May 2008 Archives

When Sports Illustrated put a shot of Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett on their April 21 cover, it was a precursor to what eventually happened a month later: The Lakers and Celtics made it to the NBA Finals.
Again.
A search through the SI vault reveals at least five other times when the Lakers and Celtics made the cover during the NBA Finals. There was also one after a regular-season match in Feb., '87, right after the Lakers picked up Mychal Thompson to bolster their roster before a game at the Forum against Boston on Feb. 15.
And then one in '92 to commemorate the rivalry upon Magic Johnson's first retirement.

Here's a gallery of Lakers-Celtics SI covers from the past:

Streaking is fashionable again in Thousand Oaks.
If there's anything you must know about your Los Angeles Lightning, the local International Basketball League entry, is they do things in streaks.
Erasing that six-game losing skid to start their existence, they're on a five-game winning run thanks to Toby Bailey's 30 point effort in a 135-120 win over the Windy City Soldiers at Cal Lutheran on Friday.
Ronell Mingo (27 points), Kamran Sufi (16 assists), Billy Knight (23 points) and Fred Vinson led the team, which was missing Lamond Murray.
The 5-6 Lightning face the 7-11 Soldiers again tonight at the Thousand Oaks campus gym -- which ends a 12-game home streak, and kicks off a six-game roadie before the final two games against Arizona on June 20-21 -- right after the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals have ended.
More info at the team's website.

Sameer Mishra, an eighth-grader from Indiana, was relieved to find out that a word he probably wasn't allowed to use in his own home wasn't really the word he heard during the live coverage of the National Spelling Bee tonight.
A word that means something about a horse's saddle was really ... just watch the clip, as Tom Bergeron would say:

Even more embarassing, he had to repeat what happend afterward to Erin Andrews , and she wasn't afraid to say it either. What a bonding moment.
The kid ended up winning the whole thing. His championship-clinching word -- guerdon.
Or maybe it was gerkin.

Susan Rhodes, a 50-year-old single mother of two, isn't sure if she'll ever attend another Dodger game again.
Can't blame her. Why submit yourself to getting a broken bat in the face again.
In Jeff Passan's exclusive Yahoo! Sports story that came out today, Rhodes explains how taking the barrel end of Todd Helton's broken maple bat in the left side of her jaw during a game at Dodger Stadium back on April 25 has caused her nothing but pain ever since.
Two fractures in her jaw, screws placed in it, having it all wired shut ... and more than $7,000 in medical bills, which the Dodgers' insurance carrier said they are under no obligation to help her pay.
It's that disclaimer all on the back of the ticket, remember?
"This is an unfortunate incident, and we wish her a speedy and full recovery," Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch says.
"From now on, I'm going to Lakers games," she's finally able to say.

What's it gonna take for main-stream America to accept mixed martial arts fighting on network television? A death in the ring, perhaps?
That's a whole other can of whoopass we're sure no one wants to be even thinking about opening.
Gus Johnson, Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo are the once CBS has assigned to help soften the blow for those who expect to tune into another episode of "48 Hours Mystery" and end up seeing Kimbo Slice tangle with another large, strong man in the caged ring on Saturday night (9-to-11 p.m.), as we wrote about in today's media column at this link.
"I really feel that mixed martial arts is the sport of the future," said Johnson. "It gives people an accurate kind of a simulation of what hand-to-hand combat would look like and I think it takes combat sports to a whole other level. It's the sport that's sweeping the country. The kids love it."
And that's what CBS has always been about -- attracting young viewers.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
A sport that John McCain 10 years ago refered to a "human cockfighting" but has since admitted it has made "significant progress" will be on CBS for the first of four trail runs, then reassessed to see who else wants to jump in, or jump off.
The writing on the wall that CBS would be the first to take the leap could have been in December, 2006, when "60 Minutes" did a piece on MMA, then re-aired it last July with correspondent Scott Peeley -- who noted that in April, 2006, a fight on the Spike cable channel was watched by more young men than the NBA playoff game broadcast at the same time.

We got more where that came from:

Mr. and Mrs. Beckham weren't the only star power couple at Staples Center on an otherwise uneventful Thursday night, watching the Lakers clinch the Western Conference title. More of 'em will be jocking for seat space when the NBA Finals begin next week. While trying to avoid being shown on the "Kiss Cam," but available to be had by Associated Press photog Mark J. Terrill and Kevork Djansezian, here's a mini photo gallery of those with some name value who somehow attracted attention:

Your Los Angeles Lightning, losers of their first six International Basketball League games, go after their fifth win in a row Friday night against the Windy City Soldiers in the first of a two-game series at Cal Lutheran's Gilbert Sports Arena in Thousand Oaks.
What's led to the turnaround that's resulted in the Lightning winning their last four games by an average of nearly 30 points?
They scored 157 and 158 points in back-to-back games last weekend against China Shanxi Zhongyu, sparked by new players Toby Bailey and Billy Knight, the two former UCLA stars. Center Ronell Mingo had 22 points and nine rebounds in Saturday's win and is averaging a double-double for the season (21.4/10.1). And 5-foot-9 guard Kamran Sufi recorded 21 assists in his Lightning debut three games ago.
Meanwhile, former Clipper Lamond Murray, the Lightning's top scorer (24.0) and rebounder (11.6), will miss this weekend's games due to a family commitment.
The Lightning go on a six-game road trip starting June 6.

The folks at the Upper Deck trading card company says this here is called a parody.
Laughing yet?
The company released this hilarious card today of Hillary Clinton putting the move on Barack Obama that is supposed to be inspired by the image of Boston Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon being hoisted by catcher Jason Varitek after the last out of the 2007 World Series (or is it closer to what happened last week when Jon Lester threw his no-no against KC?)
This, Upper Deck marking folks say, is supposed to be predict the outcome of the Democratic presidental nomination. Doubt you'll be seeing this actually played out at the DNC in Denver in late August.
The card has been randomly inserted into the Upper Deck 2008 baseball series two packs that hit the store shelves in early June.

If them Spice Girls can gather themselves one more time for a reunion tour, then why not a couple of kooky kids just trying to put on a quality sports-talk show?
The sales staff at all-sports KSPN-AM (710) will be informed today at 4 p.m. to start gearing up to sell airtime for a revival of a Steve Mason and John Ireland co-hosted show beginning Monday, according to station sources.
Will they be big enough to resell 'em as "The Big Show" after all they've gone through? Chew on that for a second.
Mason and Ireland had been the rock steady weekday afternoon drive-time team at the station from 2003, leading in the local ratings, until management decided not to renew Ireland's contract last fall and rearrange the lineup. In late November, Mason was moved to the middays and asked to work with a series of co-hosts, which he has been doing deftly with such sounding boards as Fred Roggin, J.A. Adande and the Kamenetzky brothers.
Word is that Roggin will remain a contributor to Mason and Ireland three times a week. Dave Dameshek, who talked his way into the 710-AM lineup in the 4-to-7 p.m. slot, will stay there.
This will actually the third time Mason and Ireland have been brought back together for a group hug. They spent more than five years doing a sports-talk show at San Diego's XTRA-AM (690) in the mid-90s before Mason left to New York and then did some work on Fox Sports Radio.

Ireland, the longtime KCBS Channel 2/KCAL Channel 9 anchor and Lakers sideline reporter, had been in talks with start-up all-sports station KLAA-AM (830), the Angels-owned station, about doing an afternoon show.
That's Mason and Ireland with Candice Michelle, the GoDaddy.com Super Bowl commercial chick, during an in-studio appearance last year. She's not part of the reunited team. Reportedly.

ESPN and ABC has coverage again Thursday and Friday of the National Spelling Bee, which puts kids in the precarious position of having to sound out exotic words with a camera in their face -- at least Little Leaguers don't have to go through such an ordeal.
The ESPN Zone in Anaheim can put you through a much tougher ordeal.
Can you spell the last name of the Duke basketball coach?
A Sports Spelling Bee at the restaurant in the Downtown Disney plaza is looking for competitors on Wednesday, age 21 and over. Fifty contestants will be picked.
"ESPN Zone is a veritable playground for sports fans - we have patrons who can answer any trivia question in the book about their favorite player or team," said Christine Baum, national marketing manager for ESPN Zone. "We created Sports Spelling Bee to appeal not just to sports fans who are trivia brainiacs but also those who have a deep-seeded passion for any sports-themed event, no matter the challenge."
Each Sports Spelling Bee competitor will have 30 seconds to correctly spell the given name of a current or past player, coach of manager, which can include a first or last name. The first round will kick off with local names; the second round will include national names; and the third round and beyond will include both local and national names. Contestants are only allowed to ask what team the athlete/coach is/was associated with, as well as one repeat of the name.
More info: Send an email to SportsSpellingBee@espnzone.com and include name, address, phone number, year of birth and the ESPN Zone in Anaheim as the place they'd like to compete.

After all the credits roll by at end of the documentary "Surfwise," which comes out Friday in L.A. at the Nuart Theatre in Santa Monica, then-85-year-old legendary surfer Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz talks about how the ultimate way to die would be to eaten by a shark.

It's a little disconcerting, but at that age, why not think about those things. He's already lived a life that many would consider pretty extreme.

As we touched on in the story in today's Daily News, "Surfwise" covers the way Paskowitz and his third wife, Julliette, raised their nine kids in a 24-foot camper while driving across the country living a self-exploratory existence based on all healthy foods and surfing.

The kids -- David (born in '59), Jonathan ('61), Abraham ('62), Israel, aka Izzy ('63), Moses ('64), Adam ('66), Salvador ('67), Navah ('69) and Joshua ('74) -- had many problems adjusting to "normal" life once they outgrew the camper and went out into the world. That's the most interesting story line in the documentary, and finding out how it caused several rifts in the family before they all came together in the end for a reunion in Hawaii.

By RACHEL COHEN
AP Sports Writer

Laird Hamilton doesn't say "dude."
The groundbreaking big-wave surfer prefers not to be associated with the image that word projects. There is much else about the image of surfing that he proudly shares with the world -- and that appeals to folks who have never ridden a wave.
This fascination with the culture of surfing has allowed Hamilton to transcend his sport.
"The massiveness of the ocean, the power of the water -- something inside of everybody can relate to it," he said. "It's something very tangible and understandable. You could be from the middle of the country and never have even seen the ocean, but when you see a human on a giant wave, it just evokes a feeling.
"Maybe you're scared for them. Maybe you're in awe that there's waves that big. It evokes a feeling in every person no matter what shape, color or size."
Hamilton's current venture is his own clothing line at New York's Steve & Barry's, the chain famous for selling apparel for under $10. It's the latest company to embrace Hamilton and his surfer image.
"Surfing offers a sense of freedom, a sense of no rules," Hamilton said before the official launch of the line, Wonderwall. "And of course where we are (in Hawaii), it's all about nature. It's the ocean, it's an island, it's a beach."

By JEFF BARNARD
Associated Press Writer

BEND, Ore. -- Dan Weiland is hoping to beat two-time winner Marshall Greene to the finish.

To do it he needs to be in top shape, make his transitions from skis to bike to trail to kayak cleanly, and not get a flat tire or flip his boat.

Meanwhile, Eric Smith is trying to convince one of his
McLovin teammates to be drunk and wearing a loincloth for the final sprint.

It must be Pole, Pedal, Paddle time again.

Today, nearly 3,000 people -- a mix of elite racers, aging athletes and party animals dressed in clown wigs and tutus -- will make their way down Mt. Bachelor via snow-covered slopes, paved roads, trails and the Deschutes River to be crowned the big dogs of outdoor sport in Central Oregon.

"There are former Olympians in Bend less well-known than the people who win the Pole,
Pedal, Paddle," said Greene, a 26-year-old who cross country skied for Middlebury
College in Vermont and joined the XC Oregon team here with hopes of one day making the Olympics. He works in a local bike shop.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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:

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.

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."

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.

(AP/Kevork Djansezian)
Jack Nicholson has the shirt that James L. Brooks wants at Wednesday's Lakers-Jazz playoff game.

The Dallas Cowboys have plans to scoot on back to Oxnard this summer for training camp, and with them will include about 24 extra members of NFL Films to revive the HBO series "Hard Knocks."

The Cowboys, who last year trained in San Antonio, are scheduled to come back to Oxnard in late July, where HBO will generate what it calls a five episode "cinema verité series" that focuses on the daily lives and routines of players and coaches.

Owner Jerry Jones, coach-to-be-soon-replaced Wade Phillips, stars like Tono Romo, Terrell Owens and Pacman Jones (maybe) and perhaps a visit from Jessica Simpson would seem to bring enough interest for HBO to commit to some 700 hours of taping and quick turn around to keep the reality show fresh each week.

"HBO's ability to develop sports and entertainment franchises is unmatched in television," Jones, who heads the NFL's TV committee, said in a press release. "They commit the resources to do it the right way, and they know how to effectively reach sports fans. This is an opportunity for the Cowboys to bring millions of our fans closer to our team and the training camp experience."

The series starts Wednesday, Aug. 6 and goes through Sept. 3.

This will be the fifth time HBO has done the "Hard Knocks" series, going back to the first time in 2001 to focus on the Baltimore Ravens the year after they won the Super Bowl. In 2002, the Cowboys were the featured team, under Dave Campo. That team ended up going 5-11 in the regular season. The series resumed last year to follow the Kansas City Chiefs.

"It's the most challenging, high-profile project of the year for NFL Films," said NFL Films president Steve Sabol. "There is no shooting script, no structure, no format. The storylines change weekly. For NFL Films, it is a six-week-long audible."

Hey, how 'bout something with Jerry taking the famed Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders to get some plastic surgery touchups at a private Beverly Hills salon during a break in practice? The storylines are endless.

Kobe Bryant's name is barely etched on the 2007-08 NBA regular-season MVP trophy, which probably means the transfer is still warm on these yellow T-shirts that people will be grabbing up to buy around town and the Team L.A. Store at Staples Center prior to Wednesday's Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Today, the Kobe MVP T-shirt made its debut for $19.95 on the NBA Store site (Item No. 3120314, if they need to restock). Can't find it yet on the Team L.A. Store site, unless you're looking for some other kinda goofy Kobe apparel that says nothing about MVP on it but is still celebrating his 81-point game ... when was it, a couple years ago now? Ask Joel Meyers.

This new MVP shirt replaces the one that Adidas put out in recent months -- and the NBA Store apparently stopped selling, but is still available on Amazon.com.

And this is much different than what's been selling on eBay from a shop in, no less, Denver. Or this other one from something called Zazzle that's far more understated.

(Associated Press/Petr David Josek)

By BRADLEY BROOKS
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD -- The weight of the 9-iron felt just right. My first swing off the first tee was smooth and the ball sailed straight and true.

For a brief moment I forgot where I was. Then I gazed down the fairway -- actually just a few clumps of grass, scrub brush and plenty of rocks.

This is golf, Green Zone style.

One recent afternoon -- squeezed in between sandstorms and incoming mortar rounds -- a colleague and I hit the links. We dubbed it the Baghdad Open.

But there's nothing really open about it. The nine-hole Crossed Swords Golf Course is closed in by 15-foot concrete blast walls and watched over by humorless Gurkha guards from Nepal.

Black Hawk helicopters buzzed overhead. Bursts of gunfire interrupted backswings. The threat of incoming rockets and mortars was ever present.

The course -- a total of 479 rugged, dusty and nerve-fraying yards -- was created a year ago by a British military officer who was part of a NATO training mission. Its name comes from one of Saddam Hussein's eccentric architectural legacies that's now a Green Zone landmark: two giant hands holding curved sabers that served as an archway for the late dictator's parade grounds.

You may stumble upon the Dodgers' schedule on their website and note the opponent later this month on May 22 is ...

The same opponent that the Washington Nationals have on May 22.

And the San Francisco Giants ...

Which is the same opponent -- sort of -- that the Angels face on May 22.

Which is the same opponent that every MLB team has on their calendar for May 22.

Remember when they wanted to put the Spider-Man logo on all the bases when that movie came out a couple of years ago? Welcome to the digital age of advertising. You know have another reminder about what move is coming out that day.

It was probably more than just one lousy inning in an exhibition game this morning, but the fact that the St. Paul Saints have decided that 53-year-old knuckleball pitcher Jon Secrist's dream of making the team has ended doesn't make it any easier for him to take.
"The saga's over," the Westlake Village resident out of Monroe High said just hours after Saints manager George Tsamis called him into his office and told him he wasn't going to make the opening day roster as it works toward the start of season Thursday.
Secrist was trying to rejoin the team that gave him a cup of coffee nine years ago, when he was 44. He was the oldest rookie in pro baseball back then, and would have been again had he made the roster.
In an 8-8 tie against the Winnipeg Goldeyes before 3,637 at Midway Stadium, Secrist came in to start the fifth inning and gave up three runs, walked two and surrendered two hits while striking out two. A home run by Goldeyes shortstop Brent Metheny, who had hit a two-run homer earlier in the game, is what Secrist thinks did him in.
"Jon did a good job here," said Tsamis, who got his roster down to 21 players, including eight pitchers and three more pitchers on the inactive roster. "He fit in well and worked hard. We wish him the best of luck."
Secrist ended up pitching in two exhibition games, three innings total, giving up four earned runs.
In 1999, Secrist pitched in two regular-season games for the Saints and was 0-1 with a 9.34 ERA in two games.
Sean Aronson, the Saints' radio play-by-play man, tried to put Secrist's time with Saints in their training camp into perspective: "A lot of guys pay $4,000 to go to Florida and play in a fantasy camp, but for Jon, I think he got to do all this and it didn't cost him a thing. It's unfortunately that he didn't make the team. He was a great guy to have around."

Here's Secrist account of what happened today:

The Los Angeles Lightning, our start-up franchise in the International Basketball League, still is looking for its first victory.
This time, Lamond Murray was back in the lineup, but the Lightning fell to 0-6 after a 121-107 loss to the Las Vegas Stars on Saturday night at Cal Lutheran's Gilbert Sports Arena in Thousand Oaks.
The Stars, who have gained their first two wins of the season against the Lightning, outshot L.A. 61.9 percent to 34.6 percent in the fourth quarter and overcame a four-point Lightning lead entering the final 12 minutes.
Ronell Mingo led the Lightning with a season-high 27 points and 11 rebounds. Murray, the former Clipper, added 22 points and 16 boards while Fred Vinson had 22 points, shooting 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Vinson also had seven assists. Wayne Oliver had 19 points (on 9-13 shooting) and seven rebounds.
The Lightning will take a break, then continue its 12-game homstand on May 16-17 against the Holland (Mich.) Blast.

KCAL Channel 9's Gary Miller delivered this Friday night, on the Bissinger-Leitch piece and his take on how bloggers sort themselves out among today's media.
"If you don't embrace (bloggers) they'll kick you off the bus."

Miller says his daily ranking of blogs he reads:
Deadspin
Big Lead
Awful Announcing
Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians
Thanks for the tip on that last one. We wondered whatever happened to Bruce Jenner.

Let's not look at the 0-5 start to the season for the IBL's Los Angeles Lightning as a negative. In these environmentally-conscious times, it's apparent that the Lightning is looking for alternative sources of energizing their fans.

Despite a 15-point lead with five minutes to play in the third quarter, the Lightning surrendered a 106-95 decision to the previously winless Las Vegas Stars at the Gilbert Sports Arena on the Cal Lutheran campus in Thousand Oaks on Friday.

That means that the Lightning, who will play the first 12 games of their existence on their home floor, are 0-5. The Stars (1-4) play their first six games this season on the road.
Wayne Oliver led the Lightning with 22 points and 10 boards. Center Ronell Mingo (19 points, 15 rebounds) and Harry Lum (16 points, nine assists) also stood out. Fred Vinson made just 6 of 20 from the floor and 1 of 10 from 3-point range and had 13 points.

Lamond Murray didn't play.
The same teams will meet at Cal Lutheran tonight at 7:30 p.m. The team has established a link on its website to watch games on videostream.

The weekly column, "It's Out of the Question," was not available in today's Daily News print edition because of technical problems.
Here it goes ...

If David Blaine really, really, really tried, could he have puckered his face, filled his lungs with any more of our smoggy soot and held his breath longer than it took the Lakers to endure their first-round series? So now how do Lakers fans keep from hyperventilating as they grip over the fact they could get locked into a trip to the in-laws on Sunday afternoon without knowing before going to bed last night whether or not the Jazzmen of Salt Laker City were heading in for a short visit during the same window of opportunity?

There was that interesting little annual survey that ESPN came out with a short time ago, and we blogged about, concerning the "Fan Satisfaction Ratings" -- what fans thought was best and worst about all the 122 professional sports teams. The residue left the Angels as the best-rated baseball team in all the land, and the Dodgers limping in at No. 20 among the 30 MLB teams.
Sports Illustrated has its own twist on it. But the net result isn't that much different. Here, in the MLB Ballpark Rankings, where 10 categories are used to break things down, the Angels finished No. 9 overall; the Dodgers were No. 22 of 30. The Cleveland Indians' Progressive Field progressed to the No. 1 spot.

Here's some of the breakdown of this little exercise in surveydom:

Just how far pugilism prevails in Carson on Saturday at 7 p.m. with HBO's coverage of the Oscar De La Hoya-Steve Forbes (not the rich guy who runs the magazine) bout will be seen by the fans who remember the Golden Boy for the man he once was, or for the one who seems to have all these Internet pictures scattered around of a fine looking dude in fishnet.

In a sport that is less and less appealing to the 34-and-under mens demographic -- mixed martial arts has become to human combat what the Internet has been to the newspaper industry -- HBO would have done much better to make this a "free preview weekend" and allow anyone with cable or a dish to see De La Hoya exposed, versus having to buy the subscription channel. But that's life in the Forbes (this time, the guy who runs the magazine) Fortune 400 world -- where De La Hoya sits at No. 46 in its latest list of the Forbes Celebrity 100 power/money/fame list (right after Adam Sandler), thanks to "banking a record $43 million for 36 minutes of ring time" in a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last May.

For De La Hoya, the marketing strategy to do a non-PPV fight now is similar to what he did seven years ago. After losing his WBC welterweight title to Shane Mosley in June, 2000 at Staples Center (which had 590,000 PPV buys at $29.5 million), De La Hoya scored a five-round TKO over Arturo Gatti on HBO to help rebuild his appeal. That led to a win over Javier Castillejo in June, 2001 (400,000 PPV buys, $16 million) and that built to a bigger payoff against Fernando Vargas - a Sept., 2002 victory to solidify the junior middleweight title. That one took 935,000 million viewers, raising $47.8 million.

Forbes, a former runner-up on "The Contender," is "a tricky fight for Oscar," says blow-by-play man Jim Lampley (pictured), who'll call the fight with Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward. "He has chosen an opponent who is supposed to be safe because he's smaller, but he's skilled and a knowledgeable veteran boxer who has been both in the ring and in the gym with high quality. Whether he has the physical wherewithall to bother a stronger man remains to be seen. .. The last time Oscar was in this position, he fought Felix Sterm to get ready for Bernard Hopkins. He better have his boots strapped a little tighter this time and I think he will."

Riffing more after what we wrote in today's media column, which includes stuff on Saturday's Kentucky Derby, we got more to throw into the spit bucket:

It started out with Joe McDonnell questioning the size of Petros Papadakis rancheros for doing an entire show that seemed to be gay-bashing, and led to Petros accusing Joe of saying he was glad that UCLA quarterback Patrick Cowan was injured.
It developed not so much into a Hartman-esque confrontation where Petros was told to get the bleep out of my face, but it went outside the room of the KLAC-AM (570) studios and led to someone putting this audio clip of the 4-plus minute conversation on YouTube this AM:

Ten more minutes of explanation of what happened after Joe confronted Petros outside the studio is continued here when "The Joe McDonnell Experience" show began at 7 p.m. with him, Joe Grande and Tim Cates:

McDonnell had no comment on the situation when contacted this morning, but said after he was taken off the air Wednesday night, he met with program director Don Martin and they agreed he'd be back on air tonight , issue an apology, and move on.
Behind the scenes, from a couple of sources who saw what happened, there was no chance of the two coming to blows, but there is a recent history of tension between the two over McDonnell just "getting tired" over things he claims Papadakis has said about him. Some have found it interesting that while McDonnell was punished for going on with Papadakis on the air, nothing happened to Steve Hartman when he threatened to punch Papadakis on the air when the two got into a verbal sparring match several months ago.