April 2011 Archives

Those who tried but didn't quite squeeze themselves into the 30 baseball books in 30 days of April '11 list, some for reasons beyond our control:

== "Before the Machine: The Story of the 1961 Pennant-Winning Reds" by Mark J. Schmetzer (Clerisy Press Publisher, 256 pages, $15.95, available at the publisher's site (linked here): "The Cincinnati team is one of the freaks of nature," says Dodgers vice president Fresco Thompson late in the 1961 season. "They are leading the league with a club consisting mostly of castoffs and nondescripts. This whole Cincy team defies form, but you have to give the guys credit. They have banded together, many in a last-ditch stand, and they are trying to show their former employers that unloading them was a mistake." Schmetzer, a Cincinnati native who wrote for a team fan newspaper starting in the 1980s, goes back to the 50th anniversary of the team (pre-Pete Rose) and tries to make it come alive again. Whether he succeeds much or not depends on if you're a die-hard Reds fan. Dodgers fans will only want to look back on this to try to figure out what went wrong. On Aug. 13, the Dodgers, two years removed from a World Series title, led the Reds by 2 1/2 games. On Aug. 15, during the Reds' 5-2 win over the Dodgers at the Coliseum, Frank Robinson snared an apparent single to right field by Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax and proceeded to throw him out at first base instead. "If someone did that to me, I would want to sit down and cry," said Cincinnati shortstop Eddie Kasko. The next day, the Reds swept a Wednesday doubleheader against the Dodgers, 6-0 and 8-0, before some 72,140 fans, leaping past the Dodgers and into first. For good. It is also revealed that Dodgers coach Leo Durocher had been jeering at Robinson during the series, trying to get under his skin. It only got Robinson mad, and he retaliated with his bat and arm. The Reds would sweep a Sunday doubleheader against the Dodgers a couple weeks later in Cincinnati, beating Don Drysdale in the second game. Reds third baseman George Freese would end up hitting nine homers against the Dodgers in '61.

== "21: The Story of Roberto Clemente" by Wilfred Santiago (Fantagraphics Books, 200 pages, $22.99, available on Amazon.com), a graphic novel by an illustrator and writer from Puerto Rico, received a nice write up in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated (linked here), which included: "Santiago's book owes a strong narrative debt to David Maraniss's 2006 biography of Clemente, but it is driven by Santiago's skill as a visual storyteller. His figures are drawn in a cartoon style, but mixed with clippings from newspapers and magazines they convey a hyperrealism that highlights the relationship between Clemente and the world around him. "You don't have to make something realistic to make it feel real," says Santiago. ... Clemente proves to be an ideal subject for a graphic novel -- a famously stylish player who attacked the game with controlled violence; a great fielder, famous for his laser throws; and a bad-ball hitter who stroked wicked line drives. ... Santiago captures Clemente's relentless vitality as a player, frames the story around the historical and religious traditions of Puerto Rico, and handles Clemente's tragic death with restraint, all with a gimlet eye and the sensitivity of a true artist. It is a classic story given new life in this fresh, innovative telling." If we could only have found it at the book store. Sports shelves? Graphic novels? You give it a shot.

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:

== Day 18: "Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game" (linked here)

== Day 15: "Branch Rickey: Penguin Lives Biographies" by Jimmy Breslin (linked here)

== Day 14: "56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports" (linked here)

== Day 28: "Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One (Jewish Lives)" (linked here)

== Day 13: "Pitching in the Promised Land: A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League" (linked here)

== Day 20: "The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923" (linked here)

== Day 29: "The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals and Secrets Beneath the Stitches" (linked here)

== Day 5: "The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First" (linked here)

GREAT EFFORT:

== Day 12: "Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles (Images of Baseball)" (linked here)

== Day 7: "The Baseball Hall of Fame Collection: Celebrating the Greatest Players of All Time Through Rare Objects, Documents and Photos" (linked here)

== Day 22: "Remembering Fenway Park: An Oral and Narrative History of the Home of the Boston Red Sox" (linked here)

== Day 10: "Baseball and the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game" (linked here)

== Day 23: "New York Mets: 50 Amazin' Seasons -- The Complete Illustrated History" (linked here)

== Day 8: "Baseball: How To Play The Game: The Official Playing and Coaching Manual of Major League Baseball" (linked here)

== Day 17: "1961*: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase" (linked here)

== Day 6: "Uppity: My Untold Story About the Games People Play" by Bill White (linked here)

== Day 26: "Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers" (linked here)

== Day 21: "Knuckler: My Life with Baseball's Most Confounding Pitch" by Tim Wakefield (linked here)

== Day 25: "Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed" (linked here)

== Day 9: "The Bill James Handbook: 2011" (linked here)

== Day 24: "The Runmakers: A New Way to Rate Baseball Players" (linked here)

THANKS FOR SHOWING UP:

== Day 30: "Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella" (linked here)

== Day 11: "The Greatest Game Ever Pitched: Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, and the Pitching Duel of the Century" (linked here)

== Day 16: "The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues" (linked here)

== Day 2: "A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants" (linked here)

== Day 3: "Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2011" (linked here)

== Day 4: "Baseball Prospectus 2011" (linked here)

BELOW THE MENDOZA LINE ...

== Day 19: "In the Time of Bobby Cox: The Atlanta Braves, Their Manager, My Couch, Two Decades, and Me" (linked here)

== Day 27: "Bullpen Diaries: Mariano Rivera, Bronx Dreams, Pinstripe Legends, and the Future of the New York Yankees" (linked here)

== Day 1: "Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly" (linked here)

The book: "Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella"

The author: Neil Lanctot

The vital stats: Simon & Schuster, 528 pages, $20

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: On page 91 of his 450-page epic on the life and times of Roy Campanella, author Neil Lanctot makes reference to Campy's well-known 1959 book "It's Good To Be Alive" as a "generally Pollyannaish autobiography," which may be a nice way of saying that facts never got in the way of a story.

Long out of print, it was re-released in 1995 by University of Nebraska Press (linked here), so that anyone who ever knew about it, or only saw the movie version (1974, with Paul Winfield as Campanella), could have a reference point.

The point in pointing this out first is that there's nothing sugar-coated about Lanctot's effort. To the contrary. Whether the Campanella family approves of it nor not.

The fact is that they don't, and Roy Campanella Jr., finally passed word onto Lanctot up front that none of his surviving children or step-children wouldn't participate in being interviewed or suggesting people to be interviewed. That's kind of too bad. Their version of how things happened might have been a softening blow to the somewhat harsh way it is all portrayed between these pages.

The cover portrait is the first indication that this isn't going to be pretty -- a somewhat pained, grim expression that Campanella, giving the appearance of a tortured soul, far from the happy-go-lucky, always-have-a-little-boy-in-you demeanor that we've been told was far more common. It's not revealed in the book, but the shot is actually Campanella's 1954 Bowman baseball card, one that kids of that time probably put in the spokes of their bike wheels and didn't think twice about.

This often dark tale really is two stories -- starting with how the man of an Italian father and black mother started at the age of 15 playing his summers in the Negro Leagues and many reporters still couldn't get his name right ("Campinelli," "Confenello" ... one even referred to him as "Leroy Campanello").

Despite having aborted tryout attempts with different big-league teams -- including his home-town Philadelphia -- he finally worked his way into Branch Rickey's "Great Experiment" and realized that he could have been the first to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball. Rickey choose the UCLA-educated Jackie Robinson over Campanella, whose education didn't even get him a high school diploma despite him insisting he had one. One key thing not in Campanella's favor: Rickey feared that Dodgers pitchers could be in conflict with how Campanella called a game behind the plate.

Campy made it in 1948 -- a year after Robinson, but became just as popular. The decision didn't really seem to bother Campanella, who went on to win more MVP awards than Robinson (three total) and become a Hall of Famer on his own right. Or was asked to appear on "What's My Line?"

Then there's the other half of his life, and here's a fresh look at Campanella's complicated personal existence after his car accident-- he skidded into a light pole in the early hours of January 28, 1958, which prevented him from playing for the Dodgers once they moved to Los Angeles. None of that really is covered in Campanella's autobiography, written so close to the time of the accident, and never really divulged before until Lanctot, who has written several Negro League history books, decided to have at it, with the encouragement, he says, of Robinson scholar Jules Tygiel.

While Lanctot does include recent interviews with those such as Rachel Robinson and former contemporaries like Carl Erskine, Monte Irvin, Andy Pafko and Don Zimmer, it is noticably absent of anything new from Don Newcombe.

Lanctot notes that "unfortunately, some of Campy's surviving teammates proved difficult to talk to ... there was a former Dodger whose son informed me that his father now charges $5,000 for an hour-long interview. Another well-known Dodger declined to participate, explaining that he had been 'misquoted too many times' in the past. And Clem Labine, Preacher Roe and Johnny Podres died before I was able to arrange interviews."

Also, alas, no Vin Scully. He's quoted, as are many through previous comments made in the media that Lanctot uncovered in his very complete research project.

Through all the light and darkness, a strange, eventual contentious relationship with Robinson is also probed, with Lanctot eventually figuring that out the two couldn't have been much different, bonded only really by their skin color. It apparently wasn't that much of a hidden subject -- it made the cover of Jet magazine in 1952. That they later in life reconciled is at least somewhat comforting.

There are also the three marriages that dotted Campanella's life, all at important stages, the first of which is hardly mentioned in his autobiography, the second that ended tragically. But what he accomplished in advancing therapy techniques has really not been revealed before.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Very bittersweet. There are 12 customer rankings about the book on the Barnes & Noble site, garnishing a combined one out of five stars possible. We're not sure what it says, but maybe it's not up to the books written lately on Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle or upcoming on Stan Musial in the apparent need to revisit the careers of former stars in light of current steroid tarnishing.

It can be very depressing, painful and stressful. Not just Campanella's post-playing days, but the writing as well.

Maybe some of us still just want to believe "It's Good To Be Alive" closed the book on everything we wanted to know.

The book: "The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals and Secrets Beneath the Stiches"

The author: Zach Hample

The vital stats: Anchor Books/Random House, 356 pages, $14.95.

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here), at Powell's (linked here), at Amazon.com (linked here) and at Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: There is something intrinsically magical about simply holding a baseball in your hand. Whether it's the rows of stitches, the stretched pieces of leather or the company name stamped on it. Or, of course, that new-ball smell.

Hample, who hooked us a couple years back with his "Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan's Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks " book, has taken that assault on the senses to new heights.

His claim to fame is having hauled in more than 4,600 balls in his "career," from nearly 50 ballparks. He's got them all logged on his website (linked here), up to the day. Fact is, he has a business called "Watch With Zack," where he'll personally take you to a game and guarantee them at least one ball to take home. (Kinda like paying to going to a private pond overstocked with trout, but kids still get a kick out of it by landing one).

So when he decides to dedicate his next took to all there is to know about a simple baseball -- why not?

His research is pretty impressive, for starters. Go back to 1905, when a Cubs fan named Samuel Scott was arrested after catching a foul ball but refusing to hand it to an usher. The team president signed a larceny complaint against him. The charges were dropped with Scott threatened to sue for assault and false arrest. Eventually, Cubs owner Charles Weeghman allowed foul balls to be kept. In 1916. It was lauded in Baseball magazine as a "common-sense policy," even if other owners refused to go along with it.

Flash ahead to today, when fans in Wrigley Field's bleachers started the tradition of throwing back a visiting team's home-run ball. Or, at least throwing "a" ball back, whether it's the original homer or not.

Hample is able to chronicle this baseball thing from every angle imaginable, starting with how it became a souvenir craze, a pop-culture hook, a vechile for stunts -- even how it has led to some unusual deaths (incuding 14-year-old Dodgers fan Alan Fish at Dodger Stadium in 1970, who remains the only MLB spectator fatality). But even Hample even manages to put a light spin on that chapter, with a notation at one point saying: "No, this is not a story about Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, who hit Keith Olbermann's mother in the face with a bad throw in 2006. She survived."

The last third of his book is a how-to guide on getting your own baseball. From how to position yourself near an aisle to getting early to the park for batting practice and finding the "Easter eggs" that were deposited before the entrance gates were opened, to watching tendencies of batters ... stuff you knew you didn't even know, but should have picked up by now just from paying attention. He even gets into a bit how Dodgers fan Mike Mahan once bought up the right field pavillion at Dodger Stadium during Barry Bonds' pursuit of No. 700 for his career in 2004 (a story that we actually wrote first).

Admittedly, our favorite section is about how baseballs -- especially foul balls -- have made themselves storylines in movies and sit-coms over the years. Hample takes the time to critique the authenticity, which we can appreciate.

Such as in the 1986 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" on page 68:

"Although Bueller's dorky fist pumps (and attire) belie the athleticism required to make a bare-handed catch in a crowded section of presumably rowdy Cubs fans, the scene is very realistic. It begins as the dozens of extras react to the ball entering the stands -- an obvious detail that often gets overlooked -- and continues with Bueller's snag. First he experiences the rush of obtaining the souvenir. Then, after a few seconds, the pain sets in as he shakes his left hand. Upon closer inspection, his friend Sloane can be seen ducking with her right hand over her head, while his best friend Cameron quickly looks to the side as if he's trying to see who ended up with the ball. The only flaw is that when the TV camera follows the initial flight of the ball, two relief pitchers can be seen warming up along the left-field foul line, but when the field is then shown from Bueller's prespective, the bullpen mound is mysteriously empty. That said, writer-director John Hughes expertly blended actual game footage with his own attention to detail in the stands."

Hample's attention to detail is even better. Although Baseball Prospectus does some real research into the scene and pinpoints it from a Cubs-Braves game in 1985 (linked here).

One more example: Hample cites a day in 2009 at Dodger Stadium when Vin Scully remarked: "Nice catch by a fan directly behind the dugout." Turns out, it was Jermaine Jackson, of the Jackson 5, as Rafael Furcal "lunged for a 1-2 changeup from Braves starter Jair Jurrjens and blooped it toward the outfield end of the third-base dugout. Jackson, wearing a glove on his lef thand, stood up, leaned back, reached deep into the crowd and made a backhanded stab high over his head, which he then celebrated with a series of fist pumps."

How it goes down in the scorebook: If you've never been able to snag a ball -- either in batting practice, one that goes foul, or by begging a ballboy -- this is the next best thing.

If more fans had this kind of passion and aptitude for pulling a book together on a subject as simple as a piece of round cowhide -- as well as giving away trade secrets on how to snag one -- we'd all be better off.

Also: Hample has also co-authored a new book/journal/diary about baseball scorekeeping (linked here) that looks pretty sharp.

Only because he opened his mouth on last night's TNT NBA post-game show -- long after most Lakers fans tuned out -- Charles Barkley had this exchange with Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson:

Inside the NBA crew debates their pick for the Dallas Mavericks vs. Los Angeles Lakers series in Round 2:

Barkley: "I'm going to stick with what I've been saying all year."

Smith: "Which is?"

Barkley: "The Dallas Mavericks are the best team in Texas and they're going to upset the Los Angeles Lakers. I think they have more mismatches than the Lakers."

Smith: "OK, OK, you don't have to convince yourself."

Barkley: "I'm not trying to convince myself."

Smith: "I'm just listening. You believe it, I'm glad you do."

Johnson: "Are you going to weigh in?"

Smith: "I think the Los Angeles Lakers are going to win just because of rebounding. I would have said Dallas until I saw Game 6 tonight."

Barkley: "But they played against a bunch of munchkins tonight. Those munchkins are going home. The Mavericks aren't munchkins."

Smith: "They couldn't rebound. If they do that against the Lakers, they're gonna lose. If you let the Lakers back in the games, you're going to lose."

Barkley: "The Lakers are going down."

Smith: "OK."

Barkley: "In six."

A press release by Marty Appel Public Relations in New York:

By a margin of 45 percent to 34 percent, sports fans oppose Major League Baseball's involvement in the day-to-day operations of the Dodgers, according to a poll conducted this week by the Seton Hall Sports Poll.

The poll was conducted by random dial across the country of 726 people, of whom 495 said they followed sports. The results have a +/- margin of error of 4.5 percent.

Remarkably, among sports fans, it was women who provided the difference, opposing the move by MLB by 49 percent to 24 percent. Men were almost equally divided, 44 percent in favor, 42 percent opposed, and 20 percent said they didn't know.

"This action still has a number of acts to play out," noted Rick Gentile, director of the poll, which is conducted by The Sharkey Institute. "But for now, in the court of public opinion, the team's ownership seems to be winning versus MLB's decision."

The Seton Hall Sports Poll, the nation's only academically-based sports polling service, has been conducting polls since 2006 with Gentile, the former vice president of sports for CBS, as the poll's director.

The book: "Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn't Want to Be One (Jewish Lives)"

The author: Mark Kurlansky

The vital stats: Yale University Press, 192 pages, $25

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: The intent of the publisher's series on "Jewish Lives" is to create what they call "interpretive biographies" on "eminent Jewish figures" in literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and arts and sciences. Authors are then matched up who can "elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the breadth and complexity of Jewish experience from antiquity through the present."

As we found earlier with Jimmy Breslin's Penguin series biography on Branch Rickey, this objective can really bring out some talented insights on subjects that often get buried in the weighted words of historians who don't know what to include or delete from their tireless research.

So, before Bob Dylan is deconstructed by Ron Rosenbaum, or Leonard Bernstein by Allen Shawn, we have this Greenberg-Kurlansky matchup.

Sports, apparently, fits into one of those categories spelled out above, and Kurlansky, who last year put out a fascinating book on Dominican baseball players called "The Eastern Stars," drew this assignment, culling through more than 30 books done either on or including Greenberg. A large part of that was Greenberg's autobiography with Ira Berkow in the late 1980s as well as an extended interview he did the American Jewish Committee Oral History project.

What Kurlansky (right) seems to have rediscovered, and makes sure to repeat as much as possible in this otherwise modest book of less than 150 pages, is Greenberg didn't want the weight of the Jewish culture to affect his baseball playing days. But it did. And mostly, he accepted that, based on trying to honor his parents.

Otherwise, his much debated decision in 1934 to not play on Yom Kippur, even thought he did play nine days earlier on Rosh Hashanah, goes far deeper than just his personal relationship with his cultural ties. Kurlansky examines more of the realities of the decision -- the Detroit Tigers' place in the American League standings in relationship to the New York Yankees, for one. Even so, when the 23-year-old in his second full major-league season decided it would be OK to sit out the game on Sept. 19, 1934, it defined his career "for the rest of his days" because he became "a national Jew, a symbol." But, he was really "caught between the Jewish world and the baseball world, and there was no way to please everyone, not even to please all Jews."

The Southern California Sports Broadcasters' second "Careers in Sports Broadcasting" panel discussion is set for Sunday, May 15 at UCLA's Ackermann Hall, starting at noon.

Hockey Hall of Fame and Kings broadcaster Bob Miller, the SCSB president, will moderate the pannel that includes UCLA football and basketball radio voice Chris Roberts, Kings' FSN reporter Heidi Androl, KSPN-AM (710) sports talk host Steve Mason and Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket executive producer Tom Feuer.

"The SCSB's first panel, in January of 2010, was so well received our goal now is to make it an annual event for students majoring in broadcasting," Miller said. "The panel can provide wide-ranging insight into the employment requirements and opportunities in sports broadcasting. Although the primary goal for many students may be on-air sportscasting, the panel can advise the attendees of the variety of very rewarding and challenging careers behind microphones and cameras."

For more information contact SCSB's event coordinator Jeff Rose (323 650-1151) or UCLA director of student media Arvli Ward (310-206-4043, award@media.ucla.edu)

The book: "Bullpen Diaries: Mariano Rivera, Bronx Dreams, Pinstripe Legends, and the Future of the New York Yankees"

The author: Charley Rosen

The vital stats: Harper Collins, 384 pages, $25.99

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: By chance, we happened to look at the blurb on the inside bookflap:

"Baseball is the only game where the defense has the ball.

"So begins an inside look at baseball's most scrutinized group of players -- relief pitchers -- and life in the most intriguing bullpen of all, that of the New York Yankees."

Really? You're going to take us from that obvious Point A, to somewhere on Point X that says you've got it figured out how relief pitching in the big leagues works?

Read on, and amazingly, that pretty much sums up all the worthy insight as you'll get from Phil Jackson's former CBA sidekick/pal who insists that, even though his whole life has been spent in and chronicling basketball, baseball was his first love. Enough so that he says he had a pitching tryout with these Yankees when he got out of college. And that apparently qualifies to kill a few trees and get this book out there.

The execution of this effort is as scattered as the subtitle implies. There's some history of relief pitching that Rosen digs up and throws out there. Then there's tedious documentation of the Yankees' 2010 season, only from the bullpen's peformance, where Rosen is in charge of doling out letter grades for each performance. At last, in the third section, Rosen rambles on about his memories, his hopes, his dreams. Because, it matters to him.

Norm Macdonald on tonight's episode of "Sports Show" for Comedy Central: "First McCourt loses his wife, then he loses his baseball team. From the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat."

How much blame should Fox Sports be saddled with in the recent downfall of Dodgers co-owner Frank McCourt?

What has Time Warner done except erect websites telling customers to boycott certain channels all in the name of consumer advocacy?

In light of all that happened to his dad over the last few months, Cutter Dykstra would have every reason not to want to associate himself with Lenny Dykstra. But that's not the case.

Lenny Dykstra, the former MLB All-Star and Sherwood Country Club resident jailed last week on federal embezzlement charges, was released on $150,000 bond and ordered to outpatient substance abuse treatment and surrender his passport. He could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Cutter Dykstra, the former Westlake High standout now playing for single-A Potomac in the Carolina League, told Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer (linked here) that he doesn't read any of the negative stories that have come out about his father's collapsed business dealings.

"That's stupid," he said. "I don't even waste my time reading that stuff. It doesn't really matter to me. I know who he is and I know what he's about. He's my dad and I love him."

Cutter, drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers with the 54th pick in 2008 and traded to the Washington Nationals for outfielder Nyjer Morgan and $50,000 cash before this season, concedes his dad does do things out of the ordinary.

"He is (crazy)," the 21-year-old Cutter said. "He's wild. That's the kind of dude he is. He's a different guy, but you know I love him, and if he wasn't like that he wouldn't be as successful as he was. He gave everything to baseball and gave everything he had. Everyone knew he was a little bit crazy."

Cutter Dykstra has bounced from center field to third base and second since being drafted. This season, he has been a DH hitter with Potomac. Heading into last weekend's games, he was batting .273 with no extra-base hits, four RBIs, and two stolen bases.

A year ago with Milwaukee's Midwest League Wisconsin affiliate, Dykstra hit .312 with a 416 on-base percentage and 27 stolen bases.

"I love having Dykstra on the back of my jersey. People say, 'That's Lenny Dykstra's son,' and when I'm out there on the field I want people saying, 'Wow, he plays the game just like his dad does.' That's the right way.

"From the early stages my dad said, 'Put on a show. This is the entertainment business.' That's what I try to do. I try to entertain the fans."

The book: "Pitchers of Beer: The Story of the Seattle Rainiers"

The author: Dan Raley

The vital stats: University of Nebraska Press, 352 pages, $26.95

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: Admittedly, we've got no ties to Seattle-based baseball, only a heart-felt appreciation for how the '69 one-and-done Pilots managed to survive a season at Sicks Stadium with a bunch of castoffs (leading to Jim Bouton's "Ball Four"), only to see them cascade off to Milwaukee.

You didn't see them crying in their beers.

Now, with this history book by Raley, a former sportswriter from the recently distant memory Seattle Post-Intelligencer, in collaboration with local Seattle baseball historian and aficionado Dave Eskenazi (see his bio link here), the circle of baseball life in the Emerald City seems appropriate to revisit.

"Telling the story of the Rainers is our way of preserving an athletic civic treasure," Raley writes in the preface, "something that meant as much to thousands of people in Seattle as it did to us. The words are mine. The photos are Eskenazi's. The team is your to adopt or reclaim."

The beer angle comes from Emil Sick, a hops-and-barley baron talked into buying the Pacific Coast League's Seattle Indians in 1937 as it was about to fold up. The one who nudged him in: New York Yankees owner Col. Jacob Ruppert, who saw the value of having a group of customers regularily buying his product, with baseball as the catalyst.

Starting from page 13: "Sick would set out to do what the Seattle Mariners pulled off nearly six decades later when the modern-day team took up residence in $550 million Safeco Field near the waterfront and trotted out such unforgettable players as Ken Griffey Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki: change ownership, build a new-age ballpark with all the amenities available and put talented, fan-pleasing characters in uniform. Sick had resisted when approached in previous years to bail out the Indians, but now the situation had turned so dire the brewer felt compelled to get involved. ...

The book: "Wizardry: Baseball's All-Time Greatest Fielders Revealed"

The author: Michael Humphreys

The vital stats: Oxford University Press, 432 pages, $19.95

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here), as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: Quick, how do you calculate someone's fielding percentage? Putouts plus assists, divided by total chances (putouts, assists and errors added together).

Very lame, apparently.

Humphreys, who by day "advises on tax aspects of international capital markets transactions at Ernst & Young LLP," calculates in a way that he can "quantify the fielding value of every player in major league baseball history."

You're familiar with DRA, right? Defensive Regression Analysis, which Humphreys figured out in 2003 after seeing what else was out there and then crunched some other numbers himself. His empirical approach is deciding who, in the course of the last 130-odd years, handled the glove better than anyone else at their position.

Go ahead. Knock yourself out.

Or, on page 32, throw out a formula discussion that made us think we were back in our high school Honors Math calculus class. Can you say: XY.abc=XY-lgXY*(ABC/lgABC).

That means something to someone. Just not much to us on our sequestered world.

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Kings center Michal Handzus is tangled up with San Jose's Dany Heatley during a third-period scuffle in Saturday's Game 5 of their Stanley Cup playoff series. The Kings won to stave off elimination.

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

MONDAY

NHL playoffs: Kings vs. San Jose, Game 6: Staples Center, 7 p.m., Prime:

Rocco's Old School Tattoo Balm may not be able to cover up the way the Sharks have tattooed the Kings for much of this Stanley Cup opening-round series. But the fact there's at least one more game squeezed out, in front of the Kings' loyal towel wavers, says something about the character of this young squad. The Kings, who killed all four of San Jose's power plays in Saturday's brink-of-elimination contest, have knocked out 18 of 20 in the series. Anyone up for a seventh game? That would be Wednesday at San Jose.

MLB: Dodgers at Florida, 4:10 p.m., Channel 9:

Since early Cy Young candidate Josh Johnson pitched Sunday against Colorado, Florida won't have its ace for this series. It might not matter. Andre Ethier's 21-game hitting streak will go up against a team with, for starters, has one of the best bullpens in the league with a combined ERA in the 1.60 range, and opposing hitter are struggling just to post a batting average of about .180 against them. Ricky Nolasco (2-0, 3.00), coming off seven shutout innings with eight Ks against Pittsburgh last time out, pitches Tuesday against Clayton Kershaw (4 p.m., Channel 9). Then Anabel Sanchez, who nearly threw a no-hitter at Colorado in his last start, comes back in the final game of this series on Wednesday against Chad Billingsley (9 a.m., Prime).

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

How is Jered Weaver (5-0, 1.23 ERA) doing it? Scouts say the Angels' 6-foot-7 right hander out of Northridge is using his slider more often than usual. In a win at Texas last week, he threw 32 sliders among his 119 pitches, with 16 of them down and away. Yes, they measure things that closely. Even more: The last time he threw the slider 25 percent or more of the time was a 15-strikeout effort against Toronto on April 10. He's throwing the pitch 30.2 percent of the time this season against righties, as opposed to just 23.0 percent of the time the previous two seasons. We can't make that stuff up. Weaver goes tonight against the A's Gio Gonzalez (2-1, 1.80) and the series continues Tuesday (7 p.m., FSW, Tyler Chatwood vs. Brandon McCarthy) and Wednesday (4 p.m., FSW, Dan Haren vs. Tyson Ross) with the top two pitching staffs in the American League going head to head.

NBA playoffs: Portland at Dallas, Game 5: 5:30 p.m., NBA TV:

Each team has won the two games on their home court, but the Blazers' comeback last Saturday night could be a huge psychological blow to the Mavs. Now they're going neck and neck to see which series finishes first -- this one, or the Lakers-Hornets. With Game 6 set on Thursday, both series could go the distance until a Saturday Game 7 -- and if both the Lakers and Mavs prevail, they'd certainly not be as well rested as they'd have liked.

TUESDAY

NBA playoffs: Lakers vs. New Orleans, Game 5: 7:30 p.m., Channel 9, TNT:

Kobe Bryant, zero for the first half. Yup, that's a strategy that seems to work well if the Lakers want to avoid a seventh game of this thing (which would be Saturday night back at Staples Center). They already knew what Chris Paul could do. Now they know Jarrett Jack. And whether its Jack Nicholson, Jack Black or Jack in the Box sitting courtside for this one, there's a crazy chance that they haven't seen the last of the pesky Hornets. A sixth game is now locked in for Thursday in New Orleans.

WEDNESDAY

NBA playoffs: Memphis vs. San Antonio, Game 5: 5:30 p.m., NBA TV:

The eight-seeded Grizzles are actually in position to close this series out against the Western Conference champs. Miami (4 p.m., TNT) and Oklahoma City (7:30 p.m., TNT) are also about to finish off their series against Philadelphia and Denver.

THURSDAY

NFL Draft: First round, 5 p.m., ESPN, NFL Network:

USC tackle Tyron Smith, left, has plenty of upside -- some mock pickers have him going in the Top 10, perhaps as the Dallas Cowboys' next insurance policy for Tony Romo. Auburn quarterback Cam Newton has some nagging downside -- does his inexperience make him a one-hit college wonder, or will the Carolina Panthers go ahead and make him the No. 1 overall pick because they have no faith in Jimmy Clausen? And then there's Marcell Dareus, above, the 6-foot-3, 319-pound defensive tackle out of Alabama who can knock just anyone sideways. Will he be available for the Denver Broncos at No. 2? The NFL might be buried in labor talks, but there are plenty of ESPN and NFL Network analysts laboring over their big boards, minute by minute, changing things around as they try to second- and third-guess the real GMs who will make the official selections in prime time. Again, the proceedings are spread over three days, with 3 1/2 hours allotted for the first round. The second and third rounds are Friday (ESPN2, NFL Network at 5 p.m.) with rounds 4-7 on Saturday (ESPN and NFL Network, 9 a.m.)

FRIDAY

MLB: Dodgers vs. San Diego, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m., Prime:

In their first 20 games, the Padres were held scoreless six times - worst in baseball. One of them was a 4-0 loss at San Diego to the Dodgers during the last time these two met three weekends ago. This series goes through Saturday (7 p.m., Prime) and Sunday (1 p.m., Prime), where they're giving out retro 1981 World Series T-shirts. Remember that one 30 years ago? This three-game series against the Padres are the only meetings the Dodgers have with an NL West rival between April 14 and May 16.

MLB: Angels at Tampa Bay, 4 p.m., FSW:

Yes, these two just played a two-game series in the great indoors of St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field, and the Angels won both -- 5-3 and 5-1, on April 5-6. That first one turned out to be Manny Ramirez's last game. The series includes games Saturday (10 a.m., Channel 11) and Sunday (10:40 a.m., FSW).

SATURDAY

NHL playoffs: Teams to be determined, noon, Channel 4:

Who's looking for a little national exposure. NBC has set aside this window, as well as one more on Sunday.

SUNDAY

MLS: Galaxy at Dallas, 4 p.m., FSW:

Something borrowed, something Becks: David Beckham has told the team he plans to be in England on Friday to attend Prince Williams' wedding ceremony to Kate Middleton, then fly from Westminster Abbey to Pizza Hut Park in Dallas in time for the opening kickoff. In fact, by his calculations, he'll even be there on Saturday before the team arrives.

The book: "The Runmakers: A New Way to Rate Baseball Players"

The author: Frederick E. Taylor

The vital stats: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 272 pages, $24.95

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: It looks so simple. It factors out in some degree looking very accurate with the eye-ball test. But then you have some strange abberations.

It's what happens when you make numbers pole dance.

Knowing how stats fuel baseball, and should always have a seat in the discussion when we start to accumulate baseball books that have meaning and could hold long-term prominence. Which is why we accept this one by Taylor, a retired professor of American government who also worked for the U.S. Department of Commerce and Department of Defense.

He proposes "potential runs per game" (PRG) as a new measure -- the ninth, by his count, after all the OPS, OBP and other abbreviations available. This one takes into account batters not just reaching base or driving in runs, but also advancing runners. It's advertised as much better than a simple batting average, easier to calculate than any Bill James formula, and getting to the essential part of the game -- who produces runs.

So Taylor takes his slide rule and breaks down the history of baseball into eight different eras, then creating a new Top 10 lists of players based on positions, time played, and where they were in the batting lineup.

By his calculations, for example, he concurs that Babe Ruth was the top player (in PRG) during the 1921-41 era, and Ted Williams the same from '42-'62.

In 2005, Stan Fridstein and his son Eric, with Kelvin Yamashita and his son, Ryan, enjoy a moment in the Cleveland Indians' dugout at Jacobs Field.

Following up on today's Sunday Q-and-A with Stan Fridstein as we discuss his new book, "Going Yard: The Ultimate Guide for Major League Baseball Stadium Road Trips" (linked here), available both on Amazon.com and on Fridstein's website www.goingyardjourney.com -- and not part of our "30 Baseball Books in the 30 Days of April," but a bonus selection as we move toward the end of this month:

Q: Was the book a result of the fact as you said you were kind of blazing your own trail and had no real reference guides to go by, so people could learn from your trial and error?

A: I couldn't find anything out there that was in a single, comprehensive place. I did a lot research, and there's so much information out there. For example, you go to the TripAdvisor.com website, and you can find 800 things to do in New York City. You've got an extra day, so what are you going to do with a 10-year-old kid? What's relevant to a sports-minded person? It was about ferreting though and all that and calling people and making connections. A lot of the information existed online and if you checked all the blogs and websites, so you could probably find all this somewhere. It just wasn't in one place.
I was concerned that my son have a great time, and the goal during the first year was to have so much fun that he wanted to do it again next year. So I went overboard in researching to make sure the two boys' every minute was so full of fun, they'd want more.

Q: Is there also the chance a kid will get exhausted from trying to do too many parks in a row?

A: For me, the baseball park visits were a foil for what the real opportunity was that I was trying to accomplished. For seven to 10 days every summer for seven years, I got to own my son. That's an amazing thing, to do it a way where there's so much joy and in a completely unthreatening mode, without his sister and mother and not a lot of static going on. If I had said to him upfront - let's go on a tour of some interesting cities and see some museums and, you know, maybe take in a baseball game, my son wouldn't have been interested. But when you position it as taking a baseball trip - that's only three hours a day. You've got another 21 hours to fill. But if you do things right, and pass the time doing the right things, it's an amazing experience for both of you. You visit cities that you'd otherwise never have a reason to be in discovering really neat things, learning new things.

Q: In your book, you estimate that it'll cost about $3,900 per family per trip to do these annual excursions. Is that a number that's somewhat inflationary proof?

A: That's a real ballpark figure - no pun intended. But I think the key is you have to be careful who you travel with. The Yamashitas have been great to travel with because we share a lot of the same values. We didn't need to stay a Four Seasons hotel, or buy great tickets to every game, take guided tours, have unlimited budgets. You have to go with people who you aren't in a position to start making compromises. These trips can be expensive, or inexpensive. I just sort of came up with $4,000 because I think that's pretty close for most people who would try this.

Q: You explain in the book about the art of writing a letter in advance and ask each team if they can help you with private tours, tickets . . . Do you think most people are brave enough to ask for those things?

A: I don't think most even think about it. People don't realize that each team has employees full time in the community relations and they want people to feel good about their team. The bottom line is even if they give you a free ticket, you're still going to spend $100 in drinks and the gift shops or somewhere there. Unless it's a team like the Yankees or Red Sox or Cubs, maybe the Giants, where they sell out 100 percent of their seats, there will always be empty seats. But when you can contact a team ahead of time and arrange for things like access to a locker room, get on the field, meet players and get a sense of standing on the field, realize what it must feel like with 40,000 people screaming in the stands. It's pretty awe-inspiring than being at a Little League field with just 20 parents there.
I found teams to be very receptive of my letters because I was genuine about it. Some people are less likely and more fearful to use the social network to secure tickets or get special access. But that was hugely successful for us. This was long before Facebook, maybe 10 years ago, and I had no problem with sending out emails to everyone I knew to tell them about what we're trying to do - go to a city, visit the parks and look for a great experience. I was shocked not so much that I did get help, but from some of the people who helped me. For example, one friend of mine who was so much not a baseball fan, couldn't name five teams if he had to, was a contact, and it turned out one of his father's best friends were part of the Katz family, one of the owners of the New York Mets. And through that connection we were able to get on the field and hang out at one point with Tom Glavine. But my friend was the last person I figured could get me on the field at Shea Stadium, but it was really cool he was willing to make that call on my behalf. You might have friends in other cities who have a sister working for the radio station that carries the team's games and has access to tickets. My experience: Don't be shy. Today, with a more effective way to ask for things with Facebook, I think other people are excited to see what we were doing and wanted to help.

Q: What's your key advice about landing tickets? Do you find some people skimp on buying good seats as a way to save money?

A: As it turned out, in many cases, I got free tickets. We maybe only bought tickets to five or 10 games tops. You can always find tickets. Sometimes we were promised tickets and it didn't happen. But when you buy a ticket, that's another personal decision. There's one who need to be between first and third five rows up, or others are fine anywhere except what they'd consider to be the worst seats. We wanted decent seats, nothing great. Sometimes you'd get the best seats imaginable. If the difference between a good and a poor seat was $10 or $15, we could do that, but we weren't paying $200 when you could get a perfectly good seat for $40. For me, sometimes I'd rather spend $40 than $25 for another section, too.
The 'bleacher bum' seats at Wrigley Field may be the cheapest, but I know some people who wouldn't sit anywhere else in the park because of the spirit out there. And then there's seats now atop the Green Monster at Fenway that are ridiculously expensive, and they may be the worst seats in the house.
I don't think where you sit makes or break the experience. First off, you'll probably end up walking around, tasting beer, eating hot dogs. It goes back to the same choice if you want to stay at a Ritz Carlton versus a Marriott Courtyard.

Q: There's an updated version coming out someday?

A: They'll be building a new field for the Marlins, and you've got to think they'll be new stadiums someday in Tampa Bay, so there'll always be more trips to make. The thing I found out - there were some parks where there were places to visit I wasn't even aware of. I didn't know the Negro League Hall of Fame was in Kansas City, or the Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum was within a 9 iron of Camden Yards in Baltimore. So now I want to go back and update all that information. While this isn't a travelogue, some of the things we did do were kind of yawns, and my son helped me with saying, 'We're bored and we hated doing that.' That's good to know.

The book: "New York Mets: 50 Amazin' Seasons -- The Complete Illustrated History"

The author: Matthew Silverman

The vital stats: MVP Books, 208 pages, $30

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: While not fielding a team until 1962, this would be the New York Mets' 50th season. Do the math. It's as good a time as any to break out this amazing-size scrapbook of memories that even a non-Mets fan can appreciate. To an extent.

Silverman, who runs his own Mets fan website (www.metsilverman.com) culls the files of the New York Times, famed baseball writer Jack Lang and other team fansites such as Centerfield Maz, Faith and Fear in Flushing and Mets Police to flush out the team's history in a real neat kind of way, one that kids and adults can appreciate.

The cover alone is unique -- a pull tab at the top allows you to change the four photos on the front, from Seaver, Kranepool, Stengel and Kingman to Gooden, Hernandez, Piazza and Wright.

Since it's Mets' history we really after here (but we do enjoy the eye candy), consider these gems you have have forgotten:

The book: "Remembering Fenway Park: An Oral and Narrative History of the Home of the Boston Red Sox"

The author: Harvey Frommer

The vital stats: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 238 pages, $45.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: The Red Sox's four-game series against the Angels in Anaheim -- they don't play each other in Boston until early next month (May 2-5) -- gives us a hook to look back at Fenway from its birth in 1912 and as it readies for its 100th anniversary season in 2012.

And, again, we're hooked.

You may have seen how a robot -- basically, a souped-up Segway -- designed to throw a baseball did in its debut, asked to toss the ceremonial first pitch before a Philadelphia Phillies game the other day.

It was so lame, the Phillie Fanatic motioned to the bullpen for another reliever.

There's also this story that came across our radar this week: Did a robot outwrite a sportswriter? Well ....

National Public Radio (linked here) investigated, based on a tip from Deadspin.com.

There's a sentence we never thought we'd write.

Basically, a software program created by Narrative Science to write a basic sports story based on information put into a computer could have done a better job reporting a perfect game that was pitched by the University of Virginia's Will Roberts against George Washington University. Especially after a Deadspin follower found the report of the game on the GW sports information website that basically buried the lead.

After today's media column (linked here), read on for more notes as we plow through more media notes from the last few weeks that are worth making a fuss about:

== DVR alert for all those who remember ABC's "Wide World of Sports":

ESPN begins a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the anthology series starting with marathon programming on, what else, ESPN Classic. It begins Monday at 4 a.m. and runs through Thursday, April 28, finishing up with the show's 30th and 35th anniversary specials.

Originally envisioned as a fill-in show for one summer, Wide World of Sports debuted April 29, 1961, with Jim McKay hosting a show that action the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa, and the Penn Relays from Franklin Field in Philadelphia.

The rest is historic, bolding going where no sports shows had gone before. Sunday's ESPN: "Outside the Lines" with Bob Ley (6 a.m.) talks to the show's producers and on-air personalities to discuss its legacy.

Then ESPN Classic starts with these episodes worth saving:
==Mon., April 25:
=4 a.m.: Arnold Schwarzenegger wins Mr. Olympia, mountain climbing with Bobby Kennedy; 7 p.m.: A review of daredevil Evel Knievel's famous motorcycle jumps; 8 pm.: Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali discuss the boxer's career.
==Tue., April 26:
=6 p.m.: Track & field from Russia, U.S. volleyball in Cuba, gymnastics in China, soap box derby in Akron, Ohio, rattlesnake roundup and cutterhorse racing; 8 p.m.: More with Ali, his 1975 fights against Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle and Joe Frazier in the last of their trilogy.
== Wed., April 27:
=5 p.m.: Hydroplane racing, skateboarding championships and ice boat racing.
==Thurs., April 28:
=6 p.m.: The 1968 Dune Buggy Championships, the 1965, '66 and '68 Reno Air Races, with a crash by the "Red Baron," Steve Hinton; 8 p.m.: A series of interviews with Howard Cosell talking to Ali, Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Rozelle, Joe Namath, Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs; 9 p.m.: The first Wide World of Sports - Drake Relays and Penn Relays.
==Friday, April 29:
=6 p.m.: The 30th anniversary special, hosted by Jim McKay; 7:30 p.m.: The 35th anniversary special, hosted by Robin Roberts.

== We don't know who'll be on the cover of "Madden NFL '12" -- you apparently have that decision (linked here) -- but the New York Times (linked here) reports that the new EA Sports video game will be more concussion conscious, forcing any virtual player who sustains a major head injury to the sidelines for the rest of the game. The broadcasters on the video game will also explain why the injury is serious enough to result in this action. "Madden NFL 12" executive producer Phil Frazier says "I wouldn't say this is a full public-service announcement, but it's a means to educate." Adds Madden: "Concussions are such a big thing, it has to be a big thing in the video game. ... Concussions are really serious: if we show players playing through them, then kids won't understand."

== AND FINALLY:

== There's more of a chance to read between the lines from a Wall Street Journal analysis (linked here) about how Fox Sports is trying to keep in the good graces of Dodgers owner Frank McCourt by supplying loans than what the L.A. Times supplied (linked here) in Friday's coverage.

Why? The WSJ is owned by Ruppert Murdock, who runs News Corp., which runs Fox Sports. That connection is made in the WSJ story, as ethically responsible as it can be.

The book: "Knuckler: My Life with Baseball's Most Confounding Pitch"

The author: Tim Wakefield and Tony Massarotti

The vital stats: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 288 pages, $26

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: Chances are that Wakefield will make an apparence against the Angels sometime in their current four-game series -- either as an emergency starter, closer, short reliever, middle reliever, set-up man ... late-inning defensive replacement?

Wakefield, who hits 45 later this season (in August), is this ultimate survivor. A team player. A utility pitcher with a pitch that is a recipe for disaster. But one that deserves his story told on more than 250 pages?

It's a stretch, but, as it turns out, one that the reader will, page by page, realize he's part of Wakefield's dream ride, which even in baseball lore is pretty far fetched. He is the every-man player, doing whatever it takes to stay in a uniform.

For those who don't remember: This was a utility infielder and bullpen catcher who was about to get released by the Pittsburgh Pirates before a minor-league coach noticed him messing around with a knuckleball. That became his ticket to the big-leagues, being promoted to the Pirates in time for a run into the playoffs in 1992. Manager Jim Leyland called him "the (explective) Elvis Presley of the National League."

But as is the pitch's fate, it left the building the next year. Three seasons later, the Pirates released him.

The Red Sox's foresight was to have Phil Niekro tutor him not just on the pitch, but how to mentally master it. Niekro was the Wakefield Whisperer. "Use the uncertainty (of the knuckleball) to your advantage." Mix up speed and elevation within a mechanically sound delivery.

The book: "The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923"

The author: Robert Weintraub

The vital stats: Little, Brown and Company, 432 pages, $26.99

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) and the author's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: As we're finding out with many of the books reviewed during this month, history has a way of coming alive again when given to the right writer.

Pinpointing the story of a giant like Babe Ruth, the opening of Yankee Stadium in 1923, and going head-to-head with the New York Giants' John McGraw, who beat the Yankees n the '21 and '22 World Series, could just be history warmed over on a lesser man's keyboard. Slate.com sports columnists Weintraub won't have any of that.

This is a lesson in how to make baseball's past become present -- and not just with modern-day anologies (although that helps). There's no daily summaries of games played or research wrought that bog down the flow of this storytelling. Instead, there's more discussion on things like how Lou Gehrig, once belittled by New York Giants manager John McGraw during a tryout, ended up replacing Wally Pipp, how Yankees GM George Weiss survived a train wreck that ended the life of "Wild Bill" Donovan, and even more nicknames for Ruth that you thought couldn't be thought up any more.

In also bringing alive the writing of baseball scribes like Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice, Damon Runyon, Westbrook Pegler and John Kieran, Weintraub lets it flow as it was back in the day. He's caught the essence of the era.

Turns out, 1923 was a pretty special season, one definitely worth revisiting. But only, in this case, by Weintraub.

The book: "In the Time of Bobby Cox
The Atlanta Braves, Their Manager, My Couch, Two Decades, and Me"

The author: Lang Whitaker

The vital stats: Schribner, 240 pages, $24.

Find it: On the publisher's website (linked here), as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: With the Dodgers emersed in a four-game series against the Atlanta Braves tonight, you've no doubt noticed the glaring omission from the visiting dugout: No more Bobby Cox.

Unless you're completely enthralled with the recent history of the Atlanta Braves, you'll likely omit this book from your shelf as well.

Whitaker, the executive editor of SLAM magazine and a former SI.com columnist, uses the former Braves skipper as an entry point on how his life has gone to date, and how he deals with things based on what Cox may have taught him.

What Would Bobby Cox Do? We somehow missed on getting that rubber band for our wrist.

Lang estimates he has seen Cox manage more than 1,000 games, even from a TV set in New York. So he knows his muse very well.

"We can't rely on much in life," he writes, "but I know Bobby will be there for me day after day, week after week, month after month. ... Bobby Cox has to be the single most important person in my sporting life."

We could think of a few better role models, but, OK, go on ...

(AP Photo/The Inquirer, Ron Tarver)
Jamie Gewirtz, left, research specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, waits for a robot to throw him a ball at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia The one-armed, three-wheeled robot will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday's game between the Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers as part of Science Day festivities at the stadium.

The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA -- PhillieBot for Cy Young? It's unlikely.

But the one-armed, three-wheeled robot, designed by engineers at the University of Pennsylvania, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Wednesday's game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers as part of Science Day festivities at Citizens Bank Park, said Evan Lerner, a spokesman for Penn's engineering school.

The pitching robot has been in the makings for a month and a half as Penn engineers Jordan Brindza and Jamie Gewirtz assembled parts and wrote software in their spare time, Lerner said.

They started with a Segway, gave it a robotic arm and added a third wheel. They also gave it a pneumatic cylinder, which delivers a burst of compressed carbon dioxide to power the pitch. The robot's computer brain can be tweaked to change pitch velocity and trajectory.

On Monday, Brindza and Gewirtz took PhillieBot out to the mound for its final test, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. After the press of a button, the robot's mechanical arm reared back and then moved toward home plate; at the top of its delivery, it flicked its mechanical "wrist" and shot the ball forward.

The ball appeared to be traveling no more than 30 or 40 miles an hour, the Inquirer reported. But that was by design, since the Phillies didn't want the pitch approaching Major League speeds.

The team's head groundskeeper, Mike Boekholder, told the newspaper that he has been assured the machine won't tear up the playing surface.

Nevertheless, he doesn't see a future for PhillieBot in the team's star-studded rotation, which features reigning Cy Young award-winner Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

"I know some teams are a little pitching-challenged," Boekholder said. "But we certainly don't have that problem."

The 2012 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships will take place at Carson's Home Depot Center on Feb. 10-12, the U.S. Olympic Committee anounced today at an LA Live ceremony.

Some 230 athletes from 30 countries will participate in what is the final qualifying even for U.S. athletes to be nominated to the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Cycling Team, which will participate in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.

The local organizing committee for the 2012 event is the Los Angeles Velodrome Racing Association (LAVRA). The 2012 championship marks the first time since 1998, and just the second time ever, that the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships will be held in the United States.

The Home Depot Center Velodrome, a national training center for USA Cycling, is the first and only permanent indoor track of international standard in North America.

The track measures at 250 meters in circumference, 7 meters in width, and inclines at 45 degrees on both ends with 2,450 spectator seats.

It'll be on tonight's latest episode of "Sports Show With Norm Macdonald," the Comedy Central's new series that goes about as far as Jon Stewart does on "The Daily Show" or Daniel Tosh does with "Tosh.o" when it comes to pushing envelopes and bending language in the cause of laughing at things that actually happen.

In fact, when riffing about the Kobe Bryant homophobic slur caught by TV cameras last week, neither Macdonald nor Comedy Central does what many of the other sports and news show did -- it shows an unpixilated Bryant mouthing the words so viewers are able to see his lips move.

In this case, the Macdonald show audience actually laughs, and then it gets far more loose with the language:

The book: "Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game"

The author: Dan Barry

The vital stats: HarperCollins, 272 pages, $26.99

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: It started on this Holy Saturday 30 years ago -- April 18, 1981, It continued until 3:30 a.m. on April 19, just hours before Easter sunrise. It didn't finish until June 23, in the middle of major league baseball's strike, when fans of the game wondered if anyone played this anymore just for the love of it.

It made history in many ways for the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings. And we're more than pleased to go back there, reconstruct it, and relive it. We wish we could have done so sooner.

What New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Barry does here is create a book "of informed imagination," as he calls it -- try to figure out what those involved were thinking and feeling at the time, and establish the fact that, after a certain point, a whole baseball nation was dedicated to finishing it.

Barry's writing, whether it's from his imagination or not, holds it all together beautifully, doesn't hold back at all on the language, and makes you feel as if you're going through this mental roller coast just as everyone from the clubhouse boy to the official scorekeeper, the two newspaper guys covering it and the team's GM-turned-broadcaster, to the two future Hall of Famers (Cal Ripken Jr. and Wade Boggs) would be part of it.

So was this a record, Barry asks, that is "less about achievement than it is about frustration?"

"Most of them are too tired, too cold and too hungry to contemplate the historic import of the night," Barry writes. ...

In many cases, it's a game for non-major-league, Triple-A players who aren't sure if they're coming or going, getting another day to be paid or on their way to finding another career.

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Lakers guard Kobe Bryant reacts after falling and hitting his neck on a chair as Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, left, and will.i.am, second from left, look on during the first half of Sunday's eventual loss to New Orleans in Game 1 of their NBA playoff series at Staples Center.

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

MONDAY

MLB: Dodgers vs. Atlanta, Dodger Stadium, 7:10 p.m., Prime:

At the very least, the Dodgers won't come into this four-game series with a six-game losing streak. But when attendance on back-to-back weekend games are around 30,000, the fans are speaking up. The pitching matchup that could bring the most intrigue in this four-game series is a Wednesday meeting of former Dodger Derek Lowe against John Garland, trying to rebound from a disappointing outing against St. Louis in his first start of the season. The series continues Tuesday (7 p.m., Prime), Wednesday (7 p.m., Channel 9) and finishes with a Thursday 12:10 p.m. start where the Dodgers unveil their new alternative Brooklyn light blue jerseys.

MLB: Angels at Texas, 5 p.m., FSW:

Josh Hamilton's broken arm will keep him out of the lineup at least another six weeks, but the Rangers, last season's AL reps in the World Series, are back on top in the AL West with a team slugging percentage second in the league. The series continues Tuesday (5 p.m., FSW) and Wednesday (5 p.m., Channel 13).

Running: The Boston Marathon, 7 a.m., Universal Sports:

Why is it you never see anyone from Kenya or Ethiopia develop a Boston accent?

TUESDAY

NHL playoffs: Kings vs. San Jose, Game 3: Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., Prime:

No doubt, without Drew Doughty's Game 2 performance, this series is doubtful for the Kings moving forward into the playoffs. Instead, they've got a home-ice edge, and the next two on their familiar rink before bearded fans who'll make sure they're more than welcome to keep the Sharks tanked. The series continues with Game 4 (Thursday, 7:30 p.m., Prime) and Game 5 (Saturday at San Jose, 7:30 p.m., Prime).

WEDNESDAY

NBA playoffs: Lakers vs. New Orleans, Game 2: Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW, TNT:

Lakers coach Phil Jackson showed up for Sunday's Game 1 wearing his 1973 New York Knicks championship ring, saying he plans to break out a different title ring to every playoff game. That obviously didn't do much to impress his team in what appears to be his last playoff dance. The nine-point listless loss isn't lost on the Hornets' Chris Paul, playing for a team without an owner, but not without a purpose. The series continues with Game 3 (Friday at New Orleans, 6:30 p.m., Channel 9 and ESPN) and Game 4 (Sunday at New Orleans, 6:30 p.m., Channel 9 and TNT).

NHL playoffs: Ducks at Nashville, Game 4, KDOC, 5:30 p.m.:

How much longer can the Ducks waddle forward without a suspended Bobby Ryan? They're down 2-1 in the series and have one more in Tennessee before even thinking about coming home in a deep hole. The series continues with Game 5 (Friday at Anaheim, 7 p.m., Prime) and Game 6 (Sunday at Nashville, 7:30 p.m., TBA).

THURSDAY

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

Boston's other marathon of futility continues. The Red Sox haven't managed to win anything on the road so far, losing all six to start their season in Texas and Cleveland. The series continues Friday (7 p.m., FSW), Saturday (6 p.m., FSW) and Sunday (12:35 p.m., FSW), where former Angel John Lackey is scheduled to start for the Red Sox.

Golf: PGA's The Heritage, first round, noon, Golf Channel:

Get your plaid on. Or don't. The winner's jacket that must be worn looks like something from Happy Gilmore's wardrobe. Golf Channel has Friday's third round; CBS has the Saturday and Sunday final two rounds.

FRIDAY

MLB: Dodgers at Chicago Cubs, 11:20 a.m., Prime:

We're not certain that even Ferris Bueller takes days off to come see the Cubs play anymore. It's a three-day affair at Wrigley, with the Cubs' only consistent pitcher, Carlos Zambrano, missing his turn in the rotation. The series continues Saturday (10 a.m., Channel 9) and Sunday (11:20 a.m., Prime).

SATURDAY

MLS: Galaxy vs. Portland, Home Depot Center, 8 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel:

Did David Beckham really bend three balls, barefooted, into three distant trash cans on the beach, with the help of a souped-up diet soft drink? Yeah, and Kobe Bryant jumped over a moving Astin Martin. Asked by the Toronto Star if it was real, Becks replied: "Of course. I spent five or six hours on the beach so I had a lot of time to practice." That'll really help in tonight's game against the expansion team Timbers. That is if Beckham hasn't picked up any more stray yellow cards that keep him benched.

SUNDAY

NBA playoffs: Miami at Philadelphia Game 4, 10 a.m., Channel 7; Boston at New York Game 4, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7:
The network hors d'oeuvres are of the East Coast variety before the Lakers dive into come ragin' Cajuns for the night cap.

The book: "1961*: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase"

The author: Phil Pepe

The vital stats: Triumph Books, 288 pages, $20

Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: Pepe, whose career would include writing 50 books, covering the Yankees for the New York Daily News for 13 years and become president of the Baseball Writers Association of America, found himself in a pretty cool situation in August, 1961.

Fate may have put Roger Maris into the position to hit 61 home runs and lay claim to a new single-season (162 games, that is) home run record, instead of heralded teammate Mickey Mantle (who 60 years ago made his major league debut at the age of 19, by the way).

But it also gave Pepe, who joined the New York World-Telegram and Sun staff in 1957, a chance to cover the Yankees full time at age 26 after "a series of unexpected and unfortunate circumstances that left my paper undermanned."

He got to see history made.

So while the first 118 pages that chronicle the Yankees '61 season kind of grind along here, the last 150-plus, starting with Chapter 11, really take things up a notch, where the reader is able to see Maris and Mantle through Pepe on a daily basis, gauging their emotions, acting as something of a confidant (especially to Maris) and witnessing the controversial pursuit of Babe Ruth's single-season home run record first hand.

Jamie Storr, right, works with two 7-year-olds on the "Endless Ice" conveyor belt training device at his El Segundo training facility.

Maybe all that's missing for at Jamie Storr's youth hockey training facility in El Segundo is a snow machine creating fake flakes falling outside the window that otherwise could have a view to the ocean if some commercial buildings weren't in the way.

Following up today's column on how the former Kings goalie has made training fun for kids (linked here), Storr explains more about his methods and goals:

"The biggest thing today - we're seeing players who are 250 pounds. That wasn't so much when I was playing. And they're still developing at age 28, 30 years old. When I played, whatever you got up to age 18, that seemed to be it. You were in games.

"When we were kids, there were no private lessons, just dads who coached. There weren't even access to former NHL players. Sports-specific training has changed the game. And hockey is a year-around sport now. Spring and summer leagues. There's no time off any more.

"The L.A. market may be much smaller for hockey than it is in Canada - that's just the reality of it. But it can be more efficient and build a solid foundation in the game just as well as anywhere else. That's half the battle. But as kids see their level of play improve, their potential goes up. Now a kid who's a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-to-10 can be an 8 or 9. A 4 or 5 kid can get up to 6 or 7. There will always be the 10s who do it well in spite of everything. But paying $400 an hour for ice time just to shoot the puck misses a lot."

As for how the harness works to help kids gain confidence as they learn to skate better:

"No one likes to fall, and some see falling as failure. But failure is part of learning and it's mental as much as it is physical. We're trying to make it as comfortable as possible to learn. I'm a big believer in John Wooden's philosophy - positive reinforcement, without just telling them how things work."

More:
== Storr's goalie school website (linked here)
== Storr's pro career statistics (linked here)

The book: "The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues"

The author: Bob Luke

The vital stats: Potomac Books, 256 pages, $27.95

Find it: Find it: At the publisher's site (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon. com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here)

The pitch: Her headstone at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City reads "She Loved Baseball." Effa Manley was 84 (or there abouts) when she died in L.A. exactly 30 years ago today, believed to be the last surviving owner of a franchise in the Negro Leagues.

You do have to wonder what Marge Schott, the late owner of the Cincinnati Reds who enjoyed her eclectic collection of Nazi propaganda, racial slurs and St. Bernard dogs, would have to say about this bulldog of a woman.

Granted, her name didn't come on most baseball people's radar until she was among the list of Negro League nominees for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and was then inducted as the first woman into the shrine in 2006.

In some ways, she and Schott shared one interesting personality trait -- they never minced words.

As Luke shows with his research, Manley once wrote a letter to sportswriter Art Carter, saying she hoped they could meet soon because "I would like to tell you a lot of things you should know about baseball."

Maybe that's why Doc Young, a sportswriter for the Los Angeles Sentinal, referred to her once as "vitrolic."

What did she know? Basically, from 1936 to 1948, she ran the National Negro League's Newark Eagles, which her husband, Abraham Lincoln Manley, bought when it was in Brooklyn (sharing Ebbets Field with the Dodgers) and moving it to New Jersey. She was responsible for recruiting players like Monte Irvin, Satchel Paige and Don Newcombe to play for her team.

Fancy that.

On top of it, she was way ahead of the curve in social justice marching, trying to eliminate Jim Crow standards and level the playing field for employees that included names such as Christopher "Crush" Holloway, Bill "Cannonball" Jackman, Clarence "Fats" Jenkins and Bob "Glasseye" Evans (we can't get enough of those kinds of references).

An excerpt that shows what Effa Manley was all about comes during an owners meeting where a debate arose about who would be the league's next commissioner.

From page 57: "(The other owners) heard Effa's voice above the din yelling, 'We are fighting for something bigger than a little money! We are fighting for a race issue. In other words, what we are doing here has become more important than we.' At that, (owner Cum) Posey jumped up and left the meeting, vowing not to return until "Abe could keep his wife at home where she belonged.' ... The Afro-American (newspaper) ran a group photograph of the men in attendance with a separate photograph of a smiling Effa captioned 'Stormy Petrel.'"

While Effa butted heads with such people at Branch Rickey and even Jackie Robinson, it's her relationship with Newcombe, who simply drove up to the Manley's apartment one day to introduce himself in 1943, that is of particular interest to Dodgers franchise followers.

After Newcombe (pictured, right, with Manley while looking at her scrapbook in 1973) had a 0-4 record "in league games for which he got the decision and had to be relieved in many others," Manley wrote a letter to his parents explaining that he had the makings to "become one of the outstanding pitchers'" but "he was showing a big head. This is bad." She explained that she was paying a "big salary" to (another player) so he could help Newcombe, and she offered him a raise of $170 to $200 a month. "I wish Donald the best of luck, but I do hate to see him getting off so completely on the wrong foot."

Luke adds: "Her letter had the intended effect."

Rickey later signed Newcombe to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946 "without talking to Abe or Effa ... (and) Rickey's actions infuriated Effa. 'Rickey took (Jackie) Robinson, Newcombe and (Roy) Campanella from our Negro baseball and didn't even say thank you,' she wrote. 'He took Newcombe from me, so I know that I'm talking about.'"

Thankfully, Luke is able to draw upon many of Manley's actual correspondences that she kept on file from 1938 to '46, althought she did leave the files behind in New Jersey when she moved to L.A. later in her life, but they were discovered by a contractor and donated to the Newark Library. Her personal scrapbook found its way to the Baseball Hall of Fame -- as did she.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Timothy Gay, author of last year's book, "Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson," writes in a quick review: "Had Effa Manley's real life ever been submitted as a Hollywood script, it would have been rejected as too far-fetched. Effa was part temptress, part civil rights crusader, and all shrewd and calculating businesswoman. In the capable hands of esteemed blackball historian Bob Luke, her life story becomes symbolic of the Negro leagues themselves: cool, defiant, and incandescent. What a great read!"

As compelling a story as Manley's life may be, this version can be a slow read at times because of tedious notes included on almost every page. We appreciate trying to document everything, but the true Manley really has to fight through the paragraphs to get out to the reader. Still, the effort will be rewarded.

Also: Last year, Audrey Vernick wrote the children's book, "She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story." Definitely, an easier read ....

The book: "Branch Rickey: Penguin Lives Biographies"

The author: Jimmy Breslin

The vital stats: The Penguin Group/Viking Adult books, 160 pages, $19.95.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here), as well as at Powells' (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: Consider that in 2009, "Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman" by Lee Lowenfish came in at nearly 800 pages and more than two pounds. It took him more than 10 years to research it. And almost as long to read.

Yet Breslin's version, about 1/6th the size, may be richer in context and content. Believe it.

On the annual celebration of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947, this one reminds us that often less is more, and there couldn't be a more beautifully written multi-part magazine piece that was lucky enough to be bound in glory.

In this "Penguin Lives" series, they've got people like Roy Blount Jr. writing on Robert E. Lee, Mary Gordon telling the story of Joan of Arc, Garry Willis on Saint Augustine and Sherwin B. Nuland on Leonardo da Vinci. So how did the Pulitzer Prize winning Breslin, most famous in sports circles for writing "Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?" about Casey Stengel, come upon Rickey?

From the prologue:
"When they ask me to write a book about a Great American, right away I say yes. When I say yes I always mean no. They ask me to choose a subject, and I say Branch Rickey. He placed the first black baseball player into the major leagues. His name was Jackie Robinson. He helped clear the sidewalks for Barack Obama to come into the White House. As it only happened once in the whole history of the country, I would say that is pretty good. Then some editors told me they never hear of Rickey. Which I took as an insult, a distain for what I know, as if it is not important enough for them to bother with. So now I had to write the book."

The young editors have no excuse for not knowing now. Even at 135 pages. (For cryin' out loud, at least watch the movie).

In today's short-attention-span theatre, Breslin on Rickey is made for the masses, and goes against the grain at the same time. Why get bogged down in weighted research when a classic American author like Breslin can get the job done in quick order?

If you're keeping track of some of the classic lines that Breslin generates from this one, start with his explanation of how he intended to do some research on Rickey's life:

"I figured I would be able to rely on big-name historians whom I have yet to read and that this would be immensely pleasurable. And then I read the books. History writers should be put not in the jail but under it."

As for how this ties with the annual Jackie Robinson Day activities today, consider Chapter 2, pages 17-26. Breslin deviates from anything Rickey and gets into the arrest of Robinson while he was in the U.S. Army in 1944, court-martialed for not moving to the back of a bus when ordered by the driver. Breslin reprints the statements in the case made by the driver, another black woman that Robinson sat next to, another witness, a general from the MP guard room, and finally, Robinson. The language is course, the situation compelling, and all the raw material there in front of the reader, you're given extreme insight into Robinson's character, and what Rickey had to work with in his nobel pursuit.

But back to Rickey, according to Breslin:

From page 114:

"(In 1949), Robinson was named the Most Valuable Player, which was an understatement. Behind him, applauding, crying compliments, was Rickey. He did a great thing in American life, yet he was mortal. He soon came to illustrate perfectly the mutual envy of politicans and businessmen. The politician can not restrain himself from taking his brilliance into the world of business. Before long, he is on a breadline. The businessman is sure that he can run the world, and given a chance he is out there on th epublic stage. Soon the people are ready to garrote him. The wise shoemaker sticks to his trade and maintains a mouth filled with nails. That was not to be Rickey or Robinson."

Not to give away how Breslin ties it all together with the Obama angle from his prologue, but the book ends in 2008, at a polling place, inside Jackie Robinson Elementary School, across the street from the old Ebbets Field, with him watching even more history taking place.

How it goes down in the scorebook: The fear was that this could have been some kind of Andy Rooney-esque rambling remembrance, just for posterities's sake. Far from it. This was our pleasure. In as economic a sentence as we can write: Read, savor, smile.

AP Photo/Rob Carr
An estimated 92,000 fill Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala., during the annual Alabama spring football game in 2007.

By Rachel Cohen
AP Sports Writer

The trees are budding and the birds are nesting -- must be time to sit down and watch some of the least compelling matchups in college football: green versus white, crimson against cream, blue takes on gold.

Spring games are blossoming on television as sports networks discover the value of airing the glorified scrimmages, tapping into fervent college fan bases -- people who might otherwise be joining the tens of thousands at the stadium. It's free advertising in the middle of the offseason for programs competing for the country's top recruits.

The Big Ten Network is scheduled to broadcast live all but one of its schools' spring football games this year on TV or the Internet, including Iowa's open practice (the Hawkeyes don't play a spring game). ESPN's networks are televising five games this year, up from two in 2008. That doesn't include additional teams available online at ESPN3.com, some as replays or simulcasts of regional broadcasts.

The only ones who don't seem to be on the bandwagon are some college coaches, a bunch conditioned to fret over the tiniest of details.

New Big Ten member Nebraska is the TV holdout in that conference, for instance. The Huskers don't want to show their retooled offense to their new rivals.

"I just prefer not to have it on," said Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, whose team's spring game was aired by ESPN in 2006 and '07. "Why would I let everybody see, who we're going to play early, what we like to do?"

Of the 25 schools in the AP's final poll last season, 12 are planning to have their games broadcast in some form this spring. Notre Dame's spring game will be televised nationally for the first time. Saturday's scrimmage is on cable channel Versus, which is now a sister network to NBC, the Irish's TV partner, after the Comcast merger.

The book: "56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports"

The author:Kostya Kennedy

The vital stats: Sports Illustrated Publishing, 386 pages, $26.95.

Find it: At Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: On this day, Pete Rose hits 70 -- that's years old, not a consective game streak, or years denied a Hall of Fame induction.

So if we're looking backon a record that "The Hit King" fell eight games short of tying back in the late '80s -- he's been the closest to come to even getting a sniff of it -- this latest tale of DiMaggio hits the spot.

It's really a two-sided tale, recounting DiMaggio's days as he accomplished the feat, but also tackling the questions: How does "56" endure? And what does it say about DiMaggio's legacy?

Kennedy's research produced what is perhaps the most market-friendly book of the season, which included a cover story excerpt in Sports Illustrated back on March 14 when you'd think there'd be plenty of college basketball to hold our interests. That's the magic of DiMaggio, and of the streak, all this time later.

There are very interesting aspects to spotlight, such as on page 131, when a scoring decision gave DiMaggio a hit rather than charge Luke Appling with an error in game 30, which may have tainted the career of scorekeeper Dan Daniel. Would DiMaggio have been as heralded if he had a 29-game streak, followed by one of 43? Doubtful.

Others have gone into greater detail about how the streak came about, how it could have ended, and how another streak followed. But what sets this apart are Kennedy's sidebars, called "The View from Here," that keep it fresh and relevant. Interviews with current major-leaguers, hitting coaches, even psychologists analyze their imput as to why this may never be reached again.

We can apprecate in particular the research done (page 187) about the theory that the reason a streak like this hasn't happened since is because today's players have a tougher time facing more different pitchers on a regular basis. "There's no evidence to support it," Kennedy writes. And we believe it as well.

Finally, there's a chapter about the math involved in all of it -- the odds. One study said the streak like that could happen only once in 746 years. Another says it's 1-in-18,519.

Concludes Kennedy: "If there is life on Earth but none yet observed on any of the other planets in our solar system, can we make a guess as to the probability that alien life is thriving somewhere out there in the cosmos? Who could possibly say? ... Where it comes to baseball and hitting streaks, there is at least one thing we can say for sure: Through the end of the 2010 season, 17,290 players we know have appeared in the major leagues. Only one of them ever hit in 56 straight games."

How it goes down in the scorebook: There could be 56 books written about this record, but we'd be inclined to hang onto this one.

Sorry, did we overlook the other stories Kennedy weaved in there, references to DiMaggio's relationship with his wife, Dorothy Arnold, or how the death of Lou Gehrig on June 2 during the early stages of the streak impacted things? The relationship Joe had with his brother, Dom, who was a teammate of Ted Williams as the Boston Red Sox star hit .406 that same year but didn't win the AL MVP award? Or DiMaggio's ex-Yankee teammate who tried to sabotage the streak by giving him nothing to hit?

Or even that DiMaggio was a big fan of Superman comics?

Hopefully not. Because it's all there, too.

Coming up: Another book, "Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil" by Jerome Charyn is set for release later this summer (linked here).

LAWeeky.com

Throw back those plans to get all liquored up at Dodger Stadium on one of those midweek day games coming up.

There is no official explanation given in a Dodger press release issued on the subject, but one can easily read between the blurred lines -- it's another delayed reaction to the recent upgrades in security that the team felt was needed in the aftermath of a Giants fan beaten into a coma by someone wearing Dodgers gear after the Dodgers' season opener on March 31.

The book: "Pitching in the Promised Land: A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League"

The author: Aaron Pribble

The vital stats: University of Nebraska Press, 280 pages, $24.95

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: This first-person account of what it was like to participate in the first (and only) season of a pro baseball league that tried to capture the hearts of those in Israel couldn't have been written by a better retread prospect not named Jim Morris.

Pribble put in some time in the minor leagues, played overseas and thought he was kiind of done with the game. A 27-year-old history teacher in the Bay Area, he wasn't even sure he qualified for this IBL thing. He considered himself a "red-neck Jew" with "an average fastball, irregular slider and decent changeup." But the deeper he got into the strange summer vacation idea, the more confusing it got.

From page 15: "The formula I began to decipher was this: to be a player in the IBL, one's talents was inversly related to his degre of Jewishness. On the one end, if you weren't Jewish at all ... you had to be very good. On the other hand, if you were Orthodox or, better yet, Israeli, I guessed all you needed was a heartbeat. According to that formulation I placed myself squarely in the middle of the talent pool: a half-assed Jew and half-assed former pro."

And playing with, and against, guys like a wild catcher from Australia, journeymen from the Dominican Republic (including Vladimir Guerrero's brother) who lied about their ages and nervous Americans who weren't sure if they were treading into a volitale situation.

Pribble's tale starts to unravel like "The Rookie" meets Crash Davis, taking the soul of a book like "The Bullpen Gospels" and finding the nuggets of humanity from "Ball Four." Through all the bounced paychecks, player rebellion and a love interest that takes place despite all the crazy political atmposphere in the Middle East, Pribble seems to understand the specialness of how this was not just an opportunity for him to understand his quasi-Jewish background (it was from his mom's side), but also see how cool it was to be part of the bigger picture.

"It was historic," he writes. "In spite of my proclivity for sarcasm, I knew something genuinely unique was taking place, that he felt alike by players, league officials, families and fans. ... An old man held up a sign that read, in descending order: Jews returning to Israel -- check; Baseball in the Holy Land -- check; World Peace -- (blank)."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Much better than the cucumber, pita and cottage cheese breakfast that Pribble and his teammates had to each every morning for breakfast. We'd suggest it as a Bar Mitzvah gift for a kid on a self-discovery journey.

By Tom Canavan
The Associated Press

NEWARK, N.J. -- New Jersey Nets radio voice Chris Carrino has been living with a secret for almost two decades.

The 40-year-old, who has spent the past decade describing the franchise's run at NBA titles early in the decade to the misery of recent losing seasons, has done it with his body being gradually attacked by a form of muscular dystrophy.

Carrino has facioscapulohumeral dystrophy, one of nine types of MD, and this one has neither a treatment nor a cure.

"I have always been reluctant to talk about it because I never wanted to seem different," Carrino said. "I never wanted to be treated differently. It took me a while to talk to the people, even friends. It's something I felt that as long as I could get away with people not knowing, it would be fine."

Carrino is doing more than talking these days about his debilitating disease. He has launched the Chris Carrino Foundation for FSHD (linked here).

Call it the product of frustration. Carrino has not seen much progress in treating FSHD since he was diagnosed in the early 1990s. He doesn't believe much is being done now, at least compared to some other more recognizable forms of MD, like Lou Gehrig's disease.

Muscular Dystrophy Association spokesman Jim Brown there are about 21,500 to 40,000 people in the United States diagnosed with FSHD, which is slightly higher than the number of ALS patients (15,000 to 40,000).

MDA is currently spending $2.25 million funding 12 FSHD projects, Brown said, noting a recent study found the molecular cause of FSHD. The total does not include money being spent on other projects that will lead to advances in FSHD therapy development, he added.

"Maybe it was time for me to come forward and do something that could have an impact," said Carrino, adding he had always wanted to start an FSHD foundation, but wanted to do it after becoming a major player in the broadcast field.

The Associated Press

The Big 12 Conference and Fox Sports announced a 13-year cable TV deal today that includes 40 football games each season in addition to other events.

Financial terms were not disclosed. Sports Business Journal has reported that the contract, which starts with the 2012 football season, will pay the conference $90 million a year.

The Big 12 also has a deal with ABC-ESPN running through 2015-16 that would raise the conference's total TV rights revenue to about $130 million annually.

Commissioner Dan Beebe said the Fox contract positions the 10-team Big 12 favorably with other major conferences financially.

The 12-team SEC generated $205 million from TV rights last year and the 12-team Big Ten $220 million. The Pac-10, which becomes the Pac-12 this year, made only $60 million on TV rights but is working on a new television package that would include its own network.

The book: "Mexican American Baseball in Los Angeles (Images of Baseball)"

The author: Francisco E. Balderrama and Richard A. Santillan, forward by Samuel O. Regalado

The vital stats: Arcadia Publishing, 127 pages, $21.99

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: Maybe it's coincidence that this is the 30th anniversary of Fernandomania's arrival in L.A. Hopefully, it's not.

While Chapter 6 covers the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to Chavez Ravine and Fernando Valenzuela's electric rise to stardom, it's really the first five chapters that need the reader's full attention, especially those who grew up in Southern California and could be enlightened by an amazing history lesson.

You come across names like Elias Baca, aka "The Spanish Tornado," who pitched at UCLA during the Great Depression, to the Carmelita Chorizeros team of the 1950s, to the nine Pena brothers who played together.

There are the photos of Saul Toledo, a player who went on to be a newspaper writer and promoter for the teams, and Shorty Perez, longtime leader of the Chorizeros, and Rudy Regaldo, a former Hoover High of Glendale and USC standout who played with the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series.

While it may seem like just a photo album of days gone by, Balderrama, a professor of Chicano studies and history at Cal State L.A., and Santillan, professor emeritus of ethnic and women studies at Cal Poly Pomona, bring it alive with their text. They are on the advisory board of the Latino Baseball History Project, based at Cal State San Bernardino. The group is responsible for pulling together these vintage photographs that document a story that prior to this has only been passed down generation to generation, or experienced through special exhibits, some presented by the Pasadena-based Baseball Reliquary, which fosters an understand and appreciation of the culture of the game.

Baseball Reliquary director Terry Cannon started a collaberation with the Latino Baseball History Project more than five years ago, when he organized an exhibit called "From the Barrios to the Big Leagues" at Cal State L.A., and has cultivated many of the background captions that goes with the pages and pages of black-and-white photos.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Classic, and classy, leaving us wanting to find out more. Viva, indeed.

Also: If you get a chance to scan the Arcadia Publishing library of baseball related books, you'll also find issues dedicated to Los Angeles' Historical Ballparks (2010, by Chris Epting, linked here), Dodger Stadium (linked here) by Dodgers team historian Mark Langill, The Brooklyn Dodgers in Cuba (2011, linked here), Dodgertown (linked here), The Hollywood Stars by Dick Beverage (2005, linked here), Baseball in Albuquerque (2011, linked here), Baseball in Long Beach (linked here), Baseball in Ventura County (linked here), Baseball in San Diego (linked here) and Women's Baseball (linked here).

USC has moved into exclusive negotiations with Fox Sports, through the Wasserman Media Group, for the school's multimedia rights that would include radio and marketing aspects, according to sources cited by the Sports Business Journal (linked here).

As the Pac-12 moves toward its own TV channel, the TV rights are not part of the talks, says the SBJ.

Wasserman Media Group, which worked with Fox on a valuation for the USC property, is expected to "work with Fox as a sales agent if the network secures an agreement with the Trojans, but Fox would take the lead on the relationship with the school," SBJ reported.

In the past, USC has handled its marketing and media rights in-house.

The book: "The Greatest Game Ever Pitched: Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, and the Pitching Duel of the Century"

The author: Jim Kaplan

The vital stats: Triumph Books, 256 pages, $24.95.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: As the Dodgers make their first trip into San Francisco, we go back to a contest that took place on July 2, 1963 at Candlestick Park.

It'll never be duplicated.

Yet, was it the greatest game ever pitched? Kaplan, a former Sports Illustrated writer, seems to build an argument for it -- the Braves' 42-year-old Spahn and the Giants' 25-year-old Marichal, two future Hall of Famers, began a duel at 8:21 p.m. and had 16 innings wrapped up in just over four hours, when (spoiler alert) Willie Mays hit a walk-off homer.

Just 15,000-plus saw it first hand -- including Bud Selig, as it turned out. So did Spahn's son, Greg, who points out in the introduction that this was a time when we "were able to follow baseball without the distractions of strikes, lockouts, mascots, endless announcements and loud music. Attending a ballgame was an unexpurgated joy."

Even in chilly Candlestick Park? We beg to ddddddiffffffer.

Kaplan's reconstruction efforts of a contest he didn't actually see come through interviews with Marichal and others (Spahn died in 2003), refocing on an event that would have been an instant classic on ESPN had it been played in the last 10 years.
Back then, before five-man rotations, strict pitch counts, specialized relief pitchers and frequent substitutions, games like this were more the norm.

But still, 16 innings for each starter? You've got our attention.

In addition to telling the story again, Kaplan's sidebars highlight other games that could be considered the "greatest," and are a welcome addition -- before getting a taste of this one, we'd have thought the perfect game that Sandy Koufax threw against the Chicago Cubs in 1965, where losing pitcher Bob Hendley had a one-hitter and lost 1-0 in one hour, 43 minutes at Dodger Stadium was far greater. In a way, it is. Maybe because our memory wants to believe it to be so.

After a rather slow start to the story, Kaplan has already given an account of the whole Marichal-Spahn dual by page 131. You can only do much to Retrosheet.org. With with 70 pages to go, it turns into a mini-bio about how the careers of Marichal and Spahn end up -- they become teammates briefly for the second half of the '65 season in San Francisco. Nearly 20 pages are dedicated to Marichal's bat-striking incident with the Dodgers' Johnny Roseboro, which could be a book unto itself.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Not the most compelling read, but if you make it through, we'd like to give you the Veni-Vidi-Vixi pin -- I came, I saw, I survived -- like the ones they used to give out to fans who actually endured extra-inning games at Candlestick. Too bad those who actually made it to the end of this one didn't get the prized badge of honor. They got something better instead -- a memory of a game that hardly anyone else saw. If they've got enough patience to get through this book, they'll be rewarded as well.

How it happened: A Retrosheet.com account of the game, which is also captured in the appendix of the book (linked here).

Coming up: A Marichal autobiography called "My Journey from the Dominican Republic to Cooperstown," with Lew Freedman, is scheduled to come out later this summer (linked here).

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

MONDAY

MLB: Dodgers at San Francisco, 7:15 p.m., Channel 9:

These are the T-shirts they're now selling in the Dodger Stadium stores -- see how easy it is to make the "LA" logo with your index finger and thumb on each hand. Very cute. As long as it's not interpreted as some kind of gang symbol, right? As they take up a collection in the Dodger Stadium parking lot today for the family of badly beaten Giants fan Bryan Stow, the Dodgers expect to encounter some nastiness on their first trip into AT&T Park, having somehow won three of the four against the defending World Series winners last weekend. Clayton Kershaw pitches tonight, and Chad Billingsley takes on Tim Lincecum on Tuesday night (7 p.m., Channel 9). The series ends on Wednesday (7 p.m., Prime.)

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

The Indians have won seven in a row, including a sweep in Seattle coming into this series, but the Angels send Dan Haren (2-0) out to slow them down. Cleveland is also 4-1 against left-handed starters and batting .333 versus left-handed pitching, and they'll face another lefty in the Angels' Tokyo-born Hisanori Takahashi, who draws the start on Tuesday (7 p.m., Prime, when it's also a 50th anniversary blanket giveaway). The series ends with a 4 p.m. game Wednesday (Channel 13).

MLB: Tampa Bay at Boston, ESPN, 4 p.m.:

Manny Ramirez's return to Fenway is upstaged again ... by his own retirement.

TUESDAY

NBA: Lakers vs. San Antonio, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

A play-it-safe affair, unless the Lakers are worried that Dallas may catch them for second-best in the Western Conference. How urgent are the Lakers to win anymore?

Series: "Sports Show with Norm Macdonald," Comedy Central, 7:30 p.m.:

Macdonald, the former "Saturday Night Live" host of "Weekend Update," told the New York Times recently: "Jon Stewart can do 'The Daily Show,' and since network news is so ridiculous and horrible, he can parody that. On the other hand, (ESPN) 'SportsCenter' is a really cool show and really fun, and already ironic, so to parody that is the complete wrong thing to do." You mean, like Comedy Central's "Onion SportsDome" has tried to do? Macdonald puts his dry wit to some use in this sports-related vehicle. He'll do well on this show as long as he's given time to make it work. "Or so the Germans will have you believe," as he might add.

WEDNESDAY

NHL playoffs: Ducks vs. Nashville, Honda Center, Game 1, 7:30 p.m.:

The Predators had a 3-1-0 record against the Ducks during the regular season, but will the line of Corey Perry, Bobby Ryan and Ryan Getzlaf be up to the challenge? "When you think about Anaheim you think about the big line. That's where it starts and ends," Predators Coach Barry Trotz said Sunday. Game 2 is at Honda Center on Friday at 7:30 p.m., while Game 3 goes to Nashville on Sunday.

NBA: Lakers at Sacramento, 7:30 p.m., Channel 9:

From all signs, it's the end of a couple a things - the Lakers' regular season, and the Kings' occupancy of Sacramento. What if, after they move to Anaheim, they still play a few games in our state capital. Call 'em the Sacramento-Anaheim Royals. No? Then Marissa Miller will have to take off the body paint. Or, maybe not.

NBA: Clippers vs. Memphis, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

One last dunkfest for Blake Griffin before he's shelved for the summer.

MLS: Galaxy at Toronto, 5 p.m.:

Are the Galaxy players still whining about how the last game in D.C. turned out? Get over it, lads. And grab your passport.

THURSDAY

NHL playoffs: Kings at San Jose, Game 1, 7 p.m.:

So they've landed in the No. 7 hole, losing three of their last four - including a 6-1 embarrassment at San Jose just last week. Aside from having to face No. 1 seed Vancouver, the Kings couldn't be getting a much worse draw in the Stanley Cup playoffs than starting against the Sharks. "It's going to be an exciting series and a great series for California hockey in general," said Sharks captain Joe Thornton. Game 2 is Saturday at San Jose, 7 p.m.

MLB: Dodgers vs. St. Louis, Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m, Prime:

It's not enough to have Albert Pujols in town. A swarm of LAPD is expected to come in full force, too. The Dodgers are also giving away Lakers purple-and-gold caps to open this four-game homestand, because that's the team really on everyone's minds, right? Just in time for the NBA playoffs. The series includes games Friday and Saturday (7 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.) on Prime.

Golf: PGA Valero Texas Open, first round, noon, Golf Channel:

They may do things big in Texas, but there's no way it finishes any better than the Masters. CBS has the final two rounds Saturday and Sunday.

FRIDAY

MLB: Angels at Chicago White Sox, 5 p.m., FSW:

The jewel match up of this three-game weekend series is Jered Weaver (3-0, 0.87 ERA) against Mark Buehrle on Saturday (1 p.m., Fox Channel 11). We'll take it to Sunday (11 a.m., FSW).

SATURDAY

NBA playoffs: Games on ESPN at 10 a.m., 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and on ABC Channel 7 at 12:30 p.m.:

The Lakers' final playoff tour with Phil Jackson at the controls start at Staples Center, with an opponent, date and time to be determined. If it's not today, then it'll be Sunday (ABC also has a 12:30 p.m. window, while TNT goes on at 2, 5 and 7:30 p.m.)

SUNDAY

IRL: Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, 12:30 p.m., Versus:

How much Will Power does it take to pull your eyes off the first family of the Indy Racing League -- Dario Franchitti and his high-profile spouse, Ashley Judd - and pay attention to the power of the one man making the most noise? Power -- officially, Aussie native William Stephen Power -- has not only one of the best names in all of sports, but one of the best track records at the Long Beach Grand Prix. He won it in 2008, the last year it was a Champ Car event. He qualified on the pole the last two years of IRL racing, finishing third (in '10) and second ('09, behind Franchitti). Power went wire-to-wire to take Sunday's new road course event in Birmingham, Ala., and he's got a seven-point lead in the driver's championship leading to Long Beach. More Power to him. Qualifying starts Saturday at 3 p.m. on Versus.

MLS: Galaxy at Chicago, 1 p.m., FSW (delayed at 3 p.m.):

Fans of this Chitown team have been told it's OK to yell "Fire" in an uncrowded stadium.

The book: "Baseball and the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game"

The author: John Thorn

The vital stats: Simon & Shuster, 384 pages, $26.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here), as well as at Powells (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: Might as well get the first book to induce Slurpee-like brain freeze out of the way.

In 12 dense, highly-researched chapters, plus an extensive list of notes and index, the newly installed "Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball" and previous author of "Total Baseball" shows that he's definitely done his homework. We're not sure at this point if we're supposed to be impressed or insulted that it's taken this long to set straight all the bunch of mularcy that we'd been led to believe about how the game of baseball was discovered, evolved and communicated to the ticket-buying public.

In a "paternity" project that Thorn says he started in 1983, and "I am not likely to write on this subject again" because of how deep he feels that he's dug, the end game that we're now told to believe it's folks like Daniel Lucius Adams, William Rufus Wheaton and Louis Fenn Wadsworth who have as much, if not stronger, claim to have birthed the game than Abner Doubleday or Alexander Cartwright.

Reboot. Relearn. Reasonably safe? Reassembly required.

Thorn not only makes the case that too much make-believe has perpetuated long enough as to how the game came to be -- and he's got plenty of evidience to convince himself that Cooperstown, N.Y., is as much baseball's Bethlehem as Dryer's Field in Iowa -- but he figured it was also fun, in a way, to embrace the ways those myths were created.

"Decades ago, when I became convinced that the well-worn tales about the rise and flower of the game were largely untrue, I dermined to set matters straight," Thorn writes in the intro. "However, as time wore on I found myself more engaged by the lies, and the reason for their creation, and have sought here not to simply contradict them but to fathom them. And the liars and schemers in this not so innocent age of the game proved to be far more compelling characters than straight arrows: In the Garden of Eden, after all, Adam and Eve are bores; it is the serpent who holds our attention."

That implies we're to take the Bible's story of Genesis literally, doesn't it?

Religion, incidentally, plays into Thorn's new research that it was a blind belief in Cartwright and Doubleday, who were involved in the Point Loma-based Theosophical Society, a turn of the century "New Age" movement, and held a certain amount of credibility to whatever audience they were putting out there as the leaders.

Whether or not your brain has the capacity to process all of Thorn's work here is the real test. The endorsements of Ken Burns, Jim Bouton, George F. Will and Robert W. Creamer should be enough to force us to make the time to at least try to make ends meet -- or at least meet Thorn in the middle in trying to decide if our time-honored yarns about how things came about can be retooled.

Thorn isn't the least bit stuffy in putting all this out there, so the reader has no fear of being put to sleep. But if putting myths to rest are what will make you rest easier, here's the term paper that you've been waiting for -- rich with evidence of gambling, racism, elitism and scandal.

An excerpt: From page 57:

"No ingenious lad like Abner Doubleday or inventive clerk like Alexander Cartwright created the game. Although Cooperstown is the legendary home of baseball, the Baseball Hall of Fame will not relocate to Pittsfield (Mass.), and its officials no longe rmake special claims for Doubleday or 1839. Its status as a culture shrine will remain untarnished, for by now it has a history of its own. As Stephen Jay Gould explained not only of the Mills Commission's search for a baseball father but also Cooperstown's hold on our hearts, "Too few people are comfortable with evolutionary modes of explanation in any form. I do not know why we tend to think so fuzzily in this area, but one reason must reside in our social and psychic attraction to creation myths in preference to evolutionary stoires -- for creation myths . . . identify heroes and sacred places, while evolutionary stories provide no palpable, particular thing as a symbol for reverence, worship or patriotism."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Revisionist history isn't something we're always looking for, but if the truth sets us free and we can set the record a little straighter about what our forefathers did with their free time, we should be all the better for it.

If anything, you can judge a book by its fabulous cover, as well as the glossy-paged photos included. It's great baseball eye candy. Just set yourself enough time and patience to plow through all this meat and byproduct.

The book: "The Bill James Handbook: 2011"

The author: Bill James

The vital stats: Acta Sports, 525 pages, $24.95.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here), which includes a spiral version, as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: "Why did statistical annuals floruish in the 1990s?" asks Steve Moyer of Baseball Info Solutions in the introduction. "Because sabermetrics and fantasy baseball (attention media, they're not the same thing) had a growht spurt and the internet was just getting started. It was the Golden Age of baseball books."

Books that were weighted down in statistical analysis, like James' annual mindbenders.

Moyer was making the point that this is the first year James' Handbook will be available in electronic format, so you don't necessarily have to find a place on the bookshelf for a beast like this.

Too bad. We've come to save it a spot each year, and this is no exception. There are so many gems of information we mine from it each year, process it, then sometimes even forget that it actually came from here.

The points to ponder that we've been dazzled by so far:

== James points out that "(Angels manager) Mike Scioscia was out-sciosciaed in 2010 by first-year manager Brad Mills of Houston ... he took a 65-win team and won 76 games. ... On the other end of that was the Rockies, who took a 93-win team and scratched and clawed their way to 83 wins. Which is not necessarily the manager's fault." So Jim Tracy is off the hook there.

== Juan Pierre, whom the Dodgers essentially gave away to the Chicago White Sox, contributed to 51 "manufactured runs" in 2010, "easily the most of any major league player." Which means -- a single, stolen base, a single to drive him home. That kind of thing, where just two singles wouldn't have done it. The Dodgers were still second in the NL (behind Atlanta) in manufactured runs last season (185), but their opponents manufactured 168 runs against them. Rafael Furcal, Jamey Carroll and Blake DeWitt were the top three producers. To the point: Tampa Bay manufactured 202 runs and gave up an AL low 128. San Diego manufactured 173 and gave up 116.

== Since 2008, when instant replay was put in to determine home runs or fair/foul judgments, 35 percent of the 133 reviewed calls were overturned -- more than one out of every three times. James details every one of them on pages 455-457.

== The book's new feature, the "Hall of Fame Monitor," is to be as impartial as possible i summing up where players from this generation stand with respect to getting into the Hall of Fame based on their statistical output. A player at "100" or above is full-qualified at his point. Those in the 50-75 range may be, depending on what they do to finish their careers.
James admits there are those who have scored less than 60 on his scale and made it, and a very few who have more than 100 and are eligible but haven't been selected. So, eliminating his previous system -- which had 32 criterias to give players a certain amount of points for achieving certain achievements in his career -- and using a new one based on his statistic of Win Shares, you get interesting results.

Such as: Mark McGwire "actually doesn't show as a fully qualified Hall of Famer" by either of James' systems, leaving the issue of steroids out of it. He's in the 90s, where many do get it, but "he's not an overwhelmingly qualified immortal."

So, according to James' deductions, those who will eventually get into the Hall based on their on-field achievements (with 100 being the marker for excellence) include:

Alex Rodriguez (188)
Mariano Rivera (150)
Albert Pujols (146)
Derek Jeter (138)
Manny Ramirez (125)
Frank Thomas (121)
Mike Piazza (120)
Ken Griffey Jr. (114)
Ichiro Suzuki (110)
Jeff Bagwell (107)
Chipper Jones (107)
Trevor Hoffman (106)
Vladimir Guerrero (105)
Gary Sheffield (101)
Sammy Sosa (100)

Again, look at the Ramirez quotient, in light of the recent news of his retirement.

Pujols is far and away the youngest with the highest number, based on the fact no one born prior to 1976 is anywhere close to the Cardinals first baseman (who was born in 1980).

You can't get away from this stuff. So don't even try.

A short stop:

Also out these days is "Solid Fool's Gold: Detours on the Way to Conventional Wisdom" (208 pages, $14.95). Our friend, Ron Kaplan, of Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf website (linked here), gives it a Grade A: "Entertaining essays harken back to the baseball abstracts of old." We just haven't been able to track it down ourself for an evaluation.

How it goes down in the scorebook:
It's already been out since last November, which makes you think James' 2012 version is almost halfway written now. Good. Sooner the better.

The book: "Baseball: How To Play The Game: The Official Playing and Coaching Manual of Major League Baseball"

The author: Pete Williams

The vital stats: Universe/Rizzolui, 320 pages, $29.95.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: Start with page 59: "An athletic supporter and protective cup are not just necessary for catchers and pitchers. No matter where you are playing on the field -- even the outfield -- there's the potential for injury. It takes just one sharply hit ball to do serious damage. Even younger male plyaes need to protect their sensative groin region by wearing both an athletic supporter and a protective cup at all times on the field."

You gotta start with the basics. That, and a lot of nice big color photos.

It's suprising that an MLB-endorsed "how to" book hasn't been done sooner, but maybe there's some liability factors involved. Considering how many players and coaches put out their own training manuals on the right way to do things, this compilation of everyone's talent and advice into one catalogue-sized paperback makes far too much sense.

Maybe because the introduction is done by Darrell Miller (Reggie and Cheryl's older brother, a former Angels player who now serves as director of the MLB's Urban Youth Academy), you get a sense this is a book that will now be given to as many prospects who come through the organization's training facility as must reading.

"Perhaps more than any other sport," Miller writes, "baseball is a game in which the fundamental skills are crucial at every level of the game. From Little League to the Majors, the game remains the same."

There are 18 chapters devoted to everything, and before you're done, you'll have enough in your head about basic fundamentals, conditioning and equipment as much as mechanics, positioning, hitting the cut-off man, framing a pitch, tagging up, video work and knowing the rules.

A vital excerpt:

Page 266, the Angels' Torii Hunter, on throwing from the outfield: "Before the ball is hit, you've got to know what you're going to do with it once you catch it. Right before the ball is in your glove, peek and see if the runner is tagging up or going halfway. If he tags up, you'd better make a quick throw to the next base. If he goes halfway, you've got to hit the cutoff man."

Simple enough?

There's nothing really new or provocative here. But with the way it's laid out and with key advice from those who play the game, it's a book that a kid can't start reading soon enough -- or a coach who's trying to know what he's talking about.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Can someone drop off a copy of this -- it doesn't even have to be anonymous -- in Matt Kemp's locker?

Bring it out to the Little League field this weekend and see how well it goes over.

In real life, Bethany Hamilton is among the top women's surfers the world.

In reel life, her story, "Soul Surfer," which hit theatres today, would rank among any sport's top comeback flicks of all time. Not even Hollywood could mess up this script.

More than seven years ago, before dawn on Halloween morning, she had her left arm taken off by a 14-foot tiger shark while they were both sharing the waters off the shore of Kauai, Hawaii.

"When can I surf again?" the 13-year-old asked after her emergency surgery.

She returned almost immediately, and began to spread the word of her story, in hopes of helping others overcoming obstacles put in front of them.

Hamilton, now 21 and on the women's pro tour since 2007, talks about the reaction so far to her life story, and why it still resonates:

QUESTION: How did you gauge the reaction from the audience after you attended the "blue carpet" premiere recently in L.A.?

ANSWER: I thought everyone was stoked on it. That's really nice. I had heard it was hard to get good feedback from L.A. because everyone can be so critical about movies. It was cool. Everyone enjoyed it, and we had a wonderful night with my family and some of my best friends.

Q: As a competitive athlete now, do you find yourself actually some kind of psychological advantage over opponents? In that you're able to do what you do so well without both arms?

A: Surfing is very different from a lot of other sports, because there's so much arm movement, and having to paddle fast, and position yourself properly. For me, I really have to focus and think through my heat and study the lineup. I really don't think of it as having any kind of advantage. If anything, it can still hold me back in certain waves. But once you're up on the board, and as long as I get two good waves, I'm good. The girls I compete against, we're all good friends, so once we're on land, we don't talk much about the competition or who has advantages.

Q: Does competitive surfing at times take anything away from the pure fun of riding the board?

A: I can see where there are times when I'm so focused on getting better in a competition, I forget to just have fun and be in the ocean. I always come back to being grateful just to be able to continue surfing, especially after those long trips. I'm stoked to get back in the water. I know the name of the movie, and when you talk about 'soul surfers,' most of them you don't consider to be competitive. I interpret it as: If you find something you're passionate about, no matter what, you love it. And whether I'm competing or not, I'd be in the water loving it. Some do get burned out and lose their passion. But that's not the case for me. When the waves are good, I'll be out there all day.

Q: Have you gotten used to the media fishbowl yet, especially now, with this new wave of it, after all these years? Did it make you grow up fast?

A: Yeah, it's been crazy coming from mellow Kauai to get thrown into all this crazy, but it's all been a good experience, a way to reach more people and share our story with everything. It's a lot of hoping on planes and sleeping in hotels and getting homesick, but even worse, being away from the ocean.

Q: Reading your book again, you didn't seem to be someone who took things for granted. You're very grounded in Christianity. Is that even more the case now than back then, and would it be something that you'd have anyway because you're more you're more mature, not just because of the accident that happened?

A: My faith in Jesus has always kept me grounded me, and keeps me going, and inspires me every day. I know I'm not perfect and God loves me and He can help me get through things, guide me on life decisions. There are so many decisions that have to be made, and making the movie became very intense sometimes because we had to be on top of everything. There was some stuff we didn't approve of. But it's been awesome to be able to trust in God and know His plan is much better than the one I have.

Q: Where are the best places you've found to surf in California?

A: I love going out at 'Lowers' (Lower Trestles in Orange County), but the crowd can be intense. I just try to find a spot where it's a little less known. We always have a stop in Huntington (Beach), and it gets pretty hectic there, too, but it's also great to see all the people come together to support it. I stay with a good friend when I'm there and manage to get some quiet time around Orange County when I'm there.

Q: Even though actors play you throughout the films, primarily AnnaSophia Robb, you managed to do make an appearance in the movie, right?

A: I got to do a lot of the one-armed stunt surfing and have a cameo in one scene.

Q: What was the strangest part about seeing someone play you on the big screen? Was there a scene that you reacted to that caught you by surprise?

A: I became good friends with AnnaSophia, and the way she portrayed me, it was easier to take in.

Q: Your book is the basis for the movie, but what did Hollywood do to your story to add to it, as it tends to do sometimes?

A: There are two fictional characters. "Maria" is a competitive surfer who has a rivalry with me. But I liked that aspect of the movie. There's competitiveness, so it works and we end up friends in the movie. Then there's a friend of mine named "Taoki," and I liked how his character worked. So even if there is some fiction in there, my family and I approved of it and we really worked with the writers and directors to come up with something that moves the story as long as it doesn't water things down.

Q: What do you hope movie goers take away from "Soul Surfer," particularly those who may not know about the religious faith aspect that kind of holds your story together?

A: Of course, I want to share my faith, and my love of surfing, but I want it to be natural. I didn't want to push it on anyone. I want them to just be encouraged, see how good things can come from bad. Everyone thinks, 'How horrible,' but I see all the good that has come out of it. I'm still surfing, all over the world. It's cool to know that hopefully we can have another surfing movie on the big screen.

Q: Has anyone made comparisons to your movie and the James Franco movie, "127 Hours"?

A: Not too many, but it's funny -- we both lost our arms in the same year (2003) and the movies came out the same year, and we're still both doing the things we love. I haven't met (mountain climber Aron Ralston), but I did see his film and enjoyed it. It was cool to see the similarities in our stories.

Q: Really? How did you react to the scene where he lost his arm?

A: I like how we did the scene in 'Soul Surfer' better - it happened quick, we did the scene quick. It's not too much for kids to handle. We didn't want it to turn into a 'Jaws' movie. But in ("127 Hours"), honestly, I fast forwarded (on the DVD) that part. It was gnarly. So gnarly.

== More:
== Bethany Hamilton's official website (linked here)
== The "Soul Surfer" movie website (linked here)

The book: "The Baseball Hall of Fame Collection: Celebrating the Greatest Players of All Time Through Rare Objects, Documents and Photos"

The author: James Buckey, Jr.

The vital stats: Metro Books, 175 pages, $22.95.

Find it: Often in the "bargain books" section at Barnes & Noble, as well as special ordered at the Barnes & Noble site (linked here) and at Amazon.com (linked here).

The pitch: Originally listed at $39.95, this one authorized by the Baseball Hall of Fame will make you feel you've walked out of the Cooperstown archives with some of its most valuable documents.

A reader can dream, can't he?

The book: "Uppity: My Untold Story About the Games People Play"

The author: Bill White, with Gordon Dillow

The vital stats: Grand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, 303 pages, $26.99.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: So here's what up with the ex-president of the National League, longtime New York Yankees broadcaster and former All-Star first baseman with the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies -- he's got some things to get off his chest.

And if you're going to call him "uppity" about it, he's heard it before.

"Uppity," he writes, is what they used to call his grandmother, "who always made it a poitn to look people straight in the eye -- black people, white people, it didn't matter .... In the South it was a sign of insolence. ... but Grandma didn't care. It was a trait she passed on to my mother, and to me."

Meaning, Bill White was going to tell you exactly what he thought, and why, and he was willing to walk away at anytime. You see, his goal was to go to medical school, but he happened to be good at baseball, so he saw a future in making a living doing that.

But that meant playing baseball in the Jim Crow South during the 1950s, and getting called the N-word at many turns. In one game, he said he jogged off the field, raised his left hand and "gave the crowd along the first base line the finger, the digital version of 'screw you!' I was never sorry I did it but in retrospect I realized that it was probably a foolish thing to do."

It did earn him respect, from teammates, opponents and, perhaps most important to him, Jackie Robinson.

White's tale is somewhat sad in a way, as he admits: "I did not love baseball. Because I knew that baseball would never love me back." He also says that he doesn't wish to attend games today because the "entertainment" factor seems to override the competitive aspect of the game he thought was more important.

White writes about the many times he spoke out for things he believed were unjust, and sometimes, they were fixed. After spending 18 years as Phil Rizzuto's broadcast partner with the Yankees, several baseball owners thought enough of him in the aftermath of the Al Campanis debacle to recruit him to a front-office position, starting with four years at the NL president. That happened to come just before the passing of commissioner Bart Giamatti, leaving White to struggle with Fay Vincent ("he had the uncanny ability to do exactly the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time") as his boss.

"Uppity" should be interpreted as "honestly" in this attempt to tell his side of things, a version that actually brings out the best in what he tried to accomplish in his baseball life. Such as the time he turned down an offer from George Steinbrenner to be the Yankees general manager because, as he can say now, "I knew I could never work" for the combatant owner. "I knew the first time he screamed at me, the first time he called me an idiot or a moron or an errand boy or any of the other invectives he directed at his employees, I might have decked him."

White also admits that he as much as he admired with former teammate Curt Flood was doing in the late '60s about free agency, "I publicly backed" him, "but privately, I thought Curt was nuts."

An excerpt:

From page 191, after White started as the NL president:

"I remember once, early in my term, I was sitting in my office with Bart Giamatti, who had just moved up to the commissioner position, with L.A. Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda called. As I put him on speakerphone, Tommy started bitching and moaning about some baseballs he claimed had been doctored by a Houston Astros pitcher in a recent game against the Dodgers.
'I've got the balls right here, and I'm going to send Orel Hershiser over with them so you can see them!'
"Tommy had balls, all right. He had balls pulling that sort of thing with me. I looked over at Bart and started laughing.
''Tommy, the umpires are the people who would have to give me the balls, not you. After you've had them, the balls aren't evidence anymore. And I want you to know that I used to hit against Don Drysdale and other Dodgers pitchers and I know for a fact that they doctored balls, too. So don't try to tell me this is something your team has never done.'
"Tommy was like a lot of good managers. He would lie awake at night trying to think of any little angle that would give his team an advantage. So he blustered and bitched, and I just laughed."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Big ups to Bill White for coming to the plate carrying a big stick, and reminding us all who followed the game that when he had a say in things, it mattered.

Further reading: A 2007 piece on White by MLB.com entitled: "Whatever the job, White got it done" (linked here). Bill White for the Hall of Fame? You can make a good argument.

Joel Meyers, who has been doing play-by-play on Lakers games since 2003, the last six of those seasons on TV, has been told he will not have his contract renewed for next season, according to several sources.

Meyers was added to the Lakers' broadcast team on radio when Paul Sunderland, who came in after the passing of Chick Hearn, was moved to a TV-only play-by-play call, eliminating the simulcast. Spero Dedes was hired from the NBA TV channel as the radio play-by-play job at the time.

Lakers media relations director John Black said: "All our announcers' contracts expire at the end of the season. We will respectfully decline commenting on or discussing any possible changes until the conclusion of our season."

Speculation is that Dedes, who for the last six seasons has established himself as one of the more sought-after young play-by-play voices in sports today, would be the most likely candidate to fill the Lakers' TV job. Sources confirmed that the Lakers and Dedes will soon begin contract discussions.

The Lakers' new long-term deal with two exclusive Time Warner Cable channels starts in the 2012-13 season.

The 31-year-old Dedes, who joined the Lakers in 2005, has done college basketball during the recent NCAA tournament for CBS as well as working on the NFL Network as a host and doing play-by-play, as well as doing the NFL on CBS.

Meyers, a resident of Hidden Hills, has a long established track record in Southern California sports, calling Angels games in the late 1980s as well as the L.A. Raiders, Dodgers game on cable in the early 1990s, and Los Angeles Lazers indoor soccer games for the old Prime Ticket.

Further speculation is that Bill Macdonald would be a front-runner for a Lakers' radio job opening, as well as a role with the Lakers-Time Warner channels. Macdonald, who has been with Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket for the last 25 years, has filled in on radio games for Dedes for the last couple of seasons when Dedes was excused to do national NFL or college basketball broadcasts.

The book: "The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First"

The author: Jonah Keri

The vital stats: ESPN, 272 pages, $26.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: Imagine of the Dodgers or Angels, who start a two-game series today in Tampa, Fla., had the same resources as the Tampa Bay Rays. Oh, right. They do. But look at who's gone farther into playoffville over the last three seasons.

The fortunes of a franchise created in 1998 didn't change until 2005 when former Goldman Sachs pals Stuart Sternberg and Matthew Silverman assumed control and took a different mindset toward running a sports team. "Boy Genius" Andrew Friedman soon became the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations after 2005 -- skipping the GM job all together -- and then replacing Lou Pinella with Joe Madden off Mike Scioscia's bench to steer things into the right direction pushed things over the top.

So if Oakland had "Moneyball," Tampa has "Equityball," and remains one of the more amazing baseball stories of the last decade, for how quickly they competed in an AL East division against some of the most top money-heavy franchises in all of sports by simply being observant, prudent, and smart.

It didn't come through magic, but a strategy that's practically outlined here by Keri, an ESPN.com writer and the co-author and editor of the 2008 "Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong."

Crunch the numbers yourself -- that extra two percent intangibles that separate a winning organization from a losing one comes from a business approach that some baseball people are still trying to get their heads around. Not only that, but as Keri points out on page 191, the key to Sternberg, Silverman and Friedman was to "protect their secrets" involving anything from pending stadium construction to trade negotiations.

"No sharing of secret sauce on any key projects, whether on the baseball side or the business side. No on-the-record, impolitic words for anyone in the game. And certainly no sidling up to even the most venerable of reporters; no supposed inside information would be worth ruining their own deals. The approach was born primarily out of pragmatism. ... The publication of 'Moneyball' had triggered a wave of both reverence and distain for Billy Beane. . The Rays honchos simply wanted to do their job in peace, while maining that coveted 2 percent edge."

Chapter 6 may be key, though -- it is devoted entirely to how Madden changed the attitudes of the younger players and deserves as much credit as anyone. Research goes into how the Angels even found him -- former Angels GM Mike Port gives credit to Preston Gomez for pushing Maddon up the ladder, and how Gene Mauch made an impact on him. Maddon nearly got the Boston Red Sox's job after Grady Little left in 2003. What if that happened?

"You talk about thinking outside the box, I think that expression was made for Joe," says Scioscia on apge 121. "Joe would have been an incredible engineer if he wasn't in baseball. He could look at parts of an organization, parts of a team, and in imaginative ways, just based on sound common sense, make an organization better, make people better, make a team better."

Mark Cuban, the technotratic Dallas Mavs owner who did something of the same thing in changing the fortunes of his NBA team once he bought them, even says in the foreward: "The Tampa Bay Rays are a shining example to anyone, whether you're running a professional sports franchise or a Fortune 500 company or a neighborhood gas station. Every day they look up and see the two biggest names in the industry, standing right on their turf. So they dream up new ideas, whether it's to find a new relief pitcher, improve their brand or build their profit margin. No one idea is ikely to make a huge difference. But collectively, those ideas make the difference between winning and losing, or winning a little and winning a lot."

Even if it's just getting Manny Ramirez in there at the right time to clean the windshield and check the oil.

"We've worked hard to get that extra 2 percent, that 52-48 edge," says Sternberg (26 at the time he got the Rays). "We don't want to do anything to screw that up."

How it goes down in the scorebook: Did the Rays know something back at the 2009 trading deadline when they gave standout lefthander Scott Kazmir to the Angels for a bag of groceries, knowing they'd have to pay him $8 milion 2010? The Angels, who owe him $12 million this season, wonder now if they can afford to even keep the two-time All Star and 2007 AL strikeout leader in the starting rotation.

You kinda think so now, eh?

The book: "Baseball Prospectus 2011"

The author: Edited by Steven Goldman

The vital stats: Baseball Prospectus/Wiley & Sons, 600 pages, $24.95.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as BaseballProspectus.com, and Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: The Wiley & Sons website, which published the book, has the slogan: "Knowledge for Generations," and has listings of books that specialize in things like world languages, math and science, physics and astronomy and ... well, you get the idea. Cramming this title into its fun and games section seems like the only way a Mensa person would find it.

So you know going in that the 16th edition of this New York Times bestseller is going to make you do more than think.

You can even get a little cocky.

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

MONDAY

College basketball: NCAA men's championship: Butler vs. UConn, 6 p.m., Channel 2:

Butler coach Brad Stevens should look at the glass as nearly full at this point, back in the title game for the second straight year. Why? Because he's wearing glasses, some think. Steven Peek, sports editor of the Butler Collegian, has noted that "ever since a mishap wearing contacts forced Stevens to leave the last regular season game early, he's been wearing glasses. . . In the minds of many, there's no coincidence that the Bulldogs have been undefeated in single-elimination tournament play since the switch." There's now is a #FearTheGlasses hash tag on Twitter.

NHL: Kings at San Jose, 7 p.m., Versus:

The Kings have won three of four without the injured Anze Kopitar and Justin Williams, with players such as Matt Greene and Wayne Simmonds stepping into the offense. Versus has six games between now and Friday, including Boston at the N.Y. Rangers at 4:30 p.m. right before this, and they all involve playoff contenders.

TUESDAY

MLB: Angels at Tampa Bay, 3:30 p.m., Channel 13:

Evan Longoria said it about Manny Ramirez, the new No. 4 hitter protecting him in the Rays' lineup: "You see that (swing), and you feed off of it, too. When you're around players of his caliber, it rubs off on you. You feel like you're a little bit better player than you are. It's pretty awesome. You can definitely feel a special aura surrounding him." Sounds like Andre Either all over again, eh? So, after Tampa Bay was swept in its season-opening series against Baltimore, and Longoria ended up on the DL, it's not looking so awesome, is it?

MLB: Dodgers at Colorado, 5:30 p.m., Channel 9:

We're back to Clayton Kershaw's turn in the rotation, coming off his seven innings of shutout ball with nine strikeouts against the Giants in the opener. Rockies star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is just 5-for-21 lifetime against Kershaw, with eight Ks.

NBA: Lakers vs. Utah, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

In the Lakers' 11-point win over the Jazz at their place last week, Utah center Kyrylo Fesenko got a technical foul in the third quarter, fouling Kobe Bryant hard, knocking him to the ground, then dropping the ball on him. "It was a stupid way to spend $2,000," Fesenko said.

NBA: Clippers at Memphis, 5 p.m., Prime:

The Clippers must play four of their last five on the road, starting here.

College basketball: NCAA women's championship: Notre Dame vs. Texas A&M, 5:30 p.m., ESPN:

You had UConn and Stanford in your bracket, didn't you? If the men's tournament got turned upside down, why shouldn't the women's, as UConn, the two-time defending champs, couldn't get past the Irish in the semifinals.

WEDNESDAY

NHL: Kings vs. Phoenix, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

If the playoffs started this week, here's the 4-vs.-5 first-round matchup, with the Kings having a slim advantage in head-to-head battles so far.

NHL: Ducks vs. San Jose, Honda Center, 7 p.m., KDOC:

And again, if the playoffs started this week, here's the 7-vs.-2 first-round matchup, yet the Sharks have only two more wins than the Ducks.

NBA: Lakers at Golden State, 7:30 p.m., Channel 9, ESPN:

Kobe Bryant (39) outscored Monta Ellis (38) in their last head-to-head meeting, and the Lakers won by five.

NBA: Clippers at Oklahoma City, 5 p.m., Prime:

Russell Westbrook can do much better than 1-for-12 shooting, as he did in the five-point loss to the Clippers last Saturday.

MLB: Angels at Tampa Bay, 10 a.m., FSW; Dodgers at Colorado, noon, Prime:

The Dodgers' and Angels' brief two-game trips end with an afternoon contest, and then a day off.

THURSDAY

Golf: The Masters, first round, ESPN, noon:

Defending champion Phil Mickelson had high hopes when he left Augusta a year ago wearing a green jacket - even in the drive-thru lane of a doughnut shop with his kids. His wife, diagnosed with breast cancer 11 months earlier, was there to greet him on the 18th green in one of the more emotional moments on a golf course where there have been many. For the next six months, Mickelson had more than a dozen chances to become No. 1 in the world for the first time in his career. Then came another health setback -- his own -- when he discovered he had psoriatic arthritis. He didn't win the rest of the year. He has only contended once this year. Ever the optimist, Mickelson believes that will change when he drives down Magnolia Lane. "I feel like the year kind of starts now," he said. ESPN has the second round Friday (noon), while CBS has Saturday (12:30 p.m.) and Sunday (11 a.m.).

FRIDAY

MLB: Dodgers at San Diego, 7 p.m., Prime:

How about the benches clearing in Peoria, Ariz., when the Dodgers and Padres traded brush-back pitches, first by Jonathan Broxton hitting Ryan Ludwick, then by San Diego's Brad Brach buzzing Rafael Furcal. The series resumes Saturday at 5:30 p.m., Channel 9 and Sunday at 1 p.m., Channel 9.

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

The Angels finally get their home opener, and a start of their 50th anniversary celebration, by showing the Blue Jays what they gave away in Vernon Wells. The series resumes Saturday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 12:30 p.m.

NBA: Lakers at Portland, 7 p.m., Channel 9:

Just when you'd think the Blazers would welcome a first-round playoff visit against the Lakers, you realize -- Portland had won nine of the previous 10 and 15 of the previous 18 meetings with the Lakers at the Rose Garden. The Lakers, though, have won two in a row on the Blazers' homecourt, including 106-101 in OT last February.

NBA: Clippers at Dallas, 5:30 p.m., Channel 13:

The Clips only lost to the Mavs by six at Staples Center last week, yet Dallas has won the last nine meetings.

NHL: Kings at Ducks, Honda Center, 7 p.m., KDOC:

At last, a home-and-home with the Southern California rivals, thrashing about as the playoffs are just around the corner. The Ducks' most recent 2-1 overtime win over the Kings came when rising MVP candidate Corey Perry scored in OT.

Movie: "Soul Surfer," in theatres today:

It's the Bethany Hamilton story -- the 13-year-old surfer who nearly eight years ago on Halloween morning lost her left arm in a attack by a 14-foot shark. Two months later, she placed fifth in the Open Women's division surf competition and just over a year after the attack she won her first national title. AnnaSophia Robb plays Bethany in the docudrama.

SATURDAY

NHL: Kings vs. Ducks, Staples Center, 7:30 p.m., FSW:

To put the icing on the regular season, one more go-around. Could they meet again in the playoffs? There's always that crazy chance.

NBA: Clippers at Houston, 5:30 p.m., Prime:

As long as they're in Texas . . .

MLS: Galaxy at D.C. United, 4:30 p.m., FSW:

After four games this season, David Beckham has no goals, two assists, while Landon Donovan has no goals, no assists. For the record.

Hockey: NCAA Frozen Four final, 4 p.m., ESPN:

If Minnesota-Duluth, which has already upset top-seeded Yale, makes it out of Thursday's semifinal against Notre Dame, and into today's title game against either North Dakota or Michigan, you think the Bulldogs have much of a home-ice advantage playing in St. Paul, Minn.?

Horse racing: Santa Anita Derby, 2 p.m., HRTV:

The $1 million race and prelude to the Kentucky Derby could be a huge stepping stone for Premier Pegasus, the winner of the San Felipe Stakes over favored Jaycito. In the Associated Press' Run to the Roses Top 10 of Derby contenders, Premier Pegasus is No. 6 (with Uncle Mo remaining in the top spot) and should be the morning-line favorite in what looks to be an eight-horse field. Premier Pegasus has lost only once in five career starts, and that only non-win was a third in the San Vicente.

SUNDAY

NBA: Lakers vs. Oklahoma City, Staples Center, 6:30 p.m., FSW:

It's your first, and last, look at how the Lakers might match up against the Thunder now that Kendrick Perkins is in the middle helping out Kevin Durant heading into the postseason. The Lakers won by three in their last meeting, as 3-pointers on the OKC last possession by Durant and James Harden missed.

Series: "Khloe & Lamar," 7 p.m., E!

Because reality TV ended so well for Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey, Carmen Electra and Dave Navaro, and Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. The Lakers' Lamar Odom and his newish bride, Khloe Kardashian, have already been making the rounds with the media for their new show, and Lamar told "Access Hollywood" about past reality show blowups: "We don't pay too much attention to it." Neither will we. But Lakers fans must know this has happened.

The book: "Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2011"

The author: Edited by Jim Callis, Will Lingo and John Manuel

The vital stats: Baseball America, 512 pages, $32.95.

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as at Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: There are more than 900 "prospects" who will someday, if all goes well, get a sniff of the big leagues. Some, even make a career out of it.

Fantasy players in leagues where long-term security and late-round picks set up your roster for the coming years need to know about these players -- in some cases, sooner rather than later. Most of the starting lineup of Kansas City Royals, who finished up a four-game set to start the season against the Angels today, that could be there at the end of '11 are found between pages 206-221.

Following up on today's Sunday Q-and-A with Bobby Valentine (linked here), who came up as a shortstop with the Dodgers and Angels and now finds himself as an ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" analyst, calling tonight's Dodgers-Giants game back at Dodger Stadium:

First, about that right leg . . .

Right below the knee and above the ankle, it still looks as if it took the worst of a fight between him and a chained-linked fence. Because that, in effect, is what happened nearly 40 years ago.

As the ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball" analyst pulled down his sock, his leg looked like a shape of a snake that just swallowed an grapefruit.

He rapped his knuckles on the lower shin. It sounded like a hollow tree trunk.

"That's how it healed," the 60-year-old said with a laugh. "That's my leg. I was stupid."

On May 17, 1973 (Retrosheet.org box score linked here), Valentine was leading the California Angles with a .302 batting average. The natural shortstop had been batting in the No. 2 hole, but manager Bobby Winkles moved him to center field in mid-May, as well as to the third spot in the lineup. Valentine seemed to know what he was doing in the outfield -- even making a couple of nice catches two days earlier to back the first no-hitter of Nolan Ryan's career against the Royals in Kansas City.

Back home at Angels Stadium. Two outs, two on, top of the second. Oakland's Dick Green , a light-hitting second baseman known for his defense on the defending World Series champs' team and batting eighth, launches a long fly ball over Valentine's head.

"He never hit a ball like that in his life," said Valentine. "He might have hit three homers before that total. I was playing him in short right-center field."

As the ball sailed out for a home run, Valentine chased it, got his right shoe caught in the fence, and . . .

"Here we are today," he said with an impish laugh, probably not even aware any more the Angels lost that game, 4-0. "I break my leg, and then I'm Nolan's manager (with the Texas Rangers) for his sixth and seventh no-hitters, his 5,00th strike out. His 300th win. How about that?"

Q: How far back to you go with the Dodgers, aside from being their top draft pick in 1968, and your father in law being Ralph Branca?

A: My wife's family jumped into the fray when the original Ebbets needed financing for Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. He took on a partner who had a construction company, which happed to be Ralph Branca'swife's grandfather, Steven James McKeever, so they built the park. Then, when Walter O'Malley was the lawyer who happened to get a piece of the team, and his partner was McKeever's daughter's husband, James Mulkin, who was also the presiden tof Sam Goldwin Productions. It's a small, crazy world. But that was the kind of group who ran the team for more than a half century. Then Peter (O'Malley) continued on.

"So maybe my times with the Dodgers were fleeting. I married into a situation. My wife's grandfather was alive for a couple of years during our marriage but I didn't know him much. And I didn't get any real feeling of that side of the situation."

Q: You recently took on a job as the head of health and public safety for your hometown of Stamford, Conn. Is that a pretty cool job?

A: I was asked to take it, and I did it as an obligation to the community. I guess the skills I developed over the years in dealing with all types of people and situations are needed. But now I'm dealing with things like union contracts that affect a lot of lives, a $140 million budget to be in charge of, where there's overtime concerns for the public, that leads to cuts, it affects someone vacation or mortage .. it's a different world we're living in now.

Q: Before you signed with the Dodgers, there were dozens of schools offering you scholarships, football and baseball. One of them was USC. Do you ever think of what it would have been like if you took that one with the Trojans, back in the '60s and '70s?

A: A little. I heard that I was the first guy John McKay recruited east of the Mississippi. But I never envisioned myself playing professional football. I often thought during those days, the kinds of backs they were using and doing the kinds of things they were doing -- I was that kind of guy. And it would have been cool to play for McKay and Rod Dedeaux. I've thought of that. What a great arena that was. But I also thought of practicing. And I hated football practice. You figure out how to open the
holes, I'll run with it. I don't know how I'd have done in two-a-days in college. I liked the work and the sweat, But I just didn't like the practice.

Q: Your link to Japanese baseball gives you some insight into the problems the people of Japan must be going through after the devistating earthquake and tsunami. Has there been any ways you have been able to help?

A: I got the latest update this morning, and I've been doing as much as I can. Actually, it's kind of wearing me out. I just got $600,000 worth of medical supplies connected to Boots On The Ground (linked here), and AmeriCares (linked here), which is based on Stamford, is getting things done. Since I'm in the public safety field now, and connected with the board of health, the EMS, we can help the director of the hospital in the Sendi area -- he's one of my good friends. So when they couldn't find a place to drop the supplies with Boots On The Ground, that's just the beginning of what's going on there.
"I'm developing a webpage to hold an internet auction and have a fundraiser on June 18 in Stamford with the Japanese-American community that I'm hoping we can raise a couple of million dollars between now and then. I have some water from a water company that I deal with in Panama floating some over there right now. But a million is just a drop of water in the ocean for what's needed there. They have hundreds of thousands who have lost everything.

Q: Is it fair to compare things there to what 9/11 was here? Can baseball help the country recover as it did here?

A: That's a whole other soap box. I was supposed to be on a panel at Yale with Bud Selig, the commissioner of baseball from Japan and members of both governments to talk about what direction baseball could go for both countries. But that was canceled after the earthquake happened.
When I was there, I had a vision of international expansion and the way to start was having the two leagues there come together and share information, marketing, fan bases and TV rights and revenue. We got close. But the leagues still don't work together. There's no cohesiveness.
"And the quake and tsumani affects the power, and the fact that people are still without power and rolling brownouts, to think baseball games can be played, and use power, is kind of backwards.
"(Back on 9/11), we were just bringing the spirit out, and trying to get the hearts and minds to start to recovering, to show we're together and strong and not hiding. Our courage was going to lift people up. But here, the greed (of the Japanese Leagues) may bring the people down.
"They do need some kind of normalcy, but it's still shaking every day there. Three shakes a day. It's still not normal. Some people haven't drank water in 10 days. They're allowed to go to stores and just by five items at a time -- and an egg counts as one item. But there's still no water. It's too heavy to transport and the infracstructure so down, and there's little gasoline, the water is the last thing arriving. You can't imagine.
"I'd like to be there, actually, because I always think I could help and make a difference (sighs). Turns out, I can't always do that. At the end of the day, I can make a little difference."

== Contributions made at Bobby Valentine's website, www.bobbyvalentine.org, will go toward Japan disaster relief, in care of the Japanese American Association of New York.

The book: "A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants"

The author: Andrew Baggarly

The vital stats: Triumph Books, 316 pages, $19.95

Find it: At the publisher's website (linked here) as well as Powell's (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: Without any banners flying overhead or fisticuffs in the parking lot, we've punched through this one into the rotation much quicker than anticipated -- the Dodgers-Giants Reunion Tour to start the season is cause for national focus, with three of the first four games going across the country (or at least not just limited to L.A. or S.F.) by ESPN and Fox.

Baggarly, the San Jose Mercury News' Giants beat reporter the past seven seasons, author of the popular "Extra Baggs" blog (linked here) and a former Dodgers and Angels reporter for the Riverside Press Enterprise, is as good a resource as any to make this book come to life for Giants fans who've waited more than 50 years for a reason to celebrate. Especially, at the Dodgers' expense.

And you get what you pay for: Great insight, weaving the player bio chapters into the season storyline, and winding up with a great argument as to just how improbable it was for this team to emerge in the NL West, then turn it up a couple of notches with a pitching staff that would make any Dodger fan of the 1960s enjoy.

If you thought the '88 Dodgers were the real band of misfits, Baggarly gives you reason to reconsider.

Page 133: "Nobody wanted them. Aubrey Huff's phone had been silent all winter. Another team paid Pat Burrell to disappear. Cody Ross was given away. Andres Torres and Juan Uribe arrived as minor league free agents. The Giants' lineup was full of former Pirates and Rays. They were a collection of castoffs -- players nobody valued."

Here, it's all about team chemistry, getting through the grind of a season, having fun and avoiding miscommunications with teammates and other players. Most team GMs should study this when they're trying to piece together a family of 25 that has to live with each other eight months a year. No wonder Dodgers GM Ned Colletti admitted that he teared up watching the franchise he used to work for finally get over the top.

How it goes down in the scorebook: No worries: It's not a rip-and-read effort to get something there to capitalize on the World Series hangover (although, it doesn't hurt). There's much more depth and insight that you'd often find in other books by this publisher (see, Day 1, Don Mattingly).

Just a spoiler alert: The Giants still win in the end. And Aubry Huff still has his rally thong. And your Giant friends won't let you forget it. Now, back to the Barry Bonds trial ...

Baggarly says he'll be at the S.F. Saloon in West L.A. tonight at 7 p.m. for a book signing if you're in the neighborhood and are daring enough to get a copy defaced for your Dodger-faithful friends.

Amused in some small way about what passes on Twitter for entertainment?

Me confused. Buy you a cup of coffee 2 talk it over? LOL? Or not?

The book: "Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly"

The author: Mike Shalin

The vital stats: Triumph Books, 224 pages, $24.95

Find it: At the publishers' website (linked here), as well as Powells (linked here), Amazon.com (linked here) and Barnes & Noble (linked here).

The pitch: You stick your credibility out there claiming anything to be "definitive."

Definitely, this isn't. Disappointingly.

There are many things to pick over about just how this is anything but the classic biography of the newest Dodger manager -- for starters, it reads like an expanded Google search, supplimented with interviews (too many from Yankee broadcasters who love to hear their own voices) and maybe a brief explanation of how someone gets a nickname that's related to the sport he plays.

Wait, does it even explain the nickname? Honestly, we didn't make it very far past page 130 before giving up and going into a power skim just to make sure we weren't overlooking something of import.

The idea for the book apparently came months before the Dodgers officially announced Mattingly would replace Joe Torre as the field manager, but the timing of the release smells of something that's trying to be a bit opportunistic.

In fact, it reads more of trying to build an argument as to why Mattingly would make a decent big-league manager, despite his lack of experience in the role. It's based on his approach to the game, his dedication, work ethic ... all those things that may translate in some ways as a way to lead by example. But will it work?

With some of the interviews, we get a brief peek at what could happen. But not so much with Mattingly's blessing.

Shalin, an East Coast baseball writer who barely crossed over Mattingly's career when the later was coming up, explains that while Mattingly doesn't fully participate in the book project, he relented to two "extended interviews" that gave Shalin enough material to fill some chapters, and then go ask others about him.

We're left with more questions that didn't really get answered: What makes Mattingly so humble? What was his family like life growing up in Indiana? Any way to compare him to a baseball version of Larry Bird?

"When writing a biography about any subject," Shalin starts Chapter 4, "the author looks for both sides of the story. ... The funny thing, though, is that Don Mattingly comes as close to beloved as you are going to get ... That's why so many people are rooting for Mattingly to succeed in his new endeavor."

And that, really, is how it reads. Clear and simple.

Hoping to at least salvage something of the time we did spend trying to find some nuggets of information, we'll focus on just a couple of things.

Such as something said by former Dodgers coach Larry Bowa, on page 100, about Mattingly: "I think sometimes he watches today's game and shakes his head a little bit because it's about effort, going out there and grinding everything out. It's about not giving at-bats away. (He) never gave away at-bats. You could see his determination when he got up to the plate. he was an outstanding hitter and great first baseman."

Is that called foreshadowing? It sure seemed like the kind of things that Torre said about the game when he was heading out the door. But then again, Bowa isn't back on Mattingly's team of coaches, and there's probably a reason.

On page 77, Mattingly says something about what can get him kicked out of a game:

"Every once and a while I'd get a little crazy during a game. I got tossed probably five or six times in my entire career. A lot of times I'd get tossed late in the game when i just didn't want to be there anymore."

File that one away, too.

How it goes down in the scorebook: Like a walk to the mound, where you're not sure if you should turn back and add offer one more piece of information, then forgetting to see where the grass ends and dirt starts. And getting no help from your coaching staff as to how to fix the problem once the umps screwed things up.

We'll also give you this, from a reader review on Amazon.com: "Let me begin by saying I'm a life long Yankees fan and Mattingly is one of my favorites. But I found this book to be very disappointing. It can be summed up as Don Mattingly was a great baseball player but is an even better person. There was nothing in it that I already didn't know. I read mostly biographies and this one was sophomoric. It was mostly quotes from former teammates, coaches, and opposing players, but the sheer volume of quotes was over the top. Better editing would have served this book well. Some quotes were repeated word for word in later chapters and a few were even repeated on succeeding pages. This book could have been (and should have been) much, much shorter. It was basically an ESPN magazine article stretched out to 200 pages. Donnie deserves better."

So do Dodger fans interested in trying to get to know the real man.

Following up on today's column (linked here) on Vin Scully -- and not making any judgments on his taste in autographs on display in the background of his booth (linked here) -- we'll allow this AP story on the Pac-12's pursuit of a new TV deal take care of things we also think we need to know about:

By JOSH DUBOW
The Associated Press

The Pac-10 has spent more than a year preparing for this moment when it can put its television rights up to bid on the open market for the first time since its expansion.

With Fox's exclusive negotiating window expiring Thursday, the conference can now shop the rights to some 2,700 events a year and a possible partnership in a Pac-12 network to a bevy of interested media and technology companies.

The conference has 12 teams with next season's additions of Utah and Colorado, covers one-fifth of the country and is the last major college property on the market for at least a few years.

That is expected to lead to fierce bidding from incumbents Fox and ESPN, as well as Comcast and Turner Sports, that could make the Pac-10 one of the highest revenue-producing conferences in the country. It's the second-lowest now.

College sports have fared well on the market in recent months, with the ACC reportedly getting $155 million a year for its rights and the Big 12 close to finalizing a deal with Fox, according to the Sports Business Journal, that will make its total annual package worth about $130 million.

That's less than the behemoths from the SEC ($205 million) and Big Ten ($220 million) but far more than the less than $60 million the Pac-10 pulled in this year.

"Despite the recession, it seems like sports programming costs continue to escalate through the roof," said Derek Baine, an analyst at the research firm SNL Kagan.

While Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott has not publicly discussed what he believes he can get in the new deal, he clearly is shooting high. One key mark will be $170 million per year, because USC and UCLA would get $2 million bonuses until that level is reached.