July 2008 Archives

Two days after the NFL enshrines its latest Pro Football Hall of Fame class, the NFL Network has the latest of its "NFL's Top 10" shows (tonight, 5 p.m.) that tries to name the most deserving players who are not (yet) in the Hall.

The would be (alphabetically):

== Ken Anderson: Cincinnati Bengals QB for a club-record 16 seasons, earning four Pro Bowl selections. Named 1981 AP NFL MVP in leading team to Super Bowl XVI. Completed 66.3 percent of his postseason passes for 93.5 career playoff passer rating.

== Cris Carter: Second all time in catches (1,101) and touchdown receptions (130) after 16-year career with Philadelphia ('87-'89), Minnesota ('90-'01) and Miami ('02). Selected for eight Pro Bowls and posted eight consecutive 1,000-yard seasons.

== "Bullet" Bob Hayes: Former "World's Fastest Man" (100 meter champion in 1964 Olympics) holds Dallas records for touchdown receptions (71) and yards per catch (20.0).

== Alex Karras : Detroit Lions' 1958 first-round draft pick played 12 seasons and was selected to four Pro Bowls.

== Jerry Kramer : Five-time NFL champion with the Green Bay Packers, was named to NFL's 50th Anniversary Team.

== Jim Marshall : Played in most consecutive games (282) by non-kicker in NFL history and ranks second Minnesota history with 127 sacks. Started in four Super Bowls for the Vikings.

== Ken "The Snake" Stabler : Led Oakland to first Super Bowl title (SB XI) and passed for 27,000 yards in 15 NFL seasons. Contributed to some of the NFL's most memorable plays - "Holy Roller," "Ghost to the Post," and "Sea of Hands."

== Steve Tasker : Selected to record seven Pro Bowls as a special-teamer. Played in four consecutive Super Bowls with the Buffalo Bills.

==Derrick Thomas : Holds NFL records for sacks in a game (seven) and career forced fumbles (45). Selected to nine consecutive Pro Bowls and posted club-record 126.5 sacks in 11 seasons with Kansas City.

==Ricky Watters : Tied a Super Bowl record with three touchdowns in Super Bowl XXIX for San Francisco. Five-time Pro Bowl selection ranks 14th in NFL history with 14,891 scrimmage yards.

Note: The show re-airs Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m., Saturday at 9 a.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.

You may never get an invite to sit in one of the Hollywood Bowl-type Baseline Box Seats that the Dodgers offer at Dodger Stadium -- those yellow sectioned-off areas that stretch between the dugout and taper down to the foul pole.
But if you do, take this as a piece of advice: drop what you're doing and take advantage of it.
Likewise, if you ever decide to pay for one of those seats -- maybe it's a special birthday, and you want do it up right -- once you get over the sticker shock, you're going to decide it was all worth the experience.
Given the opportunity to share a box with the family recently, I can say I have sat closer to watch a game, but I don't think I've had a more unique chance to feel as if I was almost on the field with the players, able to tap the third-base ump on the shoulder to ask if he'd like a drink, or give a shout to third base coach Larry Bowa to see if he'd toss that foul ball that just dribbled down to him.

If you've happened to catch the new documentary on Laird Hamilton, "Path of Purpose," that debuted this month on the Sundance Channel, you know what an extreme athletic ability it takes to participate in the sport of stand-up paddle surfing.

Hamilton, the great big-wave surfers of this or any century, teammed with Dave Kalama to peddle (on a bike) and paddle (on a surfboard) across the entire Hawaiian Island chain -- more than 450 miles -- in a week, back in October, 2006. They did it to help raise awareness of autism, which is something famed underwater filmmaker Don King's son suffers from. King also included Hamilton's feat, along with his peddle-paddle-peddle trek from London to Paris before that in his other doc, "A Beautiful Son."

The sport will make its debut at the U.S. Open of Surfing on Sunday in Huntington Beach (click here) when a handful of the world's top surfers will give it a shot during an exhibition (scheduled to start at 1:20 p.m. in the surf stadium near the pier).

Among those expected to compete are longboard champion Joel Tudor, four-time women's world champion Lisa Anderson and current WCT competitor Timmy Reyes.

The modern version of paddle surfing comes from Hawaii back in the 1960s. Over the last decade, Hamilton and other top surfers have used paddle surfing as a training tool when the surf was down.

Our advice: Check it out. Maybe even try it. But only if you have exceptional balance, strong core muscles and an ability to stay focused -- there are sharks probably nearby. And scan the Sundance Channel for repeats of "Path of Purpose." It's only about a half-hour of your day.

The NFL will stream 17 prime-time, regular-season games in real time on NFL.com and NBCSports.com, including the season opener between the Washington Redskins and New York Giants, according to a story in Monday's SportsBusiness Journal, the Associated Press reported Friday.
That's a first: The league has never streamed games in real time. The games will come from NBC's Sunday night schedule, using its broadcast team of Al Michaels and John Madden.
It's presumed the games will be free.
The story says the league has not decided how to deal with ads, but it and NBC will probably sell new online advertisements and share in the revenue.
This is a reverse field for the league, which has been very protective of its game action, limiting highlights and locking down TV broadcasts.

By Tim Booth
Associated Press

SEATTLE -- Before Junior, A-Rod, The Big Unit and Ichiro, the Seattle Mariners' lone icon was Dave Niehaus and his golden Midwestern voice.

For 32 years, from Diego Segui's first pitch in the concrete dungeon that was the Kingdome, through yet another loss Wednesday at palatial Safeco Field, Niehaus has been the narrator for plenty of losing seasons and a few memorable moments that defined Mariners history.

Now, Niehaus is preparing for another audience this weekend, when he will be honored with the Ford C. Frick award at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"I'm a fan, No. 1. I'm a lucky guy. I love the game. If I wasn't out here doing the games broadcasting I'd be out here sitting in the stands," Niehaus said this week before leaving for Cooperstown. "I've been very lucky. I've said this a million times: I've never had to go to work a day in my life. And I hope that comes across to the people that have listened to me for generations."

The former Angels broadcaster will join the likes of Mel Allen, Jack Buck, Vin Scully and Niehaus' childhood idol, Harry Caray, as the 32nd recipient of an award named after the former baseball commissioner. While a few players and managers with Mariners connections have found a place in Cooperstown, Niehaus is the first Seattle star to be honored in the Hall.

New rules for baseball in Olympic play: If a game goes extra innings -- or at least past the 10th inning -- a couple of guys will start on base, running perhaps, and ...
Actually, it's too stupid to explain in one gulp. The joke truth is, the Associated Press story we just stumbed up tries to convince us that this will be a good thing for the acceptance of the sport worldwide:

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Extra innings will have a new look in what could be baseball's last Olympic appearance.
Each team's at-bat in the 11th inning and beyond will begin with runners on first and second bases. Teams may start the 11th at any point in their batting order under format changes announced Friday by the International Baseball Federation and adopted in time for next month's Beijing Games.
Baseball and softball are making their last appearance for a while, after the International Olympic Committee voted to eliminate the sports from the 2012 London Games. Both sports are working to be reinstated for the 2016 Olympics.
Federation president Harvey Schiller said the extra-innings change was adopted to save time.
"Extra-inning contests can bring about the most exciting results for players and fans, but such circumstances also make it difficult in the context of the Olympic program," Schiller said. "We must demonstrate to the International Olympic Committee (that) not only does our game belong alongside the other great sports of the world, but our sport is manageable from a television and operational standpoint."

Yes, because as the networks have shown, baseball does horribly on TV ....
Aren't the field managers best at managing a game?
Continue:

That's what we have to keep telling ourselves. And after reading through David Wallechinsky's latest Summer Olympic history book (linked here) -- not so much the results, but the stories attached to them -- it's hard to wait to see what unfolds in Beijing in the coming weeks.
Expanding on today's media column (linked here) about Wallechinsky and his idea put forth to actually expand the Summer Games by an entire week -- would NBC go for that? -- here's more from that interview, and other notes that don't seem to fit into the limits of the newsprint edition:

==Wallechinsky, when he's not compiling information with his nephew, Jaime Loucky, for his latest Olympic opus, is one of the most prolific information gatherers of our generation. Go back more than 30 years to some of his co-authored "The People's Almanac," "The Book of Lists" and "The Book of Predictions." Another favorite: "The 20th Century: History With The Boring Parts Left Out." Do a search on AbeBooks.com to find more of them. His resume also includes working on the MSNBC coverage of the Olympics in 2002 and 1996 (both on the American soil) as a sort of go-to historian-for-perspective resource.

==Wallechinsky, a frequent political blogger on HuffingtonPost.com, has also been participating in a blog Q-and-A with the New York Times (linked here), answering reader questions such as:

Q: How confident are you that the HGH test will actually catch or deter some athletes from cheating this summer in Beijing? - Clay

DW: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is involved in an ongoing competition of its own against drug cheats, and it is hard to tell what they have up their sleeves for Beijing in general and for pre-Games testing in particular.
The topic of doping is sensitive in China. A Chinese publisher once translated my book, "The Complete Book of the Olympics," into Chinese. The manuscript was ready to go to the printers when they asked if they could delete certain parts of my text. For one thing, from my chart of all the athletes who have ever failed a drug test at the Olympics, they wanted to delete the name of the only Chinese athlete to fail a test -- 1992 volleyballer Wu Dan -- while retaining the names of athletes from all other countries. My Chinese agent explained to me that although it may be true that Wu Dan tested positive, "certain aspects of the truth have not yet been shared with the Chinese people." I refused to allow the deletion, and publication was canceled.

You remember the problems the Dodgers had with that shuttle bus service they started a couple seasons back, one that took passengers less than two miles from Union Station to Dodger Stadium in a "timely" fashion -- only to get held up in traffic, miss innings and generally upset everyone.
Nothing runs perfect at first. Kinda like that idea for everyone to park at Dodger Stadium and take shuttles to the Coliseum for the one-time-only exhibition game against the Red Sox.
With all that in mind, don't be stunned if this new trolley service that the team and the L.A. City Department of Transportation is launching Friday night somehow derails at the start.
It's just a bad track record we're going on here.
Not that we wish it ill will. Our hope is to use it in the last couple months of the season.

We interrupt this soccer football match for an important symbolic gesture that will be on your TV whether you like it or not:

LONDON (AP) -- Olympic fans around Britain will be able to watch on large-screen televisions when London officially takes over as host of the games from Beijing.
London 2012 organizers said Friday in a statement that it would have large-screen TVs in cities such as Cardiff, Middlesbrough, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Swansea. The screens will show the Beijing Olympics, which open on Aug. 8, as well as the handover during the closing ceremony about two weeks later.
"(As) the Olympic flag will pass from the Mayor of Beijing to the Mayor of London in the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, the eyes of the world will turn to us," London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe said. "Just as the nation celebrated London winning the bid, we invite the nation to celebrate the start of our four-year journey to 2012 -- in whatever way they wish."

You heard the bloke -- start drinking and hooliganizing.

Dodger players, giving back to the community, showing up at department stores all across Southern California, to love and be loved.
The list of players and place you can actually run into them and pretend its accidental:

Blake DeWitt: Friday (noon to 1 p.m.) at the Staples store, 11341 National Blvd., L.A.
Chad Billingsley: Saturday (noon to 1 p.m.) at the AT&T store, 3764 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.
Corey Wade: Saturday (noon to 1 p.m.) at the Wal-Mart, 25450 Old Road, Valencia
Jeff Kent: Saturday (noon to 1 p.m.) at Macy's, 9301 Tampa Ave., Northridge
Andre Either: Saturday (noon to 1 p.m.) at the AT&T store, 3851 Overland Ave, Culver City.

Be polite. Bring some stuff to have autographed. And remember: No means no.

We'd try to condense this into something more palatable, but time restrictions and a lack of trying to find a place to start require that we simply offer you this press release from the WWL, touting the upcoming post-high school pigskin slate of games (times changed from EDT to PDT):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 24, 2008

ESPN on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360.com, ESPN Classic, ESPN Mobile TV and ESPN Radio's 2008 college football schedule will feature the return of afternoon and primetime windows across multiple platforms; ESPN360.com offering more than 300 games; up to 10 games a week on ESPN Mobile TV and coverage of two new post-season Bowl games. The season will kick off Thursday, Aug. 28.

Aside from Chris Berman squeezing analysis out of John Kruk and that squeeky-sounding former Dodger second baseman, ESPN will bring all it can to tonight's coverage of the Mid Summer Classic 2008 Pepsi MLS All Star Game, taking place in ... let me check the paperwork ... not Brazil ... not Wembley Stadium ... ah, Toronto's BMO Field.
Is that right, BMO? Stands for ... ? Google it.

ESPN -- not ESPN2, or ESPN8 or ESPN-la-France -- has it live at 4 p.m. The format, for those who aren't up to speed, is the MLS All-Stars against the West Ham United squad of the English Premiere League.

So you know the opposing team is going to try to take out David Beckham as early as possible. Becks makes his MLS All-Star game debut -- and isn't it about time, considering all he's done for the sport. He'll be there with Landon Donovan, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Dwayne De Rosario, Pablo Mastroeni, Shalrie Joseph and Frankie Hejduk.

All names, to us, that sound like 18th century European real estate agents.

Where's Freddy Adu in this mess?

ESPN, with an arsenal of 17 cameras -- that's arsenal, non-capital "A" -- loads up with JP Dellacamera and John Harkes on the call, Allen Hopkins on the sidelines, Rob Stone and Julie Foudy on pre- and post-game, and none of the those Euros who the network imported for last month's Euro 2008 will be there to call the game from a TV booth in London.

ESPN International, however, sends a live feed to 87 countries, reaching 17 million homes, most of whom will be saying: "What's a Pepsi MLS All-Star Game? Did we miss 'Cricket Week In Bangladesh?'"

But we TiVo'd it -- the "Best Damn Sports Show Period" (Wikipedia entry link here) seventh anniversary show, last night on FSN.
"The world's greatest late-night sports show" -- that's how greeter Charissa Thompson plugs it every night, and who are we to argue with her? -- wasn't supposed to last past the opening credits. Coming in with that big, boastful name.
More than 1,300 shows later, it's a milestone worth noting. Of the original cast on July 23, 2001 - Chris Rose, Tom Arnold, Reggie Theus, Deacon Jones and John Kruk - only Rose has survived (after getting booted for a two-month stint) with today's lineup of John Salley, Thompson and rotating guests hosts (after the recent non-rehiring of Rodney Peete and Rob Dibble).
And why was Leeann Tweden ever let go? Lisa Guerrero? Lauren Sanchez?
Salley said he was actually considered for the first crew but told that Theus would do better on TV than him. And too many people still think Arnold is on the show.
Last night's "special" co-hosts were John Calipari and Jeremy Roenick, plus Gary Payton (on his 40th birthday).
"So we continue to have fun, and thank you very much to our viewers out there who have joined us the last seven years -- both of you -- we appreciate it," said Rose.

David Wallechinsky has done it again -- an epic volume of Summer Olympic history with his latest updated anthonlogy that weighs more than three pounds (and it's softbound) and is about two inches thick.
"The Complete Book of the Olympics" doesn't even include the Winter Games -- that's a separate volume.
We talked to David about some of the ideas he has for improving the Games -- most notably, adding a week to them, if he could only convince NBC to do it -- and the process he goes about to produce such a book every four years.
You will also pick up, whether you like it or not, more Olympic history for your memory bank. After a more careful read, we were amazed (not in a Hewell Howser kind of way) to find out things like:

==In the women's 100 meter backstroke at the 1932 L.A. Games, Holland's Zus Braun, the defending champion, qualifed for the final with a Olympic record 1:18.3, but she had to withdraw. She said she had an insect bite that developed into blood poisioning. That was the official story.
She later admitted that while standing on her seat to watch Buster Crabbe win the 400 meter freestle, she was stabbed in the left leg. The next day she had a high fever and couldn't compete. She speculated she was attacked by gamblers who bet against her. Who could they have wanted to win?
urned out, an American, Eleanor Holm, the daughter of a Brooklyn fire captain, won. (She's pictured here).
And her story hardly ended there. The Madonna of her day, she continued the '36 Games, where the IOC expelled her for her drunken behavior and shooting craps on the ship taking the U.S. team to Berlin. Holm became a socialtal misfit, marrying and divorcing, starting as Jane in the "Tarzan's Revenge" movie in 1938, a divorce to Billy Rose became "The War of the Roses."

Relating back to a post earlier today (linked here), KSPN will announce Thursday that Dave Dameshek has been ... er .. reassigned from his afternoon weekday sports-talk role.
And he's going to be Internet-only from now until he gives up and leaves.
The station will announce that a daily, online "exclusive" podcast called "Dave Dameshek On Demand," between 30 minutes to an hour, will launch to "help lead the station's new media efforts."
The station says Dameshek's current podcasts rank among the best at the ESPN owned-and-operated stations.
So apparently Dameshek has found his niche. And it isn't sports-talk on the radio in L.A.
A station release that was obtained early will also say:
"In order to focus exclusively on 'Dave Dameshek On Demand,' Dameshek will be re-tasked from his daily on-air duties. A nationwide search is underway for his replacement. Night host Brian Long and Sr. Reporter Dave Denholm will be hosting afternoons until an announcement is made."
So, Dave's gone. But he's not gone.
And, if you read between the lines: Dameshek wouldn't give into a buy out of his $200,000 annual salary, so this is what he'll be relegated to do.

By Jimmy Golen
AP Sports Writer

Beach volleyball could be heading back to school.

An NCAA committee voted this month to add sand volleyball to a list of women's sports being considered for intercollegiate competition. The sport, known on the professional and Olympic levels as beach volleyball, could be under NCAA auspices as soon as 2009-10.

"It's a very exciting development, and it's certainly an acknowledgment that there's substantial growth in popularity in beach volleyball," said Leonard Armato, the commissioner of the domestic pro tour. "I think it's going to be an easy transition for the schools, and there's going to be lots of girls that want to play."

Although it spun off from the indoor game almost a century ago, beach volleyball didn't get competitive until after World War II, and it was first recognized as an Olympic sport in 1996. After the 2004 Games in Athens, when American women won the gold and bronze medals, the AVP recorded 48 percent growth in its fan base.

"I would imagine a similar spike, no pun intended, after the Beijing Games," Armato said. "Especially since we have the two gold medal favorites."

Eight months after agreeing to rearrange the lineup at all-sports KSPN-AM (710) -- with the center piece, putting newcomer Dave Dameshek (his Wikipedia bio) into the prime weekday drive-time spot -- station management is in the process of trying to buy the former "Jimmy Kimmel Live" staff writer out of his two-year contract that reportedly pays him $200,000 a calendar.

Dameshek himself has been telling people around town that, while he was on vacation and out of town last week from the newly renamed (since earlier this month) "Dameshek, Denholm and Long Show" from 4-to-8 p.m., he's been told to stay away this week while the exit negotiations continue.

Larry Gifford, the KSPN program director, said in an email today: "Dave has not been let go. He is on vacation this week. I'll have some news for you soon."

It's that delicious.

Source indicate the KSPN management has probably got an early indication of the latest Arbitron ratings, which come out today, that the afternoon slot has continued to do half the audience that Steve Mason and John Ireland drew before all the changes were made last November.

Management did a U-turn when it brought Ireland back two months ago after buying him out of his deal when changes were made. Mason and Ireland, currently in the 1-to-4 p.m. weekday slot, will probably remain there, according to sources, and the station will likely take a syndicated show from the ESPN Radio network, or hire someone to fill that spot for the rest of the summer.

Sources also say that if the station is unable to work a deal to have him go away, they'll bring Dameshek back -- but in a less desirable time slot. Wording in his contract must stipulate that he work that afternoon slot, thus drawing the larger salary.

The irony is that Dameshek delivered the show that he promised Gifford and station manager Bob Koontz -- it was him, a house band, occasional appearances by Kimmel and Bill Simmons, plus contributions from several in the studio. But Dameshek's approach -- which we termed "Adam Carolla Lite" -- just kinda rubbed many wrong from the start. As nice a guy as he might be, the show just didn't stick with us -- we rated him No. 1 in the bottom 5 of our 2008 Daily News Best and Worst of the L.A. Sports Talk Show Hosts. Dameshek emailed us later saying: "The thing that hurts most is you listened to the show, and you still had that opinion."

Getting back to one of our favorite book ideas -- Todd Gallagher's "Andy Roddick Beat Me With A Frying Pan," which we featured last October (click here) -- ESPN.com's Page 2 is doing a contest where the winner will actually get a chance to face the tennis star, while he competes using a frying pan.
Gallagher did that as a set-up for his book of "what if?" stunts, and actually beat Roddick (despite what the title of the book says). Gallagher, who said he'd been talking to various production companies about establishing a TV series, may have something in the works here. Finally.
Fans who want to compete have to submit a short clip of themselves reenacting a great highlight in sports history (why? sounds corny, but OK) and bonus points is if they can incorporate a frying pan into it (now it makes sense). Winner plays Roddick in December -- racket vs. pan.
To submit videos, click here.
Contest rules, click here.
An excerpt of Gallagher's book, click here.

KAPOLEI, Hawaii (AP) -- Nine-hundred holes, 2,000 golf balls, four bottles of sunscreen -- Bill Evans and Craig Forney on Tuesday completed their grueling 50-day, cross-country golfing odyssey.

The buddies from Atlanta played 50 golf courses in 50 states in 50 days and ended the journey in the 50th state at the Kapolei Golf Course.

Besides their memories, they were left with a souvenir.

"I have a farmer's tan now," Forney said.

Evans, 51, and Forney, 40, began their trek (chronicled here) in Vermont on June 9. Joined by a support and film crew of five, they traveled by bus across 48 states, waking up early to tee off and ending each day with visits to cancer patients at local hospitals.

The pair said they've been wanting to do this for years but never had an opportunity to take 50 summer days off, until this summer.

The goal of their "50 in 50" adventure was to raise $1 million for cancer research -- $20,000 in each state. They weren't certain how much they raised.

"We didn't have someone close to us with cancer before the trip, but now we do," said Evans, an entrepreneur.

It just won't be the same, but news at the The Sporting News is all Internet, starting Wednesday morn.
They're calling it the launch of the first digital daily sports newspaper -- we thought that all the other newspapers that put their content on their website were ahead of the curve, no? -- with Sporting News Today. It's free to registered users every morning (sign up here)
A staff of 200 reporters and contributors are hard at work to crank this version up.
"We acquired Sporting News in 2006 because of the brand's rich heritage and belief that it can become the premiere news source for the die-hard sports fan," said Whitney Shaw, the Sporting News president. "We are convinced with these changes the new Sporting News will be the ultimate multi-media destination for serious sports fans."
Contributors include writers and editors from Sporting News' parent company, American City Business Journals, publisher of 41 major market business newspapers, NASCAR Scene, NASCAR Illustrated, Inside Lacrosse, SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily.
It is also employing a bunch of free-lancers, including John Feinstein and Will Leitch (late of Deadspin.com), said new editor in chief Jeff D'Alessio.
The newsprint version won't go away.
Starting Sept. 1, the magazine goes bi-weekly and will go 25 percent larger on better paper stock.
It's rethinking the business model, and that's all we can hope for at this point for a publication that was founded as the nation's first weekly sports paper in 1886.
Hope it works.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Go ahead, Yankees fans. Slather on that SPF 45 -- sunscreen is now legal in Yankee Stadium.

The baseball team has lifted a ban on plastic containers of sunscreen at their ballpark after deciding "not to be as stringent," team spokesman Jason Zillo said Tuesday.

Sports teams around the country started restricting what fans could bring into stadiums after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Yankees' Web site lists bans on backpacks, briefcases, coolers, large purses, laptop computers and video cameras. Bottles and cans also are on the forbidden list, but the sunscreen question is not specifically addressed.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that Yankees fans were hot and bothered over the weekend because of a crackdown on sunscreen.

So, what do you know about Big East football?
And what paper did you used to work for before they kicked you to the curb?
Answer those two with a reasonable response, and ESPN.com apparently could use you for their blog-centic website covering football.
Latest, up to the second, still smelling the ditto machine ink on the paper wet ESPN press release says that ESPN.com will launch a "football blog network" with "journalists hired" to launch it.
Take that you .... you ... non-journalistic bloggers.
There are 15 blogs in this network with daily coverage of pro and college -- and, says the play, "collectively, the best content from each divisional and conference blog will be aggregated daily into national blogs for both pro and college football."
So, it's a competition?
(That's my journalistic take on it ... what's your take, you ... you ....non-journalstic?)

Dan Daniel, Marshall Hunt, John Kieran, Frank Lieb, Paul Gallico, Al Laney, Richards Vidmer, Shirley Povich, Ed Prell, George Strickler, Abe Kemp, Al Horwits, Ford Frick, John Drebinger, Harold Parrott, Red Smith, John R. Tunis and Jimmy Cannon.
I learned about those sportswriters from Jerome Holtzman.
I have still a first-edition copy of the book Holtzman compiled in 1974 called "No Cheering In The Press Box," where he recorded interviews and basically transcribed and edited them down into chapters of the book. All those names above were sportswriters who devoted their lives to sportswriting two generations previous to Holtzman's. He says in the editor's note, he had some 900,000 words of transcript that he was only able to use 10 percent of in the book.
He then thanks each one of them again.
And I'd like to thank Holtzman for that, again.
The Hall of Fame baseball writer from Chicago died Saturday, at 81. He wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times (1957-'80), then the Tribune ('81-'98), and for the last 10 years, he's been commission Bud Selig's self-appointed MLB historian -- the league's first.

Greg and Chrissy, sitting near the tee,
W-I-N-N-I-N-G.
First comes majors, then comes marriage, then comes the media, aiming to disparage.

How much more of this Norman-Evert honeymoon can be used as talking points during the final round of the British Open on our TV sets Sunday.
He, the golfer trying to become the oldest to ever win his sport's most majorist of events.
She, the 18-time women's tennis major champion, ranked No. 1 for a seven-year stretch at one point, still frisky after all these years.
Three weeks ago, they were married, after he cleaned up a messy divorce settlement that supposedly ran him more than $100 million.

By the way, just so we get it straight: Chrissy Evert, who once almost married Jimmy Connors, did marry John Lloyd, (a different tennis player) and Andy Mill (a skier), is now married to Mill's' former best friend Greg Norman, who has a daughter that may or may not still be dating Sergio Garcia, who was once romantically linked with Martina Hingis, who is too young to have ever played against Evert. And you think it's complicated to explain to someone how to keep score at a tennis match.

As the Shark and the Cougar go hand-in-hand down the fairway this weekend, we're trying to get our heart around how they'd rank in today's Sports Power Couple Rankings, now that they're official and he's back to contending for top dollar not just in building golf courses and selling cool shirts.

(UPDATE: It appears there was quick a bit of homewrecking on both their parts before their union was noticed as a legal bond. A story noted on Deadspin.com from News.com/au (linked here) quotes a new issue of Vogue quoting Evert as saying, yes, she and Norman split from their former spouse to be with each other).

Knowing this is a place A-Rod and Madonna will never been seen together - no matter how much it looked like she could hit a fastball in "A League Of Their Own" - we have tried to put two Top 10 lists together, one for the ages, and one more up to date:

Colombia's Camilo Villegas, aka "Spider-Man," has a different cool way of lining up a putt, which we've been able to see during this weekend's British Open, and expect to soon see on a green near us during our next round of slow-play golf, while someone tries to emulate his technique and pulls a groin. Or two.

This is only his first Open appearance, and his third year as a pro. A Bloomberg News story (linked here) says that the 26-year-old, named one of People magazine's Hottest Bachelors in 2006, prepped for the event during his flight from Atlanta to Manchester, England, "perusing US magazine's coverage of actress Angelina Jolie." He shot a 5-under-65 during the second round to find himself just two shots back of the leader.

Wonder what technique he used to read the magazine.

By ERIC OLSON
AP Sports Writer

OMAHA, Neb. -- Sandlot baseball, a slice of American life enjoyed for decades by boys from coast to coast, appears on the verge of extinction.

Many men over 40 remember those summer days when they headed to the park or vacant lot and played ball all day -- or until Mom sent word that it was time for dinner.

Nowadays, most neighborhood ball fields sit empty on summer afternoons, the idea of unsupervised play having gone the way of the rotary-dial phones kids once used to round up the fellas for a game.

The reasons for the sandlot's demise, baseball coaches and sociologists say, go back to the changing family structure, video games, parents' fear of crime, and the proliferation of organized and so-called "select" teams for more-talented kids.

Johnny Damon of the New York Yankees says the structured environment of select ball sacrifices the fun kids get from playing on their own.

"I think nowadays kids are getting so worn out playing baseball year-round that by the time they get to the high school level they're kind of tired of it, and tired of the politics of it, instead of just going out there and playing baseball," Damon said.

Dan Gould, director of Michigan State's Institute for the Study of Youth Sport, put it bluntly: "The end of the story is, the sandlots ain't coming back, as much as we would like them to."

More yammering on about the pros and cons of the new KABC "DodgerTalk" format with Ken Levine and Josh Suchon, from today's media column (linked here) after the previous blog leadin with Ross Porter and Fred Wallin (linked here):

==Any aspiring TV or movie writer has to have stumbled onto Levine's blog (linked here) to get into the mind of what it takes on a daily basis to have a creative outlet. Another must-read for those who want to know more about Levine's background is a book he wrote in 1993 entitled, "It's Gone!. No, Wait a Minute .: Talking My Way into the Big Leagues at 40," (find copies of it at the AbeBooks.com used book website at this link) where he chronicles not only his career detour from scripts to play-by-play, but also admits his passion for Dodgers baseball at age 8 when he father, listening to a Dodger broadcast on the radio just after the team moved from L.A., said there was "Vin Something" doing the call. "And I wanted to be Vin Something," Levine said.

Friday's media column is focused on the first half of the baseball season with Ken Levine and Josh Suchon co-hosting the post-game "DodgerTalk" for KABC-AM (790).
As an appetiser, I've asked two former "DodgerTalk" hosts to talk about their experience doing the gig in years past:

==Ross Porter, who hosted "DodgerTalk" before and after games for 14 seasons (1990 to 2003) spanning days at KABC, KXTA and KFWB while he was doing play-by-play, said from his experience:

"I thought it was very important to be honest with the fans. You lose your credibility if you are not honest with the listeners. I always tried to treat them with respect. Many were well-informed. Many were nervous about calling the show and going on the air so my approach was, 'There are no stupid questions. It's just you and me talking baseball. Let's have some fun.' Peter O'Malley never once interfered while I was the host, neither telling me what to say nor what not to say. Peter was the perfect boss."
Read as much between those lines as need be, considering it wasn't O'Malley who finally decided to end Porter's run as a Dodger broadcaster, but current ownership."
Ross currently does his radio vignettes, "Real Sports Heroes," that is heard regularily on KABC.

==Fred Wallin, another former "DodgerTalk" host (1988 and '89), adds these thoughts:

"I was fortunate having the opportunity. Of course, '88 was the miracle season and Stu Nahan and I had a ball as I stated on the air that Dodgers had no chance to win their division ahead of the Reds, little chance against the Mets, and only a minute shot against the A's. I was fortunate again that I was not living in Las Vegas.
"A couple of items do stand out: Only once did anyone at the station try to tell us what or what not to say. When the Dodgers were about to face the Mets, management asked us to go to every phone call with, 'Beat the Mets!' Stu told the powers: 'Over my dead body,' and I told management that we would lose all our credibility. Management backed down.
"One thing you do learn doing a program like Dodger Talk is the players only remember the negative things you say, never the positive. If you state 99 good things and one negative, that's the one the athletes will never forget. Kirk Gibson became upset when I mentioned he did not have the arm to play center field, even though I repeatedly commented that he was the glue that held the club together. Meanwhile, second baseman of sorts Steve Sax and outfielder Mike Marshall tried to get me fired, but KABC General Manager George Green stood behind me.
"Finally, when I left the station over a few bucks, the worst mistake anyone has ever made in this business, I received the nicest of notes from Peter O'Malley. It stated that I was the first host who ever was objective about his club and he appreciated that very much, because he realized I had been a Dodger fan since the age of five. Next week, Peter's dad, Walter, goes into the Hall of Fame and thousands of us will be with Peter in Cooperstown in spirit."
Fred currently does a show with John Woolard called "Sports Overnight America" for SportsByline, every Friday night 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. that is heard in about 50 stations including Las Vegas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta. You can listen to the audio stream at www.sportsbyline.com.

==Also, Jon Weisman, the editor of the Dodger Thoughs blog, has a forum open for those who want to give their opinions about the current "DodgerTalk" format (at this link).

I've gone to the last ... I don't know how many of 'em ... ever since the ESPN ESPY Awards moved from New York to, one year in Las Vegas (which I also attended) and then to L.A. at the Kodak Theatre. This year, it for whatever reason moved to the new Nokia Theatre across from Staples Center.
I was a no-show. I prioritized.
I'd been to enough in the past to know that, while I may get a story out of it, I usually won't.
Last year, I went only to talk to Amanda Beard and Pat Summitt about their thoughts on women posing for men's magazines -- which turned into a he said, she said dueling columns with Jill Painter (I took the don't-do-it stance).
In 2006, it was a chance to take the digital camera on the red carpet and snap a few things that most don't get to see -- like "The Insider's" Pat O'Brien way too up close (linked here). That was the same year that host Lance Armstrong told some off-color jokes -- that were left in the edited telecast -- and really made me rethink my three hours spent there.
One year I went and all four tire covers were swiped off my car in the Hollywood and Highland garage. I told security. They seemed baffled. They have so many security cameras. And my hubcaps were hardly the high-end variety. (I think I went to Target and bought four new ones ... but couldn't put it on the expense account).
Years before, I had a sit-down with ESPN chief George Bodenheimer to talk about all the great things the ESPYS stood for, aside from self indulgence. The fundraising for the Jimmy V cancer research is commendable, but I tend to think ESPN hides behind that, or at least the celebrities and employees who attend, just so they can participate in a splashy awards show, dress up, pretend they're important, and get their egos stroked (or, as Petros Papadakis likes to say, it's a giant ball washing event).
Mine were clean. I had no need to attend.
And now, as they have, it's all taped and shown edited on Sunday, instead of live on Wednesday. That takes a lot of any news element out of it. And you have to sit through skits like the one above, where Justin "Jacques Le Coq Grande" Timberlake sings with Greg Oden on the piano.
Take 'em or leave 'em.
I have my ESPY memories already. And this year I didn't have to go to the dry cleaners after it was over.
So since I couldn't bring myself to be part of that cluster%$&@ mess last night, and I had nothing invested in the outcomes, I present the award for best written press release by an ESPN employee or staff member on July 16, 2008:

There were 49 of 'em at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
Sandy Koufax would have made it 50. Carlton Fisk, Sparky Anderson, Johnny Bench, Jim Bunning, Stan Musial, Duke Snider, Tom Seaver and Carl Yaztrzemski would have made it 58.
And Joe Morgan would have made it 59.
Right?
So where were they?
Koufax ... who knows. The former Dodger could have given 382 excuses for not being there. The New York media, probably. The Dodgers' home opener was enough to get him out in April.
We can give Musial, Anderson and Snider a pass, based on their age. (Although, you saw that 91-year-old Lee MacPhail was there).
Bench, Fisk, Seaver, Yaz .. whatever... thanks for playing along.
But Morgan ... even though he was definitely there for the festivities already as part of the ESPN crew of 1,000 nobodies, he didn't want to stand next to Ryne Sandberg, Bill Mazerowski or Rod Carew?
Or was it just Ryno he's still miffed at?
There's speculation at various outlets (linked here), but so far not at the blog FireJoeMorgan.com.
Are we missing any other baseball Hall of Famers who couldn't make the time to appear Tuesday night?

Where will Billy Packer turn up next?
The blog Tirico Suave (cool name, eh?) has the answer (at this link), or just look at the photo and cringe:

By their count, NBC will use 106 broadcasters for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing. The network says that's a record.
For what? We used to get that many into our dad's old VW just for a trip to the beach for a game of touch football.
Hopefully, they all take the same plane over from the mainland and save on some airline fuel costs.
For those who need to know, and those who have a passing fancy at trying to figure out who's better suited for what sport, here's the lineup NBC released today:

==Main, overall, pointman, center of the universe host: Bob Costas, for the eighth time, seventh as the prime-time host.

==Other hosts: Jim Lampley (working his 14th Olympics) for NBC's afternoon telecasts; Mary Carillo on NBC's late-night coverage; Alex Flanagan as the CNBC and USA Network coverage; Lindsay Czarniak on the Oxygen channel; Melissa Stark and Bill Patrick on MSNBC coverage; Matt Vasgersian, on baseball and softball (not play-by-play?); and Fred Roggin on CNBC boxing.

==Correspondents: Cris Collinsworth, on the "the scene reports throughout Beijing," Carillo, on "a collection of whimsical packages," and Jimmy Roberts, with feature stories and essays to pad things out.

If you haven't seen your name by now, take your ID card to Window 4 and fill out the forms -- Joel Meyers, you're in the wrong line. And how did Jim Gray weasel his way in ...
Your name could also be below:

How can you get mad at a guy for dying?

Somehow, that's the emotion I feel, trying to get my heart around the fact that Matt isn't on the end of that phone any more offering advice on how to turn a throw-away paragraph into a lead, or coming up with an ending for a column that seemed to meander.

I should have been better prepared for this. I'd seen him enough times in the hospital bed over the last year. Taken him things that he'd left behind in the office because of an ER trip -- once they could be found on his messy desk. Picked him up from doctor visits because he couldn't drive. Delivered him home from work but stupidly detoured through the fast-food window so he could wolf down a chili-cheese burger and drip the stuff all over my car. And then I'd find his wallet lying there on the seat after he collected his things and limped off to his apartment.

Matt McHale was a mess. He was the Oscar Madison in the flesh. This is all a good thing.

We could call him old school, a sportswriter from a different era, when those greasy stadium buffets were what those in the business lived off. It would eventually catch up to all of us. Yet, for Matt, it was as enjoyable as working a scorecard, grabbing a few quotes after the game and crafting a story that no one blogging today would really understand.

So how can this man's life still make me upset, more angry? Because no matter how many times we pleaded for him to take care of himself after he found out he had diabetes, he was, as many say, in some kind of denial. After a while, you didn't want your entire conversation to focus on what he shouldn't be doing. You had to let him live as he wanted. We learn we can't change everything.

For someone with a heart of gold to have two heart attacks in his last days on Earth in another hospital bed seems about as cruel a fate as there can be. And for him to be so far away from us, on the other coast, after we bought him a cellphone so we could have some sort of contact - knowing he probably didn't know how to use it - wasn't fair either.

If you could get past the fact he was licking his fingers and dabbing the crumbs off his shirt to get every last piece of that pastrami sandwich, and listen to some of the column ideas he had, or how much he cared about you and what you were doing, it made your life much easier.

Matt made my professional life easy. He gave me focus when I had none. Made me stop and start again when I was trying to ready, shoot and aim on the keyboard. Personally, he was there, too. At a very important point in my life maybe a dozen years ago when I was having a mental breakdown of sorts -- slipping in and out of depression, bouts of anxiety so bad I couldn't even get out of bed to call in sick, Matt called and said simply: Shut it down. We need you here healthy. Don't worry. We'll get by. He knew that your work can be your life, but your life doesn't have to be your work.

With his health worsening, we could see this day coming, and he probably could, too. He got the short end of having to leave the paper during the latest round of layoffs, but really, he took one for the team. As he always did. Our prayers weren't answered this time. But the best part is he's out of his pain, able to rise above all this and bring out the best in all of us as we try to pull our lives together without him around to pat us on the back and hear him tell us that, if you think you got it bad, his new computer wouldn't work because he couldn't remember his password.

He was for another era, but luckily, stumbled into ours with his crumpled shirt, pens and press guides shoved in his baggy pockets, and, after coughing a few times, a word of advice: You should do a story on that.

I guess I just did.

#################

One of Matt's many other friends, Mark Langill, now the Dodgers' team historian (who provided that shot above of Matt being congratulated by his teammates after getting the game-winning hit in the 1989 Media Game at Dodger Stadium), had a great thought: "I'm sure he'd be stunned by today's clips. Just think of St. Peter needing a pile of duplicate credentials."
Or course, because Matt likely lost his entrance pass somewhere between here and purgatory and had to call ahead to get another one issued in time.

Thanks, too, to our collegues who've had their heads straight enough to put together the stories on Matt in today's section. For those who haven't seen them:
=The main story (linked here)
=Steve Dilbeck's column (linked here)
=Kevin Modesti's blog posting (linked here)
=Paul Oberjuerge's blog posting (linked here)
=A thread of responses on SportsJournalists.com (linked here), which includes a great tribute by the L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke.
=A mention in Jon Heyman's baseball column on SI.com (linked here)
=Another nice mention in Marc Stein's ESPN.com NBA column (linked here)
=A closing note by the L.A. Times' Jerry Crowe (linked here)
=A story in Editor & Publisher (linked here)
=A note from Louis Brewster in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (linked here)
=Add a tribute yourself to the Daily News guest book (linked here)

Flash back to a list recently posted by The Onion Sports on what MLB and Fox (coverage begins with that red carpet deal at 4 p.m.; first pitch is sometime closer to quarter to 6) are doing to spice up the annual All-Star Game (linked here):

==Warning track covered with red carpet, celebrities

==Every fan in attendance mic'd up

==Basepath will have translucent blue glow to show viewers where baserunners need to go

==Clean uniforms

==To avoid dull, tedious, or awkward moments during broadcast, Fox promises never to point the cameras at Bud Selig

==All-Stars will rifle balls into the stands during the new Line Drive Derby

==Three Doors Down or some similar band will sing some song while they show videos of diving catches

==Yankee Stadium to be imploded during seventh inning

==Mercury column at first base will measure how much pressure the first baseman is applying to it

==Game will determine if American League representative will win World Series at home or on the road

And what did we learn about women's tennis star player Ashley Harkleroad from nine pages devoted to her in the August issue of entertainment for men's Playboy, which hit the newsstands this past weekend?

==The 23-year-old has a house in Malibu and goes to a nearby fitness club.

==At press time, she ranks No. 61 in the world, but her goal is to reach a top 25 spot.

==She's a "son-of-a-bitch tenacious competitor," says trainer Nick Bollettieri.

==Her nickname is Pebbles, because she grew up in Flintstone, Georgia.

=="I do think athletes have better sex," she asserts with a bashful giggle. "Who wants a waify girl with no definition to her body? I like that I have some power and that everything's tight."

==She has a Jesus fish tattoo right above her ... and a flower pattern tattoo right above her ...

=="Tennis players don't mind showing off their bodies," she said. "Often in the locker room I feel other girls' eyes on me."

==On the fact her ex-husband, Alex Bogomolov, claims to be Anna Kournikova's cousin and lived in her guest house for a time, which meant she'd go over and see Kournikova on occasion: "Anna is stunning to look at, but she's probably a bit damaged from what she's been through. That's how she acts -- a bit damaged."

==On questions about whether some women's tennis players use steroids: "It's out there, definitely. If you look at some of these girls and then look at their parents, you can see something's fishy."

==On life in Malibu: "Coming to L.A. was an eye-opener. You see beautiful women in beautiful cars, and it makes you a little competitive. But I love it."

==Oh, and this quote:
"I'm just a normal girl," she say swith a gentle shrug and the slightest of drawls.

A look at previous sports-related Playboy covers in the pop-culture history (or you can go to this link):

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley has announced it will have its first World Series Youth Baseball event on Thursday, in conjunction with Simi Youth Baseball and the Shetland and Pinto World Series (www.simiworldseries.com linked here).
Activities run from 3 to 6 p.m. -- a batting cage, obstacle course, ring toss, face painting, balloon animals.
Kids under 18 will get a free baseball and one of President Reagan's favorite foods -- jelly beans.
The library is also hosting an exhibit showing the former president and Mrs. Reagan at baseball-related events over the years, as well as baseball gifts sent to the president from players and fans. The exhibit runs through Monday.
For more information: 805-522-2977 or visit the library website (www.reaganlibrary.com). Library hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, $12 general admission, children 10 and under are free.

For someone who Jim Nantz has openly campaigned for a spot as a contributor in the Basketball Hall of Fame, Billy Packer got a tremendous send-off by the network he has worked for since 1982.

CBS sent out a press release this morning. And Packer's name wasn't even in the lead. And it's only in the second and third paragraph as a point of reference. Somehow, it made "McManus added' quote in paragraph four.

Here's the release under the headline:

CLARK KELLOGG NAMED CBS SPORTS'
LEAD COLLEGE BASKETBALL ANALYST

Clark Kellogg will become the lead college basketball analyst for CBS Sports beginning with the 2008-09 college basketball season. The announcement was made today by Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports.

"Billy Packer has set the standard of excellence for over 30 years," added McManus. "I can't express how important he has been, not only to CBS Sports and it's coverage of college basketball, but also to the growth of this great sport. It is almost impossible to over-estimate his passion, knowledge and commitment to the game."

It follows with more garbage from Kellogg saying how pumped up he is for getting a spot he hardly deserves. Kellogg then "added" about Packer:

"His legacy is one of enduring excellence and keeping the focus on the game. That is the foundation I aspire to build on," added Kellogg.

A good vocabularily would also help.

Again, it's not as if Packer died. He's been fired.
No going-away quote from Packer, either. The closest that came was from this morning Associated Press story, sixth paragraph:

The 68-year-old Packer confirmed the move Sunday, through a CBS official, to The Miami Herald, which first reported the story. Packer is pursuing other basketball projects and declined further comment.

Kinda reminds of how CBS fired Brent Musburger on the eve of the NCAA championship game in 1990. He was canned the day before the UNLV-Duke game -- which he did with Packer.

UPDATE: The Houston Chronicle today (linked here) quotes Packer, who insisted on year-to-year contracts, as saying: "This decision was made over a year ago. I've been working on a project that is something that announcing games would have precluded me from doing. I've had a great run doing games, and I'm looking forward to a new challenge."

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- David Peters was born left-handed. It took a few raps on the hand by teachers, but like many in his generation, he switched to being a righty.

Maybe that's why Peters, now 61, became a scholar instead of a first baseman.

Peters is an engineering professor at Washington University in St. Louis who happens to be a baseball nut. He looked at baseball from an engineer's perspective and determined that southpaws have a decided advantage.

"Ninety percent of the human population is right-handed, but in baseball 25 percent of the players, both pitchers and hitters, are left-handed," Peters said. "Do lefties have an advantage? They definitely do. The statistics bear that out."

Peters' observations were for an article on the university Web site (linked here), not a scholarly journal. Still, they drew the interest of experts at the National Baseball Hall of Fame (linked here) in Cooperstown, N.Y., who at the request of The Associated Press crunched the numbers of lefties and righties in the Hall, the first time they had done so.

Of the 61 enshrined pitchers, 13 are left-handed, according to John Odell, curator of history and research at the Hall of Fame. At 21 percent, that's more than twice the percentage of lefties in the general population.

The Miami Herald's Barry Jackson has it confirmed (linked here) that CBS' Billy Packer, 68, has been replaced by Clark Kellogg as the main analyst on the network's college basketball coverage.
Packer has covered every Final Four since 1975 (going back to his days at NBC) and rumors were strong last April that his run could be ending at the network.
Jackson wrote that the announcement is expected Monday, but CBS representative Leslie Anne Wade confirmed the story Sunday night.

By STEPHEN WADE
AP Sports Writer

BEIJING -- Broadcasters and the IOC are pushing China to keep its promises and open up Tiananmen Square to more hours of live coverage for the Beijing Olympics.

Unfettered access to Tiananmen, site of a bloody crackdown on the 1989 democracy movement, is being used to gauge how far China's communist government will go in granting press freedom, which it promised seven years ago to help win the Olympic bid.

In an emergency meeting last week in Beijing with the International Olympic Committee and broadcasters, Chinese officials -- after months of hedging and leaving the critical question unanswered -- decided live broadcasting from Tiananmen would be limited to two time slots -- 6-10 a.m. and 9-11 p.m.

Chinese officials also finally agreed to give hundreds of satellite trucks freedom to roam around the city and report, but a list of restricted areas is expected this week. And there are reports broadcasters will have to get permission 24 hours before filming from a location.

This comes after promises of open coverage, which was followed months ago by a reported ban on any live coverage.

"We have the words, it's in writing as well. We will just have to wait and see," said Tomoyo Igaya, senior program director for Japan's NHK Sports and head of the Japan consortium, an Olympic pool that represents NHK and five Japanese commercial broadcasters. "People say yes, yes, yes, but will people on site be saying no, no, no?"

With 3½ weeks go before the games open Aug. 8, China's authoritarian government wants the Olympics to showcase the country's three decades to speedy economic progress. But the government fears the games could be a stage for activists set on embarrassing China over policies in Tibet and Darfur, religious and political freedom or the jailing of dissidents.

To avoid that scenario, China has cracked down on visas and security and thrown countless roadblocks in broadcasters' way.

We want to believe that a 41-year-old mom can still be an Olympic-caliber swimmer. And Dara Torres gives us nothing to doubt her ability.
But still ....
Still ....
Still ...........
The former Westlake of L.A. standout (the school is now known as Harvard-Westlake in Studio City) who moved to Mission Viejo after her junior year in high school has been all over the place the last couple of weeks, after she qualified for the 50 meter event at next month's Beijing Games.
After passing through today's column (linked here), read up more on her accomplishments, and what others are saying about them, at these various links:

==The New York Times' Elizabeth Weil (linked here) has a tremendous magazine piece on Torres from last week, going to her roots growing up in Beverly Hills and training in Culver City. Torres's partner, David Hoffman, a reproductive endocrinologist, who is the father of Torres' daughter Tessa, describes Torres's personality as "not type A. She's type A + +."
The story explains how Torres became the first woman to win the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach celebrity race; when asked to explain why she entered the event, she replied, "I'm so freaking competitive it's unbelievable."

==The San Francisco Chronicle's Gwen Knapp (linked here) questions the double-standard of how the media treats Torres' situation versus a Barry Bonds.

==NBCOlympics.com writer Alan Abrahamson writes on his blog (linked here) believes Torres is the real deal.

==Eric Boal's story on her in last Sunday's L.A. Daily News (linked here) where everyone from Mark Spitz to Michael Phelps to Amanda Beard endorse her efforts.

==What is Torres' stretching and gym routine? It's at this link.

By SARAH SKIDMORE
Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. -- At first glance, parkour practitioners look like modern dancers unleashed on an impromptu obstacle course.

Usually seen in cities, parkour involves jumping, rolling and vaulting over, under and through the objects found in a typical urban setting. Traceurs -- as parkour enthusiasts are called -- strive to move as directly and fluidly as possible, using only their bodies and the objects they encounter to propel themselves forward.

Parkour may require vaulting a wall, jumping off a ledge or leaping over a railing, but devotees say there is more to it than being a daredevil.

"We don't want people to see parkour as something crazy," said Adam Dunlap, a 21-year-old in Beaverton, Ore., who teaches parkour (see link here). "It's hard work ... the creativity comes from training."

Parkour (link here for the American Parkour site) has its roots in France but its popularity is taking off in the United States. The relatively new and largely underground practice, sometimes also called free running, requires strength, agility, discipline and guts.

"I think it's just humans moving the way humans were meant to move," said Mark Toorock, a leader in the U.S. parkour movement. "People were meant to jump, climb, play."

Charlie Engle and Marshall Ulrich are on target to leave San Francisco on Aug. 9 and sprint to New York in 45 days. That's 3,200 miles. An average of about 70 miles a day. Or about five marathons every two days.
Yeah, that would be some kind of a world record.
A quick bio on the quirky pair:
Engle, 44, has done more than 100 triathlons, 40 marathons and 20 ultra marathons, plus many adventure races around the world for the last 30 years. Last year, he did a 4,500 mile run across the Sahara desert in Africa (it took 111 days in a row), which was documented in a Matt Damon-narrated flick called "Running the Sahara," which comes out later this year.
Ulrich, 55, is the only person in the world to finish the Triple Crown of Extreme Sports: world class ultra runner, record setting adventure racer, and Seven Summits mountaineer. He has done 116 ultra marathons and 12 expedition races, including all nine Eco Challenges.
"Our dream is for Running America to introduce the real America to people around the world - from the small towns to the big cities; from the sea shores, to the mountains, to the plains - we want the world to see the quality of the people of America," said Engle. "We want Run America to be a catalyst for the revitalization of America."
As the two do their run, the documentary production company NEHST Studios is casting five people per mile to run with them. Find out more information on how to sign up at the website.
The run will take place close to the 100th anniversary of Edward Payson Weston's trans-America expedition. At 71, the long-distance walking pioneer did about a 4,000 mile trek from New York to San Francisco.
For what it's worth, Nick Baldock did this run back in 1999 to raise money. He did the 2,851 miles from San Francisco to Central Park in N.Y. on a run he called Running Across America, but that went from May to September. In 1980, Frank Giannino completed a similar journey in 47 days, which Engle and Ulrich are trying to beat.

Grinding out more on the media, after today's column (linked here) that examines NBC's Olympic plans, Fox's MLB All-Star plans and HBO's plans for its next sports documentary:

== A more complete list of NBC's Olympic coverage plans (at this MSNBC link) includes the ultimate NBC TV schedule on a PDF (at this link). Just remember: Those are East Coast times. Bejing is 15 hours ahead of us.

==The Associated Press moved a story late Thursday focused on the media coverage in general from the Beijing Games:
BEIJING (AP) -- China will abide by regulations to allow foreign reporters freedom to report at next month's Olympic Games, one of the country's top leaders was quoted as saying Friday.
Li Changchun, the fifth-ranked official in the country and a member of China's powerful Politburo, encouraged foreign journalists to report "extensively" on the games, the China Daily newspaper said.
"China will earnestly abide by relevant regulations regarding foreign journalists' reporting activities in the country," he told the newspaper while touring the newly opened Beijing International Media Center on Thursday.
Although Chinese officials repeatedly have been on the record as promising journalists unfettered access, foreign reporters have been restricted and harassed.
Last week, German Olympic rights holder ZDF television had a live interview on the Great Wall stopped when uniformed and plainclothes police barged in as a reporter was transmitting a show back to Germany.
The ability to report freely during the Olympic period was one of the promises China made when it was awarded the Olympic Games in 2001. Li said journalists can lodge complaints directly with Liu Qi, president of the organizing committee for the games, if they are unsatisfied.

Perhaps a story that has no sports angle at all ... but one that you're going to have to read over and over again before deciding just how much of a die-hard fan you can afford to be for one team:

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON -- The government has decided that an American life isn't worth what it used to be.

The "value of a statistical life" is $6.9 million in today's dollars, the Environmental Protection Agency reckoned in May -- a drop of nearly $1 million from just five years ago.

The Associated Press discovered the change after a review of cost-benefit analyses over more than a dozen years.

Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences.

When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule. The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation, such as tighter restrictions on pollution.

Consider, for example, a hypothetical regulation that costs $18 billion to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8 million per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9 million per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted.

Some environmentalists accuse the Bush administration of changing the value to avoid tougher rules -- a charge the EPA denies.

"It appears that they're cooking the books in regards to the value of life," said S. William Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, which represents state and local air pollution regulators. "Those decisions are literally a matter of life and death."

It's about 60 feet tall, on two sides of the Henry Ford Theatre in Hollywood.
Kobe Bryant, in purple and gold, by street artist Shepard Fairey of L.A., in a portrait commissioned by the Upper Deck card and collectables company.
"It does not matter who your favorite team is, if you appreciate style, grace, and power in basketball, then you appreciate Kobe Bryant" said Fairey. "I was asked by Upper Deck to do a portrait of Kobe and it was my pleasure to be able to create a piece of iconic art for him."
Fairey, by the way, is the creator and guerilla marketer who put up the pop art posters for Democratic presidental nominee Barack Obama around town.
The litograph print is, of course, for sale by Upper Deck, in a version that's 22 inches wide and 28 inches tall, signed by both Bryant and Fairey, limited to 50 copies. The price: $1,199.99 (for the version that says KOBE) or $1,299.99 (for the ones that say MVP). Unframed copies, limited to 100, are $949.99/$1,049.99. A Fairey-only signed litho, limited at 100, are $349.99 unframed/$549.99 framed.
More info: upperdeck.com

Topics on the table for tomorrow's weekly media column:
==NBC and its family of cable channels and websites has plans for 3,600 hours of Beijing Olympics. How much will you watch?
==Fox drags its equipment to Yankee Stadium for Tuesday's All-Star Game ... will Madonna sing the national anthem?
==HBO has plans for a documentary on the rise of black football players in the South following the 1970 USC-Alabama game orchestrated by John McKay and Bear Bryant.

And some other notes that won't fit, could have been included in the weekly Friday media blog of notes, but are worth tossing out early since you've been so kind:

==The NFL Network replays that L.A. Raiders/Bo Jackson 37-14 Monday Night Football victory over the Seattle Seahawks/Brian Bosworth from 1987 on Monday (5 p.m.), Tuesday (9:30 a.m.) and next Saturday (5 p.m.) More background on the game at this link.

==The Tennis Channel's new documentary series, "Best of 5," takes a look at the top temper tantrums to ever occur on the tennis court. The show (Sunday, 4 and 7 p.m.) has decided that the top five meldowns are: 5) Martina Hingis at the 1999 French Open; 4) Illie Nastase at the 1979 U.S. Open; 3) John McEnroe at the 1984 Stockholm final; 2) McEnroe at the 1987 U.S. Open (with his famous "you cannot be serious!" scream) and 1) Jeff Tarango at the 1995 Wimbledon, where he called head umpire Bruno Rebeuh "corrupt" and marched off the court, and his wife later slapped the umpire.

==Be warned: Rapper Nelly will appear on ESPN2's "First Take" on Monday to debate with Skip Bayless on the "First & 10" segment.

Only in the way where it means those who put on exhibits.
Two are important enough locally to bring up.

==The Los Angeles Central Library has "Play Ball! Images of Dodger Blue, 1958-1988," which opens Saturday and runs through Nov. 9 in the first floor gallery. This is much like the exhibit that the library had a few years ago called "Play by Play: A Century of L.A. Sports Photography, 1889-1989." The exhibit draws from the library's historic photo collection that was obtained by the old Los Angeles Herald Examiner (which folded in 1989) and Hollywood Citizen and have not been see since their original publication. Included in the Dodgers exhibit it the famous photo by Pulitzer Prize-nominee James Roark of Rick Monday rescuing the American flag from protesters. Dodgers team historian Mark Langill will give a talk about the collection on Wednesday, Aug. 13, at noon. David Davis is the event curator. The exhibit is free. Library house: Monday to Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday: 1 to 5 p.m. More info at this link.

==The Pasadena Central Library has "The Tenth Inning," celebrating the 10th anniversary of the eclectic Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals ceremony. It highlights some of the exhibits that the Reliquary has displayed around the city since 1999 at other libraries, galleries and community centers such as the wooden leg from the late Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck, and a clump of dirt dug from the ground in 1853 at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, who some consider the birthplace of modern baseball. "Granted, 10 years is not the same as 50 years (as the Dodgers are celebrating), but for a small nonprofit, grassroots organization like the Reliquary, it's still an accomplishment of note," said Reliquary founder Terry Cannon. The exhibit runs through the month of July and surrounds the induction ceremony of the 2008 Shrine of the Eternals class that takes place Sunday, July 20 at 2 p.m. at the Pasadena Central Library (285 E. Walnut St., Pasadena). More information: (626) 791-7647 and at the Baseball Reliquary's site.

If you're really, really, really, really looking hard for something to watch Thursday:

==ESPN2's "MLS Primetime Thursday" shows the second SuperClasico when Chivas USA faces the Galaxy (both tied for the Western Conference lead) at 8 p.m. from the Home Depot Center with JP Dellacamera, John Harkes and Allen Hopkins.

==ESPN2 has Pam Ward, Carolyn Peck and Heather Cox covering the Sparks' WNBA game at Sacramento at 6 p.m.

What does the Statue of Liberty have in common with the Dodgers, Angels or any of the other 28 teams in Major League Baseball?
Nothing.
Except that there's now a version of Lady Liberty graffittied up in Dodger red, white and blue, and in Angels red, white and whatever other color that is (including the Al Jolson face) as part of the decore around town to trumpet the MLB All Star Game coming to Yankee Stadium this Tuesday.
The Dodger-colored statue is on 57th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan; the Angels is on 6th Avenue and 45th Street near Times Square, in case you're thinking of coming by and swiping it in the broad daylight.
The emotional-tugging element to Tuesday's exhibition determinant of who has the home-field advantage for the World Series is a parade of Hall of Famers who'll be driving through mid-town Manhattan, from Bryant Park to Central Park (and past these statues) and into the stadium for a big to-do before the first pitch.
Tommy Lasorda, Don Sutton and Eddie Murray are among the former Dodgers to take part; Rod Carew is a former Angels on the docket. Frank Robinson covers both teams. The rest of 'em who've committed to participating: Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Whitey Ford, Bob Gibson, Brooks Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Ozzie Smith, Tony Perez, Gary Carter, Paul Molitor, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Willie Mays, Tony Gwynn, Ralph Kiner, Earl Weaver, Luis Aparicio, Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda, Bob Feller, Reggie Jackson, Ferguson Jenkins, Al Kaline, Lee MacPhail, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey, Phil Niekro. Jim Palmer, Gaylord Perry, Cal Ripken Jr., Robin Roberts, Ryne Sandberg, Bruce Sutter, Billy Williams, Dick Williams, Dave Winfield and Robin Yount.

Anyone who missed watching the entire Dodgers-Braves game last night from Dodger Stadium -- that one where Hiroki Kuroda was one batter away from throwing a perfect game -- FSN Prime Ticket offered two replays today.
If only someone could figure out how to fit it into a two-hour TV window and keep the parts that matter.
During a replay of the game from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday, the top of the 8th inning was edited out -- which is where Atlanta's Mark Teixeira got the double to lead off the inning and break up both the perfect game and no-hitter. That's all.
When informed Tuesday afternon that this had happened, the folks at FSN called master control in Houston and asked that, even though that was a bad thing to happen to the Dodgers, it'd be better if they leave it in when the game was to be replayed later in the day.
Then we tuned into the 4:30-to-6:30 p.m. replay. It was even more nervewracking than watching it live.
First, it skipped from where the Dodgers made the last out in the bottom of the 2nd, to when the Dodgers were coming to bat in the bottom of the 3rd -- meaning, the top of the 3rd, when Kuroda set the Braves down in order, was removed.
About a half hour later, the top of the 5th was edited out, skipping to the Dodgers batting in the bottom of the 5th -- as Vin Scully was raving about what a great game Kuroda was throwing.
Then, at about 5 p.m., it jumped from the last out in the bottom of the 6th, where Scully said, "OK, everybody here waiting for the seventh," to the bottom of the 7th. Another missed Kuroda inning.
At least the top of the 8th was reinserted. Must have been by accident.

Let's make this simple: The only reason anyone would be watching the replay is to see Kuroda pitch. All 27 outs -- and 28 batters -- that he faced. And how Scully built the drama. That's how it works. Instead, it's a perfectly botched conclusion to the telecast of a near perfecto.

It's painfully obvious that no thought at all was put into actual content of the game replay, only in how it somehow fits into a window and all the commercials are accounted for (most of which are promos for FSN shows coming up). And the fact that none of this editing is done locally but coming from the control studio in Houston, they might as well outsource it to India. Where's the quality control in the operation?

It's not like a lot had to be extracted from the actual telecast. The official time of the game Monday: Two hours, three minutes. It fit pretty snug on my TiVo machine when I went back to watch it again this morning after viewing the fifth inning and beyond last night.
There was a game last year, when Brad Penny threw a fit and argued with manager Grady Little after being taken out of a game, but that wasn't included in the replay the next day. Again, FSN folks said it was unintentional. Gotta wonder.

Now do you feel sheepish for all those years complaining about Dan Dierdorf being a part of "Monday Night Football"?
Don't be.
Even with the news today that he's the 2008 recipient of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, which recognizes "long-time exceptional contributions to radio and television in professional football." He'll be given the award at the Aug. 1 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
Here are some things you may not know about this broadcast legend who one former local radio wiseguy used to refer to as the "Dorkster":

==Immediately after retiring as a Pro Bowl offensive lineman for the St. Louis Cardinals (the football team, not baseball) for 13 seasons, he started behind the mike in 1984 as the St. Louis Cardinals (football, not baseball) analyst on KMOX radio.

==He also did color commentary for the St. Louis Blues (yes, the NHL team).

==He was the sports director for KMOX TV in St. Louis.

==He did play by play on CBS Sports Radio NFL games in 1985. The next year, he switched to an analyst.

==He started on ABC's "MNF" in 1987, added to the Al Michaels-Frank Gifford team. He lasted 12 seasons, spending one of them with a Michaels-Boomer Esiason booth, but then left after 1998.

==He did Super Bowl XXII in 1988, XXV in '91 and XXIX in '95, each with Michaels and Gifford.

==He did boxing for ABC starting in 1989.

==He went to CBS to do NFL games in 1999 with Verne Lundquist. In 2000, he was paired with Dick Enberg. Since 2006, he's been with Greg Gumbel.

==He is referenced by George Carlin in his 1996 "Back in Town" album. Carlin is talking about capital punishment and wonders how a crucifixion would fly as a halftime show during a "MNF" game: "Wouldn't you like to hear Dan Dierdorf explain why the nails have to go in at a certain angle?"

"In the 29-year history of SportsCenter, I'm guessing what I'm about to say is a first," Stuart Scott said near the tail end of the 8 p.m. Monday episode, without dramatic effect that he usually forces into whatever he's trying to sell.
First, some necessary context.
This particular story appeared on the heels of another segment of the made-up contest called "TitleTown USA," so apparently anything Scott had after that had to be even more ridiculous. But it would also come just before a "breaking news" flash about Hiroki Kuroda's perfect game entering the eighth inning.

This report was focused on Alex Rodriguez, and the news was that he was served divorce papers.
Fair enough. Sigh. Maybe. Any news about the Yankees All-Star third baseman and future home-run career leader must be reported in some way or another.
But there's also this Madonna angle that apparently can't be ignored.
So back to Stu delivering the info.

"Here's a statement from Madonna," Scott said, finally completing the second part of the earth-shaking phrase he began seconds earlier.

"My husband and I are not getting a divorce," said the quote in large white type as it appeared graphically on the screen next to a mugshot of Madonna, with Scott reading it aloud for those who had trouble phoentically differentiating vowels from consonants.

Now, there's a second screen of the quote.

Now, there's a third screen of quotes.

"I have nothing to do with the sate of his marriage or what spiritual path he may choose to study."

End quote. End story.

This is what "SportsCenter" has been reduced to? Not enough baseball video to show on a Monday night? Why not show video of Madonna at the Yankees game? Or her kissing Britney Spears?

There's two minutes of life that can't be retrieved.

And, if this is the kind of story you'll stayed glued to for the rest of the summer, then you've probably already hit this FoxNews piece (linked here) trying to blame Madonna for A-Rod's recent groin injury.

(OK, art fans, name the portrait attached here ... It's Madonna and Child, by Artemisia Gentileschi ... look it up ... Now why all of the sudden to I feel like this is an eposide of "Art Classics with E. Buzz Miller"? ... Isn't this a nice painting of a broad with her kid?)

Two announcements this AM on network NFL studio shows (for those who can't wait to read about it tomorrow):

==NBC has decided its "Football Night In America" show needed more tweaking, hence Dan Patrick has been added to the show to reunite with Keith Olbermann. It's been about 11 years since Patrick and Olbermann did ESPN "SportsCenter" together (Keith left to join Fox Sports Net studio show), but Bob Costas apparently was the one who suggested they get back to doing it, and this is the forum. No one will be leaving "FNIA," meaning Costas shares airtime now with Cris Collinsworth, Tiki Barber, Jerome Bettis, Olbermann and Peter King ... and Patrick.
Funny thing: Patrick, now a Sports Illustrated employee with his column and daily syndicated radio show, didn't leak this news to anyone, including SI's own media writer, Richard Deitsch.

==The Showtime presentation of the former HBO weekly show, "Inside the NFL," will use, as guessed, CBS talent James Brown as the host, Phil Simms as an analyst, plus keep Cris Collinsworth, but not retain Dan Marino (a CBS Sunday AM studio analyst). According to CBS Sports boss Sean McManus in today's USA Today, there is a fourth chair open for possibly a rotating guest analyst. Bob Costas had hosted the show in its HBO days, and Cris Carter joined Collinsworth and Marino on the set.

NBC's overnight ratings -- that inexact Nielsen barometer/index/guestimation as to how many viewers may have stayed awake to see something the day/night before so we can rehash it all the next day -- seem to indicate through proper algebra that the Williams' sisters women's final at Wimbledon was seen by a lot of folks, but the men's final was even seen even more lotta folks.
Rafael Nadal's epic victory over Roger Federer, which aired from 6 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. in this part of the indifferent world, had a 4.6 rating and 12 share, the most viewed men's final since Pete Sampras' victory over Patrick Rafter (who?) in 2000 (5.0/14). It's also up 44 percent over last year's Federer win over Nadal at Wimbledon (3.2/9, from 6 a.m. to noon).
As Sunday's match marched on into the London darkness, the broadcast peaked at 6.5 rating from 1-to-1:30 p.m. PDT.
Despite the 9 a.m. ET start time, Wimbledon was the highest-rated, non primetime sports program of the weekend.

Saturday's sister final (6 to 11 a.m.) did a 3.4 overnight and 10 share, up 21 percent over a year ago.

For Sunday's final, the L.A. market did a 5.3 turnout with a 13 share -- better than the national average, but only 13 in the U.S. rankings of cities with clout. Maybe most here came in late because they were trying to catch the start of the AVP event in Boulder, Colo.
As for the rest of the Sunday viewers, here's the top 10:

1. St. Louis, 8.2/19
2. West Palm Beach, 7.5/17
3. Washington, D.C., 6.4/17
4. Nashville and Fort Myers, Fla, 6.3/14
6. Las Vegas, 6.1/14
7. Jacksonville, Fla., and Richmond, Va., 6.0/13
T9. New York, 5.7/15
T9. Milwaukee, 5.7/12

AP Photo/Ian Walton

John McEnroe can't be serious. But he was. From the vantage point of the supposedly neutral NBC's lead tennis analyst, that was his response to today's Wimbledon men's final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Taking it a step further, however, McEnroe not only thanked both players afterward on camera but he gave Federer a consolatory hug after the five-time defending Wimbledon champ came out of the darkness of Centre Court and into the lighted hallway following Nadal's 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 victory that ended past 9 p.m. London time and lasted a record 4 hours, 48 minutes of actual play.
"How lucky we are to be here," said McEnroe, whose loss to Bjorn Borg in the 1980 final, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (16), 8-6, was the previous longest men's championship match.
(See highlights of both Sunday's Nadal-Federer and Borg-McEnore at this MSNBC.com link).
When Federer left the court, McEnroe said to him: "Could I just say thank you as a tennis player that you allowed us to be part of this amazing spectacle?"
As Federer seemed subdued, McEnrore finally said: "I know you're feeling so much emotion right now ... give me a hug ... thank you, man ... thank you ... thank you so much, OK?"
Johnny Mac may get torched by other media critics for his Dr. Phil moment -- imagine Erin Andrews doing that to a quarterback who just lost a game ... she has done that already, right? -- but we aren't getting in that line to slam him too much for it.
To Nadal, McEnroe thanked him as well, saying "it was a honor to watch it."
In a match that spanned about seven hours because of rain delays, it was McEnroe who will also be the first to rub it "Dinner at Wimbledon," although it was just past lunch time here on the West Coast.

Bud Collins, the former Boston Globe tennis writer and longtime NBC booth analyst, said during his appearance on ESPN's Sunday night "SportsCenter" that the match was, "to me, it's No. 1 of all time (for men's finals) that I've seen ... (better than) Borg-McEnroe of 1980 and '81 ... I don't want to take anything from those guys, but these guys, there was a higher tone to it."
Collins earlier this month, by the way, pushed a 722-page history of tennis (see the link to it here) that now probably has to be updated.

Also check out the London Times (linked here), where writer Barry Flatman says:

UPDATE: ESPN Classic will replay Sunday's final at 4 p.m. Monday with Dick Enberg and Patrick McEnore doing the call.

It's been 12 days since home-plate umpire Brian O'Nora took a broken bat to the head and had to come out of the game between the Royals and Rockies in Kansas City. The same day, baseball commissioner Bud Selig got his players and safety committee to start collecting data (see story at this link) on maple broken bat statistics.
So far, no one has been mortally wounded. It's not like we're counting it down with a column we did a week ago (linked here), and subsequent blog follow-ups (linked here and here), it's just that we refuse to go away quietly.
Here are some of the latest maple bat related stories in the last week:

==Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki says he doesn't think it mattered that it was a maple bat that he shattered in frustration and put himself on the disabled list (see story linked here). "I think ash would have done the same thing," he said during a press conference to explain how the shattered bat sliced open the palm of his hand in what he described as "a scary moment."

==National Public Radio aired a story on the issue (linked here) where Brian Boltz, general manager of Larimer & Norton Inc., the timber division of Hillerich & Bradsby (maker of Louisville Sluggers) and Lloyd Smith, associate professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Washington State University, talk about how bats are made and why different wood bats behave differently at the plate.

==The Columbus Post Dispatch ran a story (linked here) on the subject quoting Indians manager Eric Wedge saying he's in favor of banning maple bats: "I'm off maple. I know the players like it, but I see those bats boomeranging into the stands and on the field. I'd hate to see someone have to get seriously hurt before they do something about it, but that's usually the way it works."

==The South Carolina Daily Journal/Messenger (linked here) writer Andrew Moore has a piece under the headline "Maple Must Go."

==The Louisville Journal-Courier has a notebook (linked here) on the local minor-league team -- ironically known as the Bats -- where manager Rick Sweet says about the maple bats: "They scare me. Sooner or later somebody is going to get struck. You see bat heads flying, and they're jagged."

==The Idaho Statesman (story linked here) quotes Boise Hawks manager Tom Beyers: "You're looking at that thing going through the air and it is a weapon. I don't know. I don't know what the answer is to that."

==The Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal ran a piece (lined here) on a company called MaxBats Inc., which makes bats for about 150 big-leaguers, allowing its execs to dispute claims made against maple bats (subscription needed).

==A St. Louis Post-Dispatch notebook on the Cardinals (linked here) noted that on the first day MLB started its data collection, St. Louis and the N.Y. Mets had 10 broken bats in their game. Nine were maple. "How was it any different than what we've seen," manager Tony La Russa said. Earlier, he said, "It's a significant (amount of breaks). I read somewhere that baseball is concerned about it. They should be."

NEW YORK (AP) -- Kevin Youkilis' drive squirted out of the webbing of Johnny Damon's glove and bounced up off the top of the left-field wall in the third inning of Friday's game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

And bounced. And bounced.

The ball came to rest on top of the fence, which was shaking from the impact of the Yankees left fielder crashing into it as he tried to make a leaping catch. And there the ball sat for several tantalizing seconds. The sellout crowd at Yankee Stadium wondered: Would it fall behind for a home run, roll back onto the field or just sit there?

Finally, the ball dropped back in and landed near Damon, who was sprawled on the warning track. A fan behind the fence frantically pointed to where the ball was.

Youkilis cruised into third base with a two-run triple that tied it at 3.

After Damon threw the ball back to the infield, Yankees manager Joe Girardi and a trainer attended to Damon, who was holding his ribs and shaking his arm.

Damon left the game, diagnosed with a bruised left shoulder, the team said.

What would have been the call if the ball had remained on the top of the fence?

"The guess is that if it had stayed there, it would have been a home run because it had broken the front plane, but we'll discuss it with supervisors in the next few days," said Mike Port, Major League Baseball's vice president of umpiring and the former Angels GM. "The great thing about this game is that after 100 or more years, you still see things that may not have happened before."

More from the upcoming FSN series "Baseball's Golden Age," featured in today's media column (linked here) as well as scatter shooting about the Versus' Tour de France coverage (especially on its website here) and miscellaneous fireworks:

==A few more screen grabs from the series, like this one of a kid lucky enough to be surrounded by two members of the St. Louis Browns (who became the Baltimore Orioles):

==Joe DiMaggio's and Ted Williams' swings captured in batting practice:

"BGA" creator Steven Stern admits one of his favorite home-movie clips came from Don Larson's 1956 World Series perfect game.
"It starts with a scoreboard shot at Yankee Stadium showing that it's 3:11 in the afternoon on the clock, and the linescore shows Brooklyn with '0-0-0-0' and the Yankees with '2-0-0' and I'm wondering, 'this person waited this long to turn the camera on the game?' "
As for that title of "When It Was A Game" that Stern and partner George Roy produced for HBO starting in 1991 (and concluding with a third version that focused in the 1960s in 2000), Stern agrees that we'll never be able to back to that time when it really was thought of as a game instead of a business.
"We've clearly crossed the line, but as much as we might think of it as just a game back then, there really was a lot of business to it, it was just a different type of business, not in your face," Stern said. "It was just back then, no one ever thought of getting tickets to a game ahead of time, they'd just decide to go the day of the game. It's all changed. But the world has changed."

==A Fox-generated guide to the series (linked here).

==A less-than-enthusiastic response to the FSN series from the San Jose Mercury News (linked here), but this Akron Beacon Journal writer is behind it (linked here), as is the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press (linked here).

The pictures probably tell the story better than anything else as to how uplifting and inspiring the Hollywood Bowl's salute to the Dodgers/annual Fourth of July show came off Wednesday night.
Dodger fans were there to be seen and share in the experience of a spectacular two-hour performance by the L.A. Philharmonic (all wearing Dodger home jerseys), conducted by Rob Fisher (wearing his No. 24 Dodgers jersey with his name on the back) with a guest appearance by Randy Newman, who, after shaking hands with Fisher, nearly tripped and fell on the first-chair violinist.
"I nearly destroyed a $2 million violin," Newman remarked.

==The highlights: Vin Scully's narration of a revised "Casey at the Bat," where "Gibby" pulls off the Hollywood finish in rewritten stanzas of the classic baseball poem put to music; a piece of music from the movie "Field Of Dreams" playing while the video monitors showed Dodger highlights of the past -- and included an appearance on stage by many former players, including Maury Wills, Ron Cey, Tommy Davis and Al Downing; Newman, who opened his three-song stint on the piano by playing "I Love L.A." solo, conducting the orchestra with pieces of music he scored from the movie "The Natural," including the fireworks spraying down from the Hollywood Bowl roof at the appropriate moment when Robert Redford's home run hit the light standard; a terrific rendition of the Danny Kaye song "D-O-D-G-E-R-S (Oh, Really? No, O'Malley!); and an appearance by Tommy Lasorda in two rounds of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" with Nancy Bea Hefley playing the organ.
Scully was also in the audience and gave a wave to the crowd, although we suspect he'll be joining the team when it lands in San Francisco on Friday.
The fireworks, of course, are a production all to themselves, and punctuated the final performance of "The Stars and Stripes Forever!" medly, plus an encore of "America the Beautiful."
The only minor glitch: Hefley's ballpark organ music was tough to hear over the orchestra warming up its instruments before the show began, and her playing during the intermission was hardly audible.
Hopefully, that's something that can be fixed before the next two shows -- tonight and Friday at 7:30 p.m.
More photos, maestro:

We're not going to beat this MLB maple bat controversy to ... don't make us say death.
Following up on Sunday's column (linked here) and previous blog items (linked here) on the subject, we'll just try to provide a daily update on news and notes as the MLB safety commission continues to bide its time studying data while another slate of games pass, somehow, without a player, fan or umpire suffering a very, very severe injury....

In today's Kansas City Star (linked here), apparently Royals catcher Miguel Olivo isn't that committed to putting his maple bat away, even though it put umpire Brian O'Nora out of a game last week.
He switched back to ash bats after that game. For about a week.
Olivo hit a pinch homer Monday in the ninth inning -- with a maple bat.
"I feel more comfortable with the maple bat," Olivo admitted. "There's more balance, and when you hit the ball, you don't have to take a hard swing. But they break easily. The last two weeks, I've broken 15 or 16 bats. ...
"Everybody prefers maple bats. It's a good bat. When you hit it well, you know it. I'm just scared that somebody is going to get really hurt one day."

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During a conference call today with Cal Ripken Jr. and Harold Reynolds, who'll be on TBS' show Sunday to announce the lineups for the AL and NL All-Stars, both former major leaguers weren't convinced the maple bats are the real problem here.
"I think they might be making a little bit too much out of it," Ripken said.
"They don't use as thick a handle anymore and the bats are a lot lighter. ... The head of the bat is a lot bigger, and it's going to break," Reynolds said. "I don't think it's maple or whatever substance they might be using to make the bat. I think its more in the design that the players are using now."
Added Ripken: "Maple bats are a little harder. They do break. When they do break, pieces fly all over the place. I can't imagine it being any more than it was, you know, when I played."
Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley, also on the conference call (he's part of the show as well), didn't say he had a preference for ash versus maple.
"As long as they don't use aluminum, I'm fine with it," he said.

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Cincinnati Reds slugger Adam Dunn is done with maple bats.
"I'm tired of them breaking all the time," he said in an MLB.com story (linked here).
Dunn's reason behind the switch is mostly about product performance.
"Maple is good, but whenever you have a hairline [break] and can't even see it and hit the ball good, and you know you hit it good, your bat explodes," Dunn said. "And it's a soft liner to second base and the pitcher is ducking. ... I don't want one of my bats sticking somebody in the head."