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Read fast, these media notes may disappear
The Angels' throwin' it to the wayback machine
Let Tonya help you to help her
Braun's no brainer: eight years, $45 mil
Charlie Weis, you've been thrown under the bus
Sample the Parker-Leslie Parfait
This week in SI: L.A. Hoops -- Lakers, Sparks, 8th grader
LAWYER JOHN commented on Mayo-Guillory, under ESPN's microscope
colt22 commented on The Jon Secrist Diary: No. 5: "The saga's over"
HBO has Matt Walsh, the former New England Patroits video dude, on a special edition of "Real Sports" tonight (8 p.m. PDT). But before that, Patriots coach Bill Belichick has decided to jump on to CBS' Evening News (still with Katie Couric for some reason) and spill what he supposedly knows or doesn't know with Armen Keteyian. The two spoke earlier today in Boston. The piece runs sometime between 6:30 and 7 p.m.
Not necessarily the stuff that didn't get into today's media columm, but the items just too special to include in print and more effective in for those with the Internet machine:
It's just one more example of why Dodger fans should appreciate any time Vin Scully is calling a game, even by himself.
We tuned in for maybe 20 minutes of Tuesday's FSN Prime broadcast of the Dodgers' game in Milwaukee, catching caught Charley Steiner and Steve Lyons in a conversation first about the Sausage Race, while the Brewers had a 5-3 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning.
Then, a shot of relief pitcher Yhency Brazoban warming up in the bullpen.
Steiner: "You know what they're calling Yhency now in the clubhouse? Braz-obama."
Lyons: "What?"
Steiner: "Braz-obama."
(Long pause)
Lyons: "Why's that?"
Steiner: (A bit exasperated): "There's a guy who's running for president ..."
Meanwhile, Brad Penny has made a pitch to Brewers' pinch hitter Gabe Kapler for a strike. Kapler squares around to bunt on the second pitch, and as he fouls it away, Steiner finally tells the viewers that Kapler has come to bat, and now has an 0-1 count.
Thanks, but we're bailing out at this point and choose to follow online. Even if it means we don't get to see the new "Psycho-strator" feature where the camera is behind Lyons' head and he points to things on the field like some dude sitting in front of you in the stands acting as if he's got all the answers to what's going on out in the field that you can see just as well as he can -- but now can't because he's in the way.
If Steiner and Lyons repeated any of their "Hu's On First"-quality routine during Wednesday's or Thursday's broadcast, we couldn't tell you since we decided, to preserve some sanity, we'd abstain from watching and wait until this weekend's series against the Angels.
==STEINER/LYONS CON'T
==OK, we admit that, after seeing the Dodgers were up, 6-0, going into the bottom of the eighth on Thursday, with Chad Billingsley working on a shutout, we turned the TV on to see what was up.
At that point, Jonathan Broxton had replaced Billingsley, the Brewers scored, and Ryan Braun, who just signed a large contract extention, was coming up to the plate.
Steiner: "Is there a more famous alum from Granada Hills High School than Ryan Braun?"
Lyons: "Not today."
The clock starts ... now. We're counting the seconds before someone in the production truck talks into Steiner's headset ... And ...
Ten seconds later ...
Steiner: "Well there may be one ... John Elway, we were just told."
Lyons: "Yeah, but he wasn't that good a third baseman (Braun, who used to play third, by the way is a left fielder)."
The clock starts ... counting again to when someone points out to Lyons that actually Elway was not only a pretty good baseball player at GHHS, but ...
Steiner: "He was a pretty good baseball player ... he was drafted!"
Lyons: "My point."
Steiner: "By the Yankees."
Lyons: "Ended up being a pretty good football player."
So Lyons was being sarcastic about the "not a good third baseman" line, although you can't take that for granted. Nor can you assume Steiner knows anything much at local baseball history... let alone a simple ball-strike count, the number of outs in the innings ...
Carry on.
**LOCAL SPORTS:
==The fear is that LA36, the city-run channel that includes, among many other programs, coverage of L.A. City athletic events, will have the plug pulled by this summer. LA36 folk are trying to answer back with a campaign to keep the station alive, which includes this video, and a link to a newsletter asking viewers to write to their councilmembers.
Here's also a link to the vault of sports programs you can watch on video.
**COLLEGE BASKETBALL:
==SI.com's Richard Deitsch commends the people behind ESPN's "Outside The Lines" who produced the piece on O.J. Mayo last Sunday that has been talked about around town ever since: Reporter Kelly Naqi, senior news editor Dwayne Bray, producers strong>Drew Gallagher, Justine Gubar and Tim Hays, VP of studio production Craig Lazarus, and dot-com editor Mike Knisley .
"It's a story that's been told by innuendo quite often, but what sets this piece apart is our supporting documentation," said Naqi. "This is not the wishful thinking of rival fans on chat boards, but a real, former member of Mayo's inner circle who can shed light on what life may be like for a one-and-done presumed lottery pick for whom long-term eligibility is not a real concern."
ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber writes in her latest column posted Thursday that last week's "Outside the Lines" piece on Mayo was "a breakthrough report, impeccably researched, and it is likely to provoke further inquiry into the too-cozy relationship between NCAA basketball programs and the rogue agents chomping to get an early hold on players expected to reap hefty pro contracts after they reach the NBA-mandated age requirement. The report also helps answer a question that has existed in some minds: Would ESPN's rights contracts with conferences and leagues hamper the enterprise unit from breaking investigative stories jarring to its business partners, as opposed to advancing such stories already broken elsewhere by pursuing new aspects of them? The answer, based on this report, is that the enterprise unit is free to investigate where it sees fit."
The 16-minute piece again, for those who missed it:
Also, a four-minute followup of extra material:
And Mayo's reaction in a 1:40 clip:
**NBA:
==Mike Tirico and Hubie Brown cover tonight's Lakers-Jazz Game 6 from Salt Lake City, with a potential Game 7 going to TNT on Monday night. TNT has the Western Conference finals exclusive.
ABC has either the opening game of the Eastern Conference finals, or Game 7 of the Boston-Cleveland series, Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
==ESPN shoves out Mark Jones, Jay Bilas and Doris Burke to Secaucus, N.J., to cover the live announcement of the NBA Draft Lottery (Tuesday, 5 p.m., a half hour before the Eastern Conference game that night). The Clippers, unless they get the top pick in this show (a 7.5 percent chance), will end up picking sixth come mid June, and if you believe this, and also this, then they're taking Indiana freshman Eric Gordon and going home happy.
And if you're waiting around to see what happens in the 2009 NBA draft, the Lakers are bound to pick a couple of guys out of Gonzaga, if you believe this. Of course, that could all change. Maybe.
**WNBA:
==Dave Pasch and Carolyn Peck call the Sparks' season opener at Phoenix for ABC (12:30 p.m., Saturday, Channel 7). ABC and ESPN2 will carry 22 regular-season WNBA contests. ABC will also use a SkyCam shot on its telecast, "showcasing the speed and talent of the top female players in the world," according to the ESPN press release.
==NBA TV also has WNBA coverage starting Saturday, with Indiana-Washington at 4 p.m., followed by San Antonio-Sacramento at 7 p.m.
**BASEBALL:
==Unfortunately, Thom Brennaman and Rick Manning have been dispatched to Angels Stadium to cover Saturday's Dodgers-Angels game for Fox (12:55 p.m., Channel 11). The game goes to just 20 percent of the country. Most (72 percent) see Kenny Albert and Tim McCarver calling the Milwaukee-Boston contest, and another 7 percent see Cleveland at Cincinnati with Dick Stockton and Eric Karros. Sunday, TBS also has Milwaukee-Boston at 10:30 a.m. and ESPN takes the Mets-Yankees at 5 p.m.
**HORSE RACING:
==ESPN2 has today's Black Eye Susan event (2 p.m.), leading into coverage of the Preakness preview show on Saturday (8 to 9 a.m., then 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on ESPN) with Kenny Mayne, Joe Tessitore and Rece Davis paired up with Jerry Bailey, Randy Moss and Jeannine Edwards, and handicapper Hank Goldberg , and reporters Jay Privman and Steve Cyphers. And that's about it.
**NHL:
==News from Onion Sports, eh:
==If Saturday's Detroit-Dallas Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Western Conference final (10:30 a.m. faceoff, Channel 4) runs into overtime, NBC says it will stay with the game and not bail out as it did a year ago to get to its Preakness pre-race show. But anything beyond the 1:30 p.m. marker will mean sending the game to Versus, and videostreaming it live on NBCSports.com's website.
**MISC.:
==More from ESPN ombudsman Schreiber in her Thursday piece really digs into how "E:60" confronted the Astros' Miguel Tejada about his age discrepancy.
"If Tejada had simply been presented with the information, given a chance to regain his composure, perhaps consult with advisors, he might well have resumed the interview and offered ESPN the information he and the Astros provided to The Houston Chronicle two days later. 'E:60' might have ended up with a more complete profile and a more intact reputation."
She then quotes reporter Tom Farrey, who disagreed with her assessment.
"I wanted to give him an opportunity to tell the truth. I prefaced my questions by saying, 'I have a simple but important and serious question to ask you,' implying I really want you to think about this, don't just give the usual answer. Instead, he threw out the lie.
"If Tejada doesn't get out of the chair and rip off his microphone, there is no big embarrassing TV moment. He just explains. And we thought there was a chance he would do just that."
Bottom line, Schreiber writes: That didn't happen. And producer then took it out of context and teased it on ESPN "SportsCenter" as a way to embarass Tejada as well as promote the show.
It was "information wrenched out of context, and in long-form journalism, context is crucial. In this case, we needed context to clarify the extent and significance of Tejada's lie, which would, among other things, allow viewers to judge whether the lie warranted the kind of big embarrassing TV moment it was given."
The clip again:
And a spoof of it from Jimmy Kimmel and Bill Simmons -- did it get him trouble with ESPN?
==More of Dan Le Batard, as we mentioned in "What Smokes," during a blog visit to the Big Lead, going off about modern-day sports writing angst.
==We have nothing new to report on Hannah Storm (not her real name), recently let go from whatever morning show she was doing at some network and now signed up by ESPN to anchor three hours of "SportsCenter" every morn between 9 a.m. and noon our time starting in mid-August.
But we came across this photo on the ESPN media site, and just wondered which blustery day this was taken, for her to get the hair going in such a way that she's actually trying to look like she's ready to challenge for the next Playboy Sexiest Sportscaster poll despite the fact she's a kept woman by Dan Hicks and she has three daughters.
Storm warning: If "SportsCenter" is trying to get viewers to turn away from Dana Jacobson over on ESPN2 doing "First Take" at the same time Storm is on, looks like they'll succeed.
==ESPN, trying to secure the 12-to-17 year old demo, has announced a new program called ESPN RISE, that expands it high school coverage to include a website (ESPNRISE.com), renaming RISE magazine to ESPN RISE (circulation projected to be one million) and folding publications like GIRL, Hardwood and Gridiron into it, and more events covered on ESPNU.
==Bob Wischusen and Ray Bentley call the Avengers' game at Chicago (ESPN2, Monday, 5 p.m.)
==Dwight Stone, Larry Rawson and Lewis Johnson will orchestrate the audio for Sunday's Adidas Track Classic from Carson's Home Depot Center (ESPN, Sunday, 1 to 3 p.m.)
==ESPN360.com has all 60 regular-season games of the Major League Lacrosse, starting with Saturday's Riptide game vs. Denver at 6 p.m.
==Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo have the weekend off, meaning Bill Macatee and Ian Baker-Finch are in the 18th hole tower for CBS' coverage of the PGA's AT&T Classic at TPC Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga., both Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m. Peter Oosterhuis, Gary McCord, Bobby Clampett and Peter Kostis are also present, with David Feherty missing another event because of the recovery process from his bicycle mishap two months ago.
==Beth Mowins, Tracey Warren and Melissa Knowles cover today's UCLA-Cal State Fullerton women's softball regional today (ESPNU, 4:30 p.m.), and the group is in L.A. all weekend for the elimination event. ESPNU, ESPN and ESPN2 will combine to cover 45 games from the NCAA women's softball tournament.
==Not that we gave any serious credence to stories that NBC's Al Michaels may have been the No. 1 candidate to replace the bumbling Bryant Gumbel as the new play-by-play man on NFL Network live Thursday games, the NY Times reports now that whatever there was to that is done. Tom Hammond appears to be the next hot rumored candidate, but if you're throwing out names, why not Spero Dedes, who does exhibition games for the network already and would have to miss only a couple of Lakers' radio broadcasts early in the season to do the job.
**AND FINALLY:
==It was CBSSportsline.com columnist Gregg Doyel who wrote a piece on Oct. 17, 2006 with the headline: "Burned by Bush, Southern Cal should be weary of Mayo". The focus was on Rodney Guillory and his past relationships with players.
Wrote Doyel at the time: "USC athletic director Mike Garrett didn't return numerous calls and e-mails for this story. But Garrett did get the message to the USC coaching staff -- and eventually to Guillory himself -- that CBS SportsLine.com was investigating Mayo's relationship with Guillory. How do I know? Guillory told me."
Also, note a piece by Marc Isenberg, a self-appointed expert on the business of college athletes and agents, who asks that, in this 24/7 news cycle of sports media, we wait to find out the facts before jumping to conclusions.
The Angels' '70s Night promotion at the Big A tonight had a couple of nice touches we couldn't overlook.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
First, the old unis, which makes Angels starter Jon Garland look as if he's Andy Hassler.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
On the message board, every player was depicted as if they were mod to the style back then, as we see here. The White Sox's Carlos Quentin is sporting an afro, while Angels' first baseman Casey Kotchman holds Chicago runner A.J. Pierzynski at first in the first inning. Also note the old graphics on the board.
(AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Before the game, actor Barry Williams -- Greg Brady from "The Brady Bunch" -- did the national anthem, not dressed as Johnny Bravo.
If only Dick Enberg was there to describe it all.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas (AP) -- The Grand Prairie AirHogs minor league baseball team will offer one lucky fan a free funeral.
The "All Hogs Go to Heaven" promotion will pay for funeral expenses, valued at $10,000. It includes a casket, headstone, plot and services.
The sales manager of the cemetery said the award's expiration date is the same as the winner's.
"If you're 20 and you get it and you live to be 90, of course we'll still honor it," Oak Grove Memorial Gardens sales manager Ron Alexander told The Dallas Morning News.
By BARRY WILNER
Associated Press
NEW YORK -- The memories are painful for Tonya Harding, and somehow liberating.
They fill a new book, "The Tonya Tapes," in which she speaks frankly, if a bit confusingly, about the Tonya and Nancy scandal. She writes about being abused as a child, contemplating suicide, having a gun placed to her head and being raped. She says she paid a price for not fitting the mold of American figure skaters.
The book is a compilation of interviews with author Lynda D. Prouse conducted over eight years.
"So many people do not have a voice and they should be heard," Harding told The Associated Press during an interview on Thursday. "I wanted people to see me and know me and I wanted to help other people not go through the things I've gone through."
What the 37-year-old Harding says she has gone through could fill a year's worth of soap operas. Long before she was a national champion (1991) and two-time Olympian, she says she was molested as a child, looked down upon by skating federations and led astray through bad relationships. She admits to "not being real educated" and "naive" in her dealings with people.
"Being afraid to open up and talk to someone is really difficult," she said. "That was
another reason I wanted to finish the book, to get rid of my past, dealing with everything, the ups and downs, for a fresh start in the future.
"Life is a roller coaster, and sometimes they throw in a loop-de-loop. You have to hang
on."
In 1994, Harding's then-husband Jeff Gillooly helped plan an assault on Nancy Kerrigan that triggered a melodrama complete with headlines and huge television ratings at the Lillehammer Olympics. Since then, Harding has been characterized as a villain. She sees herself as a victim.
In the book, Harding accuses Gillooly and his accomplices of threatening her life:
"Jeff and two other guys -- don't know who they were because I couldn't see who they were -- they were in a different car -- decided to drive me up to the mountains, put a gun to my head, and take themselves upon me ... They told me this is what you are going to say. This is what you are going to do, and if you don't you're not going to be here anymore."
Harding didn't pursue rape charges, saying she was afraid to do so. Several attempts by the AP to contact Gillooly (now named Jeff Stone) by telephone were unsuccessful.
Harding said the whole ordeal interfered with her training, even preventing her from
performing some jumps in practice because television lights at the rink blinded her.
She switched to practicing late at night to avoid the media.
By the time she got to Norway -- after filing a $25 million lawsuit against the U.S. Olympic Committee to remain on the team -- Harding might as well have skated in an all-black outfit.
Still, she never thought about giving up.
"I had to go. I had worked hard my entire life to get here and I had made it," she said. "People were trying to take it away from me by doing such heinous things, and I can't understand it. But I couldn't let go. Skating has been the only thing I knew my whole life.
"Even if you make it down to hell, you can always make it back. I know. I've been there. Those who didn't believe in me, I wanted to show them I could do this," she said.
Harding struggled with her skating in Lillehammer and finished eighth; Kerrigan won the silver medal.
Harding says she's not bitter about the way things turned out, even if she has struggled financially. U.S. Figure Skating banned her for life, making it impossible for her to cash in on the financial windfall the sport saw following the saga. She even became a professional boxer for a short time to make money.
She's proud of her achievements, particularly becoming the first American woman to land a triple axel in competition. And releasing her inner demons has helped her "reach a
peaceful place."
"I did hate myself at times in my life," she said, her eyes moistening. "It was not knowing what to do or having anyone to talk to. Sometimes, I'd think I don't want to be here anymore. You get so low you don't want to get up in the morning and even have a drink of water.
"I'd feel ashamed or ask: 'How do I go forward?' But it was almost like someone grabbed me by the back of my jacket and lifted me up. Like a guardian angel."
Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun, the former Granada Hills High star who won the NL Rookie of the Year award last year (.324, 34 HRs, 97 RBIs, league-best .534 slugging percentage in 113 games) has signed an eight-year, $45 mil deal to stay with the team, accoridng to FoxSports.com's Ken Rosenthal and confirmed by numerous sources.
The 24-year-old Braun, aka "The Hebrew Hammer," already has nine homers and 29 RBI going into today's game against the Dodgers.
"This ensures that the Brewers will be able to keep one of the top young hitters in the game at least through his first two years of free agency," says Rosenthal. "If not for revenue sharing, the Brewers probably wouldn't have been able to lock up their young star. It's good for the game."
The largest previous deal for the Brewers was the $42 million, four-year contract signed by free-agent pitcher Jeff Suppan (Crespi High) prior to the 2007 season.
The Associated Press also reported on the contract this morning, and the Wisconsin Capital Times has quotes from Braun's press conference today.
Not that anyone should be wanting to beat this "Spygate" story with any more exposure, but HBO has added an interview that Andrea Kremer did with New England Patriots videoguy Matt Walsh for its' "Real Sports" show that will air Friday (8 to 9 p.m.).
HBO sent out what appears to be a complete transcript, and includes this information that doesn't look so good for a certain Notre Dame head football coach, and may make college football fans wonder how the Irish have turned do pitiful in recent years:
Walsh says that knowledge of and participation in the video spying/signal stealing operation began at the top levels of the coaching staff -- and extended to the team itself. He recalls a conversation he had with a Patriots player after the first game of the 2000 regular season. At the time, Patriots were not an elite team and Tampa Bay was on its way to the playoffs.
WALSH: "I had spoken with one of our quarterbacks, uh, that said, he was called into Coach Belichick's office shortly before the Tampa Bay game. In the office was Ernie Adams, Charlie Weis and Coach Belichick. They closed the door, Charlie said to him, "You know, we've got tape of the Buccaneer's coaches defensive signals. What we're going to do is have you learn this, then we're going to have you next to Charlie on the sideline, when he's calling in the play to Drew (Bledsoe, the starting quarterback), over the coach to quarterback communication system. Drew's got the, the earpiece in the helmet, and you're going to tell Charlie the defense that's being called, and we're going to relay the information, or use that in calling the play into Drew." Um, the quarterback, you know, later told me that within two to three seconds of when (Tampa Bay defensive coordinator) Monte Kiffin sent a play call into [Tampa Bay safety] John Lynch, Drew Bledsoe had it in his helmet."
"After the first game when we played the Buccaneers in the first season, after the tapes would have already been utilized, and I went up to one of our quarterbacks, because, you know, running the offense, I figured the quarterback might know something about this. I said, you know, was this, was the footage that I shot of the opposing coaches' signals, you know, any use for you guys? Did it help at all? And one of the quarterbacks told me, he said, probably about seventy-five percent of the time Tampa Bay ran the defense that we thought they were going to run."
HBO would prefer that not all the transcript be released, so we'll go with one or two more quotes:
Walsh recalls ways in which the Patriots began to change their offensive strategies to exploit the advantage gained by having videotaped their opponents' defensive signals - in particular, through the use of a no-huddle offense in non-traditional situations.
WALSH: "We started using Drew Bledsoe and no huddle situations in the middle of the game, situations that weren't necessarily hurry up or a two minute offense. Um, the idea, you know, was presented to me that the benefit to that, you know the other teams signals, you got all your players on your field, the defense is on the field, they really can't change personnel if, you know, the ball can be hiked at any time. Um, it forces the defensive coach to send in the signals early on, when you still have quite a bit of time left on the play clock. It then gives the offense, again, because coach to quarterback communication system isn't shut off until about fifteen seconds, more time to decide what play to call that fits best against that defense, and then still to be able to radio that in to our quarterback on the field, and then have him, you know, transmit that to our offensive players."
KREMER: "How did you come up with that?"
WALSH: "Well, one of the other quarterbacks told me about that."
Walsh says that the spying effort provided the Patriots with a significant competitive advantage.
WALSH: "You know, it's important information. And if you know what defense a particular team's gonna run, if you're essentially in their huddle, you know, that's quite an advantage to have on offense."
In case you missed last week's "College Championship Week" on "Jeopardy!", dude named Danny was $1,200 richer because he at least knew the last name of the former USC Heisman quarterback:
National sample day is what McDonald's is calling an event Thursday, when it rolls out a new Southern Style Chicken breakfast biscuit sandwich (480 calories) from 7 to 10:30 a.m., and then debuts a Southern Style chicken sandwich (420 calories) after breakfast until 7 p.m. And ... It's a freebie.*
(with the purchase of any medium or large beverage at participating restaurants while supplies last. please consult a physican before trying any fast food that contains what it advertised as parts of chickens.)
It all sounds McNugget-riffic. And McDonald's expects to give out more than one million breakfast sandwiches and five million chicken sandwiches nationwide.
Or, maybe all at the McDonald's on 101 W. Manchester in L.A. (that's East of the Harbor freeway, a bit north of Watts). Because that where the Sparks' Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker and other team members will be camped out from 8 to 9 a.m. to help promote this giveaway.
The Sparks open the season Saturday in Phoenix. Let's not get too greedy with the greasy Southern-style food. Save some for the folks who really need it for their existence.
The new issue of Sports Illustrated that arrives to subscribers Wednesday starts with Danica Patrick and her shot at the May 25 Indy 500 on the cover, but inside are three L.A.-focused basketball-centic features:
==A piece on the Lakers' "Bench Mob" of Luke Walton, Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf -- "a foursome of feisty (and variously coiffed) players who embrace their role as a backup act is the key to the Lakers' championship title hopes."
==A story on the Sparks owners Carla Chistofferson and Kathy Goodman, who "represent what might be a minitrend for the sport: independent female owners:
"They bring an energy and passion that's been missing," says longtime season-ticket holder Deb Anderson. "I've seen Carla and Kathy at community events, and it's like they are campaigning for president. They are shaking hands and establishing relationships with people and suggesting that others become a part of it. That wasn't how the Lakers' organization did things."
==Michael Avery, the 6-foot-4, 15-year-old eighth-grader from Ascension Lutheran School in Thousand Oaks who made a verbal committment to the University of Kentucky, "would have appeared in SI as this week's Sign of the Apocalypse. Now it borders on business as usual," the SI promo reads. "As the pressure to win increases and competition for the top prospects grows fiercer, coaches are trying to lock down prized recruits as early as possible - even if it means making commitments when the recruits are barely old enough to be prized.
"How many parents of eighth-graders, if they were to be offered a scholarship for their child to get a free education at the college of their choice, would say, 'No, I'll wait until he's a senior to make that decision?'" the elder Avery says. "When that kind of offer comes along, I don't care if the kid's in third grade, the eight grade or the 12th grade, you take it."
More background, hit the Thousand Oaks Acorn, which is all over this story.
Avery is also quite the fodder for comedic ranting...
At one point during Monday's round at Torrey Pines' South course, home of the U.S. Open next month, I put my pitching wedge down off the green so I could go putt. I came back to the spot where I thought I left it, only to have to search around a bit before I spotted it.
Buried in the rough.
Here's a shot of what the camera looked at when it was placed in the rough next to the 12th fairway.
Count Floyd-like scary, isn't it?
Mike Davis, the USGA Senior Director of Rules and Competition, briefed the media Monday on all the kinds of stuff that'll be going on during the June 12-15 event just south of Del Mar. And the grass factor was a big part of the discussion about how the course will be groomed for those trying to win America's national championship of golf playing.
Davis explained how a combination of rye, kikuya (most famous for its presence at Riviera Country Club) and that real stubborn poana has been mixed together to form a real test of any golfer's patience.
The kikuya, that rough stuff that is durable but acts like a Brillo pad, is what lines the fairways now. When the warmer summer months come, it will grow even thicker and tougher.
Davis said the first cut off the fairway at 15-feet wise could be cut to 2 1/4 inches. The second could would be in the 3 1/2-inch range, although Monday it was closer to 4-to-4 1/2.
"We want a stern test of golf, from putting to driving to the ability to recover," Davis said.
Put it this way, those who hit in the rough will have a rough time. Stern will turn to a slow burn for some who don't stay on the fairway.
A few other photos we'll pass along from a trip around the 18 on Monday that was far shorter than the 7,643 yards that will be made available to the PGA Tour champions and other wanna-bes who tangle with it next month:
Teeing off at No. 3 on the dark, cold gray day, from the gold tees, about 159 yards out. It takes a 5-iron into the wind. And, eventually, a par.
At the 7th hole, a tee shot that travels to the left a bit will put you in more rough by the cart path. Note: Can anyone find my shoes?
Just another long putt, this time on No. 8 ....
At the par-5 13th hole, the fourth shot ended up on the side of the hill, above the bunker and below the green ...
Which lead to the fifth shot, not too much farther away than the fourth shot, still in much peril (with Daily News sports editor Gene Warnick standing on the green, wondering if he'll ever pull the flag ... he didn't. ... the next shot was squirted left and I picked up so we could finish before it was really dark):
And the local wildlife provided all the gallery we'd need:
One more shot at how one could find the distance to the green, if one could only find the distance marker:
We're part of a Daily News contigent heading off to Torrey Pines today for a USGA-staged look at how the South course is shaping up for the upcoming U.S. Open (June 12-15). Photos and knee-jerk well-informed, journalistically sound opinions are forthcoming, as soon as we rummage through the garage to find a couple sleeves of balls that we aren't ashamed of losing somewhere in the 858 area code.
You can read through the final chapter in today's Daily News of Jon Secrist's journey to St. Paul, and back home via Amtrak, after he tried to catch on as a 53-year-old knuckleball pitcher. It kind of ties up the five journal entries he submitted for us between taking off on the trip April 17 and finding out he'd been cut on May 5.
Here are the links again to those blog entries again (which include many links to stories done on him during those 18 days):
May 5: "The saga's over"
April 30: "I could have gone nine innings I felt so strong"
April 25: "I got by the first hurdle"
April 24: "I'm in a curious spot"
April 17: "It could be five days or five months"
Sean Aronson, the St. Paul Saints' radio play-by-play man, had this to say about Secrist's time with the team:
"I spoke to Jon about how he felt he was fitting in with everyone and he told me most of the guys seemed to accept it. I'm sure there were a few guys that never got on board because there were a few guys coming into camp that were fighting for jobs and they didn't want to lose out to Jon. They all treated him well, with a lot of respect and when there were team functions at night there didn't seem to be any awkwardness.
"It's funny you hear a lot of people talk about their hey day when they played in high school or college and how they still play against professionals. The thing people don't realize is there is much more to pitching than throwing a baseball. You have to be able to hold runners on, field your position, cover first base and ultimately I think this is what cost Jon his opportunity. I'm not saying he couldn't have gotten better as the season went along, but I'm sure it was a factor in George's decision. For the most part, Jon pitched well and his knuckleball danced. He gave up one homer, but it was to a guy who hit 21 bombs last season, so he isn't the first guy to give up a homer to him.
"All-in-all I have the utmost respect for Jon and he has proven if you have a dream, then go after it."
And, to end it, the Howard Jones' song, "No One Is To Blame":
Jeanne Zelasko said she's spending Mother's Day today taking both her mom and mother-in-law to see the play "Wicked."
"Is that a bad idea?" she asked, wondering about the name of the play and the connotations it might have.
Anything you do with your mom on Mother's Day is good, no matter what the spectator event.
Not to say this Mother's Day is any more special than others, but the fact that Zelasko says she's cancer-free after treament on her thyroid -- the Fox network reporter/anchor was operated on in early January after doing a bowl game, and then had to endure some radiation treatment to kill the rest of it off -- makes this one she's much more wanting to share with others.
"I know it's 'my day,' but this Sunday ... and quite honestly every day since my diagnosis ... it's about everyone else that has enriched my life," she said. "I remain greatful to God that my mother's work on earth apparently is not done. I remain greatful to God for all the wonderful people in this mother's life. Most especially, my husband (Curt Sandoval, the KABC Channel 7 sportscaster) who, by the way, gets the assist for my actually getting the roll of mother, and my two incredibly wonderful children (Trevor, 10, and Isabela, 2) who have defined that roll and really put everything into perspective. They are my gifts. Do I really need more?"
Some flowers would be nice.
There's something going on between soon-to-be former one-n-done USC basketball player O.J. Mayo and an event promoter named Rodney Guillory. And ESPN's on the case.
During Sunday's "Outside the Lines" (6:30 a.m., ESPN; 9 a.m., ESPNEWS), reporter Kelly Naqi is to reveal the results of an investigation that took her four months to figure out about their relationship, according to an ESPN press release.
They say Naqi has a series of exclusive interviews with "a former member of Mayo's inner circle who says he served as a trusted advisor to Mayo" and now apparently needs to talk.
We've read plenty of stuff about how Gillory was Mayo's go-between to USC when he was deciding which school to attend, and there's a lot of dirt on him, and Mayo's mother doesn't trust the guy.
Will this bring down the Trojans' basketball program like the pending Reggie Bush situation will bring down the Trojans' football program?
In addition to the TV stuff, ESPN.com says it will post video and a written version of Naqi's report on Sunday morning.
The marketing tie-ins were too good to pass up.
United Parcel Service said Friday it has signed an agreement with jockey Kent Desormeaux and the owners of Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown.
The shipping giant was actually influencial in the naming of the horse -- former minority owner Paul Pompa Jr. decided to name the horse in the company's honor since it was a client of his trucking business. Pompa sold a 75 percent interest in the colt to IFAH Stable for about $3 million after his first race.
The deal calls for the company logo to be the sole corporate sponsor logo on Desormeaux's racing pants during the Preakness Stakes on May 17 and the Belmont Stakes three weeks later. The jockey also will don a UPS cap after the races.
The risk, of course, is if Big Brown goes the way of ... well, let's just not talk about it.
If you happen to be in the Santa Clarita area Saturday, stop by the Feed The Children project that former NBA star and curent TNT analyst Kenny Smith is helping to organize to provide 400 families in the area with boxes of food and personal-care items.
Smith, a Valencia resident, will be at the parking lot across from the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry (24133 Railroad Ave.) at noon with his daughter Kayla, son Kenny Jr., and students from Valencia High.
"We are so grateful for Kenny Smith and his family," said Larry Jones, president and founder of Feed The Children. "Four hundred Santa Clarita families will receive food because of this generous gift of kindness."
Founded in 1979 by Larry and Frances Jones, Feed The Children is an international charity based on private, non-government support. Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City.
Until technical issues are resolved today, here's the media column and notes from today's Daily News/Daily Breeze:
Whatever it is about Pau Gasol that Lakers fans don't know yet, Hubie Brown can help fill in the gaps.
"He's an interesting dude," says the ESPN / ABC NBA analyst with a chuckle.
For parts of three seasons, covering about 200 games, Brown was Gasol's coach with the Memphis Grizzlies - those formative years when the Spanish star barely out of his late teens was trying to figure out this NBA style of play, thrust into a role to carry the hopes of a young team that Jerry West was trying to mold as the general manager.
Brown, working with Mike Tirico on the Lakers-Utah series Game 3 tonight on ESPN (6 p.m.) and Game 4 on Sunday on ABC (12:30 p.m., Channel 7), is personally interested to see how far the gangling 7-footer who thought he had a better future as a doctor has come along to be an integral part of a championship-caliber team.
"What you're getting here is the whole package," Brown said Thursday morning as he headed to the airport from his home in Atlanta. "He's much stronger now than he first came over. He's much more familiar with the NBA game, which came easily because of his intelligence. He has a very good sense of humor that he might not show right away, but believe me, he can mix it up and he's extremely social.
"The best thing I can say about a player is that he's a real professional. He's never late to anything, he has a high pain threshold and he never backs away from taking the last shot in a game - and he had to do a lot of that because we had the third-youngest team in the league back then and there was a lot of pressure on him."
Gasol won the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 2002 as a 22-year-old just before West arrived. Two seasons later, when the Grizzles started 0-8, West hired the 68-year-old Brown to replace Sidney Lowe as the Grizzlies' coach. Brown became the NBA Coach of the Year for 2003-04 when he got the team to the playoffs for the first time with a 50-32. Brown then resigned for what was called "health reasons" on Thanksgiving, 2004.
In October of '03, Brown remembers taking his team during training camp to Europe for a series of exhibition games - one of which was in Barcelona, against Gasol's former team coming off the European League championship.
"The game was sold out, it was all over European TV, and the pressure on him to play well was incredible," Brown recalls. "Yet he addressed the crowd at halfcourt before the game - it was very impressive, and they gave him a standing ovation.
"After we won, he had a bus for all the players to go to a nightclub where he provided all the food and entertainment. So the next morning, I'm walking to the plane, and (Shane) Battier comes up to me and says, 'Hube, you wouldn't believe last night.' It was such an eye-opening experience for our young players. They had no idea how popular he was in Spain - he was treated the way Michael Jordan is treated in the United States.
"The newspaper that day ran a poll listing the 10 most popular people in Spain. I showed it Battier. Pau was No. 6. Of course, the king and queen of Spain were in the top spots, but he wasn't that far down."
From his relatively save and stress-free broadcasting chair, Brown says the Gasol that he sees today with the Lakers has the chance to put off a career in medicine for a few more years.
"When you talk about academic IQ and athletic IQ, he's high on both and he's shown that he's as smart as anyone in that program right now," said Brown. "What a terrific kid. He's more relaxed and doesn't have to carry a young team. And he's not about stats, only about winning."
WNBA 'TRUTH' IN ADVERTISING?
The voice belongs to Candace Parker, the newest member of the WNBA's Sparks.
"I'm sorry, but you couldn't pay me to watch women's basketball."
Uh, excuse me . . .
"Nothing exciting ever happens. Look at the WNBA. The league has stayed the same for 10 years. There's no new blood. What kind of future does that league have? None that I can see."
Did someone lock her up in one of those confessional closets on a reality show and forget to let her out?
It's TV, all right, but only an attention-grabbing commercial for the women's pro league that the NBA's marketing department has helped push out to the networks starting with tonight's playoff games on ESPN.
After Parker recites the lines, the words that show up on the screen at the end: "She wouldn't say that. Would you?"
Two more spots that include Detroit's Cheryl Ford ("Let's be honest, your rec league team would smoke us chicks without working up a sweat") and Indiana's Tamika Catchings ("No offense, but women's basketball is a joke") are part of the "Expect Great" campaign, conceived and produced by the NBA's Goody, Silverstein & Partners firm, that could be a slam dunk in helping debunk some myths. Some of which may have started with a snappy campaign when the WNBA started that boasted "We got next."
"It comes out of research that tells us that, while there's great potential to grow females and children in our game, there were misconceptions about the level of play and athleticism among some men," said Hilary Shaev, the VP of marketing for the NBA. "We also found out that men typically are the gatekeepers for sports conversation and consumption. So combine the fact that in most cases guys control the remote control, and some aren't convinced the level is as good as it is, the result was a strategy geared toward them."
In the end, this is supposed to get those hey-men to reconsider their attitude about the WNBA, which should then trickle down to their female family members.
But with the content sounding so anti-WNBA, could it backfire?
"There's always a possibility for various interpretations of anything," said Shaev, "but the way the spots are designed, when you hear those words and see the expressions on the players' faces, you're sticking around to see why she's saying it.
"The players were great about this, too. They completely understood the approach. Some of it is things they've heard said directly to them."
WHAT SMOKES:
== Long-time Fox Sports Net West sportscaster Bill Macdonald reports that he's resting OK but will likely miss assignments for up to six weeks after undergoing surgery Tuesday to remove a cancerous prostate at the UCI Medical Center in Orange. Macdonald, 50, found out about a month ago that a biopsy determined the cancer as aggressive, leading to decision to remove the entire gland, which will help determine if the cancer has spread further. Macdonald missed his usual Lakers post-game show anchor role Wednesday night at Staples Center, and will be most noticeably absent this time of year from hosting the Angels' pregame shows and play-by-play on Avengers' games.
==Kings' TV analyst Jim Fox can be heard doing the Stanley Cup Western Conference finals series between Detroit and Dallas on NHL Radio (available on XM Satellite Radio as well as NHL.com) with play-by-play man Dave Strader and Ducks' analyst Brian Hayward, who is serving as a rinkside reporter. Fox has also been doing playoff analysis online at YahooSports.com.
WHAT CHOKES
== HBO's decision to cover the Dallas Cowboys' life at training camp in Oxnard this July for its latest edition of "Hard Knocks" seems as if it'll provide plenty of entertaining possibilities - a Jerry Jones' trip to the Beverly Hills' plastic surgeon for touchup work, perhaps - but it most likely won't include any special appearances by Tony Romo's main squeeze Jessica Simpson "unless she's out there running 7-on-7 drills," said NFL Films president Steve Sabol. HBO Sports chief Ross Greenburg has tried to make it clear that "this is not the E Television Network, this is HBO and HBO Sports. We're doing it for the avid football fan that used to watch 'Inside the NFL,'" which was an HBO property until it let the cast go after last season.
Even more from ESPN/ABC analyst Hubie Brown , following his assessment of the Lakers' Pau Gasol in today's media column, with some more paragraphs to drool over:
==Brown, on how Gasol was in his early years of the NBA when he coached him at Memphis:
"When we coached him in '03 and '04, one of the first things we tried to change was his strength. He started working out more with the weight guys. He was also extremely bright, and no one laughed when he talked about being a doctor when this was all over. Naturally, you can be impressed by his parents (both in the medical profession in Spain, and both played second-division basketball) and they're wonderful people."
==On the impact he's made with the Lakers:
"Everyone talks about how this is the first time he's played with a player like Kobe. Forget that. This is the first time he's been with a power forward as good as Lamar Odom. They compliment one another. You're seeing that in this (Utah) series, no one player can guard Kobe. Or Pau. So Odom's points and assists are up. Odom has to be played man-to-man because everyone else doubleteams Kobe and Pau. What makes it more dangerous is they're all three excellent passers, at the top of the list in the league at their positions. It makes it easy to stay in the flow especially when each can beat their men off the dribble
"The only guys I've ever seen able to guard Pau man-on-man was Kevin Garnett and Karl Malone, otherwise you've got to double him. He can score with either hand, and dribble with either hand."
==On what parts of Gasol's game that he can improve upon:
"You always want to go with more strength, and shoot a higher percentage at the foul line. He'll struggle with that at times. But as far as jumpshooting, his range, finishing with either hand, with his back to the basket ... he's got all that stuff to go right now."
**MORE HOOPS:
==For a look at the WNBA "Expect Great" ads that are debuting tonight on NBA playoff telecasts, click here for the spots by the Sparks' Candace Parker, as well as those done by the Detroit Shock's Cheryl Ford and the Indiana Fever's Tamika Catchings .
==The non-Laker NBA playoff game lineup this weekend:
Saturday: Detroit at Orlando Game 4: Dan Schulman and Doris Burke, 2 p.m., ESPN
Saturday: Boston at Cleveland Game 3: Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, 5:15 p.m., Channel 7
Sunday: New Orleans at San Antonio Game 4: Marv Albert and Reggie Miller, 5:15 p.m., TNT.
Monday: Boston at Cleveland Game 4: Kevin Harlan and Doug Collins, 5:15 p.m., TNT.
==TNT's studio guys are smellin' up the studio Sunday, for a decent reason.
Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith will go barefoot on the set Sunday to raise awareness for Samaritan's Feet, a charity that tries to help outfit 10 million impoverished children worldwide. Samaritan's Feet founder Manny Ohonme will join the TNT crew after the New Orleans-San Antonio game.
==TNT's Doug Collins, during Wednesday's Lakers-Jazz telecast, comparing the Lakers to a certain golfer who's coming off knee surgery: "The Lakers have looked them down and the Jazz need to dig in their heels and compete and show the Lakers that they think they can beat them. It's almost like when you play golf against Tiger Woods and you're getting ready to tee it up and you think, 'I can play great tonight, but I still don't think I can beat him.' The Jazz are a good team, they've got to start playing with some confidence."
==Credit Deadspin.com for finding a link to ESPN touting Detroit's Richard Hamilton as "The Flomax Difference Maker" graphic.
"You see, this is what's going to continue to happen while Baby Boomers control the pursestrings," writes editor Will Leitch. "If you don't think we're a couple years away from the LeBron James MedicAlert Bracelet NBA Finals MVP Award. And, inevitably, the Mitchell-Jerden Funeral Home MLB All-Star Game. Though, by then, they'll probably scratch and claw for the Crystal Cryogenics 500."
**GOLF:
==NBC's team at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass is, of course, Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller at the 18th, reporters Gary Koch (16th hole) and Bob Murphy (14th), on-course reporters Roger Maltbie, Mark Rolfing and Dottie Pepper; general assignment poet Jimmy Roberts and Bob Costas, who does some interviews as well.
NBC has 10 of its 42 cameras at the 17th island hole, including a microscopic lens embedded in the lip of the tiny front bunker. Two of the cameras are in unusual spots -- one is on a crane 120 feet above the trees in front of the 16th fairway where it can see 16, 17 and 18. Another is ferried to the island off the 17th green, where the cameraman is marooned for about eight hours a day to get reaction shots on the 17th tee.
A record 94 balls were hit into the water off the 17th green in last year's event.
In addition to the cameras, the network has 21 microphones planted around to get a splash sound from every conceiveable spot. The PGA Tour site home page also has a webcam pointed on the 17th hole, so those frittering away work hours can have something to watch.
Maltbie said of the 17th hole: "I've ripped a few sleeves in there through the course of time. I used to make it a habit on Wednesday (during practice round), I'd fire one or two of them in there just to get it done. I figured I'd serve the Terrible Water God at 17 and I'd be done for the week."
More on Miller talking about Anthony Kim from Thursday's blog.
**HORSE RACING:
(Illustration by Bill Schorr)
==NBC says its Kentucky Derby coverage was the most-viewed in four years with 14.2 million eyeballs, up three percent over last year, even though the rating was flat at 8.8. NBC also has the Preakness on May 17, 1:30 p.m., where Big Brown tries to win the second leg of the Triple Crown.
==HBO's "Real Sports" installment that begins Monday (10 p.m.) includes a Bernard Goldberg report called "Hidden Horses" that, with hidden cameras, looks at how underperforming thoroughbreds are auctioned off and sent to the less humane and less regulated slaughterhouses across the border because the practice of killing horses no longer takes place in this country. Some of the thoroughbreds end up on the plates of European and Japanese diners who pay top dollar for the delicacy.
**NHL:
==ESPN has worked a deal where the CBC "Hockey Night in Canada" lightning rod Don Cherry joins its studio show with Barry Melrose starting tonight on SportsCenter after the Pittsburgh-Philadelphia game.
"Pairing Don Cherry and Barry Melrose will provide NHL fans with two of the most respected and opinionated voices in hockey today," said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, production. "SportsCenter will be the place to turn for Stanley Cup analysis, debate and highlights."
And the game itself, regretably, is on Versus.
Cherry said he will donate his ESPN fee to the Humane Society. Last year, NBC worked out a situation to have Cherry join the network on its Stanley Cup final telecast.
**BASEBALL:
==The L.A. market gets Fox's New York Yankees at Detroit Tigers contest on Saturday (12:55 p.m., Channel 11) with Dick Stockton and Eric Karros (along with 54 percent of the country). Other regions get Arizona at Chicago and St. Louis at Milwaukee. Joe Buck and Tim McCarver have the weekend off.
==The Onion Sports headline of the week:
**BOWLING:
==Holy Schenkels: CBS, without any golf this weekend, has resorted to something it calls "Bowling's Clash of Champions," a two-day event (Saturday, 2 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m., Channel 2, a great lead-in for CBS 2's Sports Central) that was taped and edited from last week's event at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo., where 16 champions from last year's U.S. Bowling Congress tournaments (including U.S. Open men's champ Pete Weber and U.S. Women's Open champ Liz Johnson) competed in a sudden-death format. The players, ranging in age from teenagers to seniors, were put in four groups and told to throw one shot on one of four lanes they pick. The player with the lowest pinfall was eliminated until one player remained. That player went into the semifinals, and the remaining two men and two women bowled against each other in a traditional format (that'll be Sunday's show) for a $50,000 first prize. Bill Macatee calls it, with Nelson Burton Jr. trying to figure it all out, plus non-Pennsylvania governor Lynn Swann as the gutter-side reporter.
**MISC.
==ESPN2 has an announcer-less Arena Football game on Monday (5 p.m., Philadelphia vs. Georgia) that will rely on analyst Ray Bentley to provide information in and out of commercial breaks, during time outs and when play is in the red zone -- isn't play always in the red zone in the AFL? Audio from seven on-field mikes attached to four players, two coaches and a referee will be enough.
==CBS has the taped package of the NCAA women's gymnastics finals from late last month, airing Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. Tim Brando and Amanda Borden provide the audio commentary.
==ESPN360.com signed a deal to carry Euroleague basketball games over the next two seasons, starting in October. Led by former Duke star Trajan Langdon, CSKA Moscow defeated Maccabi Tel Aviv 97-91 in this season's Euroleague Final last Sunday.
==ESPN, Inc. (that's ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic) will have live coverage of 31 games from the UEFA European Football Championship from June 7-29. Most are on ESPN2 (17), but ABC will do two matches -- a quarterfinal contest on June 21 and the title match Sunday, June 29 at 11:30 a.m. from Vienna, Austria, a game that will be preceeded by a Galaxy-DC United MLS contest at 9 a.m. that day to make it a doubleheader broadcast.
**AND FINALLY:
==Stuart Scott, never one to dangle a participle, has a colon over his shoulder. That is a colon, right?
ESPN talking heads, from Scott to Jim Rome to Woody Paige, are part of a PSA that urge the male audience members to inspect themselves, according to a story in the New York Times.
"In a world of donated media, nothing is more important than to get the right message across to the right audience," Advertising Council executive VP Priscilla Natkins says in the story. "It's hard to orchestrate this as finely as we'd like."
Scott recently underwent chemotherapy after a malignancy was discovered during an emergency appendectomy.
If the message comes from the messenger who knows what he's talking about, all the more power to him, and us.
If the Boston Red Sox fans can forgive Bill Buckner, the Shrine of the Eternals is ready to open it's arms to him as well.
The star-crossed first baseman, remembered through Red Sox Nation for having a grounder go through his legs that allowed the New York Mets to win Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, was one of three named to the 2008 class of electees to the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals on Thursday.
Former Negro Leaguer Buck O'Neil and former big-league umpire Emmett Ashford also received enough votes to be inducted into what's been called the People's Baseball Hall of Fame, based in Pasadena.
The three will be inducted in ceremonies at the Pasadena Central Library on Sunday, July 20 by the Baseball Reliquary.
Of the 50 eligible candidates, Reliquary director Terry Cannon said that O'Neil received the highest voting percentage -- he was named on 53 percent of the ballots, which ties him with Bill "Spaceman" Lee for the highest percentage since the Shrine elections began in 1999.
Ashford (31 percent) and Buckner (29 percent) edged Casey Stengel (28 percent), Dizzy Dean and Don Zimmer (25 percent), Effa Manley (24 percent) and Steve Dalkowski (23 percent).
A side trip over to the E! Channel on Friday night will provide a couple hours of supposed entertainment concerning .... cheerleading.
What may be seen as a wholesome activity is suddenly turned into a nightmare as the "stunts get more complex, injuries and other disastrous consequences often result" like eating disorders, intense pressure to succeed and " according to the press release issued by the channel for "THS Investigates: Cheerleading" (8 p.m.)
"Financially, an average year can run on a low side maybe about four thousand dollars, on the upside of about 20 thousand dollars," says Jennifer House, a mother of one Ohio cheerleader.
Says Ashley Picard, a college cheerleader who suffered eating disorder: "There's a lot of skeletons in the closet in the sport of cheerleading. You know, along with being able to wear the makeup and the hair and the short little skirts, there comes a pressure of, you know, being considered attractive and being thin."
Esteemed NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller actually sees some of himself in PGA Tour sophomore Anthony Kim. Which really can't be all that bad a thing.
"He's quite a good chipper and a great ball-striker, very aggressive, but with his putting, he had three or four chances to win in the past and didn't take it," Miller, the 1973 U.S. Open and '76 British Open champ who collected 25 PGA titles during his career, said of the 22-year-old Kim, who grew up in Studio City and comes into The Players Championship this weekend fresh off winning his first PGA event, the Wachovia Championship, by five shots.
"Last week, he was putting his brains out," Miller continued. "Whe he can put that package together, it's enough to win by several shots, which he did.
"The thing I see in his game that reminds me of mine is I see him inconsistent maybe with his makeup and his aggressiveness. But he's shown he can actually blow away a field, which is a good sign and that's how he can win two or three times a year with that approach. He could be the next great young player with Adam Scott."
Miller, a World Golf Hall of Famer who joined the PGA Tour in '69 at the age of 22 but didn't win his first title until '71, gets another first-hand view of Kim, a PGA rookie last year, as he tries to stay dry at TPC Sawgrass. Miller has his 18th tower spot for NBC's 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday (11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day) after the network produces the Golf Channel coverage today (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) and Friday.
