Sunday Sports Wrap - May 25, 2008

Can the Lakers beat the Spurs at home? We’ll find out tonight! Go Lakers!

Plenty of baseball happens today all over the country. The New York Yankees continue to be the only team in their division that is under .500 and the Rays are still just a few games behind the Red Sox in second place. The Marlins are still doing rather well in their division also, a full game ahead of the Braves. Here in Southern California the Angels top their division while the Dodgers tail the Diamondbacks by 3.5 games. There is quite a bit of college baseball today also. USC visits Washington State, UCLA is at Cal, and Stanford is at Washington. And yes, there are more than Pac-10 games happening. Check here for your favorite division.

Only one MLS game occurs today – the Chicago Fire visit the New York Red Bulls. Chicago is currently third in the Eastern Division while New York is 5th.

In PGA Tour play today, the BMW PGA Championship has already finished. Miguel Angel Jimenez won in a play-off over Oliver Wilson. Phil Mickelson is in the lead at the Crowne Plaza Invitational and Bernhard Langer is on top at the PGA Seniors event.


Today in Sports History

1922 – Babe Ruth throws dirt on an umpire and goes after a heckler in the stands. He later said he didn’t mean to hit the ump but was serious about going after the fan. The fracas cost him a fine of $200 and he was suspended for a day.

1974 – Houston Astros SS Miguel Tejada was born in the Dominican Republic.

We All Get Excited About The Lakers!

During Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals when the Lakers were down by 20 to the Spurs I thought I was going to be very ill. Fortunately, the team came back and managed to pull it out. Whew! Needless to say, I was a bit worried about the game last night prior to the start. Sure, everyone had assumed that they broke the spirit of the Spurs with the comeback, but I was still pessimistic.

I stand corrected! Happily! With the 101-71 victory last night, the whole town was doing silly dances the way you see Ronny Turiaf doing on the side. Yeah, the team is full of interesting personalities, isn’t it?

So, are the Spurs done? I sure hope so, being the biased Lakers fan that I am. The trash talking has commenced around the blogs with the usual hatred for my home team. All I have say is GO LAKERS!

Three Day Weekend Sports

Can you smell that? The traditional start of summer – Memorial Day weekend! Most have a long weekend that starts as soon as they knock off today. Unfortunately, we won’t have the warm sunshiny weather we are used to here in Southern California according to the weather forecasts. We’ll see…

So what are you going to do? Why not get out of the house and engage in some activity yourself? Did you know that you can skate or bike for about 16 miles every Saturday morning starting at the Huntington Pier? The Saturday FunRoll begins at 10:30 and meets just north of the Pier unless it is raining or wet on the path. While you’re in Huntington Beach check out the Surfing Museum.

The Muscle Beach International Classic runs over the weekend in Venice. This event features bodybuilders of all levels and age groups. Venice is an exceptional place to visit overall during Memorial Day Weekend since there will be people from all over, boardwalk vendors, and interesting street performers. (Well, that isn't exclusive to this holiday - it will just be in larger amounts.)

Travel inland and take part in the 2nd Annual Gator Run at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Park in Simi Valley. There is also an entire 3-day festival taking place that this run is a part of. On Monday, you can go south and do the Laguna Hills Half Marathon. This has a kids run and expo as well.

Don’t forget, Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals is tonight with the Lakers vs. Spurs. It will be interesting to see if the Lakers have got it together for real after the near-loss earlier this week.

The Dodgers are home all weekend with the visiting St. Louis Cardinals. This is a great weekend for baseball…as long as it doesn’t rain…

In golf this weekend the 2008 Senior PGA Championship is underway at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY. The Crowne Plaza Invitational is also in the midst of competition at Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, TX. Johnson Wagner is atop the leaderboard at the end of Thursday’s play. The BMW PGA Championship is also happening at the Wentworth Club in England. Paul McGinley is on top here with a score of 7 under.

UFC 84 in Las Vegas is on Saturday with matches pitting Tito Ortiz v. Lyoto Machida, Wanderlei Silva v. Keith Jardine, and many others. Spike TV has been showing the countdown to the event, complete with fighter back stories. Also on Saturday is the NAGA Chicago Grappling Tournament in Chicago and IKF’s Kickboxing Fight Night 2 in England.

How are you going to spend the weekend? Participating, watching, or both?

Is Your Better Better?

Have you seen those commercials where athletes are cleverly trash-talking about their skills with that catchy tune (List of Demands by Saul Williams)? You know, there’s LaDainian Tomlinson, Diana Taurasi, and many others? Now there is a promotion out that is looking for you to show why your better is better. Why am I telling you this? I know there are some of you out there that occasionally stop by here that have some amazing athletic skills. Go here and check out the rules for this contest. All you have to do is upload a video of your better, spread it around the internet, and become one of the top 100 entries. The contest has a grand prize, prize for most viral, and prize for most creative video. Check it out!

Speaking of better, the Los Angeles Lakers almost forgot where their better game was last night against the Spurs. Down as much as 20 points in the 3rd quarter, they came back to take game one in the Western Conference Finals 89-85. Game two is in Los Angeles on Friday.

In case you missed it, the Champions League Final was amazing! Talk about bringing the better! With the score tied 1-1 at the end of extra time, the match against Manchester United and Chelsea would be decided by penalty kicks. The first set looked bleak for Man U when Cristiano Ronaldo’s attempt was blocked. The team got a second shot when the last attempt by Chelsea was also blocked and a fresh round of kicks was started. In that second round, Chelsea’s second miss sealed the deal for Man U.


Today in Sports History

1991 – NFL owners vote to add two more teams to the league in 1994

Wild World of Wednesday - May 21, 2008

Today’s biggest event has to be the Champions League Final in Moscow, pitting Manchester United vs. Chelsea. The game will actually be televised on ESPN2 here in the states as well.

Oh, and if you haven’t taken advantage of it yet, May is PGA Free Lesson Month. To participate, simply click on the hotlink in the last sentence, put in your zip code on the page, and find a pro in your area. This is a great way to test out an instructor or get a quick tune up on an issue with your swing. The lessons are ten minutes long and for all player levels. Speaking of golf, I finally watched the Annika Sorenstam on David Letterman bit. I thought it was pretty funny…I still can’t believe this is the last season she’ll be on tour. I am glad that she’s going to work to better the game and the lives of others through her foundation. The Annika Foundation’s web page states the mission is to:

• Enrich the quality of life through the development of sports and physical fitness programs
• Provide resources that encourage participation and provide access to sports and physical fitness programs AND/OR to provide access and increase youth participation in the game of golf
• Help aspiring junior golfers realize their potential by providing resources, new playing opportunities and experiences

She also looks for talent in her home country and encourages girls to play golf.

The NFL could be headed for some interesting years ahead. The vote by the owners this week paves the way for a salary cap-less 2010 season and a possible lockout the next. In addition, there is talk of making the pre-season shorter and adding a 17th game to the regular season.

Oh, and the Yankees are still in last place in their division while Boston and Tampa Bay are jockeying for the top. Excuse me a moment whilst I laugh hysterically…


Today in Sports History

1952 – The Dodgers score 15 runs in the first inning against the Cincinnati Reds, curing a hitting slump the team had been in. The final score was 19-1.

1966 – Muhammad Ali defeats Henry Cooper in six rounds by TKO for the heavyweight title.

1997 – Roger Clemens won his 200th game while pitching as a Toronto Blue Jay vs. the New York Yankees. He struck out 12 batters, reaching his 71st game to strike 10 or more batters out.

Sports Betting

Sports betting has permeated the news again recently with new revelations in the Tim Donaghy case and with professional tennis. The Dan Patrick show asked yesterday why the NBA referee Donaghy betting scandal had been pushed under the rug so quickly. Why isn’t Arlen Specter looking into this? They even pointed out that the New England Patriots “Spygate” case has received far more press. It’s true. It is really quite amazing how quickly the NBA scandal went away from the main news. Here was a guy that fed every conspiracy theorist’s wildest dreams – the games really were fixed. Apparently, there are more games that could be in question due to new revelations according to the Pardon the Interruption radio show. Now that the playoffs are here, some questionable calls are certainly in the minds of fans as another possible scandal. Can you blame anyone now? How can the NBA refs be trusted?

The truth is that Donaghy is facing a very steep prison sentence and hefty fine. In addition, he and his wife are publicly fighting over property and custody of their children. In addition, she has requested a restraining order be placed on him. A friend of the ex-ref and a professional gambler are also facing jail time in connection with the scandal. You really can’t blame the NBA for trying to bury and run away from this as quickly as possible to try and keep the integrity of the league. Perhaps all scandal should be dealt with in the same manner – find those who are guilty, punish, and move on. The problem lies in when there does not seem to be a punishment fitting the crime or when someone has a particular fancy for the events.

Now professional tennis is having betting issues to mar its integrity. There are now 45 matches that are in question. An independent panel released a 66 page report (sound familiar?) about findings that examined about 73 matches in the last 5 years. A match with player Nikolay Davydenko started the entire investigation. A betting website brought attention to him when they seemed to have insider information about a particular match.

Unfortunately, greed and trying to get a big payday for minimal effort is a part of life. These events do not only happen in sports, but wherever there is money to be made. With the internet and more coverage of everything, more indignities are brought to light. There is more scrutiny from more sources and more individuals crying foul at the first hint of impropriety. This is not an excuse, merely an observation. It is definitely a good thing that it is much harder to get away with these acts.

5 Questions With Fred Roggin

One of my first interviews of the “5 questions” genre was with Fred Roggin, sports reporter for KNBC in Los Angeles and regular on the Steve Mason Show on 710 ESPN Radio. Fred also has a show called "The Challenge" in the fall and has made many other appearances around the sports world over the years. This is definitely one of my favorites as Fred was quite gracious and got back to me very quickly. Even better, he answered my questions very honestly and was very pleasant to deal with.

This originally ran on the People Jam website a few months back. Again, it was one of my favorites so I thought it was worth another read:

1. What do you think the single most significant event in sports has been in the recent memory?

Magic Johnson's revelation he had AIDS. This affected everyone, not just the sports audience. It focused more attention on a subject that had been taboo. It dispelled myths and gave people reason for hope.

2. I know you cover Los Angeles teams but hail from Detroit originally – what teams are you a fan of? Can you stay “unbiased” with a favorite? How unbiased do you have to be?

I've been waiting for the Lions to win something since 1957. You're trained to be unbiased when talking to a broad based audience. It used to be, you report it and the audience will make up it's own mind. Things have changed and in sports it's alright and at times necessary to offer perspective given the facts are available 24 hours a day online or on cable. Local sportscasts remain relevant when you focus on local events and offer perspective. Which local teams to I root for? All of them because it's good for business when the local teams win.

3. What do you think it will take for Major League Baseball to recover from the Mitchell Report? Does it seem like there have been more scandals in sports lately? (Mitchell Report, the latest tennis betting scandal, Patriots cheating, NBA referees) Or are athletes and professional sports just under more scrutiny?

There have been more scandals because more have brought to light. More media means more scrutiny. Baseball will recover because at the end of the day people go to sporting events to be entertained. As the old saying goes, this too shall pass.

4. What would it take for more women to be viable sports reporters/broadcasters? I understand that sports are a “guy’s thing”, but can a sports-obsessed woman be readable and believable to men? What can a female do to be taken seriously as a sports authority?

The politically correct thing to say is, times have changed and women have the same chance. The truth is, times have changed and women have more of a chance. There's no question many women know more about sports than a lot of men but when you're dealing with a predominantly male audience it can tough to break thru. I've always believed that the best people succeed. If a woman is the best and can hang in there, she will succeed.

5. If you ever need a day off, can I cover for you?

If I get a day off, I'll let you know.

Sunday Sports Wrap - May 18, 2008

Another Sunday is upon us and with that some more to show that there is sports life without NFL games on this day. Of course, you can always watch the NFL Network for your fix. It is starting to get a bit more interesting since training camps have started. The lineup today also has replays of games from last year like the Philadelphia Eagles vs. Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants, and Indianapolis Colts vs. San Diego Chargers. The replay shows are only 90 minutes and they cut out unnecessary pieces and add in parts of the press conference in another screen.

In the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics face off in game 7 of the series. The home team has won most of the games in the playoffs so far, although Detroit and Los Angeles have been able to go against the grain. Can Cleveland do the same?

The Los Angeles Galaxy travel to face FC Dallas today in Major League Soccer. Both clubs go into the match at 7-2 for the season, although Dallas has a better record in the division.


An interesting tidbit of news was on the Yahoo! homepage this morning. A mother didn’t show up for her shift at the concessions stand for her son’s little league game. The league suspended her son for two games. She’s obviously upset but I’m sure the parents that spend the time to volunteer for the league aren’t feeling bad for her. Sure, the child shouldn’t be punished for a parent’s actions but they should also have a solid example of responsibility. I’m sure the child will recall in the future that when he doesn’t live up to his commitments he is not the only one that suffers.


Today in Sports History

1929 – In the first game of a double-header, the Dodgers beat the Phillies 20-16. They lost the second 8-6 for a total of 50 runs for the day.

1942 – New York City stops night baseball for the remainder of WWII.

1971 – Montreal Canadiens capture Lord Stanley’s Cup by defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 4 games over three.

1977 – Juventus wins 6th UEFA Cup in Bilbao, Spain. They had been unsuccessful on two previous attempts.

Remarkable Athletes

While perusing the recent news, I came across stories of two remarkable athletes that deserved more attention. First up is Jamie Nared, a twelve-year-old basketball player in Oregon. At 6’ tall, Jamie has amazing skill and maturity that is admired by many. Scoring 30 points in a game is a common occurrence for this budding star that comes from a basketball pedigree. Jamie’s father played for Maryland in college and older sister Jackie has been a leading scorer at Westview High School in Beaverton, Oregon. Jackie will follow in her father’s footsteps and attend Maryland on a basketball scholarship.

Jamie made headlines when she was recently kicked out of her basketball league. Although her coach claims that she is one of the most gifted players he has ever seen, he is unable to allow her to play. Jamie has played for the last year in an all-boys league. A Spokesperson for The Hoop claims that having her play is breaking the rules. The league is only open to boys and there were complaints from parents and other players that they did not want to be in a coed league. Everyone opposing her presence claims that it has nothing to do with the fact that she is one of the best players on the court. In fact, they adamantly and fervently state that it is only because of the rule. I bet.


Another remarkable athlete is Oscar Pistorius from South Africa. Born without fibulas, both legs were amputated below the knees when he was only eleven months old. He took up running when he was a teen, made possible by special prosthetics.

Earlier this year, he was denied the chance to try out for the Olympics because of the prosthetic legs. It was ruled that they gave him too much of an advantage. After appeals, he was granted the opportunity to try out for the Olympic team. Oscar already holds the Paralympic world record for the 400-meter event with a time of 46.56 and needs to make 45.55 to qualify for Olympic competition. Regardless of the outcome, he plans on participating in the Paralympic Games in Beijing this year.


Today in Sports History

1972 - Tottenham Hotspur win the first UEFA Cup. The Spurs defeated the Wolverhampton Wanderers in the match. Both teams have rich tradition and history and the Spurs had won the Football League Cup in the previous year and many FA Cups as well.

Running and Triathlon Season

The weather is warming up and running/triathlon season is now in full force. There are a number of events around Southern California in May and June especially. A comprehensive listing can be found at LAS&F Magazine for upcoming events. You can also stop by a Top to Top store or other runners source for literature and other information on triathlons and marathons. For example, tomorrow has:

The Bakersfield Triathlon starts at 9:00 am has a 1.5K triangular swim at Lake Ming, 40K bike, and 15K run. This event also has a kids course, short course, and team events.

The Palos Verdes Marathon, ½ Marathon, and 5K run at 5:30 am includes a Race Expo, entertainment, and many prizes.

Sunday is the Playa del Run #2 in Santa Monica at 9:00 am with a 1000m swim and 5K run. You can participate in one or both events.

Also on Sunday is the XTERRA West Championship at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula that starts at 8:00 am. There is a 20,000 pro purse and several other pro and amateur events. The triathlons are a 750m swim, 15K mountain bike, and 5K run; a 1.5K swim, 30K mountain bike, 10K run; and a 3K run, 15K mountain bike, and 5K run.

Sunday also has the L.A. Tri Series #2 in San Dimas. This also has two events: a 1K swim, 40K bike, and 10K run or a 300m swim, 13.5K bike, and 4K run.

Next Saturday, May 24th is the 30th Annual Tough Topanga 10k in cooperation with the State of California Parks and Recreations. This event also focuses on the recent decision by Governor Schwarzenegger to close over 40 state parks in California. You can find more information here about saving this park from the proposed budget cut.

Saturday, May 31 is the Family of Schools 5K Fun Run/Walk that starts and ends on the Loyola Marymount campus.

Also on May 31 is the Admiral’s Cup Triathlon in Pt. Mugu. The ocean swim, flat bike, and run course consist of a 400m swim, 9 mile bike, and 3 mile run.

And those are just events for the remainder of this month. As I mentioned, June is also full of marathon and triathlon events all over Southern California. I’m trying to get into decent shape to enter the event in Long Beach in October. I’m not really a runner, but a brisk walker. In school, when I did participate in track or swimming I was a sprinter that was very fast for a short distance. Even though I cannot keep that for long, I can walk or float/swim at a slow pace for nearly endless amounts of time. My goal is to enter and finish a short marathon. I know I won’t be exceptionally fast, but training and participating will be very worthwhile.

Some other resources for marathons and running I have found are:

www.active.com

www.villagerunnerracing.com

www.surfcityrun.com

www.keeplarunning.com

www.carlsbadmarathon.com

www.mauioceanfrontmarathon.com

www.laketahoemarathon.com

www.latriathlon.com

www.sandiegozoo.org/walk

www.cypressrec.com

www.camppendletonraces.com

www.chccanaheim.com

www.mwrtoday.com

www.inmotionfit.com

www.intlgrandway.com

www.raceplace.com


Why not try one yourself? There are many different levels and some that you can take children on as well. No time like the present to get in shape!