April 2010 Archives

AP Photo/The Desert Sun/Wade Byars
A demonstrator who did not want to be identified wears a mask and holds a sign on a street corner in downtown Palm Springs on Thursday, protesting the new Arizona immigration enforcement law.

The Associated Press

Given a chance to take part in the 2011 All-Star game at Arizona, Ozzie Guillen insists he won't go.

"I wouldn't do it," the Chicago White Sox manager said today. "As a Latin American, it's natural that I have to support our own."

Guillen joined a growing chorus of opposition to Arizona's new law that empowers police to determine a person's immigration status. The state is home to all four major team sports, hosts half the clubs in spring training and holds top events in NASCAR, golf and tennis.

The Major League Baseball players' union issued a statement condemning the law. A congressman whose district includes Yankee Stadium wrote a letter to baseball commissioner Bud Selig urging him to pull the All-Star game from Phoenix. The World Boxing Council took a step to limit fights in Arizona.

"It's a bad thing," said Baltimore shortstop Cesar Izturis, born in Venezuela. "Now they're going to go after everybody, not just the people behind the wall. Now they're going to come out on the street. What if you're walking on the street with your family and kids? They're going to go after you."

With more than one-quarter of big leaguers on opening-day rosters were born outside the 50 states, most of them from Hispanic descent.

A quick reference to all 30(-plus) books covered in this year's month-long book review, with how we'd rank them:

TOP SHELF:

== "The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran," by Dirk Hayhurst (linked here)

== "Six Decades of Baseball: A Personal Narrative, by Bill Lewers (linked here)

== "Shattered: Struck Down, But Not Destroyed," by Frank Pastore (linked here)

== "The Politics of Baseball: Essays on the Pasttime and Power at Home and Abroad," edited by Ron Briley and "The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad," by Robert Elias (linked here)

== "A Game of Inches: The Story Behind the Innovations that Shaped Baseball," by Peter Morris (linked here)

== "90% of the Game Is Half Mental: And Other Tales from the Edge of Baseball Fandom," by Emma Span (linked here)

== "Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession," by Dave Jamieson and "Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards," by Josh Wilker (linked here)

GREAT EFFORT:

== "Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend," by James S. Hirsch (linked here)

== "The Underground Baseball Encyclopedia: Baseball Stuff You Never Needed to Know and Can Certainly Life Without," by Robert Schnakenberg (linked here)

== "Top of the Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All Time," edited by Sean Manning, essays by Roger Kahn, Buzz Bissinger, Jonathan Eig, Pat Jordan, John Albert, King Kaufman, etc. (linked here)

== "The Baseball Fan's Bucket List: 162 Things You Must See, Do, Get & Experience Before You Die," by Robert Santelli and daughter Jenna Santelli (linked here)

== "The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris," by Mark Kurlansky (linked here)

== "Fifth-nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball & The Greatest Season A Pitcher Ever Had," by Edward Achorn (linked here)

== "Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero" by Tom Clavin and Danny Peary (linked here)

== "Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson," by Timothy M. Gay (linked here)

== "It's What's Inside the Lines that Counts: Baseball Stars of the 1970s and 1980s Talk About the Game They Loved, Vol. 3," by Fay Vincent, with Juan Marichal, Cal Ripken Jr., Willie McCovey, Dick Williams, Earl Weaver, Tom Seaver, Don Baylor, Ozzie Smith, umpire Bruce Froemming and former players association chief Marvin Miller (linked here).

THANKS FOR SHOWING UP:

== "Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto," by Carl DeVito; "Stan The Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial," by Wayne Stewart; "Al Kaline: The Biography of a Tigers Icon," by Jim Hawkins, and "Mike Schmidt: The Phillies' Legendary Slugger," by Rob Maaddi (linked here)

== "The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010: Timeless Commentary, Innovative Stats, Great Baseball Writing," by the staff of HardballTimes.com; produced by Dave Studenmund (linked here)

== "Straight Talk from the Wild Thing," by Mitch Williams (linked here)

== ""Harry The K: The Remarkable Life of Harry Kalas," by Randy Miller (linked here)

== "1921: The Yankees, The Giants & The Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York,' by Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg (linked here)

== "The Seventh Inning Stretch: Baseball's Most Essential and Inane Debates," by Josh Pahigian (linked here)

== "The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing & Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pasttime," by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca (linked here)

== "Kiss It Good-bye: The Mystery, the Mormon, and the Moral of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates," by John Moody (linked here)

== "Baseball Prospectus 2010," edited by Steve Goldman and Christina Kahrl (linked here)

== "High Heat: The Secret History of The Fastball And The Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time," by Tim Wendel (linked here)

== "Always an Angel: Playing the Game with Fire and Faith," by Tim Salmon, with Rob Goldman (linked here)

THE MENDOZA LINE ...

== "Home, Away," a novel by Jeff Gillenkirk (linked here)

== "Wrigley Field: A Ballpark Pop-Up Book" and "Fenway Park: A Ballpark Pop-Up Book," by David Hawcock, paper engineer (linked here)

== "Baseball for the Utterly Confused," by Ed Randall (linked here)

*************

And our list of others that didn't make, could have made it, and would have made it if they were published earlier (linked here)

Those who tried but didn't quite squeeze themselves into the 30 baseball books in 30 days of April list:

A couple of reprints that are worth locating:

== "Carew," by Rod Carew with Ira Berkow, originally published in 1979 when he was with the Minnesota Twins, reissued by the University of Minnesota Press, with a new forward by the Angels' Torii Hunter and a new afterword by Carew that covers his retirement from the Angels, induction into the Hall of Fame, his years as the Angels' hitting instructor, and the tragic loss of his daughter Michelle to leukemia (linked here):

Consider the first couple of sentences:

"At about 7 o'clock in the evening on October 1, 1945, my parents, Olga and Eric Carw, boarded a Panama Railroad train and found seats in the car marked COLORED ... They were traveling from their home in Gatun, the Canal Zone, to Gorgas Hospital about 40 miles away ... My mother was expecting."

Playing off that theme of going back to the "good old days" of baseball, this is an other prime example of what publishers think those who still read books will want in their hands ...

As well as:

== "Out Of My League: The Classic Hilarious Account of an Amateur's Ordeal in Professional Baseball" by George Plimpton, another reprint from the 1961 classic that Plimpton says was his first participatory sports book, prior to "Paper Lion." Lyons Press has this reissue (linked here).

== "Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball" by George F. Will (linked here), originally published in 1990, now with a new paperback version with a new introduction.

== "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams," by by John Updike (linked here), just 64 pages, prepared by Updike as a 50-year commemorative edition only a few months before his recent death. From 1960, as it first appeared in New Yorker magazine (and here's the text, at this link)

== "Great Baseball Feats, Facts & Firsts (2010 Edition)," by David Nemec and Scott Flatow

== "On a Clear Day They Could See Seventh Place: Baseball's Worst Teams," by George Robinson and Charles Salzberg

== "Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, and the Inside Story of the Baseball Hall of Fame," by Zev Chafets and Allen Barra (from hardback in June, 2009)

== "The Complete Game: Reflections on Baseball and the Art of Pitching" by Ron Darling, which came out last fall (linked here).

== "The Road to Omaha: Hits, Hopes, and History at the College World Series," by Ryan McGee.

== "The End of Baseball: A Novel," by Peter Schilling (originally published in 2008)

Some that we ended up passing on for one reason (time, couldn't find it, too lame) or another:

== "365 Oddball Days in Dodgers History" by John Snyder (linked here) is a spinoff from our review of the "Dodger Journal" a year ago (linked here), except this is far more confusing. In the intro, it makes note of one of the craziest events in Dodgers history: July 4, 1934, when Casey Stengel came out to the mound to take Walter Beck out of the game. The Brooklyn pitcher, who only faced eight batters ... well, we won't give away the punch line as to how he got his nickname, "Boom Boom." So now we're interested, and we go to the July 4 entry.
Which tells us instead of the day that the Dodgers traded Paul Konerko for relief pitcher Jeff Shaw in the middle of a game in 1998 (we remember that one -- very odd -- a move by then-GM Tommy Lasorda that would blow up in his face in later years). More bizarre was how Shaw made his debut in a Dodger uniform at the All Star Game three days later, on July 7.
So why couldn't that item be moved to July 7? Because on that day, Snyder decided to detail some absurd story about how the Dodgers and Cleveland Indians were picked by MLB in 1952 to help end communism (again, we won't spoil it be detailing it).
For those with ADD, this may make more sense.
By the way, Snyder also has a new 448-page book called "Angels Journal: Year by Year and Day by Day with the Los Angeles Angels Since 1961" (linked here) -- much like the prior reference to "Dodger Journal," and he's also done one for the Red Sox, Indians, Cubs, White Sox and Cardinals.

== "Sixty Feet, Six Inches" by Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson, issued last fall. Listening to Reggie talk about himself ... just can't stomach that. Sorry Bob.There may be some value here to this -- again, two non-steroid guys talking about the game they played, kind of the anti-Bonds and anti-Clemens of their day.

== "30 Life Lessons My Boys Learned from Baseball," by Andy Norwood (linked here). Only 30?

== "Lady in the Locker Room: Madcap Memoirs of the Early L.A. Dodgers," by Flo Thomasian Snyder (linked here)

== "Kiss 'Em Goodbye: An ESPN Treasury of Failed, Forgotten and Departed Teams," by Dennis Purdy (linked here). Of the 86 teams he brings back to life in this verison of "CSI: Sports," 47 are baseball franchises. Fom a Southern California perspective, we appreciate the mentions of the Vernon Tigers, the Los Angeles Angels (of the PCL, back at Wrigley Field, before the big league's L.A. Angels) and the Hollywood Stars. Purdy, by the way, also did the 2006 "Team-By-Team Encycolpedia of Major League Baseball" (linked here)

== "You're the Umpire: 139 Scenarios to Test Your Baseball Knowledge," by Wayne Stewart (linked here)

== "A Bitter Cup of Coffee: How MLB and the Players Association Threw 874 Retirees a Curve," by Douglas Gladstone (linked here): Gladstone examines the plight of 874 MLB players who very briefly played between 1947 and 1979. Since 1980, players have needed one day of service credit for health benefits and 43 days of service credit to be eligible for a retirement allowance, but those former ballplayers were not included retroactively and therefore receive no pensions.

== "Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball," by Mark Armour (a review on Seamheads.com)

== "Baseball's Longest Games: A Comprehensive Worldwide Record Book," by Philip J. Lowry (linked here)

== "Silver Seasons and a New Frontier: The Story of the Rochester Red Wings," by Jim Mandelaro and Scott Pitoniak (linked here)

== "Wilber 'Bullet' Rogan and the Kansas City Monarchs," by Phil S. Dixon (linked here)

== "Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography," by James Forr and David Proctor (linked here)

== "Traded: Inside the Most Lopsided Trades in Baseball History," by Doug Decatur (linked here)

== "The 300 Club: Have We Seen the Last of Baseball's 300-Game Winners?" by Dan Schlossberg and Wayne Hagin (linked here)

== "Baseball's Greatest Series: Yankees, Mariners, and the 1995 Matchup That Changed History," by Chris Donnelly

== "The Funniest Baseball Book Ever: The National Pastime's Greatest Quips, Quotations, Characters, Nicknames, and Pranks," by Peter Handrinos

== "Abner Doubleday: A Civil War Biography," by Thomas Barthel

== "The Imperfect Diamond: A History of Baseball's Labor Wars," by Lee Lowenfish and Robert W. Creamer

== "The Steve Dahl Scrapbook," by Steve Dahl

== "The Whistling Irishman: Danny Murtaugh Remembered," by Colleen Hroncich (linked here)

== "1972 Detroit Tigers: Billy Martin and the Half-Game Champs," by Todd Masters

== "Edd Roush: A Biography of the Cincinnati Reds Star," by Mitchell Conrad Stinson

== "Rick Ferrell, Knuckleball Catcher: A Hall of Famer's Life Behind the Plate and in the Front Office," by Kerrie Ferrell

== "Baseball's Top 100: The Game's Greatest Records," by Kerry Banks

== "The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer's Inside View," by Doug Glanville (linked here)

And those we can't wait to pick up once they're released in the coming days, weeks and months:

== "The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron," by Howard Bryant (linked here)

== "Blockade Billy," a novel by Stephen King (linked here). The synopsis: "Even the most die-hard baseball fans don't know the true story of William "Blockade Billy" Blakely. He may have been the greatest player the game has ever seen, but today no one remembers his name. He was the first--and only--player to have his existence completely removed from the record books. Even his team is long forgotten, barely a footnote in the game's history."

== "Are We Winning?: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball," by Will Leitch (linked here)

== "Batting Stance Guy: A Love Letter to Baseball," by Gar Ryness and Caleb Dewart (linked here)

== "She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story," by Audrey Vernick and Don Tate

== "Nailed: The Improbable Rise and Spectacular Fall of Lenny Dykstra," by Chris Frankie

== "Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark," by Allen Barra

== "Curveball: The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone the First Woman to Play Professional Baseball in the Negro League," by Martha Ackmann

== "Final Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1972-2008," by Dean A. Sullivan

== "Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball," by Bill Madden (linked here)

== "The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven: How a Ragtag Group of Fans Took the Fall for Major League Baseball," by Aaron Skirboll (linked here)

== "The Great Match and Our Base Ball Club: Two Novels from the Early Days of Baseball (McFarland Historical Baseball Library)," by John Trowbridge, Noah Brooks, Trey Strecker, and Geri Strecker

== "I Will Never Forget: Interviews With 39 Former Negro League Players," by Brent P. Kelley (originally in hardback in 2003), and "The Negro Leagues Revisited: Conversations With 66 More Baseball Heroes," by Kelly

== "Frontiers in Major League Baseball: Nonparametric Analysis of Performance Using Data Envelopment Analysis (Sports Economics, Management and Policy)," by John Ruggiero

== "Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman," by G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius

== "Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging '70s," by Dan Epstein

== "The Baseball Maniac's Almanac: The Absolutely, Positively, and Without Question Greatest Book of Facts, Figures, and Astonishing Lists Ever Compiled!" by Bert Randolph Sugar

== "Carl Hubbell: A Biography of the Screwball King," by Lowell L. Blaisdell

== "Dixie Walker of the Dodgers: Alabama Fire Ant," by Maury Allen and Susan Walker

== "Field of Screams: Creepy Tales from the Baseball Diamond, the Locker Room, and Beyond," by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon

The book: "Six Decades of Baseball: A Personal Narrative"

The author: Bill Lewers

The vital stats: Self published by Xlibris, 395 pages, $19.99

Find it: At its own website (linked here), also on Amazon.com (linked here)

The pitch: It started, organically enough, with an email:

"Please allow me to introduce myself - my name is Bill Lewers and I recently published a book ...

Bill is a Red Sox fan, who never lived in Boston, mostly in New York, now lives in the D.C. area and goes to a lot of Orioles games ...

"My motivation for writing the book ... was personal satisfaction as well as to provide a legacy for my two sons. It was not written to be a commercial venture. ... (but) there did not seem to be many books out there written by 'ordinary fans'. ... So far most of my feedback has come from family and friends which while generally positive, is hardly impartial."

He wanted a fresh set of eyes on his book. I had the time and the desire ... and this book review thing going on ...

So, let me tell you now about my new best friend, Bill Lewers, who I feel I know quite intimately -- based on baseball.

Without giving up too much of his story, he's got a lucky wife, and two pretty neat kids.

He saw Satchel Paige pitch for the St. Louis Browns against the New York Yankees in the first time he set foot in Yankee Stadium. He saw Carl Erskine throw a no-hitter at Ebbets Field in 1956, and kept score on a 15-cent scorecard -- which he still has.

He was at a game in Camden Yards in 1994 where the Orioles and Angels hit 11 home runs -- a nine-inning record. Two years earlier -- same place -- he saw the Orioles turn a triple play agains the Angels (it was hit by Gary Gaetti). Nine years after that, he saw another triple play -- at his son's game, which started with him catching a batted ball for the first time in a Little League game.

There are a couple of pictures he took as a kid when he was at Yankee Stadium, photos "obviously flawed. There are spots and blotches. The upper left corner is overexposed. It has apparently come in contact with some dirt. For the past fifth years, it has been moved from drawer to drawer and has suffered in the process. Yet in spite of all this, the excitement of the moment still manages to come through. .. It is a little bit like my memory -- flawed, based on images that were imperfect at the time, and weathered with age, but somehow accurate in the essentials."

He has a great story about going to a Dodgers' game in 1954 with his fifth-grade class. Mr. Phelan told each of the students to write a letter to a Brooklyn Dodger. He had only one restriction -- no one could write to Walter Alston, the team's first-year manager, who replaced the colorful, popular Chuck Dressen. Alston only got the job because Dressen demanded a multi-year contract, and the team declined, deciding to promote Alston from their farm system.

"Alston was rather colorless, and the Dodgers were off to a somewhat slow start, caolumnists and fans alike were after his scalp. Hence Mr. Phelan's instruction -- do not write to Walter Alston because he may not be managing the Dodgers by the time (the field trip took place at the game)." And 22 years later, he was still with the team.

For $6.30, he got a ticket to the 1960 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium -- a reserved seat behind home plate. When he graduated from high school in June, 1961 -- the month I was born, by the way -- he celebrated by taking in a weekend series between the Red Sox and Yankees, capped by a Sunday doubleheader and highlighted by Carl Yastrzemski scoring from second base on a sacrifice fly that left-fielder Yogi Berra tracked down near the 457-foot sign in deep left-center field.

And about his sons, Mark and John -- the two on the book cover, goofing around new The Green Monster at Fenway Park during a family trip in 2003. He explains in a chapter about them on page 310:

"Mark and John are two very different persons when it comes to baseball. ....

"A typical Mark question might be 'What kind of a player was Phil Rizzuto?' A typical John question would be, 'If I threw a Frisbee from here, would it reach the field?' At the time we were in the last row of the upper deck at RFK Stadium watching the Nationals play. I assured him that the Frisbee would not reach the field. John thought about this for an inning or two. Then, 'Suppose our seats were five rows closer, then would the Frisbee reach the field?'"

My kids are the same -- both enjoy baseball for different reasons. That's the beauty of kids.

And with all that, maybe the reason we've really come around to embrace this book is from what Bill writes on page 14:

"(This) might encourage other baseball fans to put to paper their own experiences, observations and opinions. There is no shortage of baseball books written by insiders -- players, managers, professional sports journalists. There are also plenty of books by 'celebrity fans' like George Will, Stephen King and Doris Kearns Goodwin. There does not, however, seem to be a great number of books written by ordinary baseball fans, fans who more often than not watch the game from the nosebleed section of the upper deck. Hopefully, this book may contribute to filling that void."

With today's accessabily to self-publish through convenient websites, do trial runs on blogs and collect old boxscores from Retrosheet, it's an idea that's almost too easy for someone to have thought through before this.

Give Bill credit. He did it. And he pulled it off.

About writing your own book: Lewers said he picked Xlibris over other self-publishers like authorhouse, iuniverse, booklocker or publish america because he knew it helped his aunt with a book a couple of years ago.

"On the whole I am satisfied with the job they did (although I was less than pleased with the way the interior photographs came out - this is one of the weaknesses of POD)," Levers said in an email.

You can get a book done for as inexpensive as $400, but he went with the $1,500 "premium package" that adds for copyediting, author's alteration during the production process and an index. He did it all on a Microsoft Word document.

"POD is very controverial as you probably know and has many supporters who say it's wonderful and many detractors who say otherwise. If I had been 20 years younger and interested in building a career in writing, then I would not have done POD, as POD has very little respect in the publishing world for a variety of reasons (some of them quite legitimate). But for someone like myself, writing the only book I'm ever going to write, it met my needs very well."

How the book idea started:

"The project started when my wife Mary encouraged me to write down my baseball memories about 10 years ago which I did off and on for the next 7 or 8 years. Then around 2 years ago I started to take it seriously and over a period of about a year most of the essays were written. I'm retired so I would usually write for a couple of hours a day after my wife left for work and my sons for school. I only worked on the book on school days - otherwise my duties as a househusband took precedence."

And how it ended:

"I found the whole experience to be very rewarding on a number of levels. One of the unexpected benefits was that as part of my pacage I received 50 postcards advertising the book. At first I didn't think much of them but then I started looking up addresses of old friends on the internet and sent the postcards to them. As a result I have renewed contact with people I have not seen for 15, 20, in one case even 40 years. A real unexpected blessing."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Here's the best way to end this book review series, with the last paragraph of Bill's book about a recent trip to Camden Yards: "I look around and take it all in. I have been doing this sort of thing in one way or another for six decades, and it still seems fresh as it did on that first day at the Polo Grounds so many years ago. I'll keep right on doing it as long as the good Lord gives me strength and my good wife gives me permission. If you're ever at Camden Yards on a Sunday afternoon and want to experience life in the cheap seats, come on up and say, 'Hi.'"

Since we find it beneficial for the Lakers' success to see Kobe Bryant drive the lane, and we assume Bryant likes to watch the ladies who like to watch him drive the lane, there seems to be no logic why this commerical was banned:

By the way, my name is Dan, and I have to go have lunch now. So spreading it out beyond today's media column (linked here):

More to note:

== Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, with reporter Doris Burke, do the Lakers' Game 6 tonight at Oklahoma City, shown head-to-head against the KCAL-Channel 9 coverage.

== ESPN2 has Oregon's annual spring football game (Saturday, 2 p.m.) with Chris Fowler, Craig James, Ed Cunningham and Wendi Nix. Are we missing something? There's news here? Cunningham will actually work as a booth analyst in the first quarter, a sideline judge in the second quarter and a replay official in the third quarter.

== At last Monday's Sports Emmy Awards ceremony in New York, NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol took the opportunity to slam ESPN for the way it handled coverage of a cell-phone video taken of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones making disparaging remarks in a bar about Tim Tebow and his former coach Bill Parcells. Ebersol and Jones were on stage to give John Madden a lifetime achievement award when Ebersol took out a cell phone and pretended to record Jones. "I just wanted a call out to my friends at ESPN-TMZ," Jones said. The Sports Business Daily reported that at a party after the event, "many ESPN execs were fuming at the remark."

== NBC Sports Digital and the Daily Racing Form worked out a deal to co-brand online material, with The Daily Racing Form hosting a customized horse racing section of NBCSports.com (linked here).

== Golf Channel has added Terry Gannon for live play-by-play on PGA and LPGA events throgh 2013. His first assignment is the LPGA Championship starting June 24, paired with Judy Rankin. He'll also do the PGA's AT&T National with Nick Faldo over July 4 weekend. Gannon, who lives in L.A., is known lately for college football and basketball on ESPN, as well as figure skating, the Tour de France, World Cup soccer and the recent Winter Olympics for Universal Sports.

== Prior to CBS' coverage of the Quail Hollow Championship this weekend, something called the Mojo 6 (www.themojo6.com) will air. It's being pimped as taking "the world's best athletes through a faster, shorter, more cutthroat type of competition called Raceway Golf." An LPGA-sanctioned event, 16 players compete in six-hole matches against each other at courses in Jamaica.

== ESPN2, with Chris McGee and Dain Blanton, have the AVP's men's event from Santa Barbara (Sunday, 2:30 p.m.). KTLA-Channel 5 will then carry the women's final live at 4:30 p.m. Universal Sports has the women's final on delay at 7 p.m. as well.

== If you missed Jon Gruden's appearance on Letterman earlier this week, the ESPN "Monday Night" analyst who's been blowing up on making himself a new media darling with his NFL draft prep shows:

One line from Gruden: "If there's any place we can go ... we oughta talk to you about bringing football back to Los Angeles. You could own the team in L.A. and I'd go coach it."

And Letterman's plan would be avoid an expansion franchise, but to "uproot and kill a bunch of fans in some community, ruin the city and move a team to L.A."

Fistbumps all around.

== NBC takes Philadelphia at Boston Game 1 of their NHL second-round series on Saturday (9:30 a.m., Channel 4, leading into the Kentucky Derby pre-race show), and then has Montreal at Pittsburgh Game 2 on Sunday (11 a.m., Channel 4). NBC won't have any playoff games next weekend -- it's locked into The Players Championship PGA event.

Meanwhile, Versus' schedule of NHL playoff games coming up:

Tonight, 4 p.m.: Montreal at Pittsburgh, Game 1
Saturday, 5 p.m.: Vancouver at Chicago, Game 1
Sunday, 5 p.m.: Detroit at San Jose, Game 2
Monday, 4 p.m.: Philadelphia at Boston, Game 2
Monday, 6:30 p.m.: Vancouver at Chicago, Game 2 (joined in progress)
Tuesday, 4 p.m: Pittsburgh at Montreal, Game 3
Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.: San Jose at Detroit, Game 3 (joined in progress)
Wednesday, 4 p.m.: Boston at Philadelphia, Game 3
Wednesday, 6:30 p.m.: Chicago at Vancouver, Game 3
Thursday, 4 p.m.: Pittsburgh at Montreal, Game 4
Thursday, 6:30 p.m.: San Jose at Detroit, Game 4 (joined in progress)
Friday, May 7, 4 p.m.: Boston at Philadelphia, Game 4
Friday, May 7: 6:30 p.m.: Chicago at Vancouver, Game 4

== AND FINALLY:

== Deadspin.com (linked here) has a piece about cartoonist Daryl Cagle having Tiger Woods-related drawings rejected from Apple for an iPhone app, citing inappropriate content for something "that amounts to a Leno monologue in pen and ink."

If you go to Cagle's blog (linked here) you can see the Tiger-related political cartoons that Apple finds rotten, including:

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh
Young-Sun Song of Chicago protests at Wrigley Field today before the Diamondbacks-Cubs game.

The Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Immigrant rights activists chanting "Boycott Arizona" and "Reform, Not Racism" demonstrated Thursday outside Chicago's Wrigley Field as the Cubs opened a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Protesters are upset over Arizona's new immigration law that makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally and lets police question anyone they suspect of being an illegal immigrant. Activists nationwide have called for a boycott of Arizona tourism and businesses, including its athletic teams.

"We are here today to send a clear message to the state of Arizona that we are going to boycott" until lawmakers repeal the immigration law and stop criminalizing immigrants, said Pastor Jose Landaverde of Our Lady of Guadalupe Anglican Church in Chicago, who was among the more than three dozen protesters outside Wrigley Field.

A small plane carrying a banner criticizing the law also circled over Wrigley.

Protesters said they've faxed a letter to Cubs management asking that the team's spring training be moved out of Arizona. Cubs spokesman Peter Chase said the team was declining comment.

Immigration reform groups said they targeted the Diamondbacks, in part, because the team's owners have supported Republican politicians who backed the Arizona law. The team said in a statement that isn't the case.

"Although D-backs' Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick has donated to Republican political candidates in the past ... Kendrick personally opposes State Bill 1070," the team said. "The D-backs have never supported State Bill 1070 and have never taken political stances."

Diamondbacks players and coaches had little to say about the issue Thursday beyond a few wisecracks. Backup infielder Augie Ojeda, who was born in Los Angeles and went to Piux X High School in Downey, joked about changing his last name to Jones.

"We're here to play baseball. I'm going to stay out of the political arena," said Arizona manager A.J. Hinch.

Most fans filing into the stadium seemed bewildered by the protest, and others said they opposed the mixing of sports and politics.

"I think it makes their cause look silly," Cubs fan Tom McGrath said. "Our economy is in a recession, boycotting states doesn't seem very good."

Protesters said they plan to return to Wrigley Field for the rest of the series.

AP photo/Ed Reinke
Penny Chenery, owner of Triple Crown winner Secretariat, looks on at left as actress Diane Lane speaks during a news conference Thursday about the movie based on the story of the legendary horse.

By Jim Litke
The Associated Press

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The Kentucky Derby goes off late Saturday afternoon and for two glorious minutes and change, horse racing will be back at the center of the universe. And then, like a hangover, the sport of kings will have to confront its grim prospects all over again.

Declining revenues, smaller purses, shorter fields, less wagering and even the biggest track operators in North America in bankruptcy -- the odds for renewal are so depressingly long that even mighty Secretariat likely couldn't make a dent.

That won't stop Big Red from trying.

At least at the movies.

Coming this fall to a theater near you, "Secretariat" is a retelling of the greatest Triple Crown campaign ever, this time through the eyes of his owner, Penny Chenery, who took the reins of her ailing father's stable against the advice of her husband and turned the old-boy, old-money, bourbon-fueled network that dominated the game on its ear.

"Seeing yourself in a movie is really weird," Chenery said with a laugh.

Now 87 and living in Boulder, Colo., she returned Thursday to Churchill Downs, where Secretariat's saga began. Chenery walks with the aid of a cane, but her wit remains as sharp as ever.

"They told me, 'Penny, it's not a documentary, it's a Disney movie,'" she added a moment later. "I've adjusted to a revised version of my life."

Then she paused again, looked to her left at actress Diane Lane -- who plays Chenery in the movie -- and beamed.

"I'm younger and prettier."

NFL commissioner Roger The Dodger Goodell, a guest on the NFL Network's "Total Access" show Wednesday night, said that for a team to return to the L.A. area there needs to be a "terrific stadium, a state-of-the-art facility which the fans here in Southern California deserve."

Great idea. Next, we build a giant Slip-n-Slide so when a team says it wants to move here, it'll be easier for 'em to just quickly pass on through as they're trying to up the ante with their current home market to get a new stadium built for them.

Goodell said of a report that a possible downtown L.A. stadium near Staples Center is in play with the Roski proposal in City of Industry: "We are not aligned in the sense of we're exclusive to any alternative. ... There are some very positive developments. One stadium's been approved from an environmental standpoint. Another stadium is being developed in the downtown area. These are great solutions for us and hopefully will lead to a better solution overall for our fans in Southern California."

But then the pending Collective Bargaining Agreement is geting in the way.

"Hopefully, this type of investment where you have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions of dollars, into a new stadium, we can make those kind of investments, which will be good for the game," said Goodell.

NFL Net host Rich Eisen : "So the stadium's the cart and the CBA is the horse?"

Goodell: "It's one thing to have approval to get a bill, but you've got to be able to finance it. We're opening a stadium in New York this year which is about $1.7 billion, all privately financed. That's a tremendous investment that the owners have to make to continue to grow the game."

Pipe down, Spicoli.

We're not going to turn Dodger Stadium into Grover's Corners, with the weird kid with the Member's Only jacket from the Slide Rule Club wearing the gray wig and a sweater with elbow patches trying to look like an old man reminiscing about his miserable New England life ...

USC and UCLA can co-exist in Los Angeles. They have for years. Without any ugly turf wars.

They can even play Monopoly together. USC gets the sports car, UCLA gets the old shoe.

But according to the Dodgers, each has to claim a piece of their territory. Tonight, when the Dodgers face the Pirates, it's USC night. Friday, it's UCLA night. They'll give out caps and T-shirts to prove it fits into their "My Town" marketing stratetgy. That, and a $45 ticket will get you all you can eat up in the upper right-field reserved level.

There are former USC baseball players who've been employed by the Dodgers: Ron Fairly, Rod Dedeaux, Len Gabrielson, Ray Lamb, Bobby Mitchell. Did you know: Current USC athletic director and former Heisman Trophy winner Mike Garrett was drafted by Dodgers, but for some crazy reason picked pro football.

How would the world of sports be different today if he took baseball over football?

UCLA players on the Dodgers' roster over the years: Eric Karros, Todd Zeile, Tim Leary, Glenn Mickens, Dave Roberts, Ron Roenicke, Matt Young. Oh, and Jackie Robinson.

How would the world of sports have been different if Robinson took up football or basketball instead of his third (maybe fourth-best sport after track and field) choice?

The baseball venues for both schools are named after former Dodgers: Dedeaux Field and Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Jordan Hershiser, the 6-foot-8 son of former Dodger Orel Hershiser, is pitching these days at USC. He played in the recent Dodgertown Classic -- where UCLA beat USC 6-1 in a non-conference game at Dodger Stadium in February.

But we could do on and on ... and we should.

Me, the USC graduate, shot an email off the UCLA guy Karros about this Dodger promotion.

I have no status around the USC campus. Karros is a UCLA Hall of Famer, by the way. Two-time All Pac-10 first baseman (with the team from '86-'88), a .365 career batting average, hit .415 in '88 with 17 HRs and 54 RBIs. A sixth-round draft pick by the Dodgers ... you know the rest. And if you don't, he'll get you up to speed.

EK received the email. Responded. More typing ensued:

TH: EK, gotta hand it to you, the Bruins are off to a crazy start this baseball season. What was it, 12 wins in a row to start the year? 15? I lost track .. all I know is I was at Dodger Stadium two months ago for the UCLA-USC game and saw first hand how solid this Bruins team is. How do you explain this abberation in UCLA sports history -- uh, and maybe overlooking that 16-4 loss to Long Beach State the other night?

EK: This aberration in sports for UCLA? Women's Gymnastics just won a National Title.....adding to over 100 National Titles...where is SC? And Coach Savage and the baseball team didn't want to peak too early.......lose a few and go to Arizona and take two of three from the Wildcats and retain the 5th spot in the country...

TH: Really, you're pulling the gymnastics card? You don't want to "beyond baseball" in this argument. And that stale national titles argument ... If you've got to count trophies to feel good about yourself ... Focus on baseball for a minute -- it used to be USC's dominant sport, like UCLA's basketball program. And we won't even venture into football .... I got my ideas about what's happened to USC's glory on the diamond. What do you think? Do scholarship limitations have anything to do with the state of college baseball programs -- especially private vs. public universities? Can Chad Krueter fix this? You played with and against him, right?

EK: Focus on baseball? With the state of the team at SC maybe intramural activities ought to be the focus......And our basketball program, we had to have a down year to let the teams in the Pac-10 catch up. You've got the scoop on SC, when are the sanctions being handed down? By the way...UCLA just beat Irvine in baseball...

TH: And USC's baseball team just lost another one, to that juggernaut UC Santa Barbara... after losing two of three to Oregon ... but then there's news that USC's women's golf team will go to the post season for the 12th year in a row in search of an NCAA title ... oh, wait, that's South Carolina .... and there was a UCLA player taken before a USC player in the recent NFL draft ... and ... wait, I keep giving you more amo. ... hold on, was Rick Neuheisel really telling the fans who showed up at the Rose Bowl for last week's spring game that the team was going to win the Pac-10 championship and "see you back here on January 1"? Apparently the Football Monopoly in L.A. really is over. As least UCLA has that going for 'em.

EK: I like our football team in the hands of "Rick" and even more so that Pete has migrated north. .... football will be like it was in the 90's, as it should ... anyhow, enjoy your evening tonight as it may be the only benefit of supporting SC, a Dodger game....

TH: Thanks. hope you make it out Friday for ... oh, that's right, you've got a committment to make a buck up in Seattle for a Fox MLB broadcast. Say hi to Pete for us if you run into him at a Starbucks.

The Dodgers will have that famed USC women's basketball coach Michael Cooper throw out the first pitch tonight (no Lisa Leslie?) Garrett and USC men's coach Kevin O'Neill will also be there. No Lane Kiffin? Friday, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will throw out the first pitch on UCLA night, with AD Dan Guerrero (a former Bruins second baseman) and basketball coach Ben Howland hanging around.

If you get a ticket for the Dodgertown section, you get the T-shirt, plus all-you-can-inhale Dodger Dogs, pastrami sandwiches, chips, popcorn, nachos, drinks ... go to www.dodgers.com/mytown for more info.

The book: "Shattered: Struck Down, But Not Destroyed"

The author: Frank Pastore (with Ellen Vaughn)

The vital stats: Focus On The Family publishing, 225 pages, $13.99

Find it: On the publisher's website (linked here). Also on Amazon.com (linked here)

The pitch: Chapter One:

"It was a clear blue day in Dodger Stadium, perfect for baseball. And my life was perfect, too.
"At age 26, I'd been pitching for the Cincinnati Reds for five years. I had a beautiful wife, a young son, and a baby on the way, a decent fastball, and he cars, condos, and cash of the good life in the fast lane. My dreams had come true.
"I was cruising to a 3-1 victory, with two outs in the eighth inning. I threw a 2-1 fastball on the outside of the plate, something I'd done a thousand times before.
"It's odd how life can change forever in the blink of an eye."

Steve Sax of the Dodgers lined the pitch back at him. Pastore put his right arm up to protect his head. The ball crushed his elbow "like a hammer hitting a glass bottle."

He asked God why he would let that happen, "and that made me madder still. Prayer was for weaklings and losers. ... I didn't believe in God. I was raging at Someone who didn't exist."

Don't stop here and assume this is using a baseball autobiography disguised as a witness talk to brow-beat the reader into beliving in a higher power. It's simply a man's journey -- one who believed he was an invincible pitcher on a successful team making great money and having all the spoils of victory -- and how he didn't feel fulfilled.

Pastore, who today has a daily talk show on KKLA-FM (99.5) (linked here) that focuses "on the intersection of faith and reason," has a way of presenting his journey without making it uncomfortable or unreasonable. He had all the same push-back doubts about those who came at him with a Bible and a belief of something better. He grew up with no faith, in a family very dysfunctional, with a God-given talent of throwing a baseball.

How would he use that talent?

He was a Southern California kid from the '60s and '70s -- West Covina, Upland, went to high school at Damien. Had his mom pretend to be Catholic so they could get into the private school. He had a girl he wanted to marry -- his friend's little sister, four years younger than him -- from a strict Catholic family.

As for that game used in Chapter One, and repeated in detail in Chapter 24 -- he was defeating Fernando Valenzuela on his home turf -- this was actually the second time in his career where that kind of "Ahhh" moment hit him. Both were at Dodger Stadium.

Three years earlier, on a Saturday nationally televised game, Pastore's son, Frankie, was born a month early, rushed to the hospital with underdeveloped lungs and given a 50-50 chance of surviving his first week. Reds manager John McNamara gave him the choice to skip his turn, but without much sleep, Pastore decided to pitch that day for the Reds against the Dodgers. He went 7-plus innings and got the win. And his son survived.

Pastore writes:

"This was life and death -- a flesh-and-blood situation -- and Frankie pulled at something inside of me. I began to realize, in a way that I couldn't or wouldn't even articulate, that I may have had all the external signs of success, but there was something wrong. Something was missing. There was a hole in my life that 'more' wasn't filling. ... I began to lose faith that baseball would eve rmake me happy and fulfilled.
"I remember looking around the clubhouse at the players one day ... most of these men had become rich and famous (but) only a few were happy. That was very disturbing. ... The only guys who seemed to be 'together' were the guys I regularily made fun of behind their backs: those religious fanatics who brought the Bible into the locker room ... those born-again Jesus freaks who believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and Somebody rising from the dead."

There are stories of Pastore learning life lessons from his boyhood idols, Johnny Bench and Tom Seaver. There's even a better story later when Pastore is released by the Reds -- called into manager Pete Rose's office and told the news. Pastore takes it so passively that Rose becomes enraged.

"'This God s--- isn't going to help you! So many guys get into religion and this Bible s---. This game of life is about looking out for number one ... And here you are with all this 'Jesus loves you' crap.'"

Pastore answers: "I do know that God has a plan for evertying. ... why do you think He choose you, out of all the players in the world, to be the one to break Ty Cobb's record? I'm going to pray for you."

And then you know about what happened to Rose ...

How it goes down in the scorebook: Pastore tells his life story better than we could ever try to replicate here, but it's in a personable, inviting way that explains his process of challenging himself and his family, rebounding not just from that incident as a player but several times in his post-baseball career, when the IRS blindsided him, and when he was disillusioned by the politics going on at the Christian-faith university he taught at, Biola. Thanks for sharing.

Also: Pastore has a book signing at Barnes & Noble stores in Orange on May 15, in Torrance on May 22 and in Glendale on June 4.

KABC-AM 790's Josh Suchon played the clip during the break between the Dodgers-Mets doubleheader Tuesday afternoon -- the one where Dodgers GM Ned Colletti joined the station's morning host, Peter Tilden, for their weekly conversation.

Colletti started on the fact that the Dodgers were struggling:

"Some guys, I guess, think that they're better than they are. And they think that the opposition is just going to roll over and get beat by them. That obviously doesn't happen. We've lost two out of three to Cincinnati, two out of three to Washington, two out of three to Pittsburgh. All three of those teams - no offense to those three teams - we're better than they are. We should be winning those games. And when we don't do it, you know what, it's utterly frustrating."

Tilden then asked why it seemed as fans calling into recent "DodgerTalk" shows were particularily hard on center fielder Matt Kemp, the Rihanna-dating, GQ magazine modeling star who won a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger last season, but whose fielding and base running has, as usual, been suspect.

Does it have anything to do with Kemp's new two-year, $10.95 million contract?

"Why is it? Because he got a new deal? Can't tell you. But you know, it's below-average. If this is the last day of the season and people are voting for the Gold Glove, his name is not even on the ballot. It's a shame that he would go from where he was a year ago to revert back to when the ball goes up in the air and you're not sure where it's going, or if it's going to get caught."

Now show the kids how you use two hands to make a grab, Matt.

Suchon said this morning that he and co-host Ken Levine discussed this story "heavily" on Tuesday night's "DodgerTalk" after the second game loss, but "to be honest, I think most L.A. fans had given up on the Dodgers by that point in the night and turned their attention to the Lakers game. I wouldn't be surprised if more people want to discuss it today, after they've read about it."

The book: "The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris"

The author: Mark Kurlansky

The vital stats: Riverhead Books, 282 pages, $25.95

Find it: At Barnes and Noble (linked here)

The pitch: Pedro Guerrero, Adrian Beltre and Alfredo Griffin. Rico Carty, Joaquin Andjuar and Rafael Ramirez. George Bell, Julio Franco and Juan Samuel. Mariano Duncan, Jose Offerman and Guillermo Mota.

And Sammy Sosa, Alfonso Soriano and Robinson Cano.

Seventy nine players have emerged from this tiny town in the Dominican Republic to play in the U.S. major leagues, several familiar to Dodgers fans who recall how Vin Scully still says the city's name like some song lyric whenever he sees it next to someone's bio.

The first was Samuel Amando, a shortstop who played with the Milwaukee Braves and New York Mets in the early '60s. Carty was the most famous, until Sosa came along. Cano, the son of another big-league ballplayer from the city, could be the next big thing as the Yankees' hot-hitting second baseman.

How has this pipeline been established? Jose Cano, Robinson's dad, says in the book: "Because we don't have anything else here and we aren't tall enough for basketball."

Kurlansky, writing his first sports book after several historial tomes on such thing as the evolution of cod fish, salt and oysters (seriously), did a piece on this fabled connection between the Dominican and the U.S. for Parade magazine in 2007, "and the magazine received more than 100 leters from readers," he writes in this book. "Most complained there were too many foreigners, too many Latins, or too many Dominicans in (U.S.) baseball ... must of the criticism comes from African Americans."

Those who also think that they've been outsourced in trying to get high-paying roster spots in the big-leagues.

With Kurlansky's expertise in life in the Carribean, he traces the history of the country, and this tiny former fishing village that now specializes in sugar cane, all the way back to Columbus, Sir Frances Drake and Napoleon staked their claim.

While Ozzie Virgil was the first Dominican to make it to the U.S. major leagues in 1956, Kurlansky finds that the first accepted date of baseball in the country was 1886, introduced by Cuban sugar makers.

But while baseball players may be the region's biggest export -- one of every six Dominican players in the pros are from San Pedro de Marcoris -- this is really about how the culture hasn't changed much despite its success. It's one of poverty and survival, colonialization and ethnic diversity.

As the city's major Tony Echavaria says: "Baseball gives an activity to the poorest children and it changes their lives and the lives of their families."

But there's the flip side of that -- mostly with how a player like Sosa is depicted as not really giving back as much as he claims to have during his days of multi-million riches. Kurlansky writes that as Sosa has found out, "no matter how rich you are, you are even richer in the minds of the poor, and he was constantly criticized for not giving enough" -- even by his grandmother, who lives in the city in a three-story cinderblock house who continues to ask for money to survive.

Still, Kurlansky points out with some irony, Sosa may be the only person in the world who has a shopping center named after one of his statistics.

The other dark side of this town is trying to get out from under the suspicion of steroid use by its players. Kurlansky writes that the most easily obtained steroids are ones designed to be used by vets on animals, primarily horses. With Sosa's association to the region, it is further tainted.

How it goes down in the scorebook: As long as the children there snap off brances of sugar cane to use as a baseball bat, wacking rocks around on the street, San Pedro de Macoris will continue to be a destination spot for professional talent.

The MLB estimates it has spent more than $14 million on 30 academies in the area, leading to 2,100 jobs. It also guesses that more than $200 million a year goes back to the citizens some how from the players who came from there -- but you'd never know it by seeing how its used. This is not a travel guide to lure you into visiting San Pedro de Marcoris, but more of a human guide to connect readers more to the region and culture, a better understanding about the lack of choices these people have to make a better life for themselves.

And another reason to rend the DVD "Sugar" to see a dramatization about how once a player does leave the island and come to America, how tough it is to adjust.

CBSSports.com put out its top 200 most popular fantasy baseball team names based on the number of times they were cited in a random sampling of the more than 100,000 leagues on their site.

1. Evil Empire
2. Springfield Isotopes/Isotopes
3. Chico's Bail Bonds
4. Black Sox
5. Bronx Bombers
6. Yankees/New York Yankees
7. Bombers
8. Ball Busters
9. Red Sox/Boston Red Sox
10. Cubs/Chicago Cubs

11. Gashouse Gorillas
12. Chin Music
13. Mets/New York Mets
14. Roid Rage
15. Bad News Bears
16. Tigers/Detroit Tigers
17. Young Guns
18. Bulldogs
19. Brew Crew
20. Murderer's Row

Outside of the top 20, other names that were in the Top 200:

== Chicks Dig the Long Ball (#24)
== Cobra Kai (#27)
== Slump Buster (#31)
== McLovin (#35)
== Dodgers/LA Dodgers (#39)
== Kenny Powers (#43)
== Vandelay Industries (#50)
== Honey Nut Ichiros (#51)
== Smell the Glove (#126)
== Little Lebowski Urban Achievers (#128)
== Jeters Never Prosper (#139)
== Fat Bastards (#141)
== Jerry's Kids (#147)
== Victorious Secret (#177)
== Good Wood (#189)

The full list (linked here)

The book: "Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend"

The author: James S. Hirsch

The vital stats: Simon and Schuster, 628 pages, $30

Find it: Powells (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here); Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: Because of the effort Hirsch took in just getting Mays to agree to this book -- and he documents well here in the the final chapter -- this was worth our effort to plow through the 600-plus pages and do this one right.

The persistence of Hirsch, who also wrote "Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter," allows Mays' story get told in total -- starting with his young, unmarried parent's discovery that they were having him (she was 16, he was 19), raised mostly by his aunt, with his father's guidance into sports ... all the way to his mentoring of Barry Bonds and consulting with him on how to handle his steroid issues.

There is plenty of paragraph worship in Hirsch's prose -- which is how most of America has also embraced the Mays' legacy. So that can't be so much denied. Still, included are lesser investigation into Mays' darker sides, addressing the public attacks made on him by Jackie Robinson in the 1960s for his lack of political activism, his probable use of amphetamines as a player, his often brisque demeanor around people.

Because the book is authorized by Mays, there seems to be a little holding back, so as to not worry that he would shut down the project. In a way, it would almost be better if Hirsch had the same approach to this as David Maraniss had with his 2006 classic "Clemente" -- without the player around, there's more freedom to dig into darker matters.

The seventh edition of ESPN's X Games in the Los Angeles area will expand to the Nokia Theatre and the Coliseum, making the event entirely in the downtown area from July 29 to August 1, the network announced today.

The Coliseum will be home to the Moto X Freestyle, Super X, Rally Car Racing, BMX Big Air, Skateboarding Big Air and Skateboarding Big Air Rail Jam. Most of those had been at the AEG-owned Home Depot Center in Carson for the last several years.

Those who remember Mickey Thompson Off-Road and Motocross events at the Coliseum back in the 1980s may have some flashbacks.

"We couldn't be more excited to have the X Games back at the Coliseum," said Pat Lynch, general manager for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum & Sports Arena. "As the original home to the precursor of the X Games, the original motocross, we truly appreciate and love showcasing this world-class action sports event."

X Games 16 is scheduled for 31 hours of live programming on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic and online at ESPN3.com (none, apparently, on ABC?) in high def.

"It has been seven years since we first had X Games events at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and ESPN couldn't be more thrilled to be returning this year with several of our sports," said Jack Wienert, ESPN executive director, X Games Event Management. "As the X Games franchise continues to grow, we are proud and excited about our continued great relationship with AEG as we expand our presence this year downtown at Staples Center and L.A. LIVE."

Staples Center will continue to host Moto X Speed & Style, Step Up, Best Whip and Best Trick. L.A. Live will have the BMX and Skateboard Park and Street; the Nokia Theatre will now have the BMX Vert as well as the Skateboard Vert and Vert Best Trick.

From this weekend's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (linked here):

Police said a South Fayette man bludgeoned and stabbed his wife to death, then torched their house early Friday after they argued about him staying up late to watch the Penguins playoff hockey game.

Robert Dennis Abrams, 40, told detectives he pulled a hammer from their bedside table and struck his wife, Jeanette, several times in the head during a fight over "financial matters and his unemployment."

When she continued to yell and curse at him, he said, he grabbed a knife from a dresser drawer and stabbed her in the chest.

Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt, whose homicide detectives investigated the case, offered few glimpses into what he called a "domestic argument," but he said Mrs. Abrams was upset that her husband was still watching the triple-overtime Penguins' game late into the night.

Daily News Staff Photo by John McCoy

The news this weekend (linked here) that 16-year-old Thousand Oaks resident Abby Sunderland's attempt to sail around the world non-stop - which could have made her the youngest to do so -- has ended because of repairs needed on her boat in South Africa can be viewed as disappointing.

But it doesn't mean the journey is finished.

Since she has to port for repairs on her autopilot, the "non-stop" modifier part of this is obviously over. She also stopped several days after her initial launch three months ago in Mexico for repairs, but restarted and had intentions of ending the trip there as well.

"It would be foolish and irresponsible for me to keep going with my equipment not working well," she wrote on her blog Saturday (linked here). "I gave it my best shot and made it almost half way around the world. I will definitely keep going, and whether or not I will make any more stops after this I don't know yet. I admit I was pretty upset at first, but there is no point in getting upset. Whats done is done and there is nothing I can do about it."

Her website today (linked here) clairied her situation:

Despite some media reports stating that Abby's trip has been abandoned, the journey IS NOT over. Abby still plans on continuing her solo circumnavigation and hopes to become the youngest person to sail around the world solo.

For those still critical of her journey, it looks as if she's much more capable of mature decision-making than many gave her credit for. This would have been difficult for anyone to make, but considering it comes from someone her age -- very impressive.

But that's what her mother said going into this: She never doubted her daughter's maturity in making this trip. The things out of her control -- weather, etc. -- were somewhat dangerous, but not enough to deter her from giving it a try.

The book: "Roger Maris: Baseball's Reluctant Hero"

The author: Tom Clavin and Danny Peary

The vital stats: Touchstone publishing, 422 pages, $26.99

Find it: At Amazon (linked here)

The pitch: On this day 49 years ago, Roger Maris hit his first homer of the '61 season off Detroit's Paul Foytack in Tiger Stadium. It came in the fifth inning ... in Game 11 of the season (linked here).

Despite the rather slow start, there would be 60 more -- 61 in total -- to break Babe Ruth's single-season record and stand alone as the greatest home-run hitting season until Mark McGwire, and later Barry Bonds, would muscle their way into the picture some 40 years later, and wipe Maris' name from the record books, fake asterisk and all.

Naturally, there's a need to go back and review what Maris did, considering what McGwire and Bonds also did to achieve their fame.

Is it true that, as the book jacket suggests, Maris "may have been the greatest ballplayer no one really knows"? That's why it's backtracking to rediscovering this modest man who really isn't from Fargo, North Dakota -- he was born Roger Maras in Hibbing, Minnesota, the same town that produced Robert Zimmerman (Bob Dylan).

No doubt, many baseball people consider his record to be "pure" -- why can't baseball reinstate it considering all that's come out since 1998, when McGwire passed it with 70, and 2001, when Bonds elevated it to 73.

Sixty-one in '61, no matter what you believe, remains one of the most dynamic moments in baseball history, one deserving of Maris' Hall of Fame induction.

In this study of the man by Clavin and Peary, where more than 130 interviews were conducted and more fresh photos were uncovered, this is probably as definitive a piece as we're going to get -- to re-digest all that Maris was about.

Aside from the coverage of his career that at times reads as bland as a Wikipedia entry, the concluding chapter on Maris' legacy is probably most insightful. The authors conclude:

Highlights of the week ahead in sports, both here and afar:

MONDAY

(Video courtesy of the Fordham athletic department; WFUV's Gregg Caserta on the call)

MLB: Dodgers at New York Mets, 4 p.m., Prime Ticket, ESPN:

That clip above is Brian Kownacki of Fordham, taking a dive over the catcher for Iona, which caps an eight-run comeback. It's bypassed the one-mil viewer mark on YouTube. Considering he's a local kids, you'd think the Mets would bring him by for a replay. And since he's from Vin Scully's alma mater, there'd be more local interest. By the way, if you watch the game on ESPN, Nomar Garciaparra is part of the broadcast team. It's gotta beat Steve Lyons.

MLB: Angels vs. Cleveland, Angel Stadium, 7 p.m., FSW:

Jered Weaver (2-0, 2.77 ERA) leads the league in strikeouts with 27 so far in four starts.

TUESDAY

NBA playoffs: Lakers vs. Oklahoma City, Game 5, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., TNT:

ABC keeps promoting this new show called "Happy Town," which we only see when the Lakers are on the network and Mike Breen starts to read the script. "Don't let the name fool you," he adds. And don't let the Lakers fool you -- this town won't be happy until this series mercifully ends. The show airs Wednesday. The Lakers will unnecessarily be flying back to OKC when this game ends.

MLB: Angels vs. Cleveland, Angel Stadium, 7 p.m., Channel 13:

Stay cool. Come by and get a free portable ice chest for your parking lot coolies.

MLB: Dodgers at New York Mets, 4 p.m., Channel 9:

The Mets' Johan Santana (2-1, 2.56 ERA), scheduled to start tonight, has had all his decisions come at Citi Bank Field.

WEDNESDAY

MLB: Dodgers at New York Mets, 10 a.m., Prime Ticket:

A day game only because the Dodgers want to get this roadie over as quickly as possible.

MLB: Angels vs. Cleveland, Angel Stadium, 4 p.m., FSW:

An odd start -- could the sun be in a worse place for the right fielders? -- but it's because both teams head to the Midwest, and against the clock, after the contest for games on Friday.

THURSDAY

MLB: Dodgers vs. Pittsburgh, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime Ticket:

To open an 11-day, 10-game homestand, this is your town, USC Dodger fans. At least for tonight. The first of a two-night promotion -- Friday, it's UCLA's turn to turn it power blue --has the Dodgers giving out special "LA" logo hats and T-shirts in the appropriate school colors, offering up cool reserve seats down the first-base line so you can sit with those of your ilk, and there's an all-inclusive consession menu that includes Dodger Dogs, nachos, popcorn, soft drinks, Pastrami sandwiches, Kettle style potato chips and Kosher style pickles. Each school's marching band will participate, and a special Trojan and Bruin will throw out the first pitch. You got game for this?

Golf: PGA Tour: Quail Hollow Championship, first round, Golf Channel, noon to 3 p.m. (also second-round on Golf Channel, third and final rounds on CBS):

Tiger Woods ain't out of the woods yet. As a tuneup to next week's Players Championship, he's joining Masters champ Phil Mickelson, Lee Westwood and Jim Furyk for some crowd time in Charlotte, N.C. -- his first event this season in which the general public can purchase tickets, act unruly, and pretty much do what they please. Even fly a plane overhead? Woods won this event in '07 and was fourth last year. Tournament director Kym Hougham said they've been preparing for Woods' possible participation for some time, and will need to make only slight tweaks with security plans. "I think our crowds are very respectful and they always have been. The players have always told us that," Hougham said. "If there is inappropriate behavior, we'll act on it swiftly. I'm sure that if Tiger didn't feel we could handle it he wouldn't be coming here."

FRIDAY

NBA playoffs: Lakers at Oklahoma City, Game 6, TBD:

Thunder bench scrub rookie James Harden: 0 points at Staples Center in Games 1 and 2. Then 18 in Game 3 and 15 in Game 4 in Oklahoma City. And he's back at home. See any trends?

MLB: Dodgers vs. Pittsburgh, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime Ticket:

As attractive as this matchup is again, it may be worth heading down to a pretty place in Southern California down San Diego way. A ticket to this night's San Diego Padres' game -- does it matter who they're playing -- also gets you free admission into their Beerfest promotion, with some of the local breweries putting their adult beverages on display (linked here). The beer, of course, ain't free. Six-ounce tasters are $3, and a full pour is $6. By the way, the Padres' opponent is the Brewers. So it makes sense. And the Brewers face the Dodgers in L.A. next week.

MLB: Angels at Detroit, 4 p.m., FSW:

The start of 10 straight games on the road for the Angels goes to Tigerland, where Carlos Guillen, hitting .333 with a homer and six RBIs in his last 10 games, is still on the DL. The Tigers split two with the Angels last week in Anaheim. Guillen was 6-for-14 against the Angels with 3 RBI in that series.

SATURDAY

Horse racing: Kentucky Derby, 3:15 p.m., Channel 4 (on the air from 1 to 4 p.m.):

Lookin At Lucky has separated himself from the horde of Derby contenders despite finishing a troubling third as the favorite in the Santa Anita Derby. The colt trained by three-time Derby winner Bob Baffert is atop the graded-stakes earnings list with $1.48 million. Last year's juvenile champion proved by winning the Rebel at Oaklawn Park that transitioning from California's synthetic surfaces to dirt won't be an issue. "He's just getting stronger and stronger. He's a really happy horse right now," said Baffert, who has another probable starter in Southwest Stakes winner Conveyance. Other trainers with two possible starters include California-based John Sadler, who has Santa Anita Derby winner Sidney's Candy and upset Arkansas Derby winner Line of David.

Boxing: Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Shane Mosley, 6 p.m., HBO pay-per-view, $54.95:

Oscar De La Hoya, helping to promote this big-deal bout, predicts this will do 3 million pay-per-view buys, which would smash the mark of 2.4 million buys when Mayweather beat De La Hoya in 2007. No other fight has topped 2 million. De La Hoya, who also lost to Mosley twice, admits 3 million might see unrealistic to some, "but nobody thought we could do 1 million" for Mayweather vs. Juan Manual Marquez in September -- which drew 1.05 million. If you've been watching the HBO reality show "24/7" since earlier this month, you know Mayweather puts on a good show. He may even cry in the ring. "I don't mind crying on camera," he says.

MLB: Dodgers vs. Pittsburgh, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime Ticket:

In the past, visits from the Pirates would bring out local fans who were invested in the success of players like second baseman Freddy Sanchez and shortstop Jack Wilson. No more. How sad.

MLB: Angels at Detroit, 10 a.m., FSW:

Would you keep sitting Brandon Wood if he continues to avoid putting wood on the ball when he's at the plate?

MLS: Galaxy vs. Philadelphia, Home Depot Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

The Philly team is known as the Union. If they ever fold, and then return, they'd be the Re-Union. That's all we got.

SUNDAY

NBA playoffs: Lakers vs. Oklahoma City, Game 7, Staples Center, TBA:

Does it really have to come to this? ABC has its 12:30 p.m. tipoff window all ready for someone to fill.

MLB: Dodgers vs. Pittsburgh, Dodger Stadium, 1 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Remember last week, when the Brewers beat the Pirates, 20-0 -- the worst loss in the Bucs' 124-year history? Hold that thought. Through last Friday, the Pirates had been outscored 85-13 in their eight losses (one of them to the Dodgers in the first series of the season) and the team ERA was 7.23 -- the highest in the league by more than a run.

MLB: Angels at Detroit, 10 a.m., FSW:

So what happened the other night when Detroit outfielder Johnny Damon was tossed out of the Tigers' game against the Angels in the fifth inning? Damon said he drew a line about six inches off the inside corner of the plate with his bat where he thought a pitch was located. Home plate umpire Dale Scott told Damon that if he did that again, he'd have to eject him. Said Damon: "Well, I'm doing it again." And Scott threw him out.

The book I: "Scooter: The Biography of Phil Rizzuto"

The author: Carl DeVito

The vital stats: Triumph, 384 pages, $24.95

Find it: The publisher's website (linked here)

The book II: "Stan The Man: The Life and Times of Stan Musial"

The author: Wayne Stewart

The vital stats: Triumph, 256 pages, $24.95

Find it: The publisher's website (linked here)

The book III: "Al Kaline: The Biography of a Tigers Icon"

The author: Jim Hawkins (forward by Ernie Harwell)

The vital stats: Triumph, 256 pages, $24.95

Find it: The publisher's website (linked here)

The book IV: "Mike Schmidt: The Phillies' Legendary Slugger"

The author: Rob Maaddi

The vital stats: Triumph, 256 pages, $24.95

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here)

The pitch: And now, four Hall of Famers who need no introduction ....

The four things that these books have in common are their publisher, Chicago-based Triumph books, which trumpets itself as "the leader in sports publishing."

So, if you're thinking of what could have been discussed at a recent strategy session, imagine editors sitting around a table throwing out ideas for new titles: What do baseball readers today want?

How about "real" heroes.

Rob Kaplan, whose website RonKaplansBaseballBookshelf (linked here) keeps up with all that is the sports' literary directions, made the observation when surveying the list of baseball bios that were coming out this year -- starting with the impressive one already done on Willie Mays, another on Roger Maris, and one coming soon on Hank Aaron: There seems to be a need to go back and find the non-steroid stars of yesteryear. What made them be who they were without the help of PEDs? Why did their fans embrace their playing ability as well as their character?

Not to purposely lump these four together, but in that context, it makes a lot of sense. And, if you're trying to survive as a publisher, consider: Who wants to read another story about Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire?

www.wetandwild.com
Jerry Bruckheimer, right, and Jake Gyllenhaal, left, who stars in Bruckheimer's new movie "Prince of Persia," talk with Vince Vaughn during a Kings-Sharks game at Staples Center last January.

The man known around Hollywood as "Mr. Blockbuster" and in constant playoff beard mode is in Miami this weekend instead of L.A., so Jerry Bruckheimer says he won't be in his usual Staples Center seats to see Game 6 of the Kings-Canucks Stanley Cup playoff series.

Expanding on today's Q-and-A (linked here):

Q: We've also seen you at USC football games ... how are hockey fans different from any other sport?

Bruckheimer: It's a matter of growing up with it and appreciating it for what it is The hot bed is still Canada, and we kind of took that over with New York, Detroit and Boston, and now it's down south in L.A., on its way back. I am a Laker fan, but I'm a bigger hockey fan than basketball fan. But I do enjoy a lot of different sports.

Q: One of the ways you stay close to hockey is this annual "Bad Boys of Hockey" tournament we've heard about each year in Las Vegas (linked here). We've heard that Tom Cruise and Keifer Sutherland are involved. That's still on for this year?

Bruckheimer: Yup, still doing that, and we get to play on Sundays once and awhile over at Toyota Center (in El Segundo, where the Kings train).

Q: And you still own a farm in Kentucky that has its own ice rink?

Bruckheimer: Yes, it's a small barn and we have people over with their friends. We've found some really good little players in Kentucky to come over and play with us.

Q: And what position do you play?

Bruckheimer: Anything going forward. I can't go backward. And not goalie. I don't like having things fired at me.

"Regarding your blog on the Christmas Bowl," Derek Dearwater wrote in an email to us today, "I'll take responsibility for the effort."

Dearwater said he just came back from the NCAA's bowl meetings in Arizona and "realized there would be a question or two regarding our game, since we kept our developments relatively quiet. What surprised me was that two of the first three posts I read (on our blog) were derogatory."

That's a matter of semantics. We choose to think we're skeptical. Not cynical. Can't be cynical about the spirit of Christmas.

"While this is unfortunate," he continued, "it's no surprise, as the general public wasn't aware of the efforts and content associated with our bowl game."

Kinda tough to get people to back you on an idea when the first they hear of it is from an NCAA press release saying they've been denied.

"I'm confident that the majority of the general public would approve of our game, if they understood more about it; therefore, I'll provide you with a presentation of our concept.

A link that Dearwater sent explains:

== It's supposed to pit the Pac-10 No. 7 team -- of a MAC No. 3, 4 or 5 squad, if the Pac-10 doesn't have any more bowl-eligible squads -- against the WAC's No. 2 team.

== It is planned for the Coliseum -- the facility put the date on hold Dec. 21-24 through 2013.

== Their choice was Dec. 27, 2010 -- a Monday, 2 p.m. contest. Choice No. 2 was Christmas Eve, 3:30 p.m.

== The Children's Miracle Network is the chief benefactor. The bowl's tagline:
"Creating Christmas Miracles for Children in Need"

== L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa OK'd it. Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Bo Jackson and Tim Brown wrote an endorsment note for it as well. Former Michigan State coach George Perles is on the Christmas Bowl board, with his son, John, the bowl's president.

Dearwater said his bowl proposal "fell short of meeting the NCAA's licensing criteria due to our inability to secure a back-up conference agreement" for the Pac-10's No. 7 selection.

"The bottom line is that there were no more 'bowl eligible' teams to align with, given 35 bowls, and the NCAA's four-year history on bowl eligible teams of 71.8."

Dearwater said the Cure Bowl, based in Florida, also had the same problem. Both games, Dearwater insists, "are wonderful bowl concepts that make complete sense, given their regional conference alignments, as well as their benevolent causes."

He's not giving up. Dearwater said the Christmas Bowl will continue to get on the map past 2011.

And if it's for the kids, we're behind it. It's just that ... what harm would it have been to generate some support it the intent was to have it this calendar year?

Need more info, try www.christmasbowl.org Although, when we tried this site, we got that "400 Bad Request" message. Dang it.

First, understand the American Basketball Association -- the ABA -- ain't gone away. Red, white and blue, you have a team to get behind, the Los Angeles SLAM.

They're playing the Philippine National Basketball team on Monday, at L.A. Southwest College. The Philippine team, working on its game for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, finished fifth in the recent FIBA Asia Championships Cup and took a bronze in the 21st Dubai International Tournament.

More info:
http://LosAngelesSlam.com

The book: "Home, Away"

The author: A novel by Jeff Gillenkirk

The vital stats: Chin Music Press, 268 pages, $15

Find it: The publisher's site has it (linked here) as does Barnes and Noble (linked here)

The pitch: Would a real major league pitcher walk away from a $40-million, six-year contract to try to straighten out the life of his teen-age son, who six years prior had cut him out of his life?

If only Jason Thibodeaux was that real person. He'd probably be our new favorite player.

Custody battles, alcohol and drug problems, juvenile detention center, run-ins with the cops, raw emotions ... the stuff that real divorced parents deal with on a regular basis these days with children who rage against the machine, fight the system, and rarely win, is what holds this poignant story together.

The twist here is that it's a Stanford-educated pitcher who tries to stay focused on a career in baseball pursuing his dream all while feeling guilty that he can't be there on a regular basis for his son, Rafael, who continues to get pulled in different directions. Lord knows, Jason tries -- even forcing Rafe to come with him to the park to do his home work in one of the locker room offices.

First-time novelist Gillenkirk's choice to make the Thibodeaux a dad torn between the challenges of the big leagues and the bigger challenges of fatherhood creates a scenario that definitely would be a drawn-out drama by today's media standards. Fittingly, Gillenkirk tries to insert that element by having a sports columnist advance the story each chapter - albeit, with pieces written by someone who's far too smaltzy to really ever be hired by USA Today, as we're led to believe.

The real-life struggles that divorced parents -- especially single dads -- have to endure if they're really committed to trying to figure out the best way to raise a wild child come through all-too-painful here. No matter how much Thibodeaux tries to make up for the fact that his dad was rarely there for him as he worked in the oil fields makes you want this new dad to succeed, despite the odds.

Unfortunately, it all leads to a far more incredulous, unrealistic climax. It definitely won't satisfy the baseball fan, but may get past someone who knows little to nothing about the sport. But, considering all that we've gone through to get this far - why not make it end this way.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Because novels can be such a personal journey for the author, it's tougher for us to be critical of their efforts. Gillenkirk, for example, knows all about what it's like to be a single dad, as he wrote this piece for fathermag.com (linked here). He comes from a place of knowledge, fear, trials and tribulations. For that, we applaud him. Deep down, this book works. Plus, it has a pretty cool cover.

Did you know: The origin of "chin music," which the publisher takes as its name, goes way behind a baseball term, as they explain (linked here). Really? Mark Twain?

Also: Another shot at baseball fiction, try "The Man With Two Arms" by Billy Lombardo (Overlook Press, $24.95), reviewed here by James Bailey for BaseballAmerican.com (linked here)

A Los Angeles-to-Tampa flight was diverted to Albuquerque early this morning with a passenger who allegedly threatened to blow up the aircraft and attempted to open the main cabin door was subdued by the crew and fellow passengers.

Kevin Kennedy, the Sirius-XM radio host and former Dodgers pre- and post-game analyst for Prime Ticket, was on the flight and involved in the effort to restrain the passenger.

The former Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox manager, currently working as a Tampa Bay Rays' broadcaster, went on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM with colleagues Jim Bowden and Casey Stern to discuss the incident today, a transcript provided by Sirius XM:

The NCAA has approved 35 bowl games for the next four years, including two new ones: the Dallas Football Classic and the New Era Pinstripe Bowl in New York.

That one better than the 34 bowls licensed for 2009-10. Better, we guess, is a relative term.

But among those that were rejected: The Christmas Bowl in L.A., and the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Fla.

The NCAA said Friday that the bowls were licensed on a four-year cycle for the first time, though they will be reviewed each year. The move puts the licensing schedule -- from 2010-11 through 2013-14 -- in line with the length of bowl conference agreements.

The first Pinstripe Bowl will be played at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Dec. 30. It will include the No. 3 team in the Big East and the No. 6 school in the Big 12, excluding Bowl Championship Series participants.

The first Dallas Football Classic at the Cotton Bowl is planned for New Year's Day 2011, involving the seventh-ranked team from the Big 12 against the sixth-ranked team from the Big Ten. Future games will include Conference USA.

As for this Christmas Bowl idea -- no idea who or what was behind it. Anyone willing to take responsibility?

The history books show that on Dec. 25, 1924, something called the Christmas Festival Bowl was played at the Coliseum: USC defeated Missouri, 20-7.

Tough to imagine in today's hot-button climate ever backing something that seems to run smack into the winds of poitical correctness.

Santa, flip the coin and let's get on with it.

More on the NCAA announcement is linked here, which includes the entire list (with sponsor names).

The book I: "The Politics of Baseball: Essays on the Pasttime and Power at Home and Abroad"

The author: Edited by Ron Briley

The vital stats: McFarland, 256 pages, $39.95

Find it: On Amazon.com (linked here)

The book II: "The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad"

The author: Robert Elias

The vital stats: The New Press, 448 pages, $27.95

Find it: On Amazon.com (linked here)

The pitch: Steve Garvey (R-Calif.) hasn't happened, and probably won't any time soon. But there was a time when it seemed almost part of his All-American destiny.

Scandals in his personal life with childs out of wedlock essentially derailed any kind of political pursuit for the former Dodgers All-Star first baseman, but there was no doubt that a life in public service was one of his career goals when he retired in the late '80s.

Maybe if he were to read the first chapter in the Briley-edited "The Politics of Baseball," a piece entitled "Baseball and Ballots: Players and Politicians" by John A. Tures, Garvey might reconsider.

Following up on today's media column (linked here) on the drama of the NFL draft, plus the story about the NCAA basketball tournament spilling over onto cable (linked here):

Bob Brower/MLB Network
Kevin Millar, right, joins Al Leiter and Harold Reynolds in Studio 42 of the MLB Network during a recent visit.

== New MLB Network studio analyst Kevin Millar, who keeps a home in Mesa, Ariz., as well as Beaumont, Tex., says he gets to Southern California often to visit his dad, who lives in Valencia, and his mom, who is based in Encino. If so, how did he get such a Southern twang after all those years in Southern California -- growing up in the Santa Clarita Valley, attending Hart High in Newhall as a freshman and then going to and graduating from West L.A.'s Uni High.

"Yeah, they say I got this hillbilly thing going," Millar said Thursday.

Just a couple of weeks after the Chicago Cubs took Chad Tracy over him for the 25th roster spot, Millar wants to have fun and keep in the loop working for the MLB Network in the meantime. Recently, pitcher John Smoltz signed on with MLB Network while saying he would also not retire in case a team wanted him later this summer.

"But guys like Smoltz, they're good; I'm a common player," said Millar. "I can't sit around the gym and just come back. It's a bummer (about being released) but that's just part of the business."

Millar also said if given the chance to play for the Dodgers or Angels, he'd be here in a second.

"I've been dying to get there," he said of Southern Calfornia. "When Grady Little (his former manager with the Red Sox) got the job with the Dodgers, they already had Olmedo Seanz signed to a two-year deal, so that spot was filled. Then Nomar (Garciaparra) came when the McCourts bought the team. So it never really worked. And I've been begging (Angels manager Mike) Scioscia for many years, but it's always got to be that right fit. It would be a dream to be out on the West Coast."

The Associated Press

LONDON -- Forbes magazine says David Beckham still reigns supreme as soccer's top-earning player.

The Galaxy's 35-year-old midfielder earns $40 million annually, with much of that coming from sponsors such as Adidas, Giorgio Armani and Motorola. But Beckham is expected to lose major sponsorship money this year because he will miss the World Cup in South Africa after tearing his Achilles' tendon in March while on loan from the Galaxy to AC Milan.

Portuguese midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo is second on the Forbes list, earning $30 million a year. Ronaldo's major sponsors include Nike, Coca-Cola and, like Beckham, Giorgio Armani. Ronaldo, the 2008 FIFA Player of the Year, became the highest paid soccer player in the world in June when Real Madrid bought the 25-year-old winger from Manchester United for $130 million. He signed a six-year contract that pays an estimated $15.5 million in the first year, then increases 25 percent each season.

Brazilian playmaker Kaka, Ronaldo's teammate at Madrid, is third on the list, earning $25 million annually -- the same amount earned by Brazil's Ronaldinho.

In announcing this morning a revived 14-year, $10.8 billion joint deal with CBS and Turner Sports to cover every media angle of its highly-profitable men's basketball tournament through 2024, the NCAA ducked more criticism from those who feared that TV would water the product down in pushing the number of competitors to 96 teams.

It's only a modest 68. For now.

The bigger benefit for viewers - all first- and second-round contests will be carried live and in their entirety on either CBS, TNT, TBS or Turner's truTV channel, rather than be stuffed into a CBS window with cut-ins that only serve to frustrate out-of-market followers for the last several years.

And the benefit for CBS - it gets relief from paying the last three back-loaded years of its $6 billion deal with the NCAA which could have doomed the network's financial stability. The major compromise for CBS is that, after doing things its way since 1982, it will alternate coverage of the Final Four and title game with TBS starting in 2016.

CBS Sports and News chief Sean McManus said he wouldn't use the term "bailout" to describe this new arrangement, nor would he admit that the tournament outgrew CBS' coverage.

"It was a system that worked for 29 years as a practical matter to generate exposure," he said. "The viewer demand for watching all the games has been greater and the way the viewer consumes media is much different, even from five years ago. To compete in this market place we needed a cable partner. It's a perfect deal for CBS, Turner and the NCAA, and really the basketball fan. It's win-win for everyone involved."

Except, perhaps, for ESPN.

From the press release issued moments ago:

The NCAA today announced a new 14-year television, internet and wireless rights agreement with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., to present the Division I Men's Basketball Championship beginning in 2011 through 2024 for more than $10.8 billion.

As part of the agreement, all games will be shown live across four national networks beginning in 2011 - a first for the 73-year old championship.

Additionally, CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting have been licensed and will collaborate on the NCAA's corporate marketing program.

Late Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee unanimously passed a recommendation to the Division I Board of Directors to increase tournament field size to 68 teams beginning with the 2011 Championship. The recommendation will be reviewed by the Division I Board of Directors at its April 29 meeting.

The new agreement sustains the long-term financial stability of the Association. As with the current contract, approximately 96 percent of the revenue generated from this new agreement will be used to benefit student-athletes through either programs, services or direct distribution to member conferences and schools. Further, the agreement ensures student-athletes across all three NCAA divisions will continue to be supported in a broad range of championship opportunities, access to funds for personal and educational needs, and through scholarships in Divisions I and II.

Beginning with the 2011 championship, opening- , first- and second-round games will be shown nationally on CBS, TBS, TNT and truTV. CBS and Turner will split coverage of the regional semifinal games. CBS will provide coverage of the regional finals, as well as the Final Four including the National Championship Game through 2015.

Beginning in 2016, coverage of the regional finals will be split by CBS and Turner with the Final Four and the National Championship game alternating every year between the CBS Television Network and Turner's TBS.

On Earth Day, we celebrate what could be the only biodegradable product that baseball ever produced: The bubble-gum card. Because it surely isn't the hot-dog wrapper:

The book I: "Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession"

The author: Dave Jamieson

The vital stats: Atlantic Monthly Press, 272 pages, $25

Find it: It's at Powells.com (linked here)

The book II: "Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards"

The author: Josh Wilker

The vital stats: Seven Footer Press, 208 pages, $24.95

Find it: Check the official site: www.cardboardgods.net Also at Powells (linked here)

The pitch: In 1983, Pete Rose's Topps rookie card, issued 20 years earlier, was reaching new heights, just as the Cincinnati Reds star was closing in on the all-time career hits record. A card that two years earlier was going for $65 in baseball card stores was now hitting $375.

"Demand was so high that the hobby's first substantial stock of counterfeit cards made their way into the market," it says on page 154.

Less than a month after the Chicago Cubs released him right before the start of the regular season, former Hart High standout Kevin Millar has landed a broadcast career with the MLB Network as a studio analyst. He'll start next Tuesday.

Millar, who lasted 12 seasons in the big leagues as a first baseman and outfielder, went undrafted out of Hart and spent five years in the minor leagues before the Florida Marlins brought him up in April, 1998. He signed with the St. Paul Saints of the independent Northern League in '93 when he was 21, then had two seasons at Single-A and Double-A before was the Eastern League's MVP (32 HRs, 131 RBI, .342 average).

He hit .274 with 170 home runs and 699 RBI in his career, and is probably best known for his three seasons with the Boston Red Sox. During their 2004 World Series run, Millar hit .297 with 18 homers and 74 RBI. He also played for Baltimore and Toronto.

And he was about the best pre- and post-game interview a broadcaster would have hoped for.

"Kevin Millar brings a fresh and current perspective to MLB Network, having played this past season," said Tony Petitti, President and CEO of MLB Network. "During the 2009 Postseason, Kevin proved that he can provide valuable analysis and commentary to baseball fans and we're excited to have him join our already deep roster of on-air talent."

"Working with the guys at the MLB Network is the next best thing to actually being in a clubhouse," said Millar. "I am really excited to get started and have some fun."

The Associated Press

Quick, what's the third-largest beer retailer in the U.S.? Chances are you didn't know it's 7-Eleven. Now, the convenience chain is getting a step closer to the suds it sells, rolling out a store-brand beer billed as a premium brew at a budget price.

The launch, happening this month at stores nationwide, aims to take advantage of the current economic downturn -- a long, cold one for beer sales.

"We're really working back from the customers' needs," said Dan Skinner, 7-Eleven category manager for alcoholic beverages. "They're looking for exceptional quality at a value price."

Game Day beer follows the introduction of the Yosemite Road private-label wines in 7-Elevens last year. The idea of the home of Slim Jims and Slurpees turning sommelier had some scoffing. But Skinner said the launch has gone well, with the wines holding the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the chain's wine sales.

Whether people are ready for 7-Eleven suds remains to be seen.

Al Everett, a web developer in the Washington, D.C., area who blogs about beer at hop-talk.com, is a craft beer enthusiast who wasn't sure what to make of Game Day.

"If I was tailgating before a game, I'd certainly consider it," he said. "It's probably not something that I would have regularly." Still, he was curious. "I'll certainly keep an eye out for it."

The book: "The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010: Timeless Commentary, Innovative Stats, Great Baseball Writing"

The author: By the staff of HardballTimes.com; produced by Dave Studenmund

The vital stats: ACTA Sports publishing, 364 pages, $21.95 (paperback)

Find it: At the publishers' website, via HardballTimes.com (linked here). Also at Powells.com (linked here)

The pitch: It's the sixth annual edition of the big book of baseball stuff -- half full of the '09 review and commentary, and the other half full of statistics and graphics. Or as the editors say, it's for "the wordy and the nerdy." ... and "our stats are totally awesome."

Channeling the days of the old Sporting News Official Baseball Guides, THT (as it abbreviates itself) relies on a staff of baseball lovers that includes names that have become familar to those of us who regularily check in on their website for some different takes on how baseball is measured -- Joshua Fisher, the former L.A.-based law student who launched www.dodgerdivorce.com; Geoff Young, who covers the Padres at Ducksnorts (linked here); Dave Studeman, who with Pete Simpson created the Baseball Graphs website (linked here); Chris Jaffe, a history instructor by day and self-proclamed stat-nerd by night; Alec Rogers. DC area attorney who retains an affinity for his hometown Detroit Tigers; and Mike Silver, doing PR work for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (the Rockies' Triple-A affiliate), just to name a few of the seemingly dozens who contribute.

Some of this year's pieces that caught our attention:

== A commentary by Jack Marshall on "The Content of Their Character" (pages 86-93) and how it applies to Hall of Fame voting. Marshall writes: "The turn of the century concept of fame was far removed from today's Paris Hilton version, for fame was not merely celebrity, but deserved celebrity. 'Fame' meant 'renown,' accomplishment, acclaimed and admirable. ... If the recipe for baseball greatness is going to contain character, integrity and sportsmanship, we had better decide what they are, how we are going to measure them and how much we need to have." Because the words "integrity, sportsmanship and character" are included in the Hall of Fame voting instructions, along with a player's "records" and "contributions to the team(s) he played on," Marshall wants more structure to how that is determined.
According to his standards, Juan Marichal, who has already been voted into the Hall, shouldn't be in based on his attack on the Dodgers' John Roseboro in that 1965 game. Marshall: "I think an on-field attack like this is such a major sportsmanship breach that it should preclude Hall of Fame membership.
What about Manny Ramirez?
Marshall: His lack of integrity and sportsmanship disqualifies him for baseball hero status ... he's very popular with the fans, however, and I have no illusions that my harsh assessment has any chance of prevailing."

== Young's story on modifying the box score, especially with teams (like the Padres) that fall out of contention early enough, and the measure of the team's roster should be determined slightly different. For example, taking the major prospects who play on a regular basis, they can be rated on a point system. Batters get one point if they have four or more plate appearances, one poitn if they reach base two or more times and one point if they have four or more total bases. Pitchers get one point for pitching five or more innings, one point for making 15 or fewer pitches per inning and one point if their strikeouts are greater than or equal to the number of innings they pitch.

== Jaffe makes a case for the 1972 World Series (remember it? Reds-A's) as being the best of all time. "Which is not synonymous for 'more memorable,'" he points out.

== Warren Corbett writes a piece called "Paul Richards in a box," which is adapted from his recent book, "Wizard of Waxahachie" (linked here).

== Mike Fist and Dave Allen tangle with the concept of "PITCHf/x," a TV graphic that tracks pitch trajectory, speed, break and location for MLB Gameday web applications.

As for the statistics, learn more about Major League Equalavencies (MLE), Wins Above Replacement (WAR) and the latest developments in how defense is measured.

From their stat breakdowns of each team, did you know:

== Just five percent of outfield fly balls allowed by the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw in 2009 were home runs.

== Dodgers first baseman James Loney had the lowest H-A (-.068) of any NL regular; Dodgers outfielder Andre Eithier had the highest (.079). That's the home/away split, which takes each player's GPA (Gross Production Average) and compares the number he generated during home games versus what he did on the road. A postive number is considered good.

== Angels catcher Jeff Mathis had 73 total bases and 73 strike outs.

== The Angels' +52 corner infield plus/minus stat was the best in the majors last year.

How it goes down in the scorebook: This site, and the book, remind me of David Eckstein. You look at it, and maybe aren't that immediately impressed after trying to size it up. It's not SABR; not so much the Baseball Writers of America endorsed or produced commentary. But then you see it perform, give it a chance ... and you're not sorry you did.

If you can't be there in person to see the unveiling of the new Chick Hearn statue outside of Staples Center, Fox Sports West's website (linked here) will video stream it starting at 4:30 p.m. It will also air live on FSW.

Meanwhile, during tonight's Lakers-Thunder Game 2, the FSW website will have a live in-game chat with Matt "Money" Smith and Norm Nixon.

The book: "It's What's Inside the Lines that Counts: Baseball Stars of the 1970s and 1980s Talk About the Game They Loved, Vol. 3"

The author: Fay Vincent

The vital stats: Simon & Schuster, 328 pages, $25

Find it: At Barnes and Noble (linked here)

The pitch: The third installment of the former commissioner's attempt to get the oral history of the game directly from transcribed conversations with players from the '30s down through the '80s comes together with interviews he's done with Juan Marichal, Cal Ripken Jr., Willie McCovey, Dick Williams, Earl Weaver, Tom Seaver, Don Baylor, Ozzie Smith, umpire Bruce Froemming and, surprisingly, former players association chief Marvin Miller -- who Vincent believes belongs in the Hall of Fame. To cover the game's evolution during this time frame, a discussion with Miller is essential.

After reading several accounts, all with something to offer in different ways, our focus turned to Marichal, one of the game's Latino pioneers who talks about the racism he faced for the first time when coming to the U.S.

Oh, yes, then there was the 1965 Roseboro incident.

Marchical explains: "I hate to talk about that now because Johnny passed away. ... "

But then he does, and it really helps put things into context:

He remembers how on a Friday night, Maury Wills was awarded first base on catcher's interference when he faked a bunt and his bat ticked catcher Tom Haller's glove. Giants manager Herman Franks was upset, so he told Matty Alou to do the same to Roseboro -- and he did. Roseboro got mad and "Johnny started hollering from the plate to the bench. We didn't know what he said. I started hollering to him. He didn't know what I said. ..."

Marichal said Roseboro then sent him messages via Orlando Cepeda, Matty Alou and coach Cookie Lavagetto: "He told them to tell me to shut my mouth if I didn't want to get one behind my ear."

Then Saturday arrived and Marichal said "I forgot the whole thing."

Sunday, Marichal pitched against Sandy Koufax. Wills led off with a bunt single, stole second and third and scored on a sacrifice fly. Next time up, Marichal brushed Wills back. Then Ron Fairly hit the deck on a pitch that Marichal said was "almost a strike." As a result, the Dodger players were yelling at Marichal.

"When I came to bat, I said to myself, maybe they're going to throw one at me. But I knew that Sandy doesn't. I was 100 percent sure that he wasn't going to do it."

Marichal remembers taking the first two pitches, the second a strike down the middle.

"For some reason, I don't know why, I looked back and I saw Johnny. When the ball hit his glove, he dropped the ball and it rolled back. I just looked at that point, then I went back and looked at Sandy. And I stayed there with my bat on my shoulder. And Johnny shot that ball from behind that hit my ear.

"I looked back and I said, what did you do that for? Let me tell you, he called my mother so many names that I couldn't take it. When he first said that, I said, what? And he said, you heard me, you so and so and so, and then he started charging. A lot of people said that I hit him in the head with a bat, sure. But with a swing that I didn't think could hurt anybody, because I just moved the bat forward trying to stop him from coming at me with all that gear and everything. Oh, my God, what a fight. That was ugly."

Marichal said he felt "so bad" because of not only what happened, but how it was portrayed in the media. And he had also heard the story: "When they were leaving the hotel that Sunday to play us, they had a meeting on the bus and they talked to each other, saying, who do they want to get, and Johnny said, leave Juan for me. Leave Juan for me. So you know that was well prepared."

Years later, Marichal said he talked to Koufax, and told him that he and Roseboro had become friends, that what happened was just part of the game. Koufax confirmed that they had asked him to knock Marichal down, but Roseboro said, 'Don't do it, let me do it.'

"But by using the bat, I was the bad guy.'"

Marichal was fined a then-record $1,750 and suspended for nine days.

How it goes down in the scorebook: You'd wish there was a book on tape version of this -- and probably there is. But with the pages here, we can hear the voices clearly enough, get to the stories quickly enough, and enjoy them all just the same. We thank Vincent for taking the time and effort to complete this series ... knowing there's the '90s and '00s that could be worth looking into sometime down the road as well.

Also find:

== "The Only Game in Town: Baseball Stars of the 1930s and 1940s Talk about the Game They Loved" Vol. 1 from 2006 (linked here)

== "We Would Have Played for Nothing : Baseball Stars of the 1950s and 1960s Talk About the Game They Loved" Vol. 2 from 2008 (linked here)

Associated Press/Mark J. Terrill

Kings fans celebrate a goal by defenseman Drew Doughty (8) as Vancouver Canucks left wing Alex Burrows skates by during the first period of Game 3 Monday at Staples Center.

From her binocular-friendly seat in the front row of Staples Center' upper-deck 304 section, Benay Furtivo peered over the Plexiglas barrier in front of her and spotted the logo "Stanley Cup Playoffs" etched into the ice near each blue line.

"Oh, my God, it's happening - can you believe it?" the long-time season-seat holder from Westchester said, putting both hands up to her cheeks. "It's almost unreal. It's been so long. (italic)Too (off ital) long."

A lot can change in eight years, but loyalty to Kings' royalty is a nasty habit to break.

It was a full hour before the Kings would play their first NHL home playoff game since April 27, 2002 - that, according to the history books and early Internet accounts, was a 3-1 win over Colorado in Game 6 of an opening-round series they'd eventually lose to the Avalanche in Game 7 back in Denver.

But Furtivo, in her black Anze Kopitar sweater, made sure she sped over from her job at UCLA to be in the building as soon as possible early Monday evening.

"We all can hardly contain ourselves; my friend Tracy's mom Linda is driving in for this from Barstow," Furtivo said. "We're all nuts."

Or simply stir crazy.

There's a fine line between teasing a Kings' fan, and testing them. Since their Wayne Gretzky-led run to the Stanley Cup final 17 years ago, so much has changed - from coaches and GMs, to uniforms and facilities, to slogans and logos.

Manchester miracles and Figueroa flurries are only talked about by fuming fans and seething season-seat holders who don't need a reminder that their rivals over in the O.C. have already been able to parade the Stanley Cup through their neighborhood.

"It has been frustrating; I don't like sitting at home watching everyone else in the playoffs," admitted Kings' Hall of Fame play-by-play man Bob Miller, in his 37th year with the team, before the contest.

"When we're not in the playoffs, we really feel like we're out of the loop, out of the league.

"These fans have been so patient, they've waited so long. They should want to explode by now."

They did Monday. Like a wrecking ball. But that's no shocker.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal paid attention to the Kings' post-season reappearance with a story about the team, most likely for the first time since former owner Bruce McNall had all his financial shenanigans.

The paper pointed out that, despite the fact they team has long been "the laughingstock of the league," their average attendance of 17,313 is consistent with what they've been drawing since moving from the Forum to Staples Center in 1999.

Who's laughing now?

The vocal support was cranked it up early and rarely subsided during Game 3, where the Kings led 4-2 going into the third period. Along with the visual of twirling the white towels given out to everyone as they entered the building, it was as raucous as the place has been in years - especially during a second-period outburst that chased Canucks goalie Roberto Loungo.

So dedicated is the team to its "Back in Black" campaign that the statues of Magic Johnson and Oscar de la Hoya (as well, of course as Gretzky) just outside the building were fitted with oversized Kings playoff sweaters.

The only thing they missing were playoff beards.

Those came via some fans who weren't even born the last time the Kings were the postseason.

Four-year-old Brian Mantooth of Norwalk was across the street from Staples Center in Nokia Plaza, competing with people far older than him in a make-shift street-hockey game. To celebrate witnessing his first Kings' playoff with his Kopitar jersey and yellow helmet, Mantooth stood out from the rest of the crowd because his mom helped him "grow" a playoff beard with the help of a black Sharpie pen.

"I had one, so he wanted one, too," said Wayne Mantooth, who would soon be in his seats in Section 307. "I've been a fan since the '90s, but I finally got season tickets last season. Now it's paid off."

Nine-year-old Aaron Garcia of Mission Hills was on his way to his 300-level seat with a neatly-trimmed fake beard, supplied by his dad, Roy.

"Just five bucks, over at Party City," admitted Roy, who had his own faux version because he admitted his wife wouldn't let him grow a real one.

"And I don't think his mom will allow him to wear that one to school," Roy said of Aaron's appearance.

Miller admits that if did try to grow his own playoff beard, "it wouldn't look that good. Besides, I'm not a big fan of them. By the time the team wins the Stanley Cup, the players look like a bunch of vagrants."

If only the Kings knew what the feeling was like. Even vaguely.

And if only Furtivo could grow a playoff beard.

"I probably would if I could," she said.

It's all about containment at this point.

ESPN is in lockdown -- Chris Berman isn't leaving the building.

In a press release this morning that clearly explains the situation -- it is entitled "Chris Berman Signs Extension to Remain with ESPN" -- the network, which continues to spread itself across everything that is ABC, effectively gives the sports viewing public a reasonable plan of viewing attack as it prepares to move forward.

Berman, the (fill-the-blank)-pound gorilla (depending on how many endorsements he has left with Applebys or NutriSystem), was rumored to be in contact with the NFL Network about the possibly of coming over to spread himself across the league-owned channel and perhaps wiping out the Smarmy Germ (also known as (I-AM-ONE) that has infected the place since the hiring of former ESPN anchor Rich Eisen.

In effect, ESPN has chosen to keep the person it hired in October of 1979 to continue as "the lead voice and face" of ESPN's NFL studio coverage, and do play-by-play on the MLB Home Run Derby, plus work on U.S. open golf.

The rest of the information, from ESPN headquarters:

Berman's extension ensures that he will remain a fixture on ESPN's NFL Sundays. His 25 years as host of Sunday NFL Countdown (formerly NFL Gameday) - which pre-dates ESPN's first NFL television contract - is by far the longest streak ever among all weekly pro football studio show hosts. Berman is also a fan favorite for his signature calls on NFL highlights, for which he earned widespread acclaim as host of the classic NFL PrimeTime from 1987-2005.

"Chris has contributed so much to our company's success in reaching sports fans for more than three decades, and we are thrilled that one of the most important figures in our history will remain a vital part of ESPN's future," said ESPN President George Bodenheimer.‪‪

Added ESPN Executive Vice President, Content John Skipper:‪‪ "Chris will continue to be the face and voice of ESPN, delivering sports news, expert storytelling and, of course, his signature highlights with the same passion, energy and enthusiasm that has resonated with fans since he first arrived in Bristol in 1979."

Said Berman: "Home is where the heart is, and I am thrilled to be staying home at ESPN for years to come. It's been a privilege to work alongside my colleagues and an honor to be welcomed into the homes of sports fans for over 30 years. In fact, since this all began in 1979, that means we've been together for parts of five decades. I can't wait to continue the journey."

This week Berman will also occupy his familiar host position on ESPN's main set at the 2010 NFL Draft - Thursday, April 22 (7:30-11 p.m. ET) and Friday, April 23 (6-10:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2). Berman has covered the Draft for 30 years and hosted ESPN's annual telecast since 1987.

At least we don't have to call Kick-Ass to take care of this potential mess.

The book: "Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson"

The author: Timothy M. Gay

The vital stats: Simon and Schuster, 349 pages, $26

Find it: On Amazon.com (linked here).

The pitch: Discovery of how these barnstorming games took place in the '30s and '40s, and then kind of lost their steam in the years after the Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, is necessary information for a baseball fan's internal database.

But the local connections to all this had us even more fascinated and curious. The index, strangely, is where we ended up turning first, to these references:

Wrigley Field, Los Angeles, 105, 131, 134, 136, 140, 147, 168, 205, 216-17, 242, 254, 255, 258-59, 272.

California Winter League (CWL), 24, 32, 67, 79, 106-7, 134, 135-50, 178-80, 183, 206-8, 251.

Because the Pacific Coast League banned black players, the California Winter League was formed by a promoter named Joe Pirrone. That eventually allowed Negro League players like Satchel Paige to make off-season money barnstorming at places like the old Wrigley Field in L.A., just East of the Coliseum. The games even included Robinson.

So when you look at how race played a role in baseball's formation, you have to include this as an important part of the time line. As much as how we enjoyed this book focusing on the fun and frolic that Paige, Bob Feller and Dizzy Dean had in these black teams-vs.-white teams, it documents how much fans were accepting of it and, eventally, how major league baseball could no longer deny it, no matter how much Commissioner Landis tried.

"Think how Bill Cosby and Robert Culp stirred the cultural zeitgeist in television's 'I Spy' -- and that was after the passage of the 1960s civil and voting rights acts," Gay writes in his author's intro. "Paige, Dean and Feller were out on baseball's bustings before Cosby was born -- and long before bigotry became a societal epithet."

Drawing much of the information from the newspapers of the time -- with the L.A. Times referring to Paige as "the lanky Negro ace" -- we try to go back in time, like to a game in 1945 when Paige and Feller attracted nearly 60,000 at L.A.'s Wrigley Field, just months before the Dodgers signed Robinson.

And the game in 1934, when Dean and Paige reportedly pitched 13 innings against each other at Wrigley. Dean struck out 15 and give up a run; Paige struck out 17 and pitched a shutout.

Gay interviewed nearly 40 people for this project, including Feller, Paige's son Robert, and former players like Monte Irvin and Mickey Vernon.

How it goes down in the scorebook: We wish were old enough to have been able to attend a Satchel Paige Night at Wrigley Field -- Oct. 24, 1948 was the last one, with a great story (page 272) about how Cool Papa Bell scored from first base on a sacrifice bunt by Paige.

One more review: From Wil Haygood in The Washington Post, via Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf site (linked here): "Gay has written a workmanlike book. It has limitations, some of which are not really the author's fault. The records of these games, even when they can be tracked down, are not always dependable. The games seem to have been not so much "wild," as Gay implies in his subtitle, as slapstick. And some of the stories here sound apocryphal: Negro leaguers taking on the Klan and living to tell about it? Gay's repeated use of "according to legend" doesn't help, either. Another drawback is that these were exhibition games, played in a relaxed environment. Pride was doubtless at stake, but not the kind of feverish athletic fervor that might have been displayed in a Negro leagues championship game."

Also, find William McNeil's 2002 book, "The California Winter League."

Also: Any kind of review about this without at least mentioning "Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend" by Larry Tye (linked here) would be unfair. The book came out in late 2009, has been on the shelf for sometime and this was a perfect opportunity to contrast and compare it to this Satch-related book.

Tye helped Gay with material for his book, and then offered a review of it for the back cover.

And then, in the larger-than-live "Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress" by Harry Katz, Frank Ceresi, Phil Michel, Wilson McBee and Susan Reyburn (linked here), one of the "treasures" advertised on the back page is "a rare color portrait taken in 1952" of Paige, when he was with Cleveland Indians. It is something to stare at a while indeed.

Highlights of the week ahead in sports, both here and afar:

MONDAY

NHL playoffs: Kings vs. Vancouver, Game 3, Staples Center, 7 p.m., FSW:

Bank on two things: 1) The game will be tied after regulation, and 2) There won't be some dudes wearing green-a-tards taunting anyone who goes into the Staples Center penalty box. Unless, the Blue Man Group is in concert across the street. Neither of them, by the way, can grow a good playoff beard. Back in Black, the Kings return for their first home playoff game in eight years after exchanging 3-2 OT wins with Vancouver. That makes seven games in a row where the Kings played past regulation. And Jonathan Quick tonight moves into a tie for 13th place on the team's all-time list of games played by a goalie in the playoffs - with three. If the Kings make this a seven-game series, he'll jump to No. 7.

Running: Boston Marathon, 6:30 a.m., Universal Sports:

There was one suggestion by a former Boston resident that they change the course: Have it start in Fenway Park, wind around some of the famous historical landmarks in the city, then have it end at some pier in the Atlantic Ocean. You know, an East Coast version of the Los Angeles Marathon. No, it doesn't sound very pracitcal, does it?

MLB: Angels vs. Detroit, Angels Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime:

Welcome a Tiger without a groupie waiting for him at the Disneyland Hotel. Probably. And if you ever wondered what happened to Dontrelle Willis, here's your answer, on the mound tonight.

TUESDAY

NBA playoffs: Lakers vs. Oklahoma City, Game 2, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., TNT:

Key stat from Game 1: Celeb sightings (aside from Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon) included Andy Garcia, Teri Hatcher, New York Jets QB Mark Sanchez, Glenn Frey, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Penny Marshall and David Arquette. Plus Maroon 5 lead singer Adam Levine, sitting with a friend. Make sure you come back for game two. And leave singer boy at home.

MLB: Dodgers at Cincinnati, 4 p.m., Channel 9:

Homer, on the road: The Dodgers start a nine-game trip against the Reds' Homer Bailey, who has already given up two HRs in his first two starts (going just more than 10 IP) and 25 in 39 career starts.

MLB: Angels vs. Detroit, Angels Stadium, 7 p.m., FSW:

Did you know: Detroit has a relief pitcher named Fu-Te Ni. Can I get your autograph? How about just a pronunciation?

WEDNESDAY

NHL playoffs: Kings vs. Vancouver, Game 4, Staples Center, 7 p.m., FSW:

And we go to the mailbox for another question. What's a Canuck? The UrbanDictionary.com (linked here) says: There is a theory that the word is derived from Connaught, a term said to be given by French Canadians to the Irish. Some other dictionaries say it's from the Iroquois "Canuchsa." Or from Hawaiian pidgin "Kanaka" (man) for someone in the fir trade, and merged with the French "Canaque," which was a French Canadian canoemen. Yeah, whatever.

MLB: Dodgers at Cincinnati, 4 p.m., Prime:

How did Francisco Cordero, leading the NL in saves already from the Reds' bully, rack up more than 250 of 'em in his career?

MLB: Angels vs. Detroit, Angels Stadium, 7 p.m., Channel 13:

So .... how's that Johnny Damon experiment working for you, D-town? Guess what -- you stash him in the visiting clubhouse clothes dryer just one more day and he'll gladly rejoin his former Yankee teammates when the come in for the weekend. They'll even have your World Series ring ready to give you. Surely, Scott Boras has suggested that already.

THURSDAY

NFL Draft, Day 1, Round One: 4:30 to 8 p.m., ESPN, NFL Network (Rounds 2-3 are Friday, 3-5 p.m.; Rounds 4-7 are Saturday, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.):

Jimmy Clausen's mock draft doesn't have him sitting in the green room at New York's Radio City Music Hall waiting for anyone to call him the next Brady Quinn. The Notre Dame quarterback out of Oaks Christian won't go No. 1, but ... at least No. 10? Back on the website LostLettermen.com (linked here), they put Clausen's bio up against another Valley legend, John Elway, for a comparison of talent. First, Clausen (6-foot-3, 225 pounds) had a 16-19 record in three seasons with the Irish.

Elway (6-foot-3, 210) had a 20-23 record in four years at Stanford. Both have the size and the arms that scouts adore. Elway, of course, went No. 1 overall, to the Baltimore Colts in the 1983 draft -- then threatened to play pro baseball if they didn't trade him. Clausen is expected to go in the first round. But how low? Maybe it depends on the attitude he's displayed -- some think not all the much different than Elway. "At the end of the day, Clausen will still end up as a top 10 pick and he's just too talented not to succeed in the NFL," they write. "While a career of Elway's brilliance is a pipe dream, look for Clausen to become a Pro Bowl quarterback in a league where guys like Jake Delhomme and JaMarcus Russell still have starting jobs."

MLB: Dodgers at Cincinnati, 4 p.m., Prime:

Vicente Padilla is scheduled to make his fourth start of the season. That should have been the over/under line when the year started.

MLB: Angels vs. Detroit, Angels Stadium, 7 p.m., FSW:

Verlander vs. Saunders doesn't get much better.

NBA playoffs: Lakers at Oklahoma City, Game 3, 6:30 p.m., Channel 9:

In a state that looks like a giant pot on the stove, in a city that doesn't deserve professional anything except perhaps bullriding and dry driver dune buggy racing -- west of Prague, north of Norman, south of Fallis and east of Calumet is where the Lakers land on a runway swept for sagebrush to find their next paycheck. So what to do on an offday? From the Oklahoma City Convention & Visitors Bureau (linked here): "Oklahoma City has it all -- from the historic Old West in Stockyards City to the vibrant energy of Bricktown, the city's lively entertainment district. Our museums hold artistic treasures, and our sports venues have something for everyone. Choices abound for an experience you'll cherish!" Brickcity, you say? Not really what you want to promote if your basketball team is involved in the post-regular season.

FRIDAY

NHL playoffs: Kings at Vancouver, Game 5, 7 p.m., FSW:

If the series comes back to L.A. after this game, we'll show you our Canuck tattoo.

MLB: Angels vs. New York Yankees, Angels Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime:

In a ceremony prior to the game, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada will present former teammate Hideki Matsui with the recently recovered left-over porn stash that he kept in the old Yankees' clubhouse under Joe DiMaggio's old locker.

MLB: Dodgers at Washington, 4 p.m., Channel 9:

Note to Adam Kennedy's family: Yup, he's living in DC now. Give him a call.

SATURDAY

NBA playoffs: Lakers at Oklahoma City, Game 4, 6:30 p.m., Channel 9:

Another lazy night at the Oak-City Corral. Can we just finish this thing and move on? Our chaps are killing us.

MLB: Angels vs. New York Yankees, Angels Stadium, 1 p.m., Channel 11:

After Robinson Cano hit two homers and raised his average to .395 in a win over the Angels last week, New York Post columnist Kevin Kernan predicted that the Yankees second baseman would not just win a Gold Glove but be the American League MVP by season's end. This, from the kid named after Jackie Robinson and filling the fifth spot in the lineup once held by the World Series MVP who was let to go free (to the Angels) after last season.

MLB: Dodgers at Washington, 10 a.m., Prime:

Steven Strasburg warming up for his MLB debut? Naw, not yet.

SUNDAY

NHL playoffs: Vancouver at Kings, Game 6, TBD:

A poll on the Kings' official home page asks fans to predict the outcome of this series. Canucks win it in six (32 percent) got the most action, while Kings in six (23 percent) was the second choice.We'll go with the Luongo, the better.

MLB: Angels vs. New York Yankees, 12:35 p.m., FSW:

Guess what: The Halos will probably avoid CC Sabathia again, since he's scheduled to pitch Thursday night in Oakland.

MLB: Dodgers at Washington, 10:30 a.m., Channel 9:

Barry Obama just called. Said just because the Dodgers got to the NLCS the last two years doesn't make it an "open door" policy to "just drop by" when they're "in town." So someone please, come by and pick up Larry Bowa before some secret service guys take him out back.

Preceeded by a Q-and-A with Dirk Hayhurst in today's print and internet edition (linked here), plus bonus Q-and-A coverage on the blog (linked here), here is a review of his book::

The book: "The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran"

The author: Dirk Hayhurst

The vital stats: Citadel Press, 340 pages, $14.95 (paperback)

Find it: Find more about it at his official site: www.dirkhayhurst.com; order it at Amazon.com (linked here)

The pitch: Keith Olbermann, the former ESPN and Fox Sport Net anchor, current MSNBC communicator and author of the MLB.com blog "Baseball Nerd" (linked here), was one of the first major supporters, writing this review:

"I'm not sure that he hasn't written the best baseball autobiography since Jim Bouton's Ball Four. ... These are books about life: struggle, confusion, purpose, purposelessness, and the startling realization that achievement and failure are nearly-identical twins, one which gnaws and deadens, the other which just as often produces not elation but a tinny, empty sound. ...

"Since my own childhood, we have ever-increasingly devalued every major leaguer but the superstar. Late in the last century we began to devalue every minor leaguer but the top draft choice. If you don't make it into somebody's Top Prospects list, you might as well not exist. Dirk Hayhurst is writing of his days, his months, his years, as far away from the Top Prospects lists as imaginable. He is, in The Bullpen Gospels, often the last man on an A-ball pitching staff, and trying to answer a series of successively worsening questions cascading from the simplest of them: Why? This, of course, is why the book transcends the game. ... It is the primordial battle of hope and faith and inspiration versus disillusionment and rust and inertia."

No wonder Amazon.com has seen it launch to the top of its best-selling sports books since its release three weeks ago, and the New York Times' bestseller list has it in the Top 20 this week.

Some brief background: Dirk Von Hayhurst (baseballreference.com bio linked here) pitched for seven teams in seven seasons, including the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, since 2003. Fans of the California League might remember him with Lake Elsinore ... and pitching against the Lancaster JetHawks, as he describes in the first chapter. Drafted by the Padres out of Kent State, eventually let go by the franchise in '09, he spent most of last season with Triple-A Las Vegas and came up to the Toronto Blue Jays late in the year. He's currently on the Jays' 60-day DL (linked here), not on the active roster, recovering from shoulder surgery done last February and likely won't pitch again this season.

Baseball America's website had plenty of highly-touted minor leaguers writing for its "Prospect Diary" blog, so it was natural for someone like Hayhurst to create something called the "Non-Prospect Diary" (linked here), which showed off his writing skills and insightful introspection. The book was a natural progression.

A couple of excerpts for us sum up what's really going on in a book that Hayhurst states clearly is not about outing a teammate taking PEDs, one who's cheating on his wife or any other scandalous stuff -- just real life.

From page 24:

Something about lying in my underwear with snow boots on while my right arm throbbed got me thinking. Suffice to say, this was not how I pictured my life as a professional baseball player, shacking up with the withered old puppet of evil I called grandma, hanging on to a crumbling dream while the world passed me by, is not how things were supposed to go.

There is so much you don't know when you get into the baseball business. You think you know it all. You've certainly seen enough of it on television to form an educated guess. But the stuff that happens on television isn't real, no matter how bad you want it to be. ... I was going to live the big-league dream. What the hell happened? Where were all my millions? ... Where was my dignity?

Page 82:

I had a lot of failures in my career. Even my successes felt like failures, seeing how I had nothing to show for them. When I failed, it felt so colossally taxing, I became afraid of the slightest potential of it happening each time I took the mound. Soon, it was the only thing I expected myself to do. It's easy to talk about success when failure doesn't mean anything. To me, failure meant a lot. It was something along the lines of self-destruction or imprisonment. ... It's what motivated me, punished me, and branded me. It was my very wicked master. Thus, each success I had this spring was tempered by the looming shadow of my possible meltdown. Sure I was happy about the results so far. I was doing well. But more importantly, I wasn't blowing it.

One more, from the last chapter, page 335, relaying a story about meeting Padres reliever Trevor Hoffman, who sees him writing on his laptop -- until that point, Hayhurst said, his biggest highlight, "the one my mom called to inform me I made 'SportsCenter' for," was giving up a home run to the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez:

"What's the book about?" (Hoffman asked).

Hoffman looked at me, evaluating and judging me like those big leaguers with time and power do. "I agree," he said ...

That kind refreshing take on life, counterbalance by the other hijinx that goes on with minor-league sophomoric lifestyle, sheds far new light onto what it means to be in a baseball uniform. How hopes and dreams can be great goals, but are mostly unrealistic, causing constant doubt and reassessment, a realignment of goals, and some moments of epiphany.

A story about a 3-year-old with liver cancer visiting the bullpen, led by his sobbing mother, is one of those moments that Hayhurst relays with such profoundness, it leads to him writing:

"Baseball and life - such funny things that don't always make sense. Yet, in those moments spent with that child, watching him live in the game in a way none of us who played it could, everything made perfect sense. ... Baseball doesn't have any intrinsic power. It only has what people give it. ... Is baseball as important as food, knowledge, care of a dry pair of boots? Is it as important as some of the things that pass us by in everyday life? I don't think so. Can it inspire, motivate and call us to do something greater than ourselves? Absolutely. The burden of the player isn't to achieve greatness but to give the feeling of it to everyone he encounters. It was wrong of me even to try to separate life and the game. They were intertwined, meant to be, one teaching the other..."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Some guys -- athletes or not -- just don't get it. Hayhurst does. Thanks, Dirk. As long as you keep things in perspective, you've not just learned an important life lesson, but you've let the rest of us in on the process. We hope you find what you're looking for.

The Associated Press
During a game in Sept., 2008, Padres pitcher Dirk Hayhurst, right, is late with a tag on the Giants' Pablo Sandoval, who scores on a wild pitch in the top of the 10th inning.

Following up on today's Q-and-A with Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dirk Hayhurst, author of the hot-selling "The Bullpen Gospels" about his 2007 season spend in the minor leagues (linked here), there's more to tell:

Q: Are you going to pitch again?

A: This may be the end, but it's tough to see. The life of your average right-handed reliever isn't guaranteed. I hope to pitch again, but at some point, like everything else, I'll have to take it as it comes.

Q: You've talked about how you found it kind of silly at times to sign baseballs for people. Does it feel any different now to sign a copy of your book?

A: I've actually been excited to do it; it's not strange for some reason. When someone wants you to sign a baseball card, it's because they collect it, or they want something from me, the player, but they really don't know anything about me except for stats. There's no personal connection. But when people get the book and read the stories, now they know me, who I am, there's a cool personal touch to it. It transcends the baseball card.

Q: How has the book changed the way your teammates treat you?

A: It used to be that I was intimidated by the other players, and now I think I intimidate them because I did a book, and it's been read by tens of thousands of people. At first, it was hard to do because they started to be weary of me, like I was Jim Bouton, but now it's been different. They're not scared of me but they know what I can do with a laptop.

From the Associated Press

The one constant in the longtime rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants has been Vin Scully, who on Sunday will mark the 60th anniversary of his first day in the Dodgers' broadcast booth with Red Barber and Connie Desmond.

"I feel only overwhelming gratitude," Scully told the Associated Press. "You feel blessed that you've lived that long, that you've been allowed to do what you love to do for that long, and that my health has held up all those years.

"It's humbling to think that you've been that fortunate and that God has blessed you with that time. That first team, the so-called 'Boys of Summer,' that was my graduating class. I mean, look at the team then. I had Don Newcombe, Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Billy Cox, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo and Carl Erskine. That was such an amazing collection of players, so I guess that was the team that made the most impression on me."

The book: "A Game of Inches: The Story Behind the Innovations that Shaped Baseball"

The author: Peter Morris

The vital stats: Ivan R. Dee publishing, 626 pages, $26.95 (paperback)

Find it: Amazon.com has it (linked here), as does the publishers' official site (linked here).

The pitch: When the first two volumes of this came out in 2006, earning the Seymour Medal and The Casey Award as the best baseball books of the year, improvement on them seemed to be a distant thought. But this reprint comes with the cover recommendations by ESPN's Rob Neyer ("The one that every serious baseball fan must have) and Keith Olbermann ("An astronishingly well-researched history of the evolution of almost every facet of the game. You will be amazed at the amount of accepted knowledge that Morris disproves.")

We're sold. Even if it's a re-issued text, knowing that it was revised and expanded made it a no-brainer for our knowledge-seeking mind. Morris also wanted the two editions condensed for easier use, add a topical index to make referencing things aside from people more useful and update research that had happened over the last three years. He himself found new material in writing the 2008 "But Didn't We Have Fun: An Informal History of Baseball's Pioneer Era, 1843-1870" (linked here) and 2009's "Catcher: How the Man Behind the Plate Became an American Folk Hero" (linked here) since then.

Focused more on the why and how rather than the who and what, Morris has actually opened himself up to publishing upgraded versions every few years -- perhaps this will inspire other historians to either backup or try to disprove his material.

He also makes it clear that this isn't supposed to be "a book of baseball firsts, (which) could be endlessly long . . . the object of this book (is not) to capture such minutiae. . . . I'm (more) interested in the origins of the batting crouch, but not in determining the first left-handed hitter to crouch. (Also) baseball already has many record books, and this book is not intended to poach on their territory."

Among our favorite entries:

== 26.2.5: High Fives. Glenn Burke is believed to have invented the highfive while playing for the Dodgers in the late 1970s. (The other day was actually dubbed High Five Day by ...somebody).

== 26.3.2: Reports that Baseball is Dead: When baseball experienced its first great rush of popularity between 1865 and 1867, there was a wide-spread feeling that "baseball fever" was simply a fad that would soon abate. Accordingly, when the game struggled in 1868 and 1869, many journalists prematurely pronounced the game dead. It was far from the last time.

== As the Dodgers were trying to figure out if Jeanne Zelasko had a place in women's play-by-play broadcasting history when she was assigned games on the Internet last season, entry 20.2.13 notes that as early as 1938, golfer Helen Dettweiler was hired by General Mills as a goodwill embassador who'd go city to city and brodcast local games and had "succeeded in breaking down that barrier," (reported The Sporting News). In 1964, Charles O. Finley had Betty Caywood do his Kansas City A's games. In 1976, Anita Martini, a Houston sportswriter, did Astros games. Mary Shane was given a shot at being doing Chicago White Sox play-by-play in 1977, but she was phased out after 35 home games. Said then-White Sox broadcaster Jimmy Piersall: "She never had a chance . . . because of all the in-bred prejudice against women covering a baseball team." Curiously, the entry doesn't even mention Suzyn Waldman, a New York Yankees broadcaster on WCBS-AM radio since 2005, becoming the first woman to hold a full-time position as a Major League broadcaster.

== In a story of African-American announcers: In 1965, Jackie Robinson was unveiled by Roone Arledge as one of three "interpretative" commentators who would work the regional telecasts of ABC's Game of the Week.

== Chapter 19 covers 17 "versions" of baseball, including Over the LIne, on roller skates, Water Baseball, Wiffle Ball, Two Swings, Donkey Baseball and Old-fashion.

== Curiously, there's only one paragraph on the subject of steroids, a subject that has filled hundreds of pages of recent books. Referenced 2.4.6, the steroids entry says: "The first ballplayer to admit to having taken illegal steroids ws the late Ken Caminiti, in a Sports Illustrated article published in June 2002. Caminiti acknowledged that steroids helped him win the National League MVP award in 1996. Of course Caminiti wasn't the first to take illegal steroids, and other players, most notably Mark McGwire, have acknowledged taking products such as androstenedione, which were not prohibited by baseball at the time."

How it goes down in the scorebook: As for calling it a "Game of Inches," this one is only an inch and a quarter thick. Smaller type and a paperback cover helps. But only 11 pages of bibiography? The authors of those books, newspaper stories and magazine articles should have a badge of honor knowing Morris referenced them. When we are looking for a quick reference and can't decide what to Google -- or are away from the nasty computer -- this provides more than just a doorstop to find an obscure reference to a shortstop.

Your Los Angeles Lightning of the International Basketball League have a pair of tryout sessions set for this weekend at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

You got game? No, really. We're talking to you, Venice Streetball Guy Who Talks Big.

It's not as if the defending IBL champs, starting their third season, really need you. But if you're inclined, coach Ron Quarterman and owner Mark Harwell will evaluate talent from 1-4 p.m. Saturday and 1-3 p.m. Sunday at the Gilbert Sports Arena. It'll cost you: $150.

The Lightning have had up to six former NBA players on the roster, including ex-UCLA standouts Toby Bailey and Derrick Martin, plus former Clipper Lamond Murray.

They open their 20-game schedule on May 7 with road games in Edmonton before returning home on May 15 against the Oregon Waves.

More info: www.lalightning.net.

The book: "Straight Talk from the Wild Thing"

The author: Mitch Williams

The vital stats: Triumph Books, 240 pages, $19.95

Find it: On Powells.com (linked here)

The pitch: Sorry -- or maybe we're not -- but every time we see Williams on MLB Network, or hear him being interviewed on a radio show, we get this vision of Kenny Powers.

You know, the Danny McBride character in HBO's "Eastbound and Down" (season two is supposed to start sometime this year, so stay tuned).

Williams, according to our sources, actually believes he was the inspiration for the character. We tend to think it's more John Rocker meets Rod Beck. But if Williams is trying to advance his own theory on this, a book like this one could have been much more ... Powers like.

You know. Cursing. Crazy accuations. Self-indulgence.

Thankfully, it's not.

Maybe it's because many believe his nickname is more than just the fact he used to give up more walks than hits during his career.

"My nickname was a barrier everywhere I went," he admits on page 181. "I've had people tell me that organizations thougth I was the type of wild guy who wouldn't show up on time, not follow the rules. Hey the only thing wild about me was that I had trouble finding the strike zone on occasion."

Ask Joe Carter.

Williams admits he got the nickname from former Red Sox reliever Calvin Schiraldi, after they went together to see the movie "Major League."

"Yes, I got my nickname from the pitcher that Charlie Sheen played; he didn't get the nickname from me," said Williams.

We got this clip of Williams from a recent appearance on the Dan Patrick radio show, when the host asked him if the Dodgers would be the NL West winner and perhaps go further than the NLCS as they did the last two seasons:

"No, not this year. Their pitching is very suspect. Clayton Kershaw, there's been a whole lot of hype heaped on this kid. For me, mechanically, I'm not a big fan of his mechanics and the way he throws the ball. I think he doesn't ever get to his backside well enough to allow himself to add some deception to his delivery. I mean, he's got great stuff but I just think there's been so much expected of him that I don't know he'll ever live up to what they expect out of him."

Wait, Kershaw isn't well mechanically. Someone like Williams, who'd land at the end of his delivery as if he'd been shot by a sniper, would know.

But Williams' theory on this subject goes further. When talking about how former Cubs manager Dusty Baker was accused of ruining the careers of Mark Prior and Kerry Wood, Williams writes:

"Their injuries had nothing to do with too many pitches. They had to do with horrible mechanics. Prior was said to have great mechanics? Wrong. Neither pitcher ever got to their back side."

Sound familiar? Maybe it will if Kershaw comes up with a sore elbow sometime soon. Remember where you read it.

Williams, born in Santa Ana and a member of the Angels for a time before he was released at midseason in 1995, admits he was much more into wrestling and football than baseball, but had an older brother who attracted the scouts and eventually signed with the Milwaukee organization. Mitch, it seems, was destined to follow -- and learn the game well enough to talk about it as he does today.

"Fans know I'm not wild in what I say about the game," Williams writes.

He's cocky, even fearless at times with what he says. It comes with the territory. And it translates well enough on these pages.

How it goes down in the scorebook: A major save. Even if his delivery isn't perfect.

Also: An observation Williams has about former teammate Lenny Dykstra: "Bar-none, the smartest baseball player I ever played with. Baseball smart, that is. He's the most devoid of common sense of anybody I've ever met."

Another observation Williams mades about Manny Ramirez: "(He) has been the best right-handed hitter alive for a few years because he stays inside the fastball no matter what. You want to get him out, you have to come way in first, then go away. But it's hard to go that far inside because he's got unbelieveable hands and he trusts his hands ... There is nothing for him to fear because if you pitch inside, the umpire will throw you out of the game. ... (And) Watch Ramirez closely when he walks. Sometimes he hesitates before he starts toward first. I've heard it's because when he's at bat, he doesn't keep track of the balls, just the strikes. That's relaxed."

Anything to the fact that Ramirez and Williams wear No. 99?

Wednesday night's Dodgers-D'backs game did finally end, long after apparently every newspaper's deadline, so the final score, and box score, will finally appear in today's editions.

About 30 hours after the last out.

Delayed gratification. Can you handle it?

Spoiler alert: Dodgers, no bueno.

It's like filing for an extension with your tax returns. With a Turbo Tax account that doesn't have a "send" button.

We knew the end of the game was due on April 14. But then it spilled into April 15. And then we got to read about it on April 16. And we paid a major penalty for that.

Unless you have the Internet machine and could have read about it immediately.

Which leads to the question: Is baseball coverage in newspapers dying?

They posed the question at this site, Fangraphs.com (linked here), and concluded:

With all the extra coverage around the 'Net, game reports are pretty much covered by places like ESPN, FoxSports, and MLB.com. What newspapers should be focusing on is features, interesting angles and even teams' up-and-coming minor league stars. ... I haven't read a truly interesting or inspired column in a year or more. Their Q&A articles, which seem to be rather popular, are usually bland and misinformed.

The cheapest way for some newspapers (especially those operating in small or mid-sized markets) to get some footing back for their sports pages is to embrace the online writer (I dislike the term blogger; there are too many negative connotations). Hiring a writer or two off the Internet would be both cheap and it could really infuse some life back into the baseball coverage. Sure, there are some lousy and unreliable baseball writers online, but there are also some great ones that produce insightful and clean copy. The exact same can be said for sports columnists in the newspaper world.

Just like you can read this stuff, in addition to today's media column (linked here) before the actual hard copy of the paper lands in your bushes:

== "Saturday Night Live" Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers, who is also the show's head writer, has decided to accept ESPN's invite to host the next ESPY awards, which will be No. 18, from the Nokia Theatre across the street from Staples Center on Wednesday July 14 at 6 p.m. The only real news -- aside from it lasting this long -- is it's going back to a live show, actually airing on Wednesday instead of going to tape and forcing a Major League Baseball game to start earlier on the following Sunday so that ESPN can show its awards program in the game's usual 5 p.m. slot. Last time the ESPYs were live was in '03.

"If you asked anyone I played sports with as a kid they would tell you 'the only way Seth was making it to the ESPYs was as a host or presenter,'" said Meyers in a funny statement.

Surely, he has his Ben Roethlisburger jokes already written for him. By Ben himself.

A "limited" number of ESPYs tickets are available for public purchase starting April 24 through www.ticketmaster.com.

== Galaxy soccer guy Landon Donovan will be the subject of a Rick Reilly "Homecoming" episode, to be taped at his alma mater, Redlands East Valley High on Monday night. To attend the taping, to go www.onsetproductions.com.

== The NFL Network, and NFL.com, will break its own news with the announcement of the 2010 schedule -- all 256 games -- on Tuesday at 4 p.m. On the TV side, it's a two-hour special.

== Fox sends Dick Stockton and Mark Grace to Dodger Stadium to cover Saturday's Dodgers-Giants game, which will feature Tim Lincecum pitching against Charlie Haegar. It will go to 22 percent of the country. Most (61 percent) get Kenny Albert and Tim McCarver doing the New York Mets-St. Louis game, with 16 percent getting the Chicago White Sox at Cleveland (with Chris Rose and Eric Karros).

== Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward will be in Atlantic City, N.J., for Kelly Pavlik-Sergio Martinez bout, while Bob Papa, Max Kellerman and Lennox Lewis are in Montreal for the Lucian Bute-Edison Miranda fight, both of which will go back-to-back on HBO Saturday starting at 7 p.m.

AND FINALLY:

== Onion Sports has officially hooked up with Comedy Central for "The Onion Sports Network" (that's a working title) with scripted episodes set to premiere in the first quarter of 2011, the network announced.

According to The Onion, its news network "reaches 7 billion viewers in 11 different countries, as well as more than 115 million prison cells worldwide."

"The Onion Sports Network teaming up with Comedy Central?" said Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion, in a statement. "If I were ESPN, I'd consider a whole new line of work."

"The Perfect Game," a Lionsgate film recalling how the 1957 Monterrey Mexico team became the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series, finally makes it theatric debut Friday after a two years in movie purgatory.

The movie, based on the 2008 book by W. William Winokur, was to have been released as well that year but the producers say it lacked money to market it properly.

Cheech Marin, who grew up playing Little League in Granada Hills, was an Alemany of Mission Hills High grad ('64) and went to San Fernando Valley State (before it was Cal State Northridge), plays Padre Esteban, the priest in Monterrey who introduces the boys in the town to baseball by gathering them to listen to Brooklyn Dodgers games over the radio after mass on Sundays.

"It was a really big deal back then ... I remember listening to the championship game on the radio. Angel Macias threw a perfect game. But what really stuck with me was that he could throw right or left-handed. I'd never heard of anything like that before," Marin told the Daily News back in August, 2007, as the film was being made.

"My agent was like, 'It's a true story' and I'm like, 'I know, I remember.' I already knew it was a really, really good story. And the script was good, so I signed on."

More info at the movie's official site (linked here)

It's not the kind of story you want to see a day after you allow someone to proclaim to the world, "It's time for Dodger baseball."

Today, this comes out:

Larry King, 76, and his wife, Shawn Southwick, 50, have both filed for divorce, citing "irreconcilable differences," the New York Daily News reports.

Acording to the article, "The marriage crumbled after Southwick accused King of having an affair with her younger sister, Shannon Engemann, TMZ reported. The National Enquirer first reported the creepy inter-family cheating allegation in December, quoting an unnamed friend of Southwick's. The tabloid also said Southwick had an affair with her son's baseball coach in 2008 - a claim she denied."

Engemann denied to TMZ that she had an affair with King.

The Daily News article also reports that King has asked for "joint custody of the couple's two sons, Chance, 11, and Cannon, 9," while his wife has asked "for primary physical custody of the boys, spousal and child support and the couple's Beverly Hills mansion."

Chance and Cannon ... We won't even go there.

The book: "90% of the Game Is Half Mental: And Other Tales from the Edge of Baseball Fandom"

The author: Emma Span

The vital stats: Villard Books, 166 pages, $15 (paperback)

Find it: Take your pick at her blogsite (linked here) called "Eephus Pitch"

The pitch: This seems crazy, but I remember seeing her on "Jeopardy!" Am I nuts? Rather, what is, am I nuts? Apparently not. There's a website with a "Jeopardy!" contestant data base, and it says she was on Season 26 -- Oct. 12, 2009.

It was the kinda unusual name that stuck. Sounds like a bridge you cross somewhere in Georgia.

Anyway ...

In the intro, she writes: "People will compare almost anything (to baseball). Over the years, I've heard that baseball is like a poker game, that marriage is like baseball, that sex is like baseball, that baseball is like Darwinism, that baseball is like war, and -- most of all -- that baseball is really, when you think about it, a lot like life. I've even caught myself starting to say that once or twice myself, and the comparison is tempting. But it's not true: Baseball is nothing like life, which is why it's so great."

Why has that paragraph never been written before?

"The game thrives on unfounded nostalgia, wild exaggeration and pure bullshit, which has always been part of its charm."

You kiss your boyfriend with that potty mouth? Keep going ...

As a sports writer for The Village Voice, she said she found out: "LIke many other neat-sounding jobs, close to three-fourths of it consists of basically standing around. Baseball writers, thanks to the powers of the otherwise largely useless Baseball Writers Association of America, get considerably more locker room time than writers in any other main sport ... in theory, this is an excellent opportunity for the press and their subjects to spend a lot of time talking and building strong, trusting, mutually beneficial relationships. In practice, most of the players spend additional time in their private lounge and training room, and so the writers stand around in clusters and gossip."

She so knows me.

How baseball pulled this self-proclamed geeky Yale grad closer, then farther from her dad, got her through other troubled times and affected her grades while in college is what this diary/time on the couch is all about for the twenty-something.

And as for "Jeopardy!" ... She admits in her bio that while she was on the show, "she missed an easy question about Mickey Mantle, claiming that 'the buzzer timing was really tricky.'"

More reviews: From author Jeff Pearlman: "In a modern journalistic era pocked by snark and sarcasm, Span offers up a riveting glimpse at the absurdity--and splendor--of modern sports. Were this book a mustache, it would be Don Mattingly's--circa 1988."

And Will Leitch, author of "God Save The Fan" and former Deadspin.com editor: "She writes about baseball the way I wish everyone would write about baseball."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Span says her dad always told her: "The world is full of peckerheads, toothless ducks and midgets. Don't let them get you down." I'm about to have a plaque made of that quote and stick it on my bathroom mirror.

More: She's on Linked in (linked here). And follow her on Twitter (linked here). A recent post: "I'm so glad Joe West has done what nine decades of baseball rivalry hasn't. He's united Yankees and Red Sox fans in a common cause."

Also: Keep an eye out for Span's other new book, "New York, New York: A Season With the Mets and the Yankees" (linked here).

London's Daily Mail (linked here) was impressed to see how David Beckham was back in training to some play kickball for England someday.

According to the newspaper, Beckham, who ruptured his Achilles tendon last month to knock him out of participating for the country's World Cup team as well as the Galaxy's MLS season, "was pictured shovelling down a giant pretzel and slurping on a drink as he watched the LA Lakers defeat the Sacramento Kings 106-100 at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles yesterday."

More from the story:

It's the second time in as many days Beckham, 34, has been pictured watching the LA Lakers - on Sunday he attended a match with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

However, the pair seemed more interested in comparing their Rolex watches than watching the action on court as they sat in their $2,200 seats.

Beckham's distractions during the game may upset some die-hard Lakers fans, who can't afford the pricey front row seats.

Basketball fans last year criticised some of the celebrity attendees for not paying attention to the game and treating it as a paparazzi opportunity.

Tuesday, Beckham was joined by his film producer friend Navin Narang and was also spotted chatting with Kim Kardashian's mother, Kris Jenner, who was sitting a few seats away.

Matt Kemp hits the ball, and Rihanna jumps out of her seat. He crashes into the center-field fence to catch a ball, and Rihanna twirls her first in celebration.

He shows up in the May issue of GQ, and now she's just mentioned as ...

"That's a good friend of mine," Kemp says about her in the story (linked here). "We hang out and have fun."

Yeah, sound serious.

The rest of the story:

After nearly a half decade out west, Kemp might know his couture ("I'm addicted to these Lanvin shoes"), but the accessory he covets most is a World Series ring. The Dodgers have been bounced from the playoffs the past two years by the Philadelphia Phillies, and Kemp could barely stomach watching the rest of the postseason. "It's hard," he says. At least he has his freedom (mostly). Athletes rank a distant second to entertainers on the L.A. attention scale. "I can walk around the city," he says. "I don't need a bunch of people or a security guard. Singers and actresses are going to get way more recognized than an athlete--unless you're Kobe Bryant."

Tommy Lasorda poses in front of a graphic piece of art created by Michael Guccione, which will be on display at the "Lasordapalooza" exhibit at the Pomona Library through May 15.

In Arizona a few weeks ago for spring training, working on a couple stories, I ran into Tommy Lasorda at the Dodgers' Camelback Ranch facility.

That's not really hard to do. He's pretty much everywhere, being shuttled around in a golf cart, stopping where ever he's asked to talk to fans, sponsors, players, more fans ...

Out of the blue, I made a request in the middle of the conversation: Could I get my picture with you? Of course, he obliged. Here's the result:

That's not very professional of me. In fact, I don't believe I've ever done it. Something just happened in the moment -- a casual setting of spring training, someone nearby with a camera. To me, it was the as if I'd run into the Famous Chicken, or the Philly Phanatic, or Pee-wee Herman, or the guy who drives the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

Lasorda is the Ronald McDonald of baseball. A people-pleasing person, as accomodating as putting two quarters and a bright copper penny into one of those squishing machines and having a souvenir come clinking down at the bottom.

When The Baseball Reliquary (linked here) announced it would present what it has called "Lasordapalooza," an exhibition "surveying the life and times" of Tommy Lasorda, opening Tuesday and running through May 28 at the Pomona Public Library, I flashed back to that day a couple of weeks ago to think about the stuff we discussed.

Ninety-nine percent of it, I'd heard before. But I listened again anyway. It was the art of the presentation. He talked about, in no particular order, the fact he was in nearly two dozen Hall of Fames, had his portrait at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C., owned one suit when he was a kid that was a hand-me-down from his older brother who only wore it to Sunday church ...

He talked about the new bottles of wine someone has been marketing with his name on them that are now for sale. But he can't drink them, he admits, because he's taking too many medications for his heart and blood pressure.

It's the stuff we've heard year after year after year. Somehow, it never gets old.

But Lasorda, on that day, looked old.

The calendar says he'll be 83 this September. A man who's always tireless on that day seemed tired. He spoke softly. But he never stopped talking. That would be out of character.

Eventually, a young girl, maybe 4, with a small dog was brought over to him, along with her family. She said she named the dog "Tommy Lasorda." He got a kick out of it, and lit up. Lasorda posed for all kinds of pictures -- he, like a trained dog, knew the routine.

This was Good Tommy.

Somewhere, far away, was Bad Tommy. The one you find cursing, getting his name somehow tied into a book about a hooker's confessions. Competitive Tommy. Abrasive Tommy.

It goes back to a story the Daily News' Kevin Modesti did on Lasorda in 1997 with the headline "Lights, camera, action: Tommy Lasorda knows when to turn it on" (linked here), just before his Hall of Fame induction. He'd been asked to participate in a KTLA-Channel 5 contest which had him taken by limo to a viewers' home. Lasorda got their early -- and groused about it the whole time.

When the camera went on, he was perfect.

"Lasorda always has presented himself to the public as Santa Claus in blue, but can anybody be that lovable 24 hours a day?" Modesti wrote. "Well, no."

In a way, I'm not so crazy that the Reliquary display is happening, calling it a "candid look" at his career -- from his World Series championships, to his estrangement from his gay son. From his Hall of Fame credentials to his penchant for self-promotion.

They're pulling the curtain back. It'll make you smile; it'll make you cringe.

In this exhibit, the artwork ranges from paintings and a stained-glass pieces to digital works and a hand-painted baseball. The artists -- Mary Cannon, Michael Guccione, Greg Jezewski, Moe Mockster, Julian Pollack, Ben Sakoguchi and David Shorey -- have unique perspectives they can express with their medium. Pictures by photojournalist Fred Zermeno will also be on display -- in public for the first time.

But then, there are two essays, written by fans and critics of his. They were winners of a literary contest put on by The Baseball Reliquary in association with this "Lasordapalooza" display.

Cynthia Adam Prochaska wrote about how her mother's signed picture of Lasorda that's up on the wall at her home -- she got it as a result of her complaining to Lasorda that she didn't want to have to buy two jars of his pasta sauce just to receive the photo, as was required for customers to do.

"In the inscription Tommy Lasorda gets the last word, " Procheska wrote. "Never one to let anyone defy him, he wrote, 'Rosemary, Try the sauce.' I smile every time I see it, thinking that Tommy Lasorda, even in his picture, is trying to get his way. He never backs down, Tommy Lasorda, and that tenacious bullying is what he does best. Whether with the Dodgers or an elderly lady in her quiet suburban home, Tommy always has his say. For that, I have to love him."

Then Fred Glienna has a piece entitled "Why I Love AND Hate Tommy Lasorda." He starts it off:

"I love Tommy Lasorda because both his infectious enthusiasm for baseball and his ability to motivate players are irresistible. I hate Tommy Lasorda because he's a hypocritical blowhard, as anyone who has heard uncut tapes of his tirades can attest."

At Tuesday's Dodgers home opener, there was a moment between innings when Lasorda, sitting in his seat near the Dodger dugout, got up on the Jumbotron. Before his appearance, there was video displayed of him, so he knew this was coming. He waited until the camera was on him, then stood up and waived to the crowd. The applause had increased in volume second by second.

Againk this is what the Human Dodger Mascot was supposed to do. He's the team's ambassador and, aside from Vin Scully, it's greatest asset in the public. Maybe under his breath he was cursing that he had to do this, but it didn't show.

Ever the showman until the day he's a no-show.

More details on "Lasordapalooza":

== The library hours are Tuesday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday.

== On Saturday, May 15, the Baseball Reliquary will present a special "Tommy Lasorda Day" program at the Pomona Public Library from 2-to-4 p.m. Festivities will include a Tommy Lasorda Look-Alike Contest, open to both men and women. Further details on this free event will be forthcoming.

== "Lasordapalooza" is supported, in part, by a grant from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

The book: "Top of the Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All Time"

The author: Edited by Sean Manning

The vital stats: Da Capo Press, 240 pages, $15.95 (paperback)

Find it: Powells has it (linked here)

The pitch: Who you connect with as your favorite player probably, somehow, tells a lot about your personality, what makes you tick. Even if you don't realize it until you start to list their qualities.

My first love was a Valentine.

This cool looking guy who'd played baseball and football at USC kept coming up and finally stuck with the Dodgers in 1971. Bobby Valentine played everywhere -- shortstop, third, second, center field ... where ever Walter Alston could fit in him. His was probably one of the first Dodgers baseball cards I ever got, too -- and that's a big deal, seeing it pop out of the nickle machine after you crank it and have a couple cards spit out.

It was probably the way he made himself someone who could be used anywhere. It killed me when the Dodgers traded him to the Angels in that strange Frank Robinson-Bill Grabarkewitz-Bill Singer-Andy Messersmith deal.

Then Bobby V tore up his leg in the wire outfield fence at the Big A and was, of course, never the same. But he kept coming back. With the Padres. And the Mets. He somehow signed with the expansion Seattle Mariners in 1979, he was a freakin' catcher by then.

He had to retire at the age of 29. And, you know, he became a manager -- should have been Lasorda's coach at some point -- and now dabbles at ESPN ....

But that get to the heart of this book.

It starts with that simple question: Who was your favorite baseball player? Now, tell us.

For Roger Kahn, it was Jackie Robinson. For Buzz Bissinger, it's Albert Pujols. Jonathan Eig had Lou Gehrig -- even wrote a biography of him. Pat Jordan takes Tom Seaver.

Then there are people like L.A.-native John Albert, former drummer for Bad Religion who wrote the brutally honest book, "Wrecking Crew" a while back. He took former Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent. There's a weird pairings we needed to find out more.

Kent was, at first, "my least favorite player on my least favorite team (the Giants, in the late '90s). ... When Kent was traded to the Dodgers I vowed that I would continue to loathe him regardless. As far as I was concerned, his only worthwhile accomplishment in baseball had been physically attacking (Barry) Bonds in the Giants' dugout."

But then Albert started to admire Kent's mustache. Then he liked him more "not despite his faults but because of them. I liked that he said whatever he wanted ... He may have been joyless and combative, but he was forthright in an arena of rampant insincerity."

King Kaufman, whom we used to read religiously on Salon.com, took Neifi Perez, the former White Sox-Tigers-Royals-Giants-Cubs infielder. "It began as a goof," Kaufman admits. Then, as admiration, for a player so marginal a major leaguer that he stayed employed somehow. "To last a dozen years in the big leagues, start more than 1,200 games, get caught stealing an astonishing 45 times in 102 attempts, you have to be a hell of a ballplayer ... The worst player in the major leagues is a hell of a ballplayer. Neifi Perez was a hell of a ballplayer. ... I'll never forget Neifi Perez. He was the greatest lousy player I've ever seen."

One player picked here isn't even real. Carry Rickey, a film critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer who grew up a Dodgers fan, understandably (because of her job) picked Crash Davis, writing: "I believe in the chick flick and the dick flick and that both are better when in the same movie. I believe in unprocessed bran, single-malt Scotch and Jersey tomatoes. I believe that 'Field of Dreams' and 'The Natural' are such shmaltzfests they could elevate cholesterol to risky levels. I believe that the dramas of Kevin Costner are self-indulgent dreck. I believe in Title IX, ninth-inning hustle and that catcher Crash Davis, although fictional, is as motivational a figure as Lou Gehrig."

Rickey goes on to explain how Davis, played by Costner in "Bull Durham," reminds her of going to her first Dodgers-Cardinals game in 1963 at Chavez Ravine as a 10 year old, and her dad explained how Sandy Koufax and Johnny Roseboro were working together to try to outsmark Curt Flood.

"Thanks Papacito," she writes about her dad, "and gracias, too, to Vin Scully ... for sparing me the fate of the stats slut, the kind of fan more preoccupied with the numbers a ballplayer (or a movie) racks up than in what happens on the field (or on the screen)."

As editor Manning writes in the intro: "Essays such as these (are) all the more necessary, meant as they are to restore some of the faith in and love for the game you may have lately lost, to serve as a reminder that there's a hell of a lot more about it to cherish than to deplore, and mos tof all to celebrate those players who won us over and made us fans in the first place."

How it goes down in the scorebook: There's only 25 who made this first one. We'd love to see another 25 write their essays next year, and 25 more the year after.

Also: In the fall, Manning has a book scheduled called "Down Off the Shelf: 25 Writers on the Stories Behind the Most Meaningful Book on Their Shelves" (linked here).

The stuff you come across while aimless roaming through the staggering patrons on the Dodgers' first home game of the season:

== Lines for the women's restroom are a tradition like no other. But never have we never seen the lines to the men's restroom at Dodger Stadium snake around (is that the right term?) longer than what we witnessed on the loge level down the third-base line. Seriously, we thought it was the line for free beer, and we stood in it for about five minutes until we realized otherwise.

Oh, it was still a beer line. Just for the exit process instead of the entry.

== The last paragraph from the bio in the Dodgers' new media guide of Frank H. McCourt Jr.: "He has four sons -- Drew, Travis, Casey and Gavin, whom he has often said he hopes will someday take over as stewards of the Dodger franchise." What did it say in the 2009 edition?

== Something that didn't happen: There's a Facebook page devoted to a "salute to Vinny Scully's 60th Dodger Season" (linked here), asking people to download and print out a two-sided "Vin Scully Tribute Cheer" card and bring it to the game. Then in the bottom of the fourth inning, just before the first Dodger batter, they ask that, if you're in attendance, you start chanting "Vinny! Vinny! Vinny!" hoping to get the entire stadium to do it. That is supposed to inspire Nancy Bea Hefley to start playing, "It Had To Be You" on the organ, which is supposed to inspire Vin to wave from his press box booth.
Nothing remotely like that happened in the fourth, fifth, sixth ....
There are 4,234 fans already listed as friends of this page. One game down not done, 80 to go.
Again, the direct link to the site: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vin-Scully-2010-Victory-Lap-Tribute-Page/385405143456?v=wall&ref=ts

== A Rhianna sighting in the special-people section behind the Dodgers dugout created ... a buzz?

== OMG it must be true. Jill Painter just tweeted: #Rhianna, wearing a #Dodgers sweatshirt, was dancing in her seat after Manny's home run. Does she think she's less visible wearing the hood? (linked here) ... and then added: #Rhianna puts her head down in mock embarrasment when #Dodgers play her son, ``run this down.'' After bf #Kemp homer, she danced.

Someday, we'll learn this Twitter technology so it pops up in front of us on any screen nearby and we'll ignore it like another cellphone call.

== A woman on the field level walking around with a T-shirt: "I ONLY KISS DODGERS FANS." It was not Rhianna.
Considering the source here and not able to get my diptheria shot this morning, thanks, but we'll pass. Unfortunately, they're offering this Victoria's Secret shirt to anyone who has $32.50 (linked here) and wants to appear to be appealing to guys with beer glasses.
Even my new pals in the restroom line weren't impressed enough to get out of the procession.

== Someone with scary red dyed hair named Allison sang "God Bless America" during the California Mega Millions Seventh Inning Stretch. She was introduced as having some ties to "American Idol" and won some Kid's Choice award. Her tat artist must be proud. Now, go buy a lottery ticket.

== More shopping ops: A stuffed teddy bear wearing a do-rag with the Manny dreds and No. 99 T-shirt. So cuddly. Until it gets a thorn in its paw, finds somebody sleeping in its bed or must go into the woods for 50 days to purge birth control medicine.

== Between-innings best reaction from the crowd: A video clip of people doing things you'd see on "America's Funniest Videos" -- guy rides bike into the back of a parked car, etc., with "Yakety Sax" playing. It's really come to this? More fitting: A video montage of Steve Sax's greatest throwing errors, played to the tune of ... you know.

== Another roar for the dude who mouths the words to Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" ... We'll believe it when we find out he does this purely for fun and not for future profit.

== Promos already for "Dodger Action Figures" promo: On June 3, Kemp; On July 8, it's Eithier; On July 22, it's Manny. It's not exactly what you'd imagine -- they look like a cross between Stretch Armstrong and a character out of "Iron Man." Not in a good way.

== Attendance was just announced as 56,000. A sellout. Again, creative accounting. There were plenty of rows in plenty of sections disguised as turquoise and tangerine. Just look at the game on TV and you'll see the usual $600-plus yellow highbacks without any body in them (they could be back in the "free" buffet line, sure, but ...).

== Didn't spot the new FJohn Tailgate wagon that was supposed to be in the parking lot before the game. Oscar Meyer has its Weinermobile. This one just looks like another thing the Grizzwalds would take on a trip to the Grand Canyon:

Drive home safely and take your schedule magnet with you. ...

Keith Srakocic/The Associated Press

This is Big Ben's Beef Jerky on display in a store in Zelienople, Pa., north of Pittsburgh. PLB Sports, a Pittsburgh company that markets food products endorsed by local sports stars, has dropped its beef jerky sponsorship deal with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Company president Ty Ballou says Roethlisberger is "falling short" of the company's standards, even though a Georgia prosecutor announced Monday he will not prosecute the quarterback over a sexual-assault allegation.
Just as well. There's enough jerkiness in Ben's life at this point.

The book: "Harry The K: The Remarkable Life of Harry Kalas"

The author: Randy Miller

The vital stats: Running Press, 332 pages, $24.95

Find it: It's on Amazon.com (linked here)

The pitch: On this date one year ago, Philadelphia lost Kalas.

ESPN's Jayson Stark wrote (linked here): "He was so much more than the voice of the Phillies. Harry Kalas was the Phillies. ... So here is what people like me, people who have lived most of our lives in Philadelphia, are wondering on this sad and tragic day: How are we going to do this?"

Knowing there will be a day when we don't have Vin Scully, it's a little unnerving to read this. We enjoyed this tribute, which doesn't get too far from home. But we don't feel worthy to give a review of it.

Maybe it's best you hear it, again, from a Philly person -- retired Philadelphia Inquirer sports columnist Bill Lyon (linked here):

"Miller's dogged reportorial skills are considerable and are on impressive display in a book that is unvarnished and unsparing, but also straightforward and balanced.

"It was, he writes, a labor of love. That comes through."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Philly fans will eat it up like a steak sandwich. Which is what you can get if you ever get to Citizen's Bank Park, visit Harry The K's Broadcast Bar & Grille (linked here) below the left-field scoreboard.

Also: A story about the author Miller (linked here)

Although Versus has the Kings-Canucks' first two games of the NHL playoffs on its schedule (Thursday and Saturday), Fox Sports West will not be blacked out from airing coverage with Bob Miller and Jim Fox as usual throughout the first round.

National TV exclusivity starts with the second round, where Versus can secure as many as two games from that round, with the rest going again on FSW.

Also, every Kings' first-round playoff game will be moved to KLAC-AM (570), even though all the regular season games were on KTLK-AM (1150). Nick Nickson and Daryl Evans call them and do a "Kings Talk" after Game 1 (even though it's on the road).

The Versus' schedule coming up:

Wednesday: Ottawa-Pittsburgh Game 1, 4 p.m.; Detroit-Phoenix Game 1, 7 p.m.; Colorado-San Jose Game 1, joined in progress after Detroit-Phoenix.

Thursday: Montreal-Washington Game 1, 4 p.m.; Kings-Vancouver Game 1, 7 p.m. (blacked out in L.A.)

Friday: Ottawa-Pittsburgh Game 2, 4 p.m.; Nashville-Chicago Game 1, 6:30 p.m. (joined in progress); Detroit-Phoenix Game 2, 8 p.m. (joined in progress); Colorado-San Jose Game 2, 9:30 p.m. (joined in progress).

Saturday: Montreal-Washington Game 2, 4 p.m.: Kings-Vancouver Game 2, 7 p.m. (blacked out in L.A.)

Sunday: Pittsburgh-Ottawa Game 3, 3:30 p.m.; Nashville-Chicago Game 2, 6 p.m. (joined in progress); San Jose-Colorado Game 3, 8 p.m. (joined in progress).

Monday: Buffalo-Boston Game 3, 4 p.m.; Vancover-Kings Game 3, 7 p.m. (blacked out in L.A.);

Tuesday, April 20: Pittsburgh-Ottawa Game 4, 4 p.m.; Chicago-Nashville Game 3, 6:30 p.m. (joined in progress); San Jose-Colorado Game 4, 8:30 p.m. (joined in progress).

Wednesday, April 21: Buffalo-Boston Game 4, 4 p.m.; Vancover-Kings Game 4, 7 p.m. (blacked out in L.A.).

Thursday, April 22: Ottawa-Pittsburgh Game 5, 4 p.m.; Chicago-Nashville Game 4, 6:30 p.m. (joined in progress); Colorado-San Jose Gaem 5, 8 p.m. (joined in progress)

Friday, April 23: Montreal-Washington Game 5, 4 p.m.; Detroit-Phoenix Game 5, 7 p.m.

Saturday, April 24: Pittsburgh-Ottawa Game 6, 4 p.m.; San Jose-Colorado Game 6, TBD.

Sunday, April 25: Game 6 TBD, 4 p.m.; Vancover-Kings Game 6, TBD (blacked out in L.A.)

Monday, April 26: Washington-Montreal Game 6, 4 p.m.; Chicago-Nashville Game 6, TBD; Colorado-San Jose Game 7, TBD

Tuesday, April 27: Games TBD at 4 and 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 28: Games TBD at 4 and 7 p.m.

In 140 characters or less, here are your do's, don'ts and duhs about today's Dodgers' home opener against Arizona at Dodger Stadium:

First pitch: 1:10 p.m. Parking lots open an hour earlier than usual: 10:10 a.m. Ballpark access starts at 10:40 a.m.

History buffed: It's No. 53 L.A. home opener, and No. 49 at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers are 24-24 in D-Stadium home openers.

Limping in: The Dodgers played their first six on the road, in P'burgh and Miami, losing four of 'em. It wasn't really pretty.

Need a ticket? Most are sold. Some remain if you buy a mini-plan or season seat. Check dodgers.com/tickets. And StubHub.com. Kids under 3 free.

Essentials: Cap, glove, SPF 30, shades, credit card, binocs, cell phone (to tweet). Not allowed: Signs, noise makers, cans, bottles, frowns.

Pre-game meal: Potato breakfast burrito @ Tacos Villa Corona, Atwater Village; Mama's Hot Tamales Café @ 7th and Alvarado, opens at 11.

Arrive in style: Take the nat-gas shuttles from Union Station starting at 10:30 a.m.. Free if you have tix. Buck 25 one-way if you don't.

An alternate (public) route: Take Metro Line 2 or 4 to Sunset./Innes, hike 10 min. up Elysian Park to the entrance. Good workout.

Traffic updates: Text DODGERS PARKING to 65246 for updated info. Or listen to KABC-AM (790) as you cruise in.

BP schedule: Dodgers are scheduled to take cuts from 10:15-11:15 and the Diamondbacks from 11:15-noon.

Sign us up: Maury Wills and Tommy Davis are at Autograph Alley, behind center field, starting at 10:10 a.m. Also try Aisle 27 field level.

Tailgate: Not allowed, but Farmer John has a new mobile truck in RF parking lot giving out smoked sausages. And VIP lounge with 55-inch TVs.

National anthem: The honor goes to Grammy Award-winning country star LeAnn Rimes. Because Slash wasn't available?

Ceremonial first pitch: The honor goes to Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Because Snoop Dogg wasn't available?

Heads up: That's a group of U.S. Navy FA-18C Hornets from Strike Fighter Squadron 97 doing the fly-over while Rimes sings.

King for a moment: For some reason, it's Larry King asked to proclaim "IT'S TIME FOR DODGER BASEBALL." Why not Vin? :(

National audience: The MLB Network will carry the Prime Ticket telecast for everyone to see. Except in L.A. and AZ.

Food run: No change in concession prices across the board. Dodger Dog: $5 Beer: $6-13. Try going after 2nd inning. Beer stops in 7th.

New grub: A two-pound pretzel called the "Victory Knot" at CPK stands. W/ 3 dipping sauces in a pizza-sized box. Serves 4.

Making a comeback: Spicy picante dogs; fish tacos at Camacho's; Dippin' Dots at carts on field and reserve levels.

Healthy grub: Carts around park offer up curried chicken lettuce wraps, fresh fruit salads, California rolls and gluten-free beer.

Need help: New Guest Relations Centers @ reserve section 39-40, loge section 112-114, field section at baseline box club and LF pavilion.

Lasting memories: Be nice to the Fan Photo person, pose for a free shot, only buy (if you want) online at printroom.com.

Celeb sightings: Probably. But no Jamie McCourt. Lawyer says she won't make it out. Still waiting to clean out her office.

Short shop: New customized jerseys in souvenir shops. Opening Day T-shirts, pens, fitted hats. And Manny wigs are back.

Foul ball territory: With hard throwers Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw and D'backs Ian Kennedy, go loge (sects 101-122) or reserve (sects 1-10).

7th-inn. stretch: Stand for "God Bless America." Turn toward the press box and wave up to Vin Scully during "Take Me Out To The Ballgame."

The home run: The Union Station shuttle picks up behind CF and runs up to 45 mins after the last out. Starts heading back in 7th inning.

Post-game meal: Lines often long at Philippe's in China Town and Langer's near MacArthur Park. Find Tommy's chiliburger on Rampart.

Post-game margarita to wait out traffic: Malo on Sunset in Silver Lake. With chips and ground beef/pickle tacos.

An excuse to get the afternoon off: Need to see tax specialist to get an extension. Will explain later. Be back ASAP. Or Wednesday AM.

Today's episode of ESPN's "E:60" news magazine (4 p.m.) show takes Kobe Bryant back to Philadelphia to find out the Lakers star often gets booed in his former hometown.

Reporter Lisa Salters goes back to Philly with Bryant and as they visit some of his favorite places.

"You can't really think about any major superstar who has the kind of relationship with his hometown that Kobe Bryant has," said Salters, also a Philadelphia native. "Their hometowns have a love affair with their superstar athletes, and they are the hometown hero. And it just hasn't always been the case with Kobe Bryant.

"He considers Philadelphia to be very special. He goes back during the summertime, he has relatives there, he talks fondly, like any athlete would, about their hometown. But when you mention Kobe Bryant's name, people will either love him, or they will absolutely hate him.

"There are a lot of different factors that go into why - one is just because Philadelphia is Philadelphia. It's unique in that sense. It's the city that booed Santa Claus."

Salters reports that the Philadelphia fans may be starting to be more accepting of Bryant.

"When the Lakers were in Philly earlier this year, there were some chants of 'MVP, MVP!' in the crowd. It was the first time I had ever heard it, and Kobe heard it, too."

ESPN announced today it will add 14 regional semifinal games to its schedule of Little League Baseball tournaments this summer, including the semifinal games in the Northwest and West Regions beamed from San Bernardino, starting in mid August.

A year ago, ESPN did eight Little League regional tournament games - the championships of the eight regions. Now, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3.com will have 22 regional games and up to 56 total games of the Little League tournament.

"We're delighted to grow our coverage of the Little League regional semis," said Len DeLuca, ESPN senior vice president, programming and acquisitions, in a press release. "The Little League World Series merits more national attention as one of the leading sports events in the dog days of summer. We can capture more stories from expanding our coverage of the eight regions in the United States."

Stephen Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball and Softball, adds: "We are pleased ESPN has decided to expand its coverage of the Little League Baseball International Tournament. I think this shows ESPN believes the core values of Little League Baseball and Softball are meaningful to its viewers. There also is an increasing fan interest in tournament play in all eight divisions of Little League tournament play. We are thankful to have ESPN as a media partner to help us promote the benefits of the Little League experience."

CBS says Sunday's final-round coverage of the Masters did a 12.0 rating and 25 share -- up 36 percent from last year (8.8/21) and the highest rating in nine years.

It's just the third-best rating since 1986 in metered markets, which is as far back as CBS Nielsen data goes.

That doesn't seem right.

Although, the highest-rated final round of a tournament was the 1997 Masters with a 15.8/32 when Tiger Woods won his first title. That makes sense.

The second highest-rated final: 2001, when Woods won again (12.9/27).

This year's final round rating peaked at 14.7/28 from 3:30-4 p.m. Final ratings will come out later this week.

As for Los Angeles, it had just a 9.8/22, tied for 49th in metered markets.

Going back to Thursday's opening round, ESPN had a 4.0 cable rating and 4.936 million viewers, which became cable TV's best-rated golf event, eclipsing Woods' playoff round of the 2008 U.S. Open over Rocco Mediate.

Because we didn't know about it until today.

Spinning off Sunday's column on baseball's part in keeping the middle-finger an historic part of the game's progression (linked here), we need to pay homage to Milton Bradley for finally coming unhinged (again), this time as a member of the Seattle Mariners.

Craig Newman of the Chicago Sun-Times (linked here) has retrieved the photo above from a Seattle Twitterer. The incident took place in a Mariners-Rangers game on Friday night (for cryin' out loud, in plent of time for our Sunday story).

The book: "Wrigley Field: A Ballpark Pop-Up Book"

The author: David Hawcock, paper engineer

The vital stats: Universe publishing, 16 pages, $25

Find it: It's at Amazon.com (linked here)

The pitch: Today, at 11 a.m., on WGN, the Chicago Cubs play their home opener at Wrigley Field against the Milwaukee Brewers.

If you can't be there, open up this thing and pretend.

Pretend hard.

It'll arrive in a package that looks as if you ordered a set of TV trays (ask your parents what those are). The dimensions call for it -- 16 inches tall, almost a foot wide, and an inch thick. All for 16 pages. Actually 17. Because the last "page" is really the base for the pop-up version of the park.

From pages 1-16, just for your knowledge: An intro, Wrigley history, significant games and milestones, non-baseball moments at Wrigley (including the outdoor NHL game in '09), stadium stats, a Cubs chronology and then ....

Open slowly.

On the corner of Addison and Clark, with Sheffield and Waveland circling the backside, you get a full paper version of the park unfolding and rising from the pages before your eyes. ...

Now, what's missing.

Fans, for one. Kinda wish there were fake people in the seats to make it look like the party that it truely is to be there.

Also, no ivy walls. There's no outfield walls at all, for that matter. How do you not account for that?

Also, no buildings beyond the stadium ... No apartments with seats on the roof?

Is this getting too nitpicky? Or do we just automatically think of those things automatically when we imagine Wrigley Field?

Maybe it's because, well, that's what the cover of the book shows. That's the essence of Wrigley.

Maybe it goes back to the guy who built this.

David Hawcock (linked here) is from England. He's done dinosaur pop-ups, White House pop-ups, even nifty calendars of ancient Egypt, horses and sea life.

Having recently reviewed "Wow! The Sports Illustrated For Kids Pop Up Book of Sports" (linked here) we became enamored with what Bruce Foster was able to recreate on so many levels. In fact his reproduction of Fenway Park is one of the highlights.

Hawcock has also done a Fenway Pop Up Book for MLB as part of this series (as well as, for whatever reason, Citi Park in New York). It's just not capturing the same energy, emotion or iconic nature of the facility. Again, empty. Not the way we'd like to see it, really.

How it goes down in the scorebook: A nice try, and a marvelous result of what can be done with heavy-duty paper and a lot of imagination. It's something anyone who's a fan of the park will probably want want. But in some ways, it seems to be too kid-orientated -- especially with all the lead-in pages -- when it could really be much more.

Also:
== The Fenway Park Pop Up Book by Hawcock (linked here)

Highlights of the week ahead in sports, both here and afar:

MONDAY

NBA: Clippers vs. Dallas, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., Prime Ticket:

How about that final round of the Masters yesterday ...

TUESDAY

MLB: Dodgers vs. Arizona, Dodger Stadium, 1:10 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Clayton Kershaw has the ball for Home Opener No. 49 at Dodger Stadium, while season No. 61 begins for Vin Scully in the press box. And try out the return of spicy Picante dog. There was apparently a Facebook.com page set up for fans who demanded its comeback. And it worked. And by the way, they've picked Larry King to exclaim "It's time for Dodger baseball!" before the cereominial first pitch by ... you won't want to know.

MLB: Angels at New York Yankees, 10 a.m., FSW:

The Angels' first roadie runs right into the Yankees' home opener. Where they'll be giving out World Series championship rings -- including one to the guy who won the World Series MVP award, but happens to be in the DH spot for the Anaheim guys on this day. That's not going to be a little awkward, right? They're already holding up the "Matsuiland" sign in Angels Stadium whenever he comes to bat -- and they've got it trademarked (linked here). The happiest place on Earth, apparently.

NBA: Lakers vs. Sacramento, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

Prior to this, ESPN's "E:60" has a story on how Kobe Bryant can't figure why the people from his "hometown" of Philadelphia still don't like him. Yeah, that's been keeping us up at night as well.

WEDNESDAY

NBA: Lakers vs. Clippers, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., Channel 9, FSW:

Two tail-chasing stories of one city. And it's the best of times/worst of times scenario. Yet, the regular season can't end fast enough for either. During the Lakers' loss last week in Denver, Phil Jackson was asked about how the team was adjusting to playing without a rested Kobe Bryant: "We have some young guys who are still learning how to read the offense. ..." Added TNT analyst Reggie Miller: "Phil, you've got five games left until the playoffs. If they don't know the offense by now they're never going to know it." Expect Adam Morrison to go off for six points tonight.

MLB: Dodgers vs. Arizona, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Chad Billingsley, 4-0 in the month of April last year, 1-4 in the month of April in '08, has a 1-0 record already.

MLB: Angels at New York Yankees, 10 a.m., FSW:

Joel Pineiro only walked 27 batters last season in 32 games last season for St. Louis. He walked three in his Angels' debut last week against Minnesota.

THURSDAY

NHL playoffs: Western Conference quarterfinals, Game 1: Kings at Vancouver, 7 p.m., TV TBA (Game 2 is Saturday in Vancouver):

A poll on the Kings' website asked: What will make you feel as thought this season has been a success? Half of the 2,100-plus voters responded to: "It has already been a success." We can appreciate setting the bar low for the playoffs, a place the Kings haven't been since 2002. Going in as a sixth seed against the third-seeded Canucks, who beat them three out of four times this year - and the Kings' only win was 12 days ago with Jonathan Bernier in the nets.

MLB: Dodgers vs. Arizona, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime Ticket:

At this point, we expect the D'backs' Mark Reynolds to have eight homers -- and 18 Ks.

MLB: Angels at New York Yankees, 4 p.m., FSW:

The Angels somehow avoid seeing CC Sabathia. See, good things can happen in NYC.

FRIDAY

MLB: Dodgers vs. San Francisco, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m., Channel 9:

Check the spelling of "San Francisco" across the front of Giants' left fielder Eugenio Velez's jersey. Last week in Houston, it said ... see for yourself, sicko.

MLB: Angels at Toronto, 4 p.m., FSW:

With the exchange rate, the Angels have even more losses to start the season than they thought. Jered Weaver tries to fix that.

SATURDAY

MLB: Dodgers vs. San Francisco, Dodger Stadium, 1:10 p.m., Channel 11:

Two-time reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum (2-0 with 17 Ks and a 1.29 ERA in his first two starts so far) is scheduled to make a matinee appearance here. Unless it rains.

MLB: Angels at Toronto, 10 a.m., FSW:

You let Vernon Wells go too low in your fantasy draft again, right?

NBA playoffs: Game 1, series TBA, noon, Channel 7; Game 1, series TBA, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 7:30 p.m., ESPN:

LeBron James probably won't be in street clothes any longer.

MLS: Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake, Home Depot Center, 7:30 p.m.:

The only obstacle between David Beckham bringing a Major League Kickball title to L.A. was playing an opponent in the MLS Cup that barely made the playoffs and had a losing record in the regular season. As if it mattered. The Salt Lakers were the Real deal, beating the Galaxy on penalty kicks and taking the title. If there's any chance at redemption, it won't come here. This is just the regular season. And Becks isn't any where near the pitch.

SUNDAY

Auto racing: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, 1:15 p.m. (12:30 p.m. prerace ceremony), Versus:

In Esquire magazine's online vote for "Sexiest Woman Alive," Danica Patrick easily won her first-round matchup, against Erin Andrews, in the sports bracket. Meaning DP, an ninth seed, faces in round two .... USC football coach Lane Kiffin? (linked here). Not Kiffin's wife? While you try to figure that one out, Patrick figures to show off her figure back in Long Beach, still with only one win since joining the IRL in 2005, cruising in the No. 7 GoDaddy.com Honda/Dallara in event No. 4 of the season.

NBA playoffs: Game 1, series TBA, noon, Channel 7; Game 1, series TBA, 2:30 p.m., 5 p.m., 7:30 p.m., TNT:

The league has usually put the Lakers, at home, in the early Sunday slot to launch its playoff run, depending on Staples Center access. Logic says it happens again -- especially since the NHL has locked the Kings up for a Monday Game 3 in their series against the Canucks.

MLB: Dodgers vs. San Francisco, Dodger Stadium, 1:10 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Just a couple of days ago, the Giants' Edgar Renteria was leading the NL with a sickening .688 batting average (11 for 16, 5 RBIs), a 1.000 slugging percentage and a 1.737 OPS. Then he went 0-for-5 in one game, and his average dropped 164 points, and he was 76 points behind new leader Martin Prado of the Braves.

MLB: Angels at Toronto, 10 a.m., Channel 13:

The Angels made it through their annual north-of-the-boarder trip and didn't have to face Roy Halladay? Oh, right.

From today's "Writing On (and off) The Wall" column (linked here), that's Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn, standing on the left, during a 1886 team photo of the Boston Beaneaters and New York Highlanders at the Polo Grounds in New York. If you can, note what he's doing with his left hand.

The book: "Fifth-nine in '84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball & The Greatest Season A Pitcher Ever Had"

The author: Edward Achorn

The vital stats: Harper, 366 pages with appendix, sources, notes and index, $25.99

Find it: We like Powells.com (linked here)

The pitch: For a guy who couldn't even get his name spelled right on his headstone at the Evergreen Cemetery in Bloomington, Ill. -- they added a superfluous "e" on the end -- Old Hoss deserves this correction to history.

On his Baseball Hall of Fame bio (linked here), it says Charles Radburn "was the author of the winningest season in big league history: 60 victories in 1884."

The classic MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia, as well as the current Sporting News Baseball Record Book, both credit Radbourn with 60 wins, too. But the baseball reference and baseball almanac links give Radbourn 59 wins. Some older sources (such as his tombstone plaque) counted as high as 62.

There was a game in July when he came in as a reliever, and his team, the Providence Grays, ended up winning. By today's official scoring standards, he would not have been awarded the win; back then, he was. So, that total is up to some debate, but it's why the name of the book is as it is.

And any way you twist it, a 59-12 record by a pitcher -- during a 112-game season -- is pretty ridiculous. He also led the league with a 1.38 ERA, 441 strike outs, 75 games pitched, 73 games started, 73 complete games and 678 2/3 innings pitched. To top it off, he also won all three games in the first so-called World Series against the American Association's New York Metropolitans (a best-of-three at the Polo Grounds, so after winning the first two, the third one was just an exhibition of sorts).

But this goes far beyond the stats.

The book: "Always an Angel: Playing the Game with Fire and Faith"

The author: Tim Salmon, with Rob Goldman

The vital stats: Triumph Books, 212 pages, $19.95

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here)

The pitch: As we say in the headline, the Top 10 things we found out about the star (never an All-Star) right fielder for the Anaheim (now Los Angeles of Anaheim) Angels after reading this book:

1. He grew up a Dodgers fans and envisioned himself someday as being the next Steve Garvey.

2. He wanted to play college football out of high school but got no offers (unlike his younger brother, Mike, who played for USC)

3. Twice he was hit in the face by pitches in the minor leagues -- his first year of Single-A ball in Bend, Ore., he broke his nose, and a year later in Single-A Palm Springs, he broke his jaw.

4. The Angels, so enamored with having converted Troy Percival from a catcher to a pitcher, considered doing the same with Salmon at one point during the 1990 Instructional League.

5. When Fernando Valenzuela signed with the Angels in 1991, they sent him to Double-A Midland to get into shape -- the place where Salmon was playing. After a road game in Little Rock, Ark., Fernando "sneaked a case of Coronas" on the team bus adn "discreetly doled out the bottles, making sure to keep them hidden from our manager."

6. From page 58: "Rod (Carew) was also one of the game's great pranksters." C'mon.

7. On Sept. 6, 1995, the night Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. broke baseball's consecutive games played streak in a contest against the Angels at Camden Yards, before it became an official game, Salmon was a runner at first and broke for second on a missed hit-and-run. He got his spike caught in the webbing of Ripken's glove on the tag. "As soon as I hit him, I thought, 'Oh, God, please don't let me be responsible for putting him on the DL. Not tonight!' Fortunately, nothing happened."

8. Former teammate Mo Vaughn used to call him "Fish Grease." Not sure why. Nor is Salmon, who was called "Fish" but never explained who called him that first.

9. During the run to the 2002 World Series, Salmon kept a uniform patch in his pocket to remember the late hitting coach Jimmie Reese and former team owner Gene Autry.

10. He says he never took steroids. Page 188: "I have always been determined to never compromise my faith or my principles. I always relied on my God-given talent when I took the field. So the idea of using PEDs to enhance my performance was a line I choose not to cross. As I became more aware of the problem of steroid use, I discovered that for some players it wasn't all black and whtie. Some of them were guys I respected on and off the field, player who were truely faced with career-jeopardizing decisions. To them, it wasn't about becoming the league MVP or signing a huge free-agent contract. It was about trying to keep a job when you know your competition is on the juice because you've endured a career-threatening arm injury, or simply trying to stay in the lineup while hurt in order to fulfill your contract obligation. I would never make a blanket statement about steroid use. ... It's easy to condemn steroids, but the pressure to perform at a consistently high level is tremendous. Faces with losing the job, I can better understand their rationalization."
But he names no names.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Angels fans will eat this up like a giant salmon steak dinner.

Also: Salmon will be signing his book:
Thursday, April 15, 7 p.m. at Borders in Brea
Saturday, April 17, noon at Costo in Fullerton

All book proceeds go to Salmon's charity. More info at the Tim Salmon Foundation (linked here)

Post script: The Thousand Oaks-based Goldman, who also wrote "Once They Were Angels: A History of the Team" in 2006, says in the preface that he actually wrote the first draft of the book, which wasn't long after Salmon retired that season. Two years later, after he showed Salmon the final edits, Salmon decided he wanted to write it in his own voice. So after all that, maybe that's why it's taken almost four years to come out after he quit playing.

Tiger Woods' new Nike ad is already ripe for ridicule. And parody. And stinging backlash. And digging up even more ghosts that he'd like to know are out there.

All's still good.

The voice of Ward Cleaver, as Steven Colbert points out above, probably makes more sense:

"Growing up is a pretty neat thing, Beaver. If you really grow up and it's all right to look back on the good times you had. Only thing is, when you try to relive them somehow they are never quite as good the second time around. The sad thing is there are some men my age who are still trying to be little boys."

Or Gene Wilder, from "Young Frankenstein":

"Hello handsome, you're a good looking fellow, do you know that? People hate you but why do they hate you? Because they are jealous! Look at that boyish face. Do you want to talk about physical strength? Do you want to talk about sheer muscle? Do you want to talk about the Olympian ideal? You are a god! You are not evil. You are good!"

Chicagonow.com found more (linked here). Deadspin.com (linked here) has done even a more marvelous job at collecting the best of the best spin-offs.

With this comment posted: "Needs more Yakety-Sax."

Other stuff we learned:

== Because Tony Kornheiser exposed it more on a national basis a few weeks ago -- and drew a suspension for it -- there'll be more, more and more attention paid to Hannah Storm's wardrobe every time she appears on ESPN "SportsCenter." Like Thursday morning, when anyone looking for Tiger Woods news had to spy her first.

And like this recent sighting (linked here), where the undergarment appears to be trying to share spotlight and pad her resume:

Then there's Toronto Sun-Times columnist Rosie DiManno on Erin Andrews (linked here):

"I've no problem with such women exploiting the industry that had so unabashedly exploited them. But it was difficult for serious sports journalists of the female gender -- who have to work twice as hard to garner half the respect afforded male colleagues -- to be taken at professional value, competing for face-time with bimbos. Andrews -- daughter of an investigative TV reporter in Tampa -- is no bimbo, though her sideline features are more popcorn than insightful. But this DWTS is colossally unwise. She's made a fool out of herself and a sham of her profession. Bush league, Erin."

Eri, typically clueless, responds (linked here): "I don't know what damage I'm doing. I'm basically killing myself to not embarrass myself. I've been in the top three in scoring each week, behind an athlete and a professional dancer and singer. I'm not sure what damage I created for myself. What am I doing to be a bimbo? I don't understand what I'm doing wrong.

Lay low, Linda Cohn.

== He's the San Francisco Chronicle's outdoor writer -- and getting busted for selling pot is a surprise? (linked here) Because he couldn't get a job at the Oregonian?

== So what if KCAL Channel 9 moved news anchor Pat Harvey over to KCBS Channel 2, and away from Channel 9's Dodgers game coverage, because of her relationship with Jamie McCourt (linked here).

== Is there a conflict of interest with Trent Dilfer working for ESPN and his comments about the upcoming NFL draft? (linked here).

== Well-paid NBA star Kevin Durant doesn't want to spend the dough to be an ESPN.com Insider reader (linked here).

== There is a difference in how the Charlotte Observer observes a Duke national basketball championship versus one won by the University of North Carolina, even though they're kissin' cousins on Tobacco Road (linked here).

== More justified Mariotti bashing -- and why did he keep showing up in the background on media row during the NCAA title game Monday? (linked here)

== The Onion has it on why Tiger was followed around the course by some guy in grungy clothes (linked here)

== AND FINALLY:

The book: "The Underground Baseball Encyclopedia: Baseball Stuff You Never Needed to Know and Can Certainly Life Without"

The author: Robert Schnakenberg

The vital stats: Triumph Books, 277 pages, $14.95

Find it: Amazon.com has it (linked here) as well as the author's website (www.robertschnakenberg.com)

The pitch: The stuff here is on a need-to-know basis, so don't let the cover fool you.

There's always a place on the shelf for a book celebrating the egregiousness of baseball by Schnakenberg, a SABR member who appears in photo on the back page with a silly grin on his face and a T-shirt that reads "Khaaaaaan!"

Where else do Billy Bean (the former Dodger outfielder who came out after he retired), Billy Beane (the A's GM linked to "Moneyball") and Beanie Babies (a popular promotion at ballparks in the mid '90s after the strike) share facing pages?

A few entries, just to whet the palate:

== "Berman, Chris": Burly ESPN personality whose shtick-laden play-by-play has earned him the ire of many baseball purists. ... Berman only occasionally broadcasts baseball games, but when he does he grates on the nerves of traditionlists with his promiscuous use of hacky, punny nicknames ...

== A list of five must-have CDs for your MLB collection, led by "Denny McLain at the Organ," "Just a Thought" by Stickfigure, the debut album from Jack McDowell, "Covering the Bases" by Bronson Arroyo, "Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old" by Peter Gammons and "Tim McCarver Sings Selections from The Great America Songbook."

== "Sterling, John": Stage name used by Harold Moskowitz, bombastic New York Yankees radio play-by-play man whose contrived calls irritate purists.

== "Owens, Roger": Legendary Dodgers (sic) Stadium peanut vendor ...

== "Olbermann, Marie": Late mother of onetime ESPN SportsCenter anchor turned MSNBC gasbag Keith Olbermann, who briefly became a minor celebrity afte she was struck in the head by a ball thrown by New York Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch during a game at Yankee Stadium on June 17, 2000 ...

An entry on "Koufax, Sandy" is more about his appearences on "Mr. Ed" and being a victim of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme rather than his achievements on the mound; an entry on "LaCock, Pete" mentions that, along with Dick Pole and Rusty Kuntz, has "the smuttiest-sounding name in baseball history."

Ya know, stuff like that .... Gotta be documented somewhere. We're glad iit's here and we're here to validate it.

Keep it near the water closet and you'll finish it cover to cover after about a dozen trips -- then re-read it again.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Is Rollie Fingers leering at Alyssa Milano on the cover? We hope that was intentional.

Also: As long as we're on this kind of genre, also find "Red Sox Fans Are From Mars, Yankees Fans Are From Uranus," by Andy Wasif (Triumph Books, 206 pages, $14.95, linked here), who has churned a few other books of this nature (linked here).

Following up on today's media column (linked here):

== How about ESPN reporter Wendy Nix not being nixed in relaying how a plane made it overhead flying a banner: "Tiger: Did You Mean Bootyism," along with video showing it.
"You can make your own references there," Nix said.

Thanks for the offer.

== A golfer considered one of the greatest of his time, married, two kids, a lust for women, involved in a mystery in the deep South . . .

Tiger Woods' appearance at Augusta for this weekend's Masters sets up nicely for the release of "To Win And Die In Dixie: The Birth of the Modern Golf Swing and The Mysterious Death of its Creator" by Steve Eubanks (Ballantine Books/ ESPN Books, $26, 239 pages, linked here), based on the life and unsolved death of J. Douglas Edgar.

On Aug. 8, 1921, Edgar was found lying in the street bleeding to death, with 20-year-old Atlanta Constitution newspaper reporter Comer Howell having the story land at his feet.

It's all real, secrets and all, with Eubanks inspired to revisit the evidence of the unresolved cold case based on a story famed Atlanta sportswriter Furman Bisher dug up and wrote about in the early 1960s.

So who is Edgar? That's part of the mystery as to why more golf followers today aren't familiar with his name. He actually holds a pro golf record: He won the Canadian Open in 1919 by a record 16 strokes, and came back the next year to win again. He's also credited with inventing the modern swing, and coaching Bobby Jones.

== If Tom Watson's play continues at the Masters, it'll make Sunday's hour-long feature on his first Masters' title in 1977 look a little prophetic. The latest in the "Jim Nantz Remembers" series, executive produced by Nantz himself, airs from 10 to 11 a.m. leading into the final round. In '77, Watson held off Jack Nicklaus for the victory.

== The New York Yankees-Tampa Bay series has attracted national attention on Saturday (by Fox, Channel 11, noon, with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver) and Sunday (by TBS, 10:30 a.m., with Brian Anderson and Buck Martinez).

== MLB Network introduces "Solid 60," an hour-long commercial-free block of highlights and live look-ins starting at 6:30 p.m. tonight, hosted by Greg Amsinger and Harold Reynolds.

== The next episode of ESPN's "E:60" news magazine (Tuesday, 4 p.m.) show takes Kobe Bryant back to Philadelphia to find out the Lakers star often gets booed in his former hometown. Lisa Salters, a Philly native, reports.

== The next version of HBO's "Real Sports" (Tuesday, 10 p.m.) is all boxing, as Jon Frankel goes to Brazil to revisit the death last July of Arturo Gatti; Bryant Gumbel goes to Atlanta to review the gun-shooting death last July of Vernon Forrest, and Frank Deford goes to Nicaragua trying to find answers about the suicide of Alexis Arguello in 2009.

== NBC heads back to the race track for the Blue Grass Stakes and Arkansas Derby (Saturday, 2 p.m.), leading up to the Kentucky Derby in three weeks. Tom Hammond, Gary Stevens, Mike Battaglia, Kenny Rice and Donna Brothers are at the first race in Kentucky; Bob Neumeier is in Arkansas.

== Gary Thorne and Barry Melrose have the NCAA men's hockey championship from Detroit's Ford Field on Saturday, 4 p.m., ESPN.

AND FINALLY:

Troy Markas, brother of the late Angels play-by-play man Rory Markas, prepares to make the ceremonial first pitch before the Angels-Twins game on Wednesday, along with his older brother Gary and mother Billie.

If Jimmy Clausen can help ESPN sell a magazine, and promote the release of "Avatar" in DVD form, why not.

The former Oaks Christian quarterback who left Notre Dame a year early to avoid having to deal with another new coach and make some NFL cash, is the feature story of the ESPN magazine's edition that comes out Friday -- same day as his "pro day" workout for scouts.

On the back cover, Clausen has been "Avatorized" with a headline that "Avator" producer James Camera approved, written in Na'vi, which reads: "Noble Warrior; He Is Strong; He Is Ready."

More:

== A video of the Clausen cover shoot (linked here)
== And what Mel Kiper Jr. says about him (linked here)

No, nothing like the new Tiger Woods headcovers, shaped like a giant condom here.

This is the real deal, Upper Deck stuff. Expensive.

The Carlsbad-based company has a bunch of new "authenticated" memorabilia out. Gotta cash in while the branding is hot.

"We're extremely excited to showcase these five latest products celebrating Tiger's return to the PGA Tour," said Richard McWilliam, Upper Deck's CEO and founder, in a statement. "We wish him well this week as we've put together some pretty compelling items that we're confident collectors will no doubt cherish for years to come."

Among the materialism you can purchase:

== $1,799.99: An autographed Carmine Dri-Fit polo shirt (limited to 100)
== $1,399.99: An autographed Air Zoom TW 2010 golf cleats, size 11 (limited to 50)
== $999.99: An autographed black TW Tour flex cap, same style worn by Tiger (limited to 100)
== $699.99: A curved display case with a range-driven golf ball and autograph label (limited to 50)
== $199.99: Same as above, but with an unsigned photo (limited to 50).

All at www.upperdeckstore.com. Smooth operators are standing by.

The book: "1921: The Yankees, The Giants & The Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York."

The author: Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg

The vital stats: University of Nebraska Press, 515 pages, $31.95

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) and at Powells (linked here)

The pitch: The Great War just ended, the 1919 Black Sox Scandal was moving through the courtroom and Babe Ruth just hit 54 homers for the New York Yankees as the sport was changing from a low-scoring, pitchers' contest to more of a game of hits, runs and homers.

So, sure, 1921 is as good a place as any to say baseball was having a game-changing experience. Let's have at it.

The premise here is that New York really became the lynchpin for having baseball taken seriously again, with the Yankees and Giants converging into a best-of-nine World Series that was all played at the Polo Grounds -- which the Giants owned but leased to the Yankees, who drew more fans to see the bigger names in the American League.

(As we'll later learn with another book, the first World Series was played in 1884, also at the Polo Grounds, in a best-of-three series).

Wait, so why doesn't the Brooklyn Dodgers fit into this New York scenario?

They hardly mattered, the authors contend.

The Brooklyn Dodgers won the NL pennant the year before, "but that World Series (against Cleveland) had not generated much interest or excitement in New York," it says, according to the text, which also notes that during that time, the Dodgers were often referred to as the Robins in deference to manager Wilbert Robinson, there from 1914-'31.

It also says: "When the Dodger reached that Series ... one New York newspaper noted in an editorial that 'the honor will go to a new city.' That would be the New York World reporting such a thing.

And "another paper sarcastically editorialized that there would be a World Series 'in town' if Brooklyn would concede that 'Manhattan is part of New York and admit the inhabitants of this inconsiderable suburb to a humble share in their triumph.'" That would be the New York Times.

Don't be fooled. But if there was a battle for top dog in N.Y., why wouldn't Brooklyn want a piece of it? The Dodgers have plenty of ink in these pages, if only because of their rivalry against the Giants. To dismiss them from a book that proclaims to document the "supremacy of New York" seems to be a bit of a historical rewrite.

We reluctantly take their words for it. We weren't there.

Miller Huggins and John McGraw were. And Carl Mays, ace of the Yankees staff a year after he killed Cleveland's Ray Chapman with a pitch (and based on his stats, it's kind of curious why Mays isn't in the Hall of Fame). Casey Stengel was there, a backup outfielder for the Giants. In the pre-Gehrig days of the Yankees (Wally Pipp was the first baseman, batting fifth, behind right fielder Bob Meusel), the left-fielder Ruth would hit 59 homers in '21, and Grantland Rice, Damon Runyan, Heywood Broun, Robert Ripley (who coined the phrase "Murderer's Row" before Ruth even joined the Yankees), Fred Lieb and H.G. Salsinger were around to chronicle it for the burgeoning newspaper industry.

(In his forward for the book, Charles Alexander notes that "anybody reading such reportage from that long-ago time may regret what has happened to sports journalism in the age of television." And the Internet, we may add.)

Aside from having to lean mostly on the sports reporting for that time, the authors do their own tireless research with the help of many experts, and that shows, if only in the volume of material and meticulous notations. As many projects like this that want to distinguish themselves from just another throw-away history book, there's a full page of notes just on the photography used in the book, 50 pictures that have not been seen in years in some cases.

The book actually ends before page 400, but there are more than 100 pages that follow with appendix, notes, bibliography and index. Which kind of exposes how tedious a job these guys did in trying to comb through to find any morsel of information that could possibly be exposed.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Heavy reading, but if all you get out of it is that 1921 was an important year for the game's future -- and it all came before the Yankees were the dominant team in the game -- you've learned something of value.

The Associated Press

About a month ago, even before Tiger Woods announced that this weekend's Masters would be the place for his return after a five-month layoff due to, ahem, family matters, CBS Sports president Sean McManus was quoted as saying he thought this moment "will be the biggest media event, other than the Obama inauguration, in the past 10 or 15 years."

McManus may have underestimated it.

The Masters, a tradition unlike any other, is unlikely to ever see such a spectacle. ESPN, Golf Channel -- even the Weather Channel -- had a stake in its coverage of Tiger, which we will cover in Friday's media column.

The sweaty palms started Wednesday night:

"Tiger Woods returns to golf!" Stuart Scott booya'd during a Suns-Spurs halftime report which included a graphic of "Countdown to Tiger Tee-off ESPN" that showed 13 hours, 44 minutes and 36 seconds.

This morning, ESPN "SportsCenter" led off its 6 a.m. show with all-Masters - tape of the Arnold Palmer-Jack Nicklaus ceremonial tee time, and reporter Wendy Nix explaining how "it's been a quiet start as you get the sense that the crowds are anticipating what is to come . . . you can feel the tension building as we look toward Tiger."

By 7 a.m., Golf Channel popped on with Rich Lerner to report that Woods received "a standing ovation" at the Golf Writers Association of America dinner the night before, with Golf World writer Tim Rosaforte reporting that it was "awkward" and "surprising" he was there considering the group boycotted his Feb. 19 press conference. "I stood up out of respect for the fact that the man 'manned up' and went to this dinner," said Rosaforte. "This was just part of the overall 'make good with everybody.'"

Golf Channel reporter Alex Miceli added later: "I would say half the room stood up for the ovation, but I think a lot of people were uncomfortable. They didn't know what to do. ... It was nice of him to come, I appreciate him coming as someone who's on the (GWAA) board, but the bottom line was we're trying to figure out why half the people stood. There's nothing to stand for. There's a lot of issues still unsaid with Tiger. ... It was a little pensive moment I thought."

And then there's that new Nike commercial .... and Woods hasn't even entered the grounds yet.

Tiger, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are. And did you learn anything?

Scheduled to air tonight on ESPN and Golf Channel programming ....

Yes, that's the manipulated, out-of-context voice of Tiger Wood's late father, Earl.

Just when you thought Tiger was finished answering questions, he's put himself into a position to answer up as to why this ad broke now, why his dad's voice was exumed (at a time when Tiger is supposed to be so protective of his family) and whether this actually exploits his off-the-course problems into a marketing campaign.

Why is Tiger not letting himself just get back to golf?

So we're supposed to buy a pair of Nikes now so we can feel Tiger's pain as he listens to his dad's questions. That's the point, right?

Poor little pouting Tiger, getting scolded by his dead father, and leaving the viewer confused as to what this meesage is about. Nike should go back to "cartoon Earl" if they really wanted to make a point here, like Gatorade did a while back (before it dropped him from its payroll):

More reaction:

== On SportsByBrooks (linked here): "How desperate is Nike and Tiger get back into your pocket? They'll exhume Tiger's dead dad Earl Woods to help restore six-iron sales. ... So now that Nike's image of Tiger has burned down, what do they do? Dig up the old man the company previously pushed out of the picture as quickly and forcefully as possible."

== On Deadspin (linked here): "Nothing moves athletic apparel like bringing a dead man back to life to talk solemnly about his son's wandering schlong."

== On Salon.com (linked here): "At the end, there's the Nike swoosh, reminding us that Woods and his sponsors meticulously crafted this whole Tiger Woods persona a long time ago, and that the difference between the persona and the man blew this whole scandal up in the first place. Maybe that swoosh is the perfect way to usher in Woods's redemption, or whatever they want to call it. But it's not moving. It's just sickening."

== The New York Times (linked here): "How deep did Nike dig to find these paternal nuggets to justify their use in an ad that debuted less than 24 hours before Tiger teed off Thursday at the Masters? And why did the son consent to having his father's words repurposed to push not just a personal message, but also Nike Golf? The last image of the ad is the swoosh. Natch. ... The answer to the father's question appears to be that serial philandering and addiction rehab can be positioned as a commodity -- and that you can roll it out in phases leading to the Nike amendment to the 12 steps: a TV commercial. Nike wants Woods to reclaim some sort of moral high ground so that he can return to regularly representing the company and the golf division that he is crucial to."

The book: "The Seventh Inning Stretch: Baseball's Most Essential and Inane Debates"

The author: Josh Pahigian

The vital stats: Lyons Press, 294 pages, $23.95 (paperback)

Find it: At the company site (www.lyonspress.com) or at Powells (linked here)

The pitch: Pahigian's previous entry on our list, "101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out," gives him plenty of street cred in our book, which helps when you're supposed to believe the arguments put forth in these pages. You know where it's coming from, you trust he's done his homework, and knows his history. Otherwise, this book falls apart at the binding and it's not even worth browsing through on the store shelf.

Here, Pahigian presents 50 baseball debates - not really debates, per se, because he gives his side, trying to be his own devil's advocate on presenting all sides. Had he put himself and a few other people into position of having a real debate over these 50 topics, and then published the transcript, it might have been more a more lively read, but twice the size. But then, we'd be up for it.

"Although I've tried to put aside my personal preferences and rooting interests and to be as objective as possible, most of the inquiries pursued in this book delve into inherently subjective territory," Pahigian writes in the intro, "so please feel free to disagree with as many of my picks as you'd like. The fact is, if each essay merely explored a question with an obvious answer or one that could be looked up and solved in a book of baseball statistics, then the reading experience wouldn't be very much fun."

Very much agreed.

First, he picks things first that you've most likely argued about with your friends and family already - what's the best team that never won a World Series? Who's the best player not in the Hall of Fame? What's the best baseball song?

Then he really goes exploring.

Who's the worst big-league hitter ever? Mario Mendoza? Gotta go much deeper.

Who's the worst Hall of Famer? If not Bill Mazeroski, try a catcher for the 1919 Black Sox who hit just .259 with 11 homers and 259 extra base hits in his career.

Who's the best commissioner the game has ever had? Not Bowie Kuhn or Bart Giamatti? You'd be surprised.

The worst hot-headed manager? Let's look at the list of those who've had the most ejections. Joe Torre is No. 8 on the career list, ahead of Lou Pinella? But the person who wins this argument didn't even make the Top 10.

The worst baseball card error of all time? Ask Billy Ripken.

The best gaijin (American-born player in the Japanese League)? Ever hear of Wally Yonamine? He's in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame (and the subject of a 2008 book, linked here).

The best ballpark treat in the majors? If they'd only bring back Kool-A-Koos. But that's not it.

To our delight, the last list is of the Best Baseball Books. After expanding on the importance of "The Natural" (1952), "Bang The Drum Slowly" (1956), "Shoeless Joe" (1982), "Ball Four" (1970), "Veeck - As in Wreck" (1962), "Eight Men Out" (1963), "The Glory of their Times" (1966) and "The Boys of Summer" (1971), Pahigian ultimately decides on Lawrence Ritter's "Glory" but adds: "After picking so many winners and losers over fifth chapters, I can get away with one noncommittal chapter, can't it?"

How it goes down in the scorebook: The very best book about baseball fans' natural instinct to have a difference of opinion escallate into a full-blown war of words? That's debatable. Nor is it the intent. A keeper? No argument here.

Also: In an essay about the Worst Ballpark Tragedy, Pahigian recounts many grim episodes but settles on an incident that has itself attracted several books: The 1920 beaning of Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman, fracturing his skull and resulting in his death of blog clots.

Adds Pahigian: "Given the game's history of tragic and near-tragic events, it seems likely the Grim Reaper may someday infiltrate the American ballpark again, especially if today's batters continue swinging the thin-handled maple bats that have been shattering with increasing frequency in recent years."

Sorry, we had to add that voice the warning signals we've been trying to send the last couple years as well.

More: From Pahigian:

== "101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out" (linked here)
== "The Ultimate Baseball Road-Trip: A Fan's Guide to Major League Stadiums" (linked here)
== "The Ultimate Minor League Baseball Road Trip: A Fan's Guide to AAA, AA, A, and Independent League Stadiums" (linked here)

CBS says it had 48.1 million people watching all or part of Monday night's NCAA title game between Duke and Butler, 17 percent up from the 41.2 mil who saw North Carolina defeat Michigan State last year and the most since 50 mil watched Arizona-Kentucky in 1997.

An overnight rating of 14.2/23 was up 31 percent from 10.8/18 last year and the highest since 15.0/23 for North Carolina-Illinois in '05.

On KCBS-Channel 2, the game drew a 11.7 rating/19 share and 963,000 viewers, up 65 percent over 2009 and the highest since UCLA-Florida in 2006. With men 25-54, it had a 10.3 rating/28 share.

For the whole event, CBS had a 6.0/13, up 5 perent over last year, and some 134.3 million watched all or part of the tournament, up 4 percent from last year.

Online, CBSSports.com, which had a partnership with the NCAA on mmod.ncaa.com had 575,000 unique visitors (up 70 percent from 2009) for Monday's final. Also, the "Boss Button" on the site was clicked 3.94 million times.

A few ways to go here, with some hints to make the visual experience more enjoyable:

== On DirecTV:

The "Masters Experience," free to customers of the satellite dish network, starts on Channel 701 with its four-in-one picture mix channel starting Thursday -- one screen with live coverage as its on ESPN or CBS; one screen with "Amen Corner" (11th, 12th and 13th holes); one screen with coverage of holes 15 and 16, and another screen with a "featured group" -- perhaps Tiger's foursome? Each channel has its own production crew and broadcasters, with a real-time leaderboard.
More info: www.directv.com/masters

== On ESPN:

Locked in with first and second-round coverage, it actually starts with the Par 3 contest live Wednesday (noon to 2 p.m.). Prior to the first round Thursday (1 to 4:30 p.m.), ESPN has been given permission to break into "SportsCenter" with as much as 5 minutes of information starting at 6 a.m. (PDT) with updates -- including Tiger Woods' tee off at 10:42 a.m. (PDT). Most of these will be at the top of each other.
As is with Friday's second round (also 1 to 4:30 p.m.), there will be a replay each night from 5 to 8 p.m. Mike Tirico will serve as host of ESPN's telecasts with Curtis Strange in Butler Cabin. CBS will produce the telecasts, which will also include Jim Nantz, Nick Faldo, Peter Oosterhuis, Verne Lundquist, David Feherty, Bill Macatee, Peter Kostis and Ian-Baker Finch.
ESPN will also produce live 3D coverage of the Masters for the Par 3 Contest and all four rounds (Thursday and Friday,1 to 3 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 2 to 4 p.m.), covering the back nine. Customers of Comcast, Cox, Time Warner and Cablevision and via Masters.com can watch with Terry Gannon and Andy North on Wednesday through Friday, and Tirico and North on Saturday and Sunday.

==On CBS:

The network, in its 55th year covering, goes with the third round Saturday (12:30 to 4 p.m.) and the final round Sunday (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), plus its 15-minute highlights show on Thursday and Friday at 11:35 p.m. Nantz is doing this for the 25th year (23rd as the host from Butler Cabin). Nick Faldo is in (16th hole), David Feherty (15th hole), Bill Macatee (14th hole), Peter Kostis (13th hole) and Ian Baker-Finch (11th and 12th hole) are on the course.

== On Golf Channel:

Wrap-around coverage amounts to 37 hours with interviews, features and analysis. The network has 25 people on the grounds, including Rich Lerner, Steve Sands, Brian Hammons, Frank Nobilo, Charlie Rymer, Tim Rosaforte, Alex Miceli, John Feinstein, Rex Hoggard and Randall Mell at the event. Kelly Tilghman, Kraig Kann, Brandel Chamblee, John Hawkins, Todd Lewis, Tom Abbott, Scott Walker, Win McMurry, Jay Coffin, Michael Breed and historian Martin Davis are at the Orlando studios, with Ben Crenshaw contributing as well.
The routine, which already started Monday:
Today: 3 to 5 p.m.
Wednesday: 9 to 10 a.m.: Billy Payne news conference; 3 to 5 p.m.
Thursday and Friday: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Saturday: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 4-6 p.m.
Sunday: 8 to 11 a.m. and 4-6 p.m.

== Online:

As Masters.com, Ian Eagle and Matt Gogel do live streaming video action for "Amen Corner Live," with Bobby Clampett for "15 & 16 Live" and Grant Boone and Billy Kratzert for the featured group.
At ESPN3.com (formerly ESPN360.com), there's live simulcast of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ESPN coverage.

The book: "The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing & Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pasttime"

The author: Jason Turbow with Michael Duca

The vital stats: Pantheon publishing, 294 pages, $25

Find it: There's a blog for it (linked here). And Amazon.com has it (linked here)

The pitch: Two years ago, we came across another book along this subject matter, Ross Bernstein's "The Code: Baseball's Unwritten Rules and Its Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct" (linked here). It also had a pretty cool cover: Nolan Ryan, giving Robin Ventura the noogie sandwich.

And what did we learn there? That the incident will never die.

In the Introduction to this one -- page 3 -- the Ryan-Ventura 1993 incident is relived in all its glory, with all the subtext, all the drama, all the explanation why "the Code" was involved.

Apparently, you can't write about "Code" without dialing up that story.

Bernstein's book had an entire page reprinting the 30 unwritten rules of baseball, according to Baseball Digest, in 1986. This one goes into detail about 23 codes, in more general, but with specific examples.

Because Turnbow and Duca have backgrounds with the Giants, maybe it's better for Dodger fans to read this one and find out some of the more insider details about the L.A.-S.F. rivalry.

Start with page 107, on the subject of retaliation: In 2004, Dodgers pitcher Jeff Weaver got into a shouting match with Giants runner Michael Tucker, who had bunted down the first base line. Weaver fielded it in front of first baseman Robin Ventura -- that guy gets around -- and put a hard tag in Tucker's face. The Giants pitcher that day was 22-year-old Jerome Williams. Earlier that year, Williams asked teammate Barry Bonds if he should retailiate after Randy Johnson hit him with a pitch. Bonds said no.

But this time:

"I'll never forget what Barry said," Williams recalled. "He said, 'Dodgers players do not disrespect Giants playes, no matter what. So you take care of business.'"

What Williams interpreted that to be was: Get people out. Then Giants pitching coach Dave Righetti told Williams to "do wha the had to do." Again, Williams thought it meant keep pitching shutout innings.

The Dodgers' Adrian Beltre then comes up and hits a single, and the Giants' bench is dumbstruck.

"I was like, 'Dang, I was supposed to hit him,'" Williams said of Beltre, and was later chewed out by Bonds in the locker room.

Back in Dec., 1998, we did a piece on Tom Murray, the KCAL Channel 9 sports anchor who, at the time, was one you could count on not to leave the company in order to join "Entertainment Tonight" (like Mark Steines), be featured on a potato-peeling infomercial (Joe Fowler) or be a weekend-fill-in at another channel (Gary Cruz).

Not that he looked down on what others before him had done, but Murray had personal and professional standards to maintain.

A former editor of The Hockey News and most recently doing sideline reporting for Fox Sports Net as well as blogging on the Kings for ESPNLosAngeles.com, Murray has stepped up with a documentary that debuts tonight on Showtime to tell the story of a family he knows pretty well.

It's his own.

Credited as the writer, director and producer, Murray recounts his brother Christopher's life with autism in "Dad's In Heaven With Nixon" (Tuesday, 8:30 p.m., with many replays). It airs as part of Autism Awareness Month.

Murray tells the story, with many home movies, first about how his great-grandfather, Thomas E. Murray, an inventor, and his grandfather, John F. Murray, were cursed with depression and bipolar disorder. Tom Murray's brother Chris was born severely oxygen deprived and who was encouraged by doctors to be institutionalized, was diagnosed with autism.

Tom and Chris share their stories of thriving through their father and grandfather's dysfunction and can now even laugh and marvel at emerging whole in spite of it all. The documentary offers proof that the sins of the fathers don't have to be visited upon the sons after all.

A review in today's New York Times by Neil Genzlinger (linked here)

Documentaries about people with autism have been turning up regularly as that condition has received more publicity. But "Dad's In Heaven With Nixon" (8:30 p.m., Showtime) has layers some of the others don't, thanks to a box of old home movies.

In those old movies were images from the childhood of his father, who, the family now realizes, probably had bipolar disorder, a condition that ultimately unraveled the family's idyllic life on Long Island. Christopher, however, has shown his resilience through it all: he lives independently in New Haven and has even found a measure of fame as a painter, his work in demand among art collectors.

== More on the film:
= The official website (linked here)
= On Facebook (linked here)
= A review on Bloomberg.com (linked here)

The life of Billie Jean Moffitt King will be an upcoming episode of Rick Reilly's ESPN/ABC "Homecoming" series, and those able to amble down to Long Beach for the show's taping on Wednesday, April 14 are welcome to attend.

At the Billie Jean King Tennis Center (1040 Park Aveune, Long Beach), the show begins at 7 p.m., and doors open at 6 p.m.

To attend, email your name, daytime phone, number of tickets needed and an email address to espnevents@onsetproductions.com. You can also go to www.onsetproductions.com, click on the "ESPN Homecoming" logo and follow the directions.

Reilly has done previous "Homecoming" shows with John Elway (back at the Granada Hills High gym), Josh Hamilton, Chris Paul and Joe Mauer.

Photo by the Associated Press

As part of his meeting of the media in today's Masters press conference, Tiger Woods answers this one about coverage of his life the last few months:

Q: You and the rest of us discovered a lot of media we didn't know existed until the accident. (What is) your response to mainstream media, which was much more critical (of him) obviously than it had been? Were you surprised in how (the mainstream media) treated you?

A: I was surprised by mainstream media ... I also think the times have changed as well. With 24-hour news it's looking for any kind of news to get up there and I know a lot of my friends are in here (at the press conference) and I haven't seen them, haven't talked to them, but I've read their articles and of course they've been critical. They should. What I've done was wrong. But then again I know a lot of them, a lot of you in here are my friends and will always be my friends.

As much as we'd try to ignore the latest stuff coming out against ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrews, she at least says she intends to compete tonight on ABC's "Dancing With The Stars" despite death threats that have reportedly come to light over the weekend.

What's is all about? Supposedly, a man from Newport News, Va., sent emails last week to Dan Patrick's syndicated radio show detailing his desire to see Andrews dead.

Apparently, this is serious enough to act upon. Last year, Olympic gymnast and "Dancing with the Stars" champion Shawn Johnson went through a similar ordeal. On March 25, 2009, while Johnson was competing on the show's eighth season, a man was arrested for trying to break into the show's studio in order to meet her. Loaded guns, duct tape and love letters were found in his car that day, police said.

"I would love to get close enough to her to show her my suicide vest," the man wrote to Patrick in an e-mail on March 14, TMZ.com reported (linked here).

A couple weeks later, he reportedly sent another: "I hope she gets shot in the face. I would love to see if she can dance away from a hail of gunfire. That would really make my day."

Officials are said to know the identity of the man who sent at least a dozen letters because he made no attempt to hide his name.

The first one was reportedly received by Patrick's show on Sept. 16, and the program's broadcaster, DirecTV, promptly turned them over to Andrews' representatives.

Patrick said on Monday's show that he's been in contact with Andrews and her parents and they know the back story to how these emails were received and finally opened.

"We get hundreds and hundreds of emails on a daily basis, and (a producer) came across one that was a death threat against Erin Andrews," said Patrick. "We did not sit on any type of information that had to do with these death threats. As soon as we saw it, we passed it on (to the bosses at DirecTV, who passed it onto authorities), even during the commercial break ...

"We didn't want to bring it to light. This story wasn't about us. It was about the safety of Erin Andrews. And if we received a death threat that had to do with anybody, it would have been passed on.

"I thought we were being painted in an unfair light (in some media accounts) because it seemed like we sat on this information. (Producer) Seton (O'Conner) went back to look through all these emails just to see if there was anything else from this person. We did not open (other unopened emails from him) until Tuesday. These were unopened emails prior to the email that he opened last Tuesday.

"(Andrews and her family) know we did not sit on this information but some people ran with the information and made it seem like we had this information and didn't pass it on. We would never do that. I thought my staff was being painted unfairly here."

Andrew has reportedly asked ABC to increase the reality television show's level of security while she remains a contestant. The show is taped at CBS Television City.

"I'm glad I'm here," Andrews told People.com. "I have a dance (Monday night) and I don't want to let (partner) Maks (Chmerkovskiy) down, I don't want to let my family down, and I don't want to let myself down."

The story was not among the top 10 headlines on the ESPN.com page as of 9:30 a.m.

And as we're also painfully aware, in 2008, Andrews was victimized by a man who videotaped her nude through the peepholes of her hotel rooms three different states.

It's also rather interesting: On a Dan Patrick show last week, it was discovered by one of the show's producers that Andrews was doing a lot of radio interviews that day to promote her "DWTS" appearance, but she wasn't booked to come on Patrick's show. He and the crew joked about her lack of appearing on their show would lead them to endorse voting against her on the next "DWTS" episode.

The book: "Kiss It Good-bye: The Mystery, the Mormon, and the Moral of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates"

The author: John Moody

The vital stats: Shadow Mountain Publishing, 350 pages, $24.95

Find it: Barnes & Noble have it (linked here).

The pitch: We've linked to this one on the day of the Dodgers' season opener at Pittsburgh, to remind us about just how good the Pirates once were, and how fun it was to be 6 years old.

Before Stargell, Blass and Sanguillen, take the 50-year hot tub time machine ride to the 1960 season and World Series. And there's more beyond Maz's homer that stunned the Yankees.

Moody and his beloved, sooty city of Pittsburgh connects with Pirates pitcher Vern Law, known as The Deacon because of his strict Morman upbringing.

To Moody, writing this book was a personal journey. It admits he started it in 2003, because two years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, he still felt something was missing from his life.

"I wanted to return to a time when I had been happy," he wrote in the final chapter.

To him, explaining how that 1960 season "would propel the Pirates, and Pittsburgh, from the backwaters of public opinion to the pinnacle of baseball's promise," went much deeper.

Highlights of the week ahead in sports, both here and afar:

MONDAY

MLB: Dodgers at Pittsburgh, 10:30 a.m., Prime Ticket:

It's time for Dodger baseball. And then there's Vicente Padilla, taking his time in taking the ball from Joe Torre on Opening Day, hoping to have a 3-0 lead when he comes out of the dugout to throw the bottom of the first against a bunch of Triple-A guys, and counting on 80-some pitches getting him through the first six innings for one of them quality starts. After a rough spring training, that's the best he, and the team, can hope for. That, and he lasts longer than when Tiger Woods starts his Masters' press conference (11 a.m., ESPN)

MLB: Angels vs. Minnesota, Angel Stadium, 7 p.m., FSW, ESPN2:

Not just another Halo season opener for Mike Scioscia, whose team is non-the-less a favorite to repeat in the AL West despite upgraded competition from Seattle and Texas. This time, no Vlad, Lackey and Figgy. Or Hud-Man. Or Rory Markas.

MLB: St. Louis at Cincinnati, 10 a.m., ESPN; Cleveland at Chicago White Sox, 11 a.m., ESPN2; Chicago Cubs at Atlanta, 1 p.m., ESPN; San Francisco at Houston, 4 p.m., ESPN2:

Musburger calls the first one from Cincinnati, Miller and Morgan have the night cap. Eat a hot dog or three in between.

College basketball: NCAA men's championship: Duke vs. Butler, 6 p.m., Channel 2:

For some, this is a lead in to tonight's "The Big Bang Theory." Our theory on this one, echoing the words of Tim Layden in this most recent Sports Illustrated: "Often the Final Four confirms greatness. The UCLA Bruins of the 1960s and '70s. Duke in the early '90s. Florida in 2006 and '07. And numerous others who won just a single title. This year the Final Four is trying to find greatness." And tonight's final is trying very hard to reward a champion, giving more bang for the NCAA's bucks. It's all relative.

TUESDAY

NHL: Kings at Ducks, Honda Center, 7 p.m.:

Now that the Kings have secured a post-season berth ... Nothing against J-Quick. But how quickly can Jonathan Bernier get back on the ice for another shot at recording a road shutout?

College basketball: NCAA women's tournament championship: UConn vs. Stanford, 5:30 p.m., ESPN:

As long as it doesn't spill over into "Baseball Tonight," let them play.

MLB: Angels vs. Minnesota, Angel Stadium, 7 p.m., FSW:

Reports are that Wanda Wilson, the mother of Twins center fielder Denard Span, has not requested box seat tickets for this one next to the Minnesota dugout. Or anywhere near the field level.

WEDNESDAY

MLB: Dodgers at Pittsburgh, 4 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Game 2, and the Pirates players are already speculating amongst themselves which of them with the best long-range potential will have been traded away after the season opener? Clayton Kershaw must recheck his scouting report.

MLB: Angels vs. Minnesota, Angel Stadium, 7 p.m., FSW:

Yup, that's Orlando Hudson O-doggin' it around second base for the Twins.

NBA: Clippers vs. Portland, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., Prime Ticket:

It's almost over.

Golf: The Masters' Par 3 tournament, noon, ESPN:

In the past, Tiger Woods would ask for and receive a 7 a.m. tee-time for this so he could be finished early and get out of there. Is it good PR to do the same this time?

THURSDAY

Golf: The Masters, first round, 1-4:30 p.m., ESPN (live; 5-to-8 p.m. taped); highlights, 11:35 p.m., Channel 2 (second round Friday the same; rounds three and four on Channel 2, Saturday from 12:30 to 4 p.m.; Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.):

Before you get situated with your DirecTV's "Master's Experience" (Channel 701 for the four-screen look to see the featured group on Channel 703, go to Amen Corner on Channel 704 and hit holes 15 and 16 on Channel 705), check out what Brad Faxon wrote in the SI Golf 2010 Masters Preview: "Here are my best guesses at Tiger's four scores if the weather's good, followed by Tiger's postround analysis: 73 (a little nervous out there); 69 (didn't want to have the weekend off); 71 (couldn't buy a putt); 68 (getting used to competition again). Can Tiger win at seven under? Maybe not. But come Sunday afternoon we'll all be thinking about the possibility and he will too." What else will he be thinking about? We can only guess.

MLB: Dodgers at Pittsburgh, 9:30 a.m., Prime Ticket:

Get-away day means Chad Billingsley must get his head straight and work fast enough to find the charter jet by sundown.

MLB: Angels vs. Minnesota, Angel Stadium, 7 p.m., Channel 13:

At this point, the Twins' Joe Mauer leads the AL with a 1.402 batting average.

NBA: Lakers at Denver, 7:30 p.m., TNT, Channel 9:

Nuggets coach George Karl is undergoing an intense, 45-day cancer treatment of chemotherapy that causes so much pain to his mouth and throat that he can't eat. Meanwhile, the Nuggets have fallen from second to fifth in the Western Conference standings. It's lose-lose, and the NBA is not better for it. More on Karl's recovery at mylifeline.org/georgekarl.

NBA: Clippers at Sacramento, 7 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Over yet?

NHL: Kings vs. Phoenix, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

Look how far these Coyotes have come without an owner to get in the way. Other teams may look at this and follow suit. And lawsuits.

Minor League Baseball: Cal League openers: Lancaster at Bakersfield, Inland Empire at Rancho Cucamonga, High Desert at Lake Elsinore:

Single-A ball. Catch it. No, really. Get out there.

FRIDAY

MLB: Dodgers at Florida, 4 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Hiroki Kuroda gets the call in Game 4. The over/under on saves for Broxton by now should be 3.5.

MLB: Angels vs. Oakland, Angel Stadium, 7 p.m., FSW:

If the A's are wise, they have Ben Sheets throw every game this season until he breaks down. Again.

NBA: Lakers at Minnesota, 5 p.m., Channel 9:

And someone is still talking about a Lakers' 60-win season. Meanwhile, don't look now, but the T'wolves could have a worse record than the Nets.

SATURDAY

MLB: Dodgers at Florida, 4 p.m., Channel 9:

The turn for Josh Johnson, whom the Marlins gave $39 million this last offseason to be their No. 1 starter, comes up again, and there's a good chance he'll already be 1-0 after facing the Mets on Opening Day.

MLB: Angels vs. Oakland, Angel Stadium, 6 p.m., FSW:

Quick, name the A's starting outfield. Coco Crisp . . . we give. Billy Beane probably can't do it either.

College hockey: NCAA men's final, 4 p.m., ESPN:

From Ford Field in Detroit, where on April 1, 2007, WrestleMania 23 set a stadum attendence record with 80,103.

NBA: Clippers at Golden State, 7:30 p.m., Prime Ticket:

Did you know: The Clippers and Warriors share the same D-League team, the Bakersfield Jam. A team that's second-to-last in the Western Conference with a 17-31 record going into last weekend. So, no, there isn't any real reason for either team to be calling up help for lost seasons. As for the only team worse than them in the conference? The Lakers' D-Fenders.

NHL: Kings vs. Edmonton, Staples Center, 1 p.m., FSW:

Last home game, so oil up the Zamboni by throwing discarded Oilers under the chassis.

SUNDAY

NBA: Lakers vs. Portland, Staples Center, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7; NHL: Kings at Colorado, noon, FSW; MLB: Dodgers at Florida, 10 a.m., Prime Ticket and Angels vs. Oakland, Angel Stadium, 12:30 p.m., Channel 13:

They all go up against the final round of the Masters. We're searching eBay for a slightly used screen-in-a-screen-in-a-screen-in-a-screen big screen.

Photo by Jon SooHoo/Dodgers

Vin Scully responds to the fans at Cambleback Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., days after he had a fall at home that required stiches and left him with a bruised arm.

Spinning off today's Q-and-A (linked here), more from the Dodgers' Hall of Fame broadcaster:

From Eli Van Sickel of Terre Haute, Indiana:

Q: Is there a moment in sports history that you wish you could have called?

Scully: From doing a perfect game in the World Series, holy mackerel, not really. If I'm thinking of things that were looked upon as important games, many of them are glamorous and exciting, but actually the other one I'm proud to have done was Henry Aaron's 715th home run (in 1974) because of the sociological impact of it. That was the single most important moment I've ever seen.

From Lou Marino, Sr., of Santa Clarita:

Q: It is so obvious to so many others and me that Gil Hodges belongs in the Hall of Fame. Is there anything that those of us who strongly agree with you can do to have this injustice corrected?

Scully: I appreciate that. I don't really know because I think everything that's been imagined can be done. That's one of the great mysteries to me. Everyone admired him so much and when you realize he spent several years in World War II, his statistics are very much the same, or better, than (Cincinnati first baseman) Tony Perez, who has been voted in. To me, that's one of the amazing questions that I've never had answered.

From Art Ram, Los Angeles:

Q: Do you still have any relationship with the borough of Brooklyn?

Scully: Not really. I don't go back there, and really don't have any relatives or close friends there

From Geff Maron of Winnetka:

Q: Do you have any interesting stories to share while performing in your Barbershop Quartet?

Scully: Maybe the most interesting thing was the title -- the Shaving Mugs. That was a good one. I still love to hear it. In "The Music Man," there's some good barbershop there. I've also been to SPEBSQSA -- the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America (linked here) ... yup, SPEBSQSA.

More questions ...

Q: You get to call one game in a ballpark or stadium: Which one?

A: I always liked the smaller stadiums like Ebbets Field and Wrigley Field. Maybe Wrigley always intrigued me more because it never seemed like any lead was safe. It was so colorful and passionate and the bleacher bums and so much going on. In Ebbets, you had fans there who you were aware of their presence. But then, you'd come to the Coliseum, and there was this fellow playing the trumpet and the "Da-da-da-da- ta-daaaaa! Charge" and the Dodger fans would cheer. I didn't realize it then but that was picked up on the broadcast microphones, including the visiting teams, so they'd here it and it just spread from there. That was an interesting phenomenon.

Q: If Red Barber was your father figure in broadcasting, and Connie Desmond was like an older brother, how do you describe Jerry Doggett as part of your family of baseball and the years you worked with him?

Scully: He was my best firend and certainly like a brother. I know I got an awful lot of plaudance, but that kind of left him in the shadows. I don't think he had a jealous bone in his body. He was the best human being. I really loved him. On the road we spent the most time, since he lived in Orange County. We'd meet in the mornings for breakfast, walk around, have lunch, go to the park together, have dinner and a drink after. We were together all the time, playing golf, where he'd easily beat me. We were inseperable in every way.

The book: "Baseball Prospectus 2010"

The author: Edited by Steve Goldman and Christina Kahrl

The vital stats: Wiley Publishing, 672 pages, $24.95.

Find it: On the publication's official website (linked here).
Amazon.com also has it (linked here).

The pitch: Since it's been out in February, those who need it have been able to digest as much as possible -- before their fantasy drafts.

Because, after all, if you're not in a fantasy league, why bother consuming all this?

"Just because" is an acceptable answer. Fifteen editions later, it's proven its point.

It says so right on the back. If you read last year's book, it could have warned you about how Joe Saunders, Carlos Quentin, Dice-K, Ryan Ludwick and Josh Hamilton weren't going to do so well in '09, but that Andrew McCutchen, Pablo Sandoval, Colby Rasmus and Max Scherzer were on the upswing.

And you don't even have to know what the third-order Pythagenpat-projected record means or what EqBRR, VORP or PECOTA stands for. (That last one is Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm, but no one cares if you confuse it with a NFL quarterback rating).

Someone named Nate Silver came up with these PECOTA projections, which Sports Illustrated has called "perhaps the game's most accurate projection model." Most times.

We can't compare this to previous issues, only because we weren't brave enough just to pick one up to read it. We've given up on fantasy leagues years ago when we found out no matter how much we researched it, our fantasy never came true. So, as something just to read, yes, there's a lot of information you can't use. But there is a lot to know about your teams. And if ESPN.com's Rob Neyer calls it "the best book of its kind," just trust him (even though he's listed in the acknowledgements, along with Keith Olbermann, Rick Reilly and Argentina Kahrl, which is the dog owned by co-editor and Baseball Prospectus co-founder Christina Kahrl, who used to be Chris Kahrl before undergoing transgender reassignment).

Plus, there's this endorsement from "Moneyball" author Mike Lewis: "If a general manager hasn't read Baseball Prospectus, he should be fired for incompetence."

As for the stuff we learned:

== On the Angels' Torii Hunter: (With a $17.5 million salary), he's still go three years on that deal at similarly steep pre-recession rates as he settles into his mid-30s. For all his considerable charm, he's likely to develop into one of the game's most overpaid players. Ouch."

== On the Angels' Kendry Morales: "One of PECOTA's biggest whiffs in 2009 .. validating, at least in the short term, the Angels' decision to skip offering a nine-figure contract to departing free agent (Mark Teixeira). ... To be fair, no competing projection system foresaw (his) breakout. ... Even if PECOTA suggests a major regression, this is one case where you're better off letting go of those numbers."

== On the Dodgers' Matt Kemp: "Kemp's spike in homers (26 last year versus 18 in '80) did have an element of luck to it; according to Hit Tracker, he led the Dodgers with four "Lucky Homers," those that would not have cleared the fence on a calm, 70-degree day."

== On the Dodgers' Russell Martin: "The Dodgers seem hell-bent on breaking Martin, who led the majors in innings caught for the second year out of three. ... He's on the Jason Kendall career path, not exactly a good thing."

== On the Dodgers' Manny Ramirez: "Unless he can recapture some of his initial magic, expect reports of his act wearing thin to abound." In the PECOTA leader projections for 2010, Ramirez isn't in the top 20 for homers (the last one is 28) or RBIs (the last is 96).

== From a general synopsis of the Dodgers' 2010 season: "The good news is that the likelihood of the McCourts' needing to sell grows by the day ... While it's bound to be a winter and perhaps even a full season of discontent, the likelihood that the Dodgers will look toward a less woefully underfinanced ownership down the road should make this storm a bit easier to bear."

Take that, and whatever you glean from the MLB Network's "30 Clubs in 30 Days," and make out your own lineup. Then pray.

And notes that in the 2009 edition, Baseball Prospectus predicted the collapse of 2008 stars Joe Saunders, Carlos Quentin, Daisuke Matsuzake, Ryan Ludwick, and Josh Hamilton, the beakout seasons from Max Scherzer, Colby Rasmus, Pablo Sandoval, and Andrew McCutchen and the comebacks for Javier Vasquez, Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman and Robinson Cano.

How it goes down in the scorebook: As important as the lineup card that the third-base coach takes to home plate before each game. If someone's batting out of order, Baseball Prospectus will have it first.

Also: The publishers of the book have 10 ways your friends will know if you haven't read the Baseball Prospectus 2010:

10. You think signing Jason Bay for $66 million was a great move, and wish Omar Minaya had gone harder after Bengie Molina and Jarrod Washburn.
9. You drafted Derek Jeter and Derrek Lee early in your fantasy league this year.
8. You can't imagine why we'd need their new pitching stat -- SIERA -- when we already have ERA.
7. You think this might be Houston's year.
6. You've never heard of Jesus Montero, Jason Heyward or Mike Stanton.
5. You've heard of Montero, Heyward and Stanton, but without BP's new "MLB%" playing time projection, you overdrafted them.
4. You think your team will be better than the Yankees this year.
3. You're not bleary-eyed from staying up all night reading hundreds of pages of smart stats and witty commentary.
2. The name Matt Wieters doesn't make you giggle a little.
1. You're Brian Sabean (left)

And one more thing: To compliment this, you may as well get:

== "Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects" by the editors of Baseball America (linked here).

== "2010 Baseball Forecaster" by Ron Shandler (linked here)

== "2010 Minor League Baseball Analysis" by Rob Rogron and Jeremy Deloney (linked here)

The book: "High Heat: The Secret History of The Fastball And The Improbable Search for the Fastest Pitcher of All Time"

The author: Tim Wendel

The vital stats: Da Capo publishing, 268 pages with index, $25.

Find it: We found it at Powells.com (linked here)

The pitch: Our recent fascination with the career, recovery and legend of Steve Dalkowski (linked here and linked here), who we met during his visit to Dodger Stadium before his induction into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals, drew us to this project quicker than a quick pitch.

Wendel, whose eight previous books includes one of our '08 favorites, "Far From Home" (linked here), gives all the logistically sound reasoning why and how someone can throw a fastball better than others -- from windup to pivot to stride to release to follow through. He even went to an aerodynamic testing lab outside of Birmingham, Alabama, to understand the mechanics that make throwing heat possible in the first place.

He concludes by offering up his Top 12 fastest pitchers: Dalkowski made it, along with some who you'd guess (Nolan Ryan, at No. 1, with Sandy Koufax, Bob Feller, Bob Gibson, Goose Gossage and Walter Johnson), a couple of modern-day additions (Joel Zumaya and Billy Wagner), and a few others you may have overlooked (J.R. Richard, Amos Rusie and Satchel Paige). Dalkowski is No. 2 on this list.

But no Randy Johnson? Look again at the cover of the book, top photo. That's a cropped shot of The Big Unit winging a heater toward home plate.

See, the debates on this can be intriguing. Depends on not just who you talk to, but what hitters faced what pitchers. Ask former Dodger shortstop Bill Russell about the time Richard threw one over his head and it splintered a piece of wood 30 feet behind him against the backstop. Russell wanted no part of it his next time up, prompting manager Tommy Lasorda to send up Pepe Frias to hit for him. "Why do I have to bat?" Frias replied.

The big throwers today -- Zumaya (sidelined a lot lately with injury), Wagner (ditto), David Price, Neftali Feliz, Aroldis Chapman and Stephen Strasburg -- should be given copies of this book as a cautionary tale.

After all the analysis, maybe Wendel's best observation is this paragraph on page 232: "Ironically few of the pitchers features in these pages asked for the largesse of high heat. Due to the expectations and pressure of possessing such rare talent, arguably more have suffered and even failed than have succeeded. If what binds them all together is the gift they've been provided with, then what truly separates them is the ability to harness and to honor it. (So) who persevered the most with what was bestowed upon them?"

Who's the fastest of all time? Seattle Mariners scout Phil Pote says it best in these pages: "(It's) the game's ultimate can of worms."

How it goes down in the scorebook: A called third strike. A fastball down the middle, of course. Maybe one as fast as Dalkowski's -- in the 109 range. Simply unhittable.

Also: Wendel recently wrote a book on the 1980 U.S. hockey team called "Going for the Gold" (linked here) worth sniffing out.

The book: "Baseball for the Utterly Confused"

The author: Ed Randall

The vital stats: McGraw Hill, 232 pages, $17.95 paperback

Find it: Powells has it (linked here)

The pitch: Mr. "Talkin' Baseball," who according to his bio in WFAN radio (linked here) "is held in the highest esteem as one of baseball's foremost authorities, the result of approximately 500 compelling interviews with the Who's Who of baseball," has decided to author his own version of the publishing company's answer to "(Fill in the blank) for Dummys" or "The Idiot's Guide to (Whatever)."

Maybe he's the best candidate. He thinks he knows enough, and can impress a novice with that information.

What should tip you off immediately as to what this one's all about is the kiss-of-death quote stripped across the top of the cover:

"This book takes its place among the best baseball books ever written. It's so much fun, and I coulnd' put it down. A must-read for the diehard fan and for the apprentice."

So says Larry King.

Photo courtesy of ESPN Films
Derrick Gathers, the brother of former LMU star Hank Gathers who played his college basketball at Cal State Northridge, has a joyful moment during the filming of "Guru of Go."

That's Paul Westhead's favorite Shakespearean line above, from "Hamlet," as he explains in "Guru of Go," the latest ESPN "30 For 30" documentary that debuts Saturday (Channel 7, 2 p.m.) and we got into with today's media column (linked here).

Director Bill Couturie said that long before he even scripted how this film could come about, he had a list of quotes from Shakespeare that he thought would go well with the piece, based on Westhead's background as an English lit teacher and trying to pass on his knowledge to a bunch of basketball players who probably didn't know any better.

As a result, an underlying theme to "Guru of Go" are Shakespearean references the really tie everything together. Even better, Couturie said he discovered that Westhead kept a journal, thinking he'd someday do a book of "The System" and his days of coaching, going back to winning an NBA title with the Lakers in 1980, to leading Loyola Marymount on its fanatical run in the late '80s, to getting the Phoenix Mercury to an WNBA title three years ago, and now trying it out on the women's college level in the University of Oregon, which made the NIT.

From that journal, excerpts are used to tell the story of Westhead's philosophy that really cut through the on-camera interviews and archived footage. It's more personal, straight from the pen and paper, that gives "Guru of Go" another dimension in the doc drama that ESPN is trying to reveal to viewers with this series.

More Q-and-A with Couturie (pronounced ko-TOUR-e-AY), who grew up in Palos Verdes Estates and now lives in Ojai, on the project:

Q: What made you pick this project over all the other sports stories of the last 30 years?
How did you get connected?

A: I did a film, "Into the Fire" (linked here) and the writer on that project, Steve Delsohn, who also does work for ESPN, convinced me I should get into this "30 For 30" project, and he had some ideas. The one that lit the spark for me was with Paul Westhead. I'm a documentary film maker, not a sports guy, but I like sports. The thing that works for me is when I fall in love with a character. This Shakespearean scholar spouting to 7-foot black kids from ghetto, how does that work? A lot of stories are also best told fictionally, but some stories really wouldn't work as fiction because you wouldn't believe it, it's too far fetched. That's where the filmmaker of a documentary has a great opportunity to have a story only to be told in a non-fiction sense -- starting with the Lakers, and Jack McKinney getting into a bike wreck, leading to Westhead taking over and leading the team to the championship, then Magic Johnson gets him fired for 'not running enough,' etc.. There are so many twists and turns.

Q: What kind of challenges did telling this story present, especially when the title, "Guru of Go," implies it's really all about Westhead and his system, but there's this Hank Gathers story that also fits into it?

A: It's only 50 minutes long and you're telling the story about the last 30 years of one guy's life, and the last 15 yeras of two other lives. Time is critical. It would have been journalistically irresponsible to not include all the Loyola Marymount parts to this. But with Paul, he had all the right parts at LMU to make this work, and given how critical Hank was to the whole system made it all the more astounding.

Q: The most powerful thing has to be where you have all the people you've interviewed for this piece stop and pause when it got to the point where they had to talk about Gathers' death. Each handled it in their own way ... and what about the way Derrick looked right into the camera?

A: On the first day of shooting, we filmed Derrick and Bo Kimble. Once Derrick understood this wasn't going to be just a quickie news piece and we'd go indepth, he got into it. He wears his heart on his sleeve. As a documentary guy, you live for that kind of interview, one who spills his guts like that. As soon as we had that, I knew we'd have a good movie. Then when Bo came in, he was also thoughtful and charming. Then I knew we'd have a great movie. Normally, the first day is a bust in getting a documentary going, you're just getting your feet wet, and you'll figure things out as they go along. But we got two major interviews the first day.

Q: You wish you could have had more time to get more material in, or is 50 minutes enough?

A: When someone from ESPN saw it, they said, 'If we'd known how good this was, we could have given it a 90-minute slot.' I already had sweat blood to get it down to 50. Hopefully, there will more that gets onto the DVD when that is released later. You're always working with collapsing and expanding time in a documentary to get different effects and create a different impact. I wanted to get a clip in of Hank's 48-point game against LSU and Shaquille O'Neal, but that didn't make it. I also knew there was more footage out there of him being a comedian -- everyone talks so much about that. I know some of that was lost in a fire apparently. When we had a screening of this last week at LMU, a friend of Bo's came up and said he had a VHS tape of Hank rapping and being funny. I knew someone would have something like that, and unfortunately, it was at the premiere. The most difficult part was trying to tell two stories here. We debated that a lot. Hank's story was emotional, but ESPN said they felt they had already told it (in its "SportsCentury" series). But so many people knew it we decided we had to tell both stories, integrate the A-Story about Paul and the System, and the B-Story about Hank and Bo, and then make them flow together so they felt natural and not forced. When we screened it to friends of mine, who aren't sports people, they agreed that you don't need to care so much about basketball to fall in love with the movie. Is it about basketball? Yes, but it's a human story. Documentaries and films are different, but they really work the same way. You've got to tell a compelling story, and you have to have great characters. I look for personalities and storytelling and let the graphics move the rest of the story along. And here, I fell in love with the characters. Derrick again was one of the best interviews I'd ever done. I hadn't met him and two hours later we're hugging and kissing each other. Derrick was able to access his most private feelings, and many have a hard time doing that.

Q: Where were you when Hank Gathers died in 1990?

A: I was in the Bay Area and I had read all about it, but I didn't follow LMU's run in the NCAA tournament. To me, it was a news story and I guess it hellps to have a fresh pair of eyes on this. And I know after this documentary, one thing I was telling the people I talked do: I don't think you'll ever have to tell this story again because I think we have the definitive version.

Replays for "Guru of Go" after its debut Saturday (available at this link): Sunday, 7 p.m., ESPNU; Tuesday, 8 p.m., ESPN2; May 1, 5 p.m., ESPN2; May 4, 6 p.m., ESPN; May 5, 10 a.m., ESPNU.

*********************************************************************************

== This two-hour time block that ESPN has branded and shifted to ABC for Saturdays called "ESPN Sports Saturday" -- kind of like "Wide World of Sports" without the exotic locations -- will not only include "Guru of Go" but also an hour-long wrapup show of the week's worth of sports news called "Winners Bracket" with Michelle Beadle and Marcellus Wiley. Eventually, the block will include Rick Reilly's "Homecoming" show and "E:60" news magazine segments. Hannah Storm will anchor it.

== The re-emergence of the Arena Football League comes via the NFL Network, which will use Paul Burmeister, a former Iowa quarterback on play by play, and Solomon Wilcots as the anlayst on the game of the week, starting tonight at 5 p.m. Fran Charles will also call some games on the network's 18-game package, with Charles Davis and Tom Waddle also joining in. The first game: Chicago Rush at Iowa Barnstormers. The last game: July 30: The Tulsa Talons vs. the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgs.

== NHL.com has launched a digital vault to give access to contests from the past going back to the 1960s. In addition, there are "condensed games" -- 10-12 minutes long, from the previous night, and a three-year archived of full replays of all games since the 2007-08 season. It starts at $4.95 a month. More info: (linked here).

== Gary Stevens, part of the NBC crew in Arcadia hosting Santa Anita Derby and Wood Memorial coverage on Saturday (Channel 4, 2 p.m.), says it about Lookin At Lucky: "(He) is the obvious pick (for the Santa Anita Derby), but it was interesting listening to Bob Baffert this week saying that he just wants to get through this race and that the horse is much better on dirt than synthetic. It almost sounds like if he gets beat that he is not worried about it. He's looking forward to the Kentucky Derby. Having said that, Sidney's Candy is a speed horse who can actually take it wire-to-wire. I also like the gelding Caracortado. He's only lost one race."

The WNBA Sparks' "Ole Skool Crew," a dance team of women 40-and-older who perform at the team's Staples Center games whenever there's a lull in the action (insert your own punchline here), will have tryouts Saturday at L.A. Trade Tech College Gym (off 23rd Street in L.A. between Flower and Grand) from noon to 4 p.m.

Wheelchairs, walkers and Lady Gaga makeup optional.

Last year, this "Fabulous and Over Forty" (their description) dance team brought "smooth moves and high energy to the Sparks timeouts, quarter breaks and halftime shows," according to the team's press release.

"The women entertain the crowd by strutting their stuff, raising the roof and inspiring the crowd to 'jump up out of their seats' during home games," it continues. They also represented the team at community fairs, trade shows, non-profit fundraising and college athletic programs. They also somehow had an appearance on The E! Channel's "Keeping Up With The Kardashians."

(We now have a vision of Tyler Perry guest starring on "Cougar Town" that we can't get out of our heads.)

As for the tryouts, you have to bring proof of age -- again, under 40, you cheetas. Registration takes place between 10 and 11:30 a.m.. Pre-register if you have access and knowledge of how to use a computer at www.LASparks.com under the FanZone by clicking "Ole Skool Crew" ... aw, heck, it's at this link (linked here).

On the site, you'll learn more about how, "from jamming with James Brown or bustin a move to MC Hammer, these hot ladies bring an energetic, sassy, confident and entertaining super show" and have been doing so since 2004, when men were then included.

Last year's team included a former "Soul Train" dancer and a former Tampa Bay Bandit cheerleader -- yes, the team from the USFL, back in the mid-'80s.

More information contact director Traci Doran Hawkins (pictured here) at (909) 534-5951 or e-mail dorihamad@aol.com. And here's a flyer with more info and an application (linked here) that explains the need of a $25 entry fee (cash or check), plus the need for a head shot and resume. Park on the F-lot roof off Flower near 22nd Street.

Seriously, if we were in town this weekend, we'd so be there. If not to try out, then to see if there's a need for someone who knows CPR.

The Sparks one of the five original teams from the WNBA that began 14 years ago, start the 2010 season on May 28 against the Washington Mystics at Staples Center.

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Bill Couturie may be best known in the film industry for winning an Academy Award for his documentary, "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt," and an Emmy Award for another doc, "Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam."

(Yes, and some may even know, after a Google search, that he was the director on the movie, "Ed," with Matt LeBlanc and a baseball-playing chimp).

But after seeing his entry into the ESPN "30 for 30" documentary series on the break-neck offensive philosophy simply called "The System" and honed by Paul Westhead -- which he made famous at Loyola Marymount in the 1980s and '90s and took to the WNBA and now women's college basketball -- Couturie will have more sports fans in his corner.

We talked to Bill, a self-proclaimed non-sports junkie, about this project, which breaks loose from the ESPN vault and debuts Saturday on ABC -- Channel 7, 2 p.m., just before CBS launches the Final Four.

"Twenty years ago, Loyola Marymount made a remarkable run through the NCAA tournament in the face of great tragedy, said Connor Schell, executive producer, ESPN Films. "In Guru of Go, Bill Couturie has crafted a compelling tribute to the legacy of that team and showcasing the film on ABC during Final Four weekend was an obvious choice."

== Here's an interview Bill did with Dennis Miller on "Guru of Go" (linked here)
== Amazon.com has a list of DVDs from the "30 For 30" series for order (linked here)
== More on the documentary via the "30 For 30" website (linked here)

The book: "The Baseball Fan's Bucket List: 162 Things You Must See, Do, Get & Experience Before You Die"

The author: Robert Santelli and daughter Jenna Santelli

The vital stats: Running Press, 286 pages, $15.95

Find it: We recommend Powells.com (linked here)

The pitch: Because of how it captured our imagination most and inspired us to get off the coach, "101 Baseball Places To See Before You Strike Out" by Josh Pahigian (linked here) was in the lead-off spot for the 2008 list.

Oh, the places we'd like to go.

Here's Robert Santelli's turn. And while expansion isn't always the best ideas in baseball, this one comes with even more opportunities.

Santelli, the executive director of the Grammy Museum near Staples Center (linked here), is a New York Times' best-selling author -- for books on music, like "The Bob Dylan Scrapbook" and the interactive "Greetings from E Street: The Story of Bruce Springsteen."

As a baseball fan now living in L.A., he's been to plenty of spots. But to fill in 61 more spots than Pahigian -- and isn't 61 still a great baseball number? -- he brings the total to matching the length of a regular-season 162 games, adding books you should read, fantasy camps you should experience, things you should collect (bobbleheads and cards) and tops it off with a checklist.

Your bucket list, there for you to kick it, includes these additions:

No. 16: Take a kid to his or her first major league game
No. 36: Attend the World Baseball Classic.
No. 51: Play in adult baseball league
No. 59: See the Dodgers play the Giants
No. 117: Play APBA
No. 125: Play Strat-O-Matic
No. 158: Visit the Sports Museum of Los Angeles

And our favorite:

No. 148: Fix up a baseball field. Writes Santelli:
"In the end, it really doesn't matter how the job gets done, or by whom. Helping youngsters gain a safe and attractive place to play baseball is what this 'Bucket List' entry is all about."

As is the entire book, if you really care about the game and its future.

There's a great cross-reference for "Bucket List" and "101 Places." Santelli lists at No. 69: Create A Baseball Reference Library. The photo used to illustrate his point is a stack of books -- hopefully from his own library -- that includes "101 Places" stacked up with "Veeck -- As in Wreck," "Ball Four," and "Boys of Summer," all of which have their own entry as well as a bunch of other books and films.

How it goes down in the scorebook: We gave Pahgian's book an "inside the park home run, laughing all the way." This one includes a Prince Fielder-like arrival at home plate, complete with knocking down his teammates like giant bowling pins. Start checking stuff off the list in the back and see how much catching up you have to do.