freyer. "When I shot it, we were way past the target, but it looked like it started out dead on. When it was good, we all started cheering. Everyone was excited even the pilots."
Said Georgetown's Hanson: "I thought I missed it by a mile. And then, while the ball was falling, it looked like it changed direction. I saw it hit that target and bounce up and then I knew I made it. I was surprised, but it was a good surprise."
For winning, the two girls got a prize package that includes travel, accomodations and tickets for two to any one of the sporting events where Goodyear will cover in the next 12 months. Also, video of their shots and the balls they used will be sent to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. for display and historical purposes.
Goodyear, of course, will be providing those dynamic areal shots above the Georgia Dome to show everyone what the roof of the building looks like during the Final Four and Monday's title game.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

These T-shirts are hardly worthy of the NIT champions.
They say “West Virgina” -- without the second “i” before the “a.”
The Mountaineers wore them anyway after their 78-73 victory over Clemson on Thursday night, their first NIT title in 65 years.
WVU sports information director Shelly Poe told the Associated Press that the NIT printed the shirts. Calls to tournament officials were not immediately returned Friday.
West Virginia coach John Beilein was heading to the Final Four in Atlanta on Friday and could not be reached for
comment.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 4:43 PM | Permalink

Here's Ria Cortesio. Get to know her. You maybe be cursing her out someday.

Cortesio became the first female umpire to work a major league exhibition game since Pam Postema in 1989 when she was on the bases Thursday for the Chicago Cubs' 7-4 victory over an Arizona Diamondbacks split squad in Mesa, Ariz., at HoHoKam Park before 12,917.

The Associated Press report says Cortesio hustled all over the infield and made her calls with an emphatic fist pump. Always in the right position, she did what every umpire hopes to do during a ballgame: She blended in.

Although she did draw attention.

"When I found out I had this game, my plan was to sneak in, work the game and sneak out and hope no one noticed," she said. "That didn't happen."

Working with major league umpire Mike Winters on the bases while another minor league ump, Jason Kiser, handled the plate, Cortesio was at first base for the first two innings before she switched across the diamond to third and then back again a couple of times. The moving around from side to side is standard for spring training games.

"I got a lot of, 'Hey Ria, where are you going to be this year?' That's the question. As of right now, I'm going back to the Southern League, but that's subject to change at any minute. As soon as a spot opens up at Triple-A, it's mine," she said.

Cortesio is the only female umpire in professional baseball. At 30, she is starting her ninth year overall and fifth in Double-A. Once she makes it to Triple-A, she'll be evaluated by major league umpire supervisors. If she's judged good enough, she would be invited to the Fall League, then to a full schedule of major league spring training games and finally to a spot as a fill-in in the majors.

No female umpire has ever worked a regular-season game in the majors. Cortesio obviously hopes to be the first.

"Absolute best-case scenario, we're looking at 2009 to get a couple of games," she said.

Cubs manager Lou Piniella, known for his run-ins with umpires over the years, apparently has her back and said so without putting his foot in his mouth.

"I think it's good. I really do," Piniella said. "I think there is a place for women in the umpiring ranks _ they're certainly as qualified as anybody else. I'm sure if they get the same opportunities, the same schooling that their male counterparts do, they'll do a really nice job."

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Following up on Friday's Daily News media column that focused on the experiment the Angels are trying this year using Jose Mota on English-language TV games, we've got more where that game from:

=If only as a reference point to bridge last season to this one, you’d think Billy Packer and Jim Nantz would want to watch a replay of last year’s NCAA basketball title game between UCLA and Florida as part of the preparation for CBS’ coverage of the rematch game in Saturday’s Final Four.
Naw, not really.
“I’m really not into replaying games,” said Packer, ever the contrarian, who’ll be doing his 33rd consecutive Final Four, the last 26 for CBS. “I’ll review from the standpoint of statistics, but in my own mind, I’m more comfortable trying to better know these players. I don’t talk to coaches or assistant coaches before games to ask what they’re going to do. I think my job is to be prepared with as much without having a preconceived plan for what’s about to happen. That can lead to you getting your mind set on something that may not happen, and then you try to make that the story. My job is to figure things out as the game goes on.”
Nantz admits that in the time between now and the 5:47 p.m. tipoff, he will talk to the head coaches, the starters, attend today’s practices and, finally, when he’s in his hotel room “breaking away from the madness that can drain your energy, I’ll dust off last year’s DVD, pop it into my computer and maybe not watch it but have it on as background noise. That game is still fresh, but as I’m listening to it, I may hear some moment that’ll give me the opportunity to say, ‘What happened there?'”
What did happen, for those Bruins fans who’ve already put it out of their mind, is a Florida team that rattled off a 73-57 victory is back in tact to face a UCLA squad with six players (two starters) who get floor time in last year’s game.
Which may give UCLA more incentive, believes CBS studio analyst Clark Kellogg, in his 15th event for the network and an Ohio State grad who may be more distracted by the outcome of the other Final Four contest earlier in the day.
“When both teams have primarily their key players in place and everything’s close to even, the advantage psychologically goes to that team that lost the last time because you can’t manufacture that hunger in the team
seeking revenge,” said Kellogg. “You can’t drum that up that high pitch that’ll come from being an underdog with salt in its wound.”
“Not only did they lose that championship game but they got hammered,” added Packer. “UCLA was a much better team than the result indicated. It’s one thing if Florida eeked out a victory but when you get hammered with that personnel, that’s a heck of a motivating factor. This Florida team is obviously experienced and won’t go away. That’s what makes it such an intriguing matchup.”

Read on for more notes ...

==Not to spoil things for you, but the makers of EA Sports played the Final Four on their "NCAA March Madness 07" video game and determined that UCLA will upset Florida 66-65 and Ohio State will knock out Georgetown 72-68 in the two semifinal games. Florida turned the ball over 19 times in their semifinal loss and shot just 41% from the field as a team. They shot just 4-for-17 from beyond the three-point arc. UCLA saved the victory by forcing two Florida missed shots in the closing seconds. For the record, the same video game predicted that UCLA would get knocked out of the tournament by Gonzaga back in the second round.

==ESPN.com reports that while only four entries in last year NCAA Tournament contest had the correct Final Four (thanks to George Mason), there were 161,869 out of more than 3.3 million entries who had this year’s last foursome of UCLA, Ohio State, Florida and Georgetown on their brackets. Of those who picked right, most have either Florida (52,801) or Ohio State (51,401) winning it, with UCLA (22,372) given the longest shot. Meanwhile, at CBSSportsline.com's NCAA Tournament contest, about 200,000 out of nearly 2.3 million brackets have a correct Final Four. Of those with a perfect Final Four, 36 percent pick Florida to win it all, and 11 percent take UCLA. There are five brackets that have 56 games correct out of 60 (the best winning percentage to date).

==The World Championship Sports Network website (www.wcsn.com) is the place to go to keep track of Michael Phelps' unprecedented performance at the FINA Championships in Australia. On-demand footage of Phelps' recent record barrage can be retrieved, while live video of swimming and water polo events starting at 2:50 a.m. (PDT) each day can be found through Sunday. Phelps is next competing in the men's 4x200 freestyle relay (Friday), the men's 100-meter butterfly (Saturday) and the men's 400-meter IM on Sunday.

==CSTV will air a special episode of the "One2One" featuring interviews with CBS Sports' Dick Enberg, Jim Nantz and Billy Packer, airing Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

==Monday's extended Opening Day schedule on the ESPN/ESPN2 menu includes;
Tampa Bay at NYYankees, 10 a.m., ESPN (with Karl Ravech and John Kruk)
Chicago Cubs at Cincinnati, 11:10 a.m., ESPN2 (with Dan Shulman, and Steve Phillips)
Boston at Kansas City, 1 p.m., ESPN (with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan)
Baltimore at Minnesota, 4 p.m., ESPN2 (with Dave O'Brien, Rick Sutcliffe and Dusty Baker)
Texas at Angels, 7 p.m., FSN West
Dodgers at Milwaukee, 11 a.m., FSN Prime
(Note: ESPN is also doing the Angels-Rangers game, with Sean McDonough and Orel Hershiser, but it will be blacked out locally)

=Eric Karros will be paired with Josh Lewin for Fox's first network coverage of next Saturday's Dodgers' game in San Francisco (12:30 p.m.) Joe Girardi joins Jeanne Zelasko and Kevin Kennedy in the Fox L.A. studio to open the regional telecast.

==XM Satellite Radio has a special "Play Ball!" mix channel (200) set up to air through April 2 to celebrate the opening of the baseball season. Among the music library the radio service is culling through for material on this channel are songs such as Ruth Brown’s R&B stomp “Baseball Boogie,” Terry Cashman’s “Talkin’ Baseball” and John Fogerty’s “Centerfield.” XM carries every Major League Baseball game for every team from Opening Night to the World Series.

=Prior to NBC covering the April 7 Santa Anita Derby live from Santa Anita, its official website (NBCSports.com) will stream live coverage of the $1 million Florida Derby on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. from Gulfstream Park in Hallendale, Fla.

=The AVP, which already had one of the most advanced sports-league websites on the Internet, will relaunch its site with the power of the Major League Baseball Advanced Media people, allowing viewers to watch live multiple matches simultaneously. The site dedicated to the pro beach volleyball tourrelaunches in conjunction with the start of this season's 18-stop tour. Key features of the new AVP.com include ordering tickets and printing them out directly from the site, live scoring, expanded player profiles and multifeatures that include more video clips.

==Not wanting to bury Dick Vitale during the NCAA basketball tournament, ABC will trot him out Saturday (10:30 a.m.) for a one-hour special to announce his own, personal All-American team. UCLA’s Ben Howland is schedule to join the discussion on Vitale’s picks, which also include his “diaper dandies,” best games of the year, top coaches (could go past the one-hour time limit) and, something all viewers are probably dying to know, a behind-the scenes look at a day in the life of Vitale as he prepares to call a game.

==On the heels of the triumphant return of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, ESPN Classic is bring back Zap, Nitro, Turbo, Gemini and Lace. The American Gladiators, which between 1989 and 1995 pit a stable of athletes against contestants in feats of strength, starts with a seven-hour marathon Saturday at 10 a.m. before it begins airing in a regular Monday-through-Friday 4 p.m. and 10 p.m. slot starting April 2, plus Saturdays and Sundays at 6 and 7 a.m.

==Dean Prator, an L.A.-based filmmaker and creator of a website that honors former NBA player Raymond Lewis, is asking for any help in retrieving film or video clips of the former local basketball star. Practor, who launched the website www.raymondlewis.com, says he has been in contact with more than 50 current and former NBA players, college coaches, teammates and family hoping to find images of the former Verbum Dei High star who later went to Cal State L.A. (1972 and '73) and still holds several school scoring records. In 1973, Lewis was the youngest person ever drafted and signed the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers but never made it to the NBA. Anyone with information can contact Prator at (213) 891-1019 or at dstoneharbor@cs.com.

==Most frightening email we've received in many a week, from Barnes and Noble book stores: "Since you previously used your Membership to purchase a book by Mike Lupica, we wanted to let you know that the author's new book, Summer Ball, will be released on May 15, 2007. Pre-order your copy today. As always, your credit card will not be charged until this item ships." It's about Lupica's kids book about a traveling basketball team that ... hey, why are we even talking about this?

==Finally, the warning that ESPN will use LeBron James and Jimmy Kimmel as hosts for the next ESPY Awards (July 15) caused Kimmel, who hosts his "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show right across the street from the Kodak Theatre on Hollywood and Highland where the event annually takes place, to come up with this retort: “I am delighted to have been asked to host The 2007 ESPYs, but as a father, it is especially exciting to be asked to host with my son LeBron."

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 12:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday's sports media "Smokes and Chokes" gray box makes a segue from newsprint to the blogville this week:

WHAT SMOKES:
==The Dodgers have orchested what they're caling the "Home Base Network" -- basically, 25 local bars and restaurants where fans know they can go to see Dodger games all season long, especially with the season opener in Milwaukee on Monday at 11 a.m. Yankee Doodles in Woodland Hills is one of the primary targets, with former Dodgers third baseman Ron Cey scheduled to appear during Monday's game to help launch the program. Dodgers owners Jamie and Frank McCourt, along with Tommy Lasorda, are supposed to be at Barney's Beanery in West Hollywood. Other ex-Dodgers are also scattered around town, including -- and we're not making this up -- Steve Garvey is at the Hooters in Burbank and Fernando Valenzuela is at the Hooters in Pasadena. Maybe as the Dodgers continue their sponsorship deal with the restaurant banned by the airwaves during the NCAA basketball tournament, they can get the waitresses to wear outfits like this one. Wonder if Frank wanted the Hooters' assignment but had it shot down by the Mrs. For a list of all 25 locations, go to the Dodgers' website. The only other San Fernando Valley location (aside from Yankee Doodles in Woodland Hills) is appropriately named The Other Sports Bar, in Thousand Oaks.

==Is that Fox sportscaster Joe Buck we hear doing radio commercials on sports-talk stations in town expounding upon the beauty of the “MLB Extra Innings” package that’ll be available on DirecTV this season? Everything seems cut and dried to him that, despite all these Capitol Hill hearings on the fairness of the deal, the new home of the out-of-market pay-service for baseball games has definitely found a new home, no matter how many other cable operators or competing dish companies whine about it. Are we to assume then that Buck’s stop here means he’s next in line to offer testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation? Somehow, someone will tie Buck’s promos coincide with News Cor's announcement that David Hill, who had been the DirecTV Entertainment Group president, resigned to return fulltime at his position as chairman and CEO of Fox Sports. And in one of Hill’s first moves back, it was announced Thursday that he’s agreed to remove Buck from the “NFL on Fox” pregame, planting the program back from a road production to its Studio 2A home on the Fox Center in L.A. and giving the host chair to Curt Menefee fulltime. Buck, who got an Outstanding Studio Host Emmy nomination for his “NFL on Fox” work last year, remains the lead play-by-play man on the NFL with Troy Aikman, and on MLB with Tim McCarver. Hill said Buck was given a choice to keep doing the pregame or resume full-time play-by-play, and he took the latter as Fox will gear its 2007 NFL season toward the coverage of the Super Bowl in February ’08.

==Are the local sports-talk shows becoming the new platforms for presidental candidates to connect with the people? Wednesday, Petros Papadakis and Matt "Money" Smith had Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on their 570-AM afternoon drive show. Within hours, Steve Mason and John Ireland were talking war policies with Republican presidental candidate John McCain (pictured) on their 710-AM afternoon drive show.

== Before ESPN2 covers the opening of the Major League Baseball season with Sunday’s New York Mets-St. Louis contest (5 p.m.), ESPN will help launch the first Civil Rights game, Saturday at 2:30 p.m. when Cleveland meets St. Louis in Memphis, Tenn., home of the National Civil Rights Museum and at the stadium of the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate. The telecast, with Jon Miller, Joe Morgan and Peter Gammons, will include a five-minute documentary that Spike Lee did on the civil rights movement and the MLB. It’s part of ESPN’s coverage of the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the major league baseball color barrier, which will climax with coverage of the Dodgers’ home game against San Diego on Sunday, April 15.

WHAT CHOKES
==Former Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson will be back as the Westwood One radio analyst for Saturday's Final Four -- including calling the game that his son, John Thompson III, coaches for the Hoyas against Ohio State in the first game of the doubleheader. The senior Thompson was tolerable at best while calling last Sunday's Georgetown overtime win over North Carolina, but the post-game celebration was hardly the kind of quality stuff you'd want to hear outside of the D.C. area.

==In George Solomon's farewell to ombudsmanship on the ESPN website, the former Washington Post sports editor admits he wonders "why ESPN still doesn't have an independent media reporter -- as many newspapers do -- to cover such stories as Ron Jaworski replacing Joe Theismann in the 'Monday Night Football' booth, the dismissal of Harold Reynolds and the departure of Michael Irvin? Such a reporter might have gotten a response from Theismann and his former boothmates, Mike Tirico and Tony Kornheiser, for the March 26 ESPN.com story, and ESPN TV reports, on Jaworski replacing Theismann." Because that would mean their independent reporters would get as stonewalled in trying to get a response out of the ESPN heirachy on any of those stories as the mainstream press, and it wouldn't look so good that the company was kicking one of its own to the curb -- or worse, exposing it for something it did really wrong. Solomon also says that the network "should be proud of reporters such as Bob Ley, Jeremy Schaap, Andy Katz, Tim Kurkjian, Rachel Nichols, Michele Tafoya, Buster Olney, Sal Paolantonio, George Smith, Tom Rinaldi, Mike Fish, Shaun Assael, Chris Mortensen, Jim Gray, Shelley Smith, John Clayton ..." Wait a second. Go back there a few names. Jim Freakin' Gray? Because, as he continues, they "subjugate their egos working and breaking news stories." Maybe it is time for Ol' Sol to hang 'em up. He's obviously not watching the same TV shows as I've been the last two years.

== And speaking of Theismann, it doesn’t take a Norman Einstein to figure out why ESPN has thrown Smokin' Joe for a loss on its “Monday Night Football” package, and it’s not because the network fears Jaws will scramble to another network. Theismann may go on the record as saying he was “shocked” by ESPN’s decision just days after they told him he was doing a great job, it again reinforces the fact that the former Washington Redskins quarterback didn’t see the blitz coming and now lies prone on the TV landscape without Lawrence Taylor standing over him in a panic. Sure there’s plenty of mixed signals when your boss, Norby Williamson, tells a group of reporters that Theismann was (and is) “a phenomenal game analyst” and “did everything we asked him do to” and “I don’t think we’re unhappy with him,” and then proceeds to make even less sense describing why Jaworski is a better fit with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico. If anyone watching that threesome at home during a “MNF” game could figure it out, then way can’t Theismann? Now the greatest fear in all of college football is the idea that Theismann may take his employers up on their offer to join Brent Musburger in the booth for ABC’s Saturday night college football package. Those college football followers with access to blogs are already trying to sabotage any such occurrence. The fact remains that Theismann is still under contract with ESPN for four more years. He’s not going away without a loud, drawn-out, argumentative fight with someone.

== Jack Haley , after finishing talking over some highlights on Tuesday’s “Lakers Live” postgame show on FSN West, made the astutue move to toss it back to “Paul and Stu” for more on the contest. Since they had pre-taped their followup report, neither Joel Meyers nor Stu Lantz reacted to Haley’s mistake (a reference to Paul Sunderland, the former Lakers play-by-play man who was replaced by Meyers two seasons ago). Nor did Haley correct it.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 12:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CLEVELAND (AP) — Tucked away and forgotten for years, a plaque commemorating one of baseball’s darkest moments has been brought back to life.
A 175-pound bronzed memorial for Ray Chapman, the Cleveland Indians shortstop killed when he was hit in the head with a pitch in a 1920 game, was recently rediscovered after decades in storage.
Now refurbished, it will be displayed as one of the signature pieces in the new Heritage Park, a walkthrough exhibit beyond the center-field wall at Jacobs Field honoring Cleveland’s Hall of Famers and the Indians’ history.
“It’s absolutely beautiful,” said Jim Folk, Indians vice president of operations, admiring the once-hidden treasure. “This was a lucky accident.”
Chapman was one of the Indians’ most popular players. “Chappie,” as he was known to everyone, was struck in
the temple by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds on Aug. 16, 1920. Chapman passed away from his injury the next morning.
The beaning came before the advent of batting helmets, and the 29-year-old Chapman was hit so hard that Mays, a
renowned submariner and spitballer, thought the ball had come off Chapman’s bat. He fielded the ball and threw to first.

Read on ....

“Chapman didn’t react at all,” said Rod Nelson of the Society of American Baseball Research, who has culled through dozens of newspaper articles on Chapman’s death. “It was at twilight and it froze him.”
Not long after Chapman died, the plaque was dedicated and hung at League Park and later at Cleveland Municipal Stadium before being taken down for unknown reasons.
“It was in a store room under an escalator in a little nook and cranny,” Folk said. “We didn’t know what we were going to do with it, but there was no way it was just going to stay there when we moved to Jacobs Field. We had it crated up and put on a moving truck and it came over along with our file cabinets and all the other stuff that came out of the stadium.”
The Indians considered hanging it in the Jake, but unable to come up with the perfect spot, the plaque was misplaced. Time passed and Chapman’s plaque became a lost piece of history.
“It just kind of got forgotten about, to be honest,” Folk said.
Six weeks ago, while workers cleaned out a storage room, it was found — in horrible condition. The neglected plaque was covered by years of dust and dirt, making its text illegible.
“You couldn’t read anything on it,” said Bob Knazek of Engineered Products Inc., the company in charge of overseeing the Heritage Park memorial. “It was oxidized, dark brown.”
The plaque was cleaned, restoring Chapman and his sad story for another generation of fans.
“We’re really pleased with it,” Knazek said. “It just turned out to be a piece of artwork. It’s a great focal point for
the ballpark.”
After cutting the ceremonial ribbon at Heritage Park, Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller was one of many who paused to remember Chapman, the only major leaguer to die from an injury sustained in a game.
“It wasn’t the first time he threw at somebody,” the 88-year-old Feller said of Mays. “Whether he threw at Chapman, I have no idea. But I told my grandson, who is a 15-year-old pitcher, ‘Don’t ever throw at a hitter, no matter how upset you are or what happened in the game, don’t ever do it.’ That’s the No. 1 rule of being a pitcher, besides throwing strikes.”

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's from "The Natural" -- Robert Redford as Roy Hobbs delivers a pitch in the scene at the county fair where he's about to strike out "The Whammer" (Joe Don Baker) and change the course of his baseball career. This publicity shot above issued by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to promote the new director's cut version of the movie (coming out April 3) has one small flaw.
But what's bigger, is that they've also used this shot on the DVD disc that you're looking at before loading it into the player.
The mistake? Yup, Redford is a left-handed pitcher in the movie. Not a righty.
Couldn't they have at least looked at the box from the last DVD release (left) of the movie that first hit the cinema in 1984?

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 12:42 PM | Permalink

Admit it, the most you've ever won in a California scratch off lottery ticket is the chance to buy more tickets and eventually lose all the spare single bills in your wallet. You should be scratching your head as to why you even wasted your time and hard-earned cash doing such a stupid thing ... and the next time you were at the 7-Eleven, you asked the guy behind the counter for another roll of 20 so you could hold up everyone else in line trying to buy a pack of cigarettes and a Monster Jolt cola because you had the right to pretend you were about to be an instant thousandaire.
Today, the Dodgers would like to help you take this illusion of riches to the next level.
The California Lottery Thieves have launched a $2 Major League Baseball Scratchers game. There's a chance to win $10,000, but they've also added gimmicks like having a chance to throw out the first pitch of a game, go on a road trip, have dinner with a former big-leaguer and win a chance to sit in a luxury suite with 20 friends. All well and fine. If you have the patience of the Kansas City Royals manager.
“Dodger Scratchers are a great way for us to offer fans the opportunity to win some memorable prizes,” said Dodger COO Marty Greenspun in a press release issued by the team. “It’s another fun way for our fans to get involved in Dodger baseball and give back to the California school system.”
Don't get us started about how much money actually goes to the state's schools. Or how the system that was supposed to use this money as a surplus to get things done like fix buildings and build new music rooms was abandoned because of Prop 13 lack of forsight.
Public education may get 34 cents for every dollar spent on the lottery, but that $1.28 billion given out from the sale of $3.58 billion in tickets during the 2005-06 school year is pretty much all the schools get now, since money they formerly received (without the lottery windfall) has been syphoned off into other state programs by our state legislature's haphazard spending. That's nice that, since its inception in 1985, the lottery has given schools $18 billion. Then why do the schools continue to suffer? Figure it out. The lottery money is the only thing supporting whether your fourth-grade kid gets a world history textbook.
“Now Californians can not only cheer for the Dodgers, but by purchasing one of the California Lottery’s new Dodger themed Major League Baseball Scratchers they’ll have the chance at prizes that baseball fans will truly love,” said Joan Borucki, California Lottery Director, in another statement. “By purchasing Dodger Scratcher tickets fans will have a chance to win once in a lifetime sports experiences; experiences they’ve only dreamed about can now become a reality.”
Dream big, my friend. As you can see, Nomar Garciaparra has been sucked into help promote this thing. Like he needs anything more in his wallet, except maybe the finances to suppliment the expenses for future nannies for his wife's pending twins.
It's the "second-chance" winners who'll get the opportunity to throw out the first pitch, etc. -- a big thanks to them for not only losing the first time, but having faith that they could actually win something if they just kept at it. That's the philoslophy, right?
Sorry for the somewhat sour attitude about all this, but it's a scam that just won't go away, and having the Dodgers and MLB be part of it perpetuate the idea that it's all about the public school kids and this will make their lives better. Nice promotion, nice effort, maybe not the right wagon to hitch your pony on.
Besides, what did you really ever win with a lottery scratcher, except get all that silver junk all over your shirt?
Read up more about this promotion on the lottery's website. And let's be careful out there. Even a state-educated grade-school kid can see through this one.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 9:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It took 10 weeks before Donald Trump was compelled to pull the trigger and banish three-time U.S. women's Olympic hockey team star Angela Ruggiero from NBC's "The Apprentice: Los Angeles" on Sunday's episode after the former Simi Valley native was the project manager on a task that fell so flat, Trump likened it to a hockey team getting thumped 7-0.
Ruggiero left the show in tears, the leader of her four-female Team Kinetic that couldn't generate as much money as the competing Team Arrow in a contest to sell admission tickets to Universal Studios.
From a starting field of 18 contestants, Ruggiero survived 10 firings before she was seriously in the line of fire. She had been on losing teams in the past but, as Trump admitted, she kept "staying under the radar."
Not this time. After Kinetic raised $24,000 in sales compared to $31,000 by Arrow, Ruggiero tried to claim Arrow's tactics were unethical and didn't represent Universal Studios as well as her team did.
She also tried to pin a "flawed concept" on new teammate Nicole. When Trump continued to ask her to make a case for her avoiding a firing, it wasn't compelling enough.
"My star, my Olympian, this is terrible," Trump said in the boardroom.
"I'm a scapegoat," Ruggiero said.
"I'm trying to keep you on as a great American," he said. "I feel guilty to have to fire you."
As Ruggiero wiped the tears away and entered the limo for the ride into the night at the end of the show, she summed up her experience:
"As an Olympic gold medalist, and a silver and bronze medalists, it always hurts to lose. Tonight, I didn't win. I learned so much in the process. And when you lose, you actually learn more about yourself. I won a gold, but I learned more and grew more when I won a silver and a bronze. So, I'm OK."

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Gilbert Arenas was admonished by the NBA for making $10 bets with fans during the Washington Wizards' loss at Portland on Wednesday.
"We spoke to Gilbert and explained the issue to him," NBA spokesman John Acunto said Sunday. "And he assured us he wouldn't do anything like this again."
Arenas made the bets as he bantered with fans throughout the Wizards' 100-98 loss. He was booed during pregame introductions and whenever he touched the ball because he had promised to score 50 points against the Trail Blazers.
After the game, Arenas said he bet a fan $10 that he would make the game-winning basket. He missed badly _ throwing up a shot that fell short of the rim _ and finished with only 19 points.
"I owe somebody 10 bucks," Arenas said. "I bet a fan if I had a chance I would make the last shot."
Arenas later elaborated on his nba.com blog, saying that he made $10 bets with two fans during the game and had obtained their e-mail addresses so that he could pay them off. The NBA since has removed the references to the bets from the blog.
Arenas, who had 30 points in a loss to the Clippers on Saturday, was not available for comment Sunday, a day off for the Wizards during their West Coast road trip that takes them next to Utah on Monday.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Maria Sharapova celebrates her 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Venus Williams during the third round at the Sony Ericsson Open tennis tournament on Sunday. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)

Anyone care to elaborate?

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

CLEVELAND (AP) - LeBron James invited a buddy who has even more money than he does to watch him play. Billions and billions more.
Philanthropist and businessman Warren Buffett, wearing a black T-shirt with "Witness" glittering on the front, sat courtside as a guest of James on Sunday night for the Cleveland Cavaliers' game against the Denver Nuggets.
Though an unlikely pair, Cleveland's All-Star forward and Buffet are friends and mutual admirers. They first met a few months ago over a lunch of cheeseburgers in Omaha, Neb.
"He wanted a few tips on basketball and I wanted a little advice on money," joked Buffett, estimated by Forbes Magazine to be worth $52 billion. "We switch. He tells me what socks to buy and I tell him what stocks to pick."
Before tip-off, Buffett said he was eager to see his first NBA game in many years.
"I like basketball. I used to play when I was young _ not very well," said the 76-year-old Buffett, ranked by Forbes as the world's second-richest man behind Bill Gates. "Of course in Nebraska, they tend to identify with football."
Buffett said he has become a big fan of the 22-year-old James, who has built his own business portfolio. James signed a three-year, $60 million contract extension in July and already has endorsement deals worth an estimated $150 million.
"He's terrific," Buffett said. "I just want to be partners with him. He can probably buy the whole place."

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've never pulled the strand cruiser out of the garage, thrown it in the back of the car and taken it down to Rosarito Beach for the annual 50 Mile Fun Ride that goes from the hotel down to Ensenada every April and September, there's added incentive this year.
The organizers of the event, in its 28th year, have decided to help out the "economincally challenged" families in that stretch of Northern Baja and will now collect cash donations for the local Red Cross of Rosarito Beach and Ensenada. With an estimated 7,500 riders, the added donations will be welcome.
"We encourage our riders to donate through our events," said Gary Foster of San Diego's Bicycling West, Inc. "A dollar or two from each of a few thousand people really adds up."
The event, which has a $35 pre-admission ($40 on race day), already generates over $10 million of tourism revenue each year for local Baja businesses. The Fun Run also collects bicycle donations for Baja residents, distributed through Mexico's family relief agency, D.I.F.
This year a new "elite start" will add to the competition from regional cycling clubs as well. Some 200 riders will try to beat the course record of 2 hours, 2 minutes, 8 seconds set last September.
The upcoming April 21 event starts at 10 a.m. in front of the Rosarito Beach Hotel and goes 50 miles south on Highway 1 to Ensenada. There are aid stations with purified water and Powerade, U.S. medical support, bike repair and a finish-line fiesta hosted by Corona with live music. All very safe and, most importantly, a great time.
For more information and registration, go to the race website (www.RosaritoEnsenada.com) or call (858) 483-8777. A company named Outback Adventures also offers transporation to and from the race, leaving from San Diego to avoid having to drive across the border for $75.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Herbalife has signed a deal reported to be almost $5 million for the next five years with AEG to slap its logo on the front of the new Galaxy jerseys, the Sports Business Daily reports today. AEG Sports President Shawn Hunter said: “This clearly sets a benchmark in MLS that other teams can shoot for.” It doesn't hurt that every picture of David Beckham in a Galaxy jersey will have an ad for the weight-management and nutritional supplement company staring the recipient in the face. The Galaxy isn't the only MLS team with an advertisement-friendly jersey. Real Salt Lake gets a reported $1 mil per year to have a patch for something called XanGo on their shirts. Many Euro kickball teams charge as much as $20 million-plus for ad space on their shirts. Herbalife also sponsors AEG's Amgen Tour of California bike race, the JPMorgan Chase Open tennis tournament, the Major League Lacrosse Riptide and has signage at the Home Depot Center. It'll also put its new headquarters in the L.A. Live complex next to Staples Center.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HBO's George Roy, left, and Ross Greenburg, right, pose with former UCLA coach John Wooden at Monday's screening in Westwood of "The UCLA Dynasty" documentary. Photo by Leroy Hamilton/HBO

The upcoming HBO Sports documentary, "The UCLA Dynasty," which debuts Monday and was reviewed today in the Daily News gave us cause to consider the premium channel's run of incredible sports documentaries over the last 16 years.
So we made up a Top 10 list of our favorites that helped set the standard for how sports TV documentaries have been produced:
1. “When It Was A Game” Part I (1991), Part 2 (1992) and Part 3 (2000)
2. “Reverse of the Curse” (2004)
3. “Arthur Ashe: Citizen of the World” (1994)
4. “The UCLA Dynasty” (2007)
5. “Nine Innings from Ground Zero” (2004)
6. “O.J.: A Study of Black & White” (2002)
7. “City Dump: The Story of the 1951 CCNY Basketball Scandal” (1998)
8. “Long Shots: The Life and Times of the American Basketball Association” (1997)
9. “Billie Jean King: Portrait of a Pioneer” (2006)
10. “The Curse of the Bambino” (2003)

==According to HBO's website, other air dates for "The UCLA Dynasty" after Monday (10 p.m.) include Wednesday March 28 (8:00 AM), Friday March 30 (9:00 AM and 7:00 PM) and Saturday March 31 (10:30 AM). It continues on HBO and HBO2 through the end of April and is on HBO On Demand from March 27 to April 24.

== "Wait'll Next Year: The Saga of the Chicago Cubs" is the HBO documentary nominated for a 2007 Emmy, according to the list that came out Thursday morning. If you're Emmy scoreboard watching, ESPN (26) and NBC (24) came out with the most nominees for the 28th Annual Sports Emmy awards. HBO (16), CBS (14), Fox (13), The NFL Network (11), ABC (10) and TNT (7) followed. Those who need to know more can go to Emmy's website at this link and see who's got the best chance to snuff out Bob Costas this time. Here's one mild (but pleasant) surprise: John Madden wasn't nominated for best TV analyst.

=For the first time, the Sports Emmys include a category for Outstanding Broadband Coverage. CBS Sportsline.com has two nominees, one for the March Madness on Demand and the other for Amen Corner Live during the Masters Tournament. The other nominees are Sports.Yahoo.com's Fantasy Football Live, Race2Replace.com and Discovery Communications on the Race 2 Replace, and TNT on NBA.com's "OverTime" segment on Charles Barkley in New Orleans.

==More Q&A with CBS' Jim Nantz, who was at the East Rutherford, N.J., site to watch USC, North Carolina, Georgtown and Vanderbilt practice before tonight's games:
Q: What kind of vibe have you picked up on from the first two rounds of games, without a George Mason or any double-digit seed advancing?
A: This may not be the party line here, but to me the first two days were the most forgetable of any NCAA tournament in my 22 years. It was the worst first round I've ever been apart of. But then Saturday was one of the single greatest days -- eight games, three in overtime, any one of them could have gone either way. And then Sunday was another snoozer. So what we have now is a very odd set of matchups. Usually there's a game out there where you say, 'Oh, boy, that'll be one not to miss.' That's not to say any of these games left are bad, but nationally, there's not one of those games that would make you want to take the day off work. Now, and I'll go back to what may sound like the party line, we have the potential to have one of the great Final Fours of all time. How do you define great? If we have four No. 1 seeds, that's never happened. I don't expect it, but there are some wild possibliites down the road. So after three ugly days and one brilliant day, there's a payoff somewhere."

Q: Do you have imput into what games or regions you cover for this weekend? Was the East bracket more intriguing because of North Carolina and Georgetown meeting in the final?
A: Not really. The network usually puts me and Billy (Packer) on the Friday-Sunday site, with the idea that we'll do the last game on Sunday and we get to sum up the other three regionals. That's how it's happened almost every year. Some years we've fallen in love with a Thursday-Saturday site, like at Anaheim in 2003 when it was Kansas facing Arizona, and it also had Notre Dame and Duke in that bracket. But everytime we've not been in that late slot Sunday for the Elite Eight, we've regretted it because that generates the biggest following.

Q: We've seen you in the Circuit City ads, but any chance of you doing spots for Hooters?
A: I don't think that'd go over well with my wife. You know my daughter Caroline is in the second wave of commercials for Circuit City. We did those at a store out in Rancho Cucamonga. It was a lot of fun.

==The Hooters TV spots with Vitale acting like his idiotic self - “Hooters Is Awesome Baby!” — around the girls - “Aw, Dick!” one young misguided woman says — can still be seen on the internet if you miss ‘em that much:

==Meanwhile, in an interview with TVGuide.com, Vitale tries to justify his relationship with Hooters: “You know, my favorite thing about Hooters is very simple: People don’t realize (the chain’s) generosity. They’ve given over a half-million dollars to the V Foundation for cancer research. Jimmy Valvano was a good friend of mine, and their donations to his foundation have been very special to me.”

== With the Angels, USC and the Clippers fighting for live game time on KSPN-AM (710), the station has decided that tonight's USC-North Carolina game will air on 710, while the Clippers-Utah goes to sister station KDIS-AM (1110). If USC wins and has to play against Sunday, the Angels' exhibition agianst the Cubs will still probably get the 710 spot and USC would go to KLAA-AM (830) or KDIS-AM (1110) depending on tipoff time.

==Just hours before his team tips off against North Carolina, USC Coach Tim Floyd will be today's "Five Good Minutes" guest on Pardon the Interruption at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.

==More Wooden than you can shake a trap zone at: FSN West airs a Chris Myers interview with Wooden at 9:30 p.m. Sunday, after the Lakers-Warriors telecast, for the latest edition of "CMI: The Chris Myers Interview," which starts its fourth season. Says Wooden on advice he’d give to players today: “Be themselves. Don’t try to emulate somebody else. Learn from others but don’t try to be better than somebody else. Just make every effort to do the best of which you’re capable, and be yourself. That’s what I feel like they should do, not be concerned about the media or the alumni or them making a comparison. Just be yourself.”

==Some think Gus Johnson’s over-enthusiastic calls of a college basketball game is refreshing during March Madness; if not Vitale-esque, at least it matches the energy on the court and always seemed to punctuate an upset in the making (such as Xavier’s game against Ohio State in round two). Others (like us) wonder if he’ll ever find a happy medium with his medication. Whatever the case, Johnson, who has been doing CBS games for 11 years while also the voice of the New York Knicks on radio, didn’t advance to the network’s broadcasting crew when it was pared down the Sweet 16. It’s Nantz, Dick Enberg, Verne Lundquist and James Brown – the latter of which is probably the reason no one will hear Non-Gloomy Gus scream “Last chance to dance!” during the Elite Eight. Let’s hear Nantz, Lundquist or Brown try that. Oh, my. It was New York Daily News media columnist Bob Raissman who wrote about Johnson last week: “(He’s) a victim of the network's star system. He is being shafted. Considering the way CBS Sports does business, this is not surprising. Often, talent it has developed and nurtured - like Johnson - cannot catch a break because the suits are too busy chasing another network's ‘star’ property."

== FSN Prime Ticket airs four CIF basketball state championship games Saturday from Sacramento. The two Division II games -- Archbishop Mitty vs. Brea Olinda (2 p.m.) in the girls game and Archbishop Mitty vs. Mater Dei (4 p.m.) in the boys contest -- are delayed from tonight. The two live Division I games -- Long Beach Poly girls vs. Berkeley at 6 p.m. and Fairfax boys vs. McClymonds at 8 p.m. -- use Jim Watson on play-by-play and Chris McGee as the sideline reporter. Caren Horstmeyer will do color on the girls' games and former Golden State Warriors and Stanford coach Mike Montgomery is the analyst on the boys' games.

==FSN's "Best Damn Sports Show Period" will use Tuesday's show (11 p.m.) to show off the latest "Best Damn Top 50" series on sports bloopers. Many haen't seen before (so say the producers). Check it out yourself on a trailer for the episode that's on the BDSSP myspace.com page, linked here.

==In addition to NBC's coverage of the PGA Tour's CA Championship at Doral in Miami, PGATOUR.com has exclusive coverage from the 16th hole so fans can watch players take their shot at the par-4 beautie. There'll be more than 20 hours of tournament coverage at that link through Sunday. Live radio coverage of the event via XM Satellite radio is also available at the site.

==Tonya Bergeson-Dana, the widow of IndyCar Series driver Paul Dana, does an interview with ESPN's Mark Schwarz that airs first on Saturday's 7 a.m. ESPN "SportsCenter," a year after her husband died in a pre-race practice run at the season opener in Homestead, Fla. Bergeson-Dana's interview is her first since the fatal accident, and she explains what the IRL has told her about what happened: “The IRL has been able to tell us, through examining some data, that Paul was going at speeds that were on par with the speeds that the other drivers were going through at that point. They were also able to tell us that he hit a piece of debris just before hitting Ed Carpenter’s car… If you hit a piece of debris, there’s nothing you can do, whether you’re a rookie or whether you’re the most experienced driver in the world.”

==The new MLB "Extra Innings" semi-exclusive deal with DirecTV starting next week continues to raise the hairs on the back of many necks. The subject was discussed in detail this week during the two-day 2007 IMG World Congress of Sports meeting in New York, hashing out why the MLB has been hammered by blogs and columnists for paying a reported $700 million over the next seven years for the package that has the league's out-of-market pay-per-view games, alienating fans who have been paying for it on either their cable system or on the Dish Network. Tim Brosnan, the MLB's executive vice president of business who was on a panel that included Dodgers vice chairman Jamie McCourt and ESPN general manager John Skipper, said that cable industry's decision to leak information about the package during negotiations was "a great load of sour grapes ... What you have here is a full plate of bidders who lost. ... We negotiated to deliver the most baseball coverage to the most fans." Dave Checketts, the new owner of the St. Louis Blues added: “If he had made a deal with the cable programmers, he would be getting the same amount of heat from people who live in rural areas and only use satellites. I think he made the right deal.” The Sports Business Journal, who is sponsoring the event, took a poll and concluded that 66 percent of the audience (mostly executives in the sports business and sports media journalists) agreed that MLB made the correct decision to go with DirecTV, Skipper said, “That’s not fair. You should have done a secret poll before and another after Tim spoke to see how many people he moved. I was moved.”

==Gotta admit, we really haven't watched "The George Michael Sports Machine" for about as many years as we've seen an episode of "Davey and Goliath." For one, ol' George came on too late on a Sunday night after the KNBC Channel 4 newscast had ended. We'd seen most of the day's highlights already on ESPN or, believe it or not, on the expanded local sportscasts that aired that night. Even adding Lindsay Czarniak toward the end wasn't going to cut it. The fact Michael is ending a 27-year run Sunday night doesn't bring as much sentimental mushiness, only a laugh or two about how it tried to look high-tech with this TV screen and a button that Michael would push when it was time to show a hlghlight. That was kitchy enough for many to stick with it all these years. We'll give him props for agreeing to end the show because he said he didn't want his contract with the local Washington D.C. affilate renewed at the expense of other staffers. Others who care to wax poetically about Michael's run on "Sports Machine" can read this piece in USA Today, or a Washington Post tome on him also leaving the local TV weekend anchor role.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

According to the information provided by the Associated Press, this is Troy Dumais, competing in the men's 3-meter platform diving event at the World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia today. But it's creeping us out.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The gas grill offered for sale on eBay.com by Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez was taken down from the auction website because it said he could not be verified as its owner and the listing violated company policy.
The seller’s contact information given to the Web site when the item was listed was not that of Ramirez, eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe told the Associated Press.
The bidding began with a $3,000 minimum bid Tuesday afternoon, but reached $99,999,999 within hours. It was taken down from the site Wednesday.
EBay's problem was trying to verify ownership. Sharpe said the company support team called the phone number in the contact info and spoke with someone other than Ramirez.
“If it’s not officially from (Ramirez) it would disappoint his many fans," Sharpe said.
She suggested that if Ramirez is verified as the owner, he might want to list it on eBay’s charity program that allows proceeds to go to the charity of the seller’s choice. Which wouldn't be a bad PR move since he's in the
next to last year of a $160 million, eight-year contract.
One thing that tipped eBay into checking out ownership was that Ramirez told a Boston Globe reporter that the grill belonged to a neighbor in Weston, Fla.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

By PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press

RICHARDSON, Texas -- In the physics building at the University of Texas at Dallas, there’s a windowless office with two chairs and a wobbly table — more resources than most small suburban colleges would bother providing an after-school chess club.
But when it comes to chess here, Room 2.310 in Founders Hall is just the start.
At a school without football and a Division III sports program perpetually fighting obscurity, the chess team has evolved from being as relevant as a French club to an influential, brand-exposing billboard for UT-Dallas with a $109,000 budget — more than three times what the school gives to men’s basketball.
The financial blessing has made UT-Dallas, favored to win its third title in the final four of collegiate chess
that begins Saturday, a unique chess power that’s as internationally attractive to teenage chess masters as Duke and North Carolina are to prep basketball’s elite.
In 10 years, a club that began with occasional games run by a humanities professor now has a full-time director with a bigger paycheck than most head coaches on campus. The team also has a salaried instructor from the former Yugoslavia and a supply of full scholarships to use as bait in its year-round recruiting.
“For all the PR they get out of us, I think (the university) gets a pretty good return,” said Jim Stallings, the chess director whose prior marketing stops at companies such as Motorola are more valuable to his new job than his interest in the game.
A prominent engineering school with about 15,000 students, UT-Dallas hitched its wagon to chess with hopes of
making a board game often used as a nerdy punch line into a symbol of the school’s intellectual stature — even if, in the words of undergraduate dean Michael Coleman, “We don’t want to be snobs.”

Read on ...

The school’s chess players include two grandmasters — the game’s highest ranking — and are as predictable in their bookish qualities as height on a basketball team. The roster is filled with foreign-born students from countries such as India and Serbia who study computer science and finance. To that end, it’s a naturally brainy group: The collective grade point average of its freshmen is a point higher than the school average.
But there’s eye rolling at the suggestion that they’re, you know, just dorky introverts.
“We hang out, go to parties, play poker,” said Dmitri Schneider, a senior who is an international master from New York. “You know, stuff that normal college kids would do.”
Coleman, who has been at UT-Dallas since the 1970s, has seen the school mushroom from a few research buildings flush with graduate students into a four-year school with one of the top academic reputations in
the state. He’s confident the resources given to the chess team is a small price to pay for the exposure.
“It’s not big money compared to lots of institutions,” Coleman said. “But it’s important money for us. Over 10 years I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s money well spent.”
That money also is necessary for UT-Dallas to compete with the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, the nation’s other chess power. UMBC, which also offers scholarships and pours similar resources into its team, has won the last four titles and will play for a fifth straight at the weekend tournament held near the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
It’s a streak that Rade Milovanovic (pictured), the UT-Dallas coach and an international master himself, says “needs to come to an end.” His biggest decision is which members of the team to use in the tournament.
“It’s just like basketball, where a coach chooses the six players he wants to use,” he said.
Milovanovic then paused, as though his king was about to be captured.
“I mean five.”

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A New York Times story sets an interesting timeline of how prep basketball phenom O.J. Mayo made initial contact and then agreed to play for USC basketball coach Tim Floyd, under rather unorthodox standards:

By Lee Jenkins
New York Times
LOS ANGELES — It sounds like a fairy tale.
A stranger walked into the University of Southern California basketball office one day last summer and asked to speak to the head coach. The stranger did not make an appointment. He did not call ahead. Tim Floyd, the U.S.C. head coach, cannot explain why he agreed to see him.
Nine months later, as U.S.C. prepares for the regional semifinal of the N.C.A.A. tournament, Floyd recounted his version of that conversation.
The mysterious man got right to the point. “How would you like to have the best player in the country?” he asked.
Floyd tried not to roll his eyes.
“Have you heard of O. J. Mayo?” the man asked.
Of course Floyd had heard of him. Everyone in basketball had heard of him. Mayo was first mentioned in Sports Illustrated when he was in the seventh grade. He was considered a future lottery pick by the time he entered high school. He once talked trash to Michael Jordan during a pickup game at Jordan’s camp.
Mayo was entering his senior season as a point guard at Huntington High School in Huntington, W.Va., but Floyd said he did not bother to call him. He did not even send him a U.S.C. brochure.
What was the point? Major universities had been courting Mayo for four years. Floyd had been at U.S.C. for fewer than 18 months. Besides, Floyd had only recruited two top-100 players in his life. He had no business going after Mayo, the No. 1 player in the country, especially being from a football college that was 3,000 miles away.
“O. J. wanted me to come here today,” the man told Floyd. “He wanted me to figure out who you are.” ...

Read on ...

Floyd was desperate enough to play along. His starting point guard, Ryan Francis, had been murdered two months earlier. The backup, Gabe Pruitt, was in academic trouble. The third-stringer, a walk-on, was leaving college.

“Why aren’t you at Arizona or Connecticut?” Floyd recalled asking.

The man explained that Mayo wanted to market himself before going to the N.B.A., and that Los Angeles would give him the best possible platform.

“Then why aren’t you at U.C.L.A.?” Floyd asked.

The man shook his head. U.C.L.A. had already won 11 national championships. It had already produced many N.B.A. stars. Mayo wanted to be a pioneer for a new era.

“Let me call him,” Floyd said.

The man shook his head again. “O. J. doesn’t give out his cell,” he said. “He’ll call you.”

Floyd remembers the meeting lasting 45 minutes. He learned that the man’s name was Ronald Guillory, and that he was an event promoter in Los Angeles who had befriended Mayo. Other than that, Floyd learned absolutely nothing.

“There was no way that kid was going to call,” Floyd said. “There was no way.”

College basketball recruiting, especially when it comes to the top players, is a famously shady business. Coaches deal regularly with handlers and street agents. When they land a top prospect, they are immediately open to questions and accusations.

Floyd is no different. Hours after he met Guillory, at about 6:30 p.m., Floyd was at home in Santa Monica when his cellphone rang. He gave his version of his second landmark conversation of the day.

When Floyd answered the phone, he heard a teenager’s voice on the other end: “Coach, this is O. J. Mayo. I’d like to come to your school.”

Mayo had not been on an official campus visit. He had not seen the new arena, the Galen Center. He did not know anything about the current roster.

Floyd did not believe it was possible to get a verbal commitment from a player he had recruited for less than one day, especially when that player was a 6-foot-5 sharpshooter with blue-chip strength, quickness and passing ability.

“I want to be different,” Floyd recalls Mayo telling him. “I want to leave a mark.”

Mayo said that if he did not go to U.S.C., he would probably enroll at an African-American college. Such colleges are renowned academically, but they do not typically produce pro basketball players.

Mayo’s mind was apparently made up. He was already looking ahead. “How many scholarships do we have for next year?” he asked.

Floyd stammered. “After this,” he said, “I guess we have three.”

Mayo went through the priority list in his mind. “Don’t worry about recruiting,” he said. “I’ll take care of it.”

Before Floyd hung up, he asked one more time for Mayo’s cellphone number. “No,” Mayo said. “I’ll call you.”

When Floyd put down the phone, he turned to his wife. “This ain’t happening,” he said. “But we’ve got to act like it is.”

Never has a verbal commitment carried less weight. Mayo is one of those basketball prodigies famous for his large entourage and his erratic behavior. In the past six years, he has moved from West Virginia to Kentucky to Ohio and back to West Virginia. He has been suspended at least three times for fights and other violations.

But every six weeks, Mayo called Floyd to check in. He persuaded one of his friends, Davon Jefferson, to join him at U.S.C.

“O. J. has a lot of people in his ear, but he is just not a follow-the-herd kind of guy,” Floyd said. “He never, ever wavered.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Mayo faxed his letter of intent to Floyd. It was a bigger story in Los Angeles than U.C.L.A.’s opening game. On Friday, Nov. 17, Mayo finally took his official visit to U.S.C., accompanied by a documentary film crew.

Floyd solicited the help of a coach more familiar with five-star recruits. Pete Carroll, the U.S.C. football coach, gave Mayo his pitch. As usual, it worked.

“It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Floyd said. “I kept thinking, ‘Either this kid is nuts, or he’s got the biggest vision I’ve ever seen.’ ”

Like a true point guard, Mayo saw everything develop a split-second before it did. At the time he faxed his letter of intent, U.S.C. was a mess. Players were still mourning Francis’ death. Floyd could not persuade anyone to care about defense. The starting point guard, Daniel Hackett, graduated early from high school so he could fill in.

“We were miserable to watch,” Floyd said. “Our guys wouldn’t even shake their heads if they threw the ball away or let a guy blow right by them. They would only shake their heads if they missed a shot.”

As a high school senior, Mayo obviously could not help the Trojans cover the perimeter and work the ball inside. But Floyd believes that Mayo’s signing improved the team’s overall attitude. Mayo gave validation to a program that always trails U.S.C. football on its own campus and U.C.L.A. basketball in its own city.

“Now we’re getting as much love as those guys are,” forward Taj Gibson said.

The Trojans had reason to listen to Floyd before, based on his N.B.A. experience coaching the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Hornets. But when he showed that he could sign Mayo, his locker-room credibility rose even higher.

Fifth-seeded U.S.C. will play top-seeded North Carolina in the Round of 16 on Friday in East Rutherford, N.J.. The Trojans have a tough-minded defense and a selfless style. They always had players who could create — and make — their own shots. Suddenly, they have players who are willing to do more.

“We understand what it takes now to win games,” said Pruitt, who was academically ineligible for the first semester. “We like the results.”

This was all supposed to happen next year, with Mayo leading the team deep into the N.C.A.A. tournament and then bolting for the N.B.A. lottery.

Until he shows up for freshman orientation, U.S.C. will have to wonder if Mayo is for real, or if he will skip college entirely and wait the required one year for the draft.

“I used to think about that, but not anymore,” Floyd said. “This guy wants to play for it all.”

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because that's what Sports Illustrated is predicting in its March 26 issue that hits the newsstands Wednesday. See the headline "Freeway Fever" down there along the right side? It means curtains for both Nomar Garciaparra and Frankie Rodriguez. Why couldn't the magazine just have predicted a UCLA-USC matchup for the NCAA national championship?
In its 1-to-30 overall team regular-season power rankings, SI actually lists the New York Yankees as the best team overall, with the Angels second, the Boston Red Sox third and the Dodgers fourth. But in their playoff scenario, the Angels beat the Yankees (again) in the ALCS, while the Dodgers win the NL West, beat Atlanta in the first round, then the New York Mets in the NLCS to reach the World Series.
At least if there's a cover jinx involved in this, it's going to drag down new Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka along with it.
Here's how SI determined the standings (with power rankings in parenthesis):

AMERICAN LEAGUE
East:
1. Yankees (1)
2. Red Sox* (3)
3. Blue Jays (9)
4. Orioles (24)
5. Devil Rays (28)

Central:
1. Indians (7)
2. Tigers (8)
3. White Sox (12)
4. Twins (17)
5. Royals (29)

West:
1. Angels (2)
2. Athletics (14)
3. Rangers (22)
4. Mariners (25)

NATIONAL LEAGUE
East
1. Mets (5)
2. Braves* (10)
3. Phillies (13)
4. Marlins (21)
5. Nationals (30)

Central
1. Cardinals (6)
2. Cubs (15)
3. Brewers (18)
4. Astros (19)
5. Pirates (26)
6. Reds (27)

West
1. Dodgers (4)
2. Diamondbacks (11)
3. Padres (16)
4. Rockies (20)
5. Giants (23)

*Wild-card team

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 3:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Kings' real men of genius who came up with the "Faith Night" promotion last week -- penalty minutes and fighting came optional -- are turning it up a notch for Wednesday's game at Staples Center.
Not only is the tiny Luc Robitaille jersey giveaway -- suitable for wearing if you're two feet tall -- but the Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" are scheduled to perform a special hockey parody on the ice during the second intermission of the Kings-Stars game, according to the Kings' real men of PR genius.
Who out there does not appreciate the beauty of this promotional campaign, which actually started out as "Real American Heroes" in 1999 but then tastefully altered it to "Mean of Genius" after we found out there were some real American heroes who came out of the 9/11 attacks and sports, in general, stopped throwing around the word "heroes" so freely.
"Mr. Bowling Shoe Giver Outer" was the first "Real Men of Genius" radio spot.
Pete Stacker gives it the big-voice pompousity while David Bickler (pictured here), the former lead singer of "Survivor" whose voice is best rememberd on "Eye Of The Tiger," does the inspirational singing refrains that put the subtle dig into every commercial.
Budweiser actually has many of the 180 radio spots for sale on CD. The three CD set available on Amazon.com here goes for $60.
Well worth the price, my friend.
Usually we aren't this stoked about a beer commerical, but it's been Stacker and Bickler who are the men of genius who deserve to have their own night. The Real Men of Genius link on Wikipedia actually has the entire list of people who've been featured on the spots. We also found a site that does have mp3 recordings. It's astounding.
Bickler will also sing the National Anthem before the game, so get there early. Here's to you, tiny Luc jersey makers. And Stacker and Bickler. We salute you.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Dodgers won't be blowing out of their Vero Beach, Fla., training facility for good until after 2008 spring training, where the plan is to set up the annual ritual of March in new digs in Glendale, Arizona in 2009. But for those buying T-shirts at the Dodgertown souvenir shops in Vero Beach these last few weeks, it's been kind of a geographically challenged experience. Note the Grapefuit League logo shirt.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 4:02 PM | Permalink

CBS has released its NCAA basketball schedule of games for the Sweet 16 that start Thursday.
Here's how it falls together for the L.A. market:
Thursday:
Kansas vs. Southern Illinois in San Jose, 4:10 p.m. (Dick Enberg and Jay Bilas)
(Game we won't see: Memphis vs. Texas A&M in San Antonio at 4:27 p.m.)
UCLA vs. Pittsburgh in San Jose, approx. 6:40 p.m. (Enberg and Bilas)
(Game we won't see: Ohio State vs. Tennessee, approx. 7 p.m.)
Friday:
Florida vs. Butler in St. Louis, 4:10 p.m. (James Brown and Len Elmore) or
Georgetown vs. Vanderbilt in East Rutherford, N.J., 4:27 p.m. (Jim Nantz and Billy Packer)
(Game we won't see: UNLV vs. Oregon, approx. 6:40 p.m.)
USC vs. North Carolina in East Rutherford, N.J., approx. 7 p.m. (Nantz and Packer)

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 8:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bob Feller, the 88-year-old Hall of Famer from the Cleveland Indians, still makes the rounds for autograph signings and interviews.
During a Q-and-A with an Associated Press reporter on Friday in Winter Haven, Fla., Feller touched on these topics:
=On Pete Rose, who earlier this week admitted betting on the Cincinnati Reds to win every game while he was their
manager: “He’ll do anything to get his name in the paper or get attention. He’s a self-admitted liar. Great hitter, good fielder, pretty fair base runner, but an average manager. He’ll never get in the Hall of Fame. He’ll never get the votes.”
=On Iraq: “We should have gone in there with 450,000 troops — half with guns and half for support. We should have said, ‘We’re going to take your oil, we’re going to give you the going price and we’re going to set up martial law. You are going to do what we tell you, like we did in Japan after World War II. And if you don’t do what we tell you to do, you may not be around tomorrow.’”
=On President Bush: “We haven’t had good leaders in a while. I voted for Bush. He would have been a good president of a college, but that’s it. Instead of getting better, he’s got worse.”

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 4:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

LONDON (AP) — Toulouse’s Trevor Brennan was banned for life from rugby Friday for punching a fan. Brennan, who announced his retirement Tuesday, was also fined $33,250 and ordered to pay $6,650 in compensation to the fan. The ban was imposed by the disciplinary panel of the European Rugby Cup.
On Jan. 21, the former Ireland forward climbed into the stands and punched Patrick Bamford during Toulouse’s 28-13 win over Ulster in the Heineken Cup.
The 33-year-old Brennan later apologized but said he was provoked by a group of Ulster fans who had insulted his mother and poured beer on him.

Posted by Tom Hoffarth at 3:04 PM | Permalink

Expanding on the Daily News media column in today's paper about all the maddening stuff going on this March duriing the NCAA tournament, it only makes sense to start with a video game that somehow doesn't include John Madden himself:

=If Florida, North Carolina, Kansas, and Ohio State are the No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tourney, only two will make it to the Final Four if you are to believe the Electronic Arts "NCAA March Madness 07" videogame that played out the 65-team tournament for ESPN.com. To watch how the computer decided it, go to this ESPN.com link. And for the EA Sports videogame simulations, you can click onto this link. For the record, EA had USC losing to Arkansas by five in the first round, UCLA losing by seven in the second round to Gonzaga and Long Beach State losing by 10 to Tennessee in the fir