UPDATED: 06/11/13: The week ahead on the sports calendar, like it or not:

(Colin Kerrigan / Philly.com)

BEST BET:

GOLF: 113^th U.S. OPEN, at Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., Thursday-Sunday, ESPN and Channel 4:
Often those who compete in this annual event of over-par frustration end up being labeled as basket cases. Perhaps it’s appropriate that this club outside of Philadelphia will play host to the annual Open, as Merion’s tradition is to put red wicker baskets on top of heavy metal flagsticks, so the players have no way to figure out which way the wind is blowing up there. Some have said they look like Q-tips on steroids atop the poles. Maybe it looks more like a Frisbee golf course. Yet, their origin is a mystery.
Red baskets mean a front-green pin. Orange is for the back. Beige means a patron’s picnic basket full of cheese steak sandwiches was swept up in a breeze and nested up there. The idea came from course designer Hugh Wilson, though exactly what inspired him remains unknown. Another great unknown is how this course will react to such a large gathering. Not since Aussie David Graham capped a three-shot win with a 67 in the final round in 1981 has a major come to this this course, which has held 18 USGA championships, the most of any golf course. Because of the 32-year wait, only 11 players who qualified for this year’s event have played competitive rounds on the course. That includes Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker (from the 1989 U.S. Amateur) and Rickie Fowler (from the 2009 Walker Cup). Tiger Woods, whose last major was the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, will have a much shorter course to attack this time. It’s just 6,996 yards on the card, the shortest Open course since Southern Hills (6,973 in 2001). Woods will go out with Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott as the featured group Thursday (10:14 p.m. PDT) and Friday (4:44 a.m.) – the three have a combined 17 major titles.
ESPN (6 a.m. to noon) and Channel 4 (noon to 2 p.m.) has the first two rounds Thursday and Friday. Channel 4 has the final two rounds (Saturday and Sunday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.).

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A auction starting later this month of Kobe Bryant memorabilia will go on as planned, but without the dozens of things originally involved when the Laker star’s mother, Pamela, made the consignment deal months ago.

Looking at the week ahead on the sports calendar:

BEST BET:

NHL PLAYOFFS:
WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
KINGS vs. CHICAGO
Game 3: 6 p.m. Tuesday, Staples Center, NBC Sports Network:
Go back to the Saturday afternoon on Jan. 19 when the Kings finally raised their 2011-12 Stanley Cup banner. The NHL lockout postponed everything for a couple of months, and Angelinos were getting a little anxious. Was that all just a dream last summer? Is the league doing an audit and someone’s going to find out that the numbers don’t add up in the Kings’ favor anymore? When the banner went up into the rafters, the Chicago Blackhawks players occupied the visiting bench that day but made sure not to be around for all the hoopla. When they finally came out of the locker room, they snuffed out the celebration with a 5-2 pummeling, behind two Marian Hossa goals and 19 Corey Crawford saves. “The season after you win the Cup, everyone is going to play their best game against the Cup champion, because that’s the game where you want to prove yourselves and make a statement,” said Patrick Kane, whose 5-on-3 goal started the rout. “So I think that’s what we were kind of feeling today.” How will the Blackhawks  be feeling when they revisit Staples Center after their one and only appearance 4 ½ months ago? It could determine how things go from here.
The series resumes:
Game 4: 6 p.m. Thursday, Staples Center, NBC Sports Network
Game 5: 5 p.m. Saturday at Chicago, Channel 4

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So there’s the guy on the cellphone commercial sitting at the tiny table with a group of kindergarten kids, asking them the simple question: What’s better, something bigger or something faster?

These Kings are supposed to be bigger, grind-it-out, wear-you-down tougher hitting team than these Chicago Blackhawks.

Then again, these Blackhawks proved Saturday that a fast team is better. Faster even than Quick can react on a rebound.

It’s not complicated. When you say it like that, in fact, it makes perfect sense, eh?

Can the Kings afford to sit back and let Quick do all the work? Continue reading →

What made it as the lead item to this week’s sports media column:

You think the Dodgers’ new ownership team would considering finding a spot on their new TV network for Ross Porter? We talked about it as he prepares for calling two CIF baseball title games from Dodger Stadium today.

Porter, by the way, says he has reason to smile when he’s listening to a game today and hears broadcasters sprinkle statistics into the broadcast — something he was probably unfairly criticized for years ago.

Edward Frascino/The New Yorker

“I guess I can laugh about that now,” he said. “I used to keep a blue book with statistics on things like how Johnny Bench used to do against Don Sutton, and people might have asked, ‘What are you doing?’” said Porter. “Now that kind of thing is on every media stat sheet in every press box. And you hear the stats everywhere from Vin down, just as if it’s another part of the game.

“Maybe I was a little bit of a pioneer in that, and I took a lot of criticism for it — some of it may have been warranted — but I think my problem was that having done all that research, I wanted to get it in, and that couldn’t always happen.

“To me, the research and homework never stopped. I never considered it a grind. It really was a pleasure to do it. I enjoyed the homework almost as much as the play-by-play itself.”

What didn’t make it in but really, really should have: Continue reading →

In 2002, Dodgers broadcaster Ross Porter, right, interviews team GM Dan Evans. © Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers from http://dodgersphotog.mlblogs.com/2012

Ross Porter will venture up to the Dodger Stadium broadcast booth Friday afternoon, perhaps sitting in the same spot where he last worked about 8 ½ years ago.

The statistical probably of this happening? It’s likely that only Porter could give you the correct numbers on that.

When his contract was ridiculously not renewed by the Dodgers and then-owner Frank McCourt after the 2004 season, thus ending a 28-year run with the team as its No. 2 TV and radio voice next to Vin Scully and another decade-plus as the “DodgerTalk” post-game host, Porter wasn’t about to just go away to his Calabasas home and become the retiring type.

The 74-year-old has stayed busy on various broadcasting projects and finds himself returning to the stadium today as an employee of Fox Sports West. Executive producer Tom Feuer hired him to call today’s CIF Southern Section Division III title game between Mira Costa and Serra (2 p.m.) as well as the Division II championship between Cypress and Temecula Valley (5 p.m.), both of which will stream on the FoxSportsWest.com Prep Zone online platform.

“I think it’s going to be a really interesting experience,” Porter said Thursday. “I’m just happy to have the opportunity and I’m really looking forward to it.

“You know, I think I still know where to park.” Continue reading →

Illustration from NJ.com

Ian Eagle’s entertainment pedigree would seem to make the CBS sportscaster a natural for the network to try a possible new series called “Stars on Sports,” which gets its first test run Saturday at 11 a.m. on KCBS Channel 2.

Eagle’s father, Jack, was a standup comedian who appeared in more than 50 TV commercials, best remembered in the role of Brother Dominic, the beleaguered monk in the Xerox commercials. His mother, Monica Maris, was a singer and actress who played Judy Garland in the long running Las Vegas legends show.

“For me, this was a perfect way to blend sports and entertainment into an interview format, and I don’t think there’s anything out there quite like it on a national level,” said Eagle, whose sitdowns with “NCIS” star LL Cool J and actor Ethan Hawke fills the first hour-long installment of the “Stars on Sports” show. Continue reading →

Jered Weaver made 86 pitches in his first game for the Angels since April 6, and came out on the winning end of a 4-3 decision over the Dodgers on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

ANAHEIM — Jered Weaver had been perfect through four innings Wednesday night in his first game off the disabled list. But as things can happen, he was all of the sudden boxed into a corner and feeling like an underachiever against the Dodgers.

The Angels’ no-nonsense ace, having spent the last seven weeks trying to speed-mend a fractured left elbow, had not only lost his string of 12 straight batters set down once the fifth inning started, but now his shutout was gone and the Dodgers’ No. 8 hitter, A.J. Ellis, just dropped a single to left field.

“What the (bleep)’s going on here?” Weaver was caught verbalizing by the TV cameras, deftly translated by Vin Scully.

No doubt, Weaver was back. Continue reading →

Trying to plan the week ahead on the sports calendar (updated 5/29/13):

THIS WEEK’S BEST BET I:

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick lays on the ice after San Jose’s Joe Thornton scores in the first period of Game 6 on Sunday. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

NHL PLAYOFFS: WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS:
KINGS vs. CHICAGO
Game 1: 2 p.m. Saturday at Chicago, NBC Sports Network:
For as much as they were road warriors a year ago during their Stanley Cup run, the Kings’ playoff numbers going into this series from 2013: A 1-5 record away from home just seven goals scored (compared to 7-0 at home with 18 goals and three Jonathan Quick shutouts). After finishing off the Sharks, do the Kings have enough to repeat in facing the conference’s No. 1-seeded Blackhawks, whom ESPN’s Barry Melrose predicted before the playoffs would win the whole thing? “Chicago’s got four lines now and a lot of big bodies that can hit the net,” said the former Kings coach on the air recently. “L.A. is an awesome team, very similar to last year, and the best is yet to come for Dustin Brown in these playoffs.”
The rest of the series this week:
Game 2: 5 p.m. Sunday in Chicago, NBC Sports Network

THIS WEEK’S BEST BET II:

MLB: ANGELS at DODGERS, Dodger Stadium:
5:10 p.m. Monday, Prime, FSW
7:10 p.m. Tuesday, Channel 9, FSW

DODGERS at ANGELS, Angel Stadium:
7:05 p.m., Wednesday, Channel 9, FSW
7:05 p.m., Thursday, Channel 9, FSW

The lighted CalTrans billboard indicates another Dodgers-Angels Freeway Series, but this is hardly a Sig-Alert situation, unless you enjoy watching two teams throwing things in reverse into the oncoming car pool lane. Since 1999, the Dodgers and Angels had six head-to-head regular-season matchups – two three-game series in each park – to determine, well, nothing really. You could brag that it was Southern California bragging rights. In 2005, it was a “true” battle of Los Angeles since both were back to using the city designation on their place in the standings.
But with changes that came with a forced 15-team alignment in both the NL and AL, this Freeway Series has had a few off-ramps removed and is condensed into one four-game inconvenience, with just two appearances in each territorial facility. We could just take more surface streets to make this trip more scenic, but we’re also faced with a realistic situation that a Memorial Day week stay-cation between two underachievers isn’t all that much a true World Series preview. The only drama could come if Don Mattingly and/or Mike Scioscia get another vote of confidence from their ownership teams.
One saving grace for the Angels is ace Jered Weaver coming back from a broken left elbow, which appears to land him in the spot to go Wednesday instead of Thursday.
Former Angel Zack Greinke (1-4 lifetime against the Angels going back to his Royals days) goes for the Dodgers in tonight’s opener against C.J. Wilson. Otherwise, the firework show we’ve all been expecting may just be more contract money going up in flames.

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Gary Adams has two baseballs in his collection autographed by John Wooden, one of which is on the back cover of his new book.

“Just look at that penmanship,” marveled Adams, UCLA’s baseball coach for 30 seasons before retiring to Bear Valley Springs in the Tehachapi Mountains of Kern County in 2004. “He used to say you could put the NBA 24-second shot clock on him when he was asked to sign a basketball, but he needed the college’s 35-second shot clock when it came to signing a baseball. That certainly is a prized possession.”

Why the 74-year-old Adams would continue to cherish such a small token given to him by the legendary UCLA basketball coach speaks more to a 36-year relationship they started when they shared an office space on Westwood campus for eight years that many may not have known about.

Adams, who played baseball at UCLA from 1959-62, was hired by athletic director J.D. Morgan as the Bruins’ coach in 1975. That was also Wooden’s final season, capped by the last of his 10 NCAA championships.

Morgan wanted Wooden to keep an office at the athletic department, and asked Adams if he wouldn’t mind having a rather high-profile bunkmate.

“When I tell people the story of how J.D. asked this, I say, ‘Well, I’ll have to think about it and get back to you’,” Adams says before laughing.

As it turned out, Wooden made the request to give incoming basketball coach Gene Bartow his own space, and Wooden’s desire to hole up with Adams came from of his unrequited love of baseball.

And as the friendship grew, and the conversations continued, inevitably things would circle back to, of all things, baseball.

Adams’ new book, “Conversations With Coach Wooden: On Baseball, Heroes and Life” (Santa Monica Press, 439 pages, $24.95) reflects more on just the lessons learned by being in the presence of Wooden, who died at age 99 three summers ago, but, inspired by his Pyramid of Success, how he eventually created his own little-publicized Sphere of Commitment as a guide for his players in the late ‘90s.

QUESTION: This isn’t the first book, nor will it likely be the last, about John Wooden and the impact he had on someone’s life. Do you find yourself learning something new from those written before your book? Continue reading →