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In the top of the seventh, with Joe Beimel pitching for the Dodgers, the Bonds Effect is in, well, full effect. Bonds digs in with a 3-1 lead, two outs and the bases empty. Grady Little counters by calling for the Bonds Shift, moving shortstop Rafael Furcal to the right of second base, giving the Dodgers three fielders on the right side of the infield and leaving Nomar Garciaparra quite lonesome on the left.
This backfires on the Dodgers when Bonds lofts a shallow but very high and playable fly ball to left field. Furcal, running a diagonal pattern under the ball from his unaccustomed position of Left Second Baseman, sprints hellbent into the play when it should have been a routine catch for Luis Gonzalez. It isn't routine anymore. Gonzalez pulls up, and Furcal reaches up, but his glove just grazes the ball for an error. Bonds winds up at first base, where he is replaced by a pinch-runner, Fred Lewis. Bonds' line for the night: 4 plate appearances, two walks (one intentional), one strikeout, one reputation-induced error.
"Maybe Bonds has that kind of effect, even on a veteran like Furcal," Scully muses. "He's so wound up, he wants to get it, no matter where it's hit."
Beimel strikes out Klesko to strand Lewis. The game moves to the bottom of the seventh. The Grating Home Run Chase moves to August. We have seen the "dog days" many times before, but never quite like those just ahead.
With all the controversy and surliness surrounding it, Bonds' pursuit of the home run record will never be called a thing of beauty. But as Bonds steps up to lead off the top of the sixth, Dodger Stadium sparkles with the flicker of flash cameras capturing the moment. Watching this, Scully describes the ballpark as "a jewel box," a perfect word picture, and it comes across on FSN's telecast.
Penny falls behind on the count, 2-0, gets a check-swing strike, then fires high for 3-1. He thinks an inside offering catches the inside of the plate, but umpire Ed Hickok disagrees. Three plate appearances for Bonds and two walks. This time, he moves around to score, the first of two runs to cross the plate on Pedro Feliz' tie-breaking single. Bonds and the Giants take a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the sixth.
The Giants begin the third inning behind, 1-0, but a walk to Dave Roberts, a double by Ray Winn and a sacrifice fly by Durham evens the score, moving Winn to third with one out. It's early, but with first base open, you can guess what's coming up next for Bonds. Right. Intentional walk. And that elicits a chuckle from Scully, who calls Bonds "the Incredible Walking Man."
The intentional pass prompts a mixed reaction from the home fans. "They want the Dodgers to win, so they want to get out of a jam," Scully says, "but at the same time, what they really want to see is Barry Bonds come up and strike out. But they've already seen that in the first inning."
True. But can anyone in L.A. truly tire of that sight?
Bonds jogs to first base, but doesn't stay very long. Ryan Klesko follows Bonds to the plate and grounds into a double play. Dodgers and Giants are tied. Aaron still leads Bonds by one.
With two outs in the top of the first inning, Ray Durham singles to right field for the Giants and Vin Scully sets the stage: "Line drive! Basehit! And that means Bonds!"
Boos rain down all around Bonds as he lumbers to home plate carrying 754 career home runs with him. "Well, that might be an indication of the mood, the temper of the crowd as Bonds comes up," Scully says. "And immediately he gets the raspberries.
"You wonder if it's not the preamble to that great moment he hopes to have occur here and then the reaction of the crowd. We'll just have to wait and see."
Dodgers starter Brad Penny gets two quick strikes on Bonds. Scully refers to him as "Big Brad," and muses, "Actually, it's one Goliath against another. There's no David down there."
Penny borrows a tactic from David's championship-winning playbook, however, and slings another pitch, this one breaking inside to Bonds. Bonds tries to check his swing. He fails. Three pitches, three strikes. The San Francisco Goliaths are out in the top of first.
Within a span of hours, two professional sports franchises in Boston announced the formal acquisitions of Kevin Garnett and Eric Gagne. First, the Celtics claimed Lakers fans’ Reason To Go On Living. Then, the Red Sox brought in the Dodgers’ all-time bullpen legend via a trade with Texas.
Boston-L.A. has always been a bitter rivalry, but this is careening out of control. Who goes next to New England?
John David Booty, receiving special NCAA clearance to transfer to Boston College?
David Beckham, deciding his ankle might heal more quickly while resting in a whirlpool belonging to the New England Revolution?
Kevin Love, deciding to shift from UCLA to Boston U. because he’d rather study the Celtics than the Lakers while preparing for his quick jump to the NBA?
So the Dodgers bolster their bullpen by trading Wilson Betemit to the Yankees for Scott Proctor. Which sounded like useful deal -- Angels fans say: At least Colletti did something -- until Gagne, who had 16 saves and a 2.16 ERA in 34 appearances with Texas, went to the Red Sox. Gagne joins an embarrassment-of-riches bullpen that already features two All-Stars, Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima, and has agreed to serve the Red Sox as a set-up reliever.
How would the Dodgers have looked down the stretch with a 1-2 bullpen combination of Takashi Saito-Gagne?
It wasn’t going to happen, the bridge between the Dodgers and Gagne’s agent, Scott Boras, being torched long ago. As if to rub it in, Boras told ESPN.com, “Eric wanted to be in a playoff environment . . . While he won’t be a fulltime closer there, it was an opportunity to win.”
On the same day, Garnett said at his Celtics introductory news conference, “I thought this was my best opportunity to win.”
On a long, bitter day for L.A., local fans could at least take consolation that the Rams and Raiders moved away 12 years ago. There is nothing here the Patriots can poach.
For a while today, a question circulating around L.A. was: Who stands a better chance of playing at Dodger Stadium tonight -- Wilson Betemit or Barry Bonds?
It wasn’t long after the Dodgers announced their just-under-the-deadline deal to trade Betemit to the New York Yankees for relief pitcher Scott Proctor that rumors started flying that Bonds was going to sit out tonight’s Giants-at-Dodgers series opener. For a couple hours, it was fodder to feed the sports talk-show beast: Why exactly was Bonds sitting out? Reasons speculated included:
1. He wanted to spite Bud Selig, who has flown out for this series.
2. He wanted to spite ESPN, which is televising tonight’s game on ESPN2 and hasn’t always met Bonds’ vision of what it should be, which is the “Barry Is The Greatest Channel.”
3. He wanted to spite the hundreds of journalists now dragging their laptops and garment bags from city to city as if covering a political campaign, except with no election day in sight.
4. He wanted to spite -- or avoid -- Dodgers fans, pulling his own pre-emptive boycott before they could formally boo / jeer / taunt / ridicule / boycott him.
5. Or he could just be in a mood, Barry simply being Barry.
Around 4 p.m., Giants Manager Bruce Bochy released his starting lineup to the media. It included Bonds, batting fourth. That’s the latest. But stay tuned. Things change quickly with this story.
As for the Betemit-Proctor trade, from the Dodgers perspective, it had to be done. Just in case Bonds plays any time during the next three days, the Dodgers had to find someone to pitch to him. Proctor is a workhorse -- and with all the injuries in the starting rotation, the Dodgers need someone in the bullpen who can grind out innings. But Proctor might have done his job too well with the Yankees. Last season, Joe Torre summoned him 83 times, for a total of 102 1/3 innings, and Proctor in 2007 has displayed some signs of wear and tear.
The Yankees say they will be use Betemit mostly at first base. Makes sense. A-Rod isn't going anywhere. Not until after October, it seems likely. Betemit wasn’t much use for the Dodgers at third base. His inability to hit for a consistent average turned the franchise’s long-time revolving-door position into a parody of itself -- Betemit to La Roche to Abreu to Garciaparra, which has the sound of a double-play combination that doesn’t hit many home runs.
In the Times’ ongoing online all-time L.A. Dodgers poll, Ron Cey routed all the other third-base candidates, collecting just shy 75% of the vote. Cey’s last season with the Dodgers – incredible as it sounds – was 1982. He hit .254 with 24 home runs and 79 RBI that season, during which he had the grave misfortune of turning 34. The Dodgers unloaded him to the Cubs for a couple minor leaguers, and Cey went on to average 150 games and 24 home runs for the next three seasons in Chicago.
Twenty-four home runs in a single season by a single third baseman? Yes, boys and girls, once upon a time, the Dodgers actually had somebody who could do that. And traded him.
I’ll be back later to blog about each Bonds at-bat tonight. Assuming there is at least one.
It’s not as if this hasn’t happened before, Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge combining to ruin another Lakers dream. The difference, of course, is that back when they were playing for the Celtics in the 1980s, the Lakers actually had a real shot at their goal, which was to win the league championship. This time around, with McHale assisting Ainge in the Kevin Garnett-to-Boston Shuttle, the Lakers were on the outside looking in -- and never had a chance of getting in.
After hearing the word that the Celtics and Timberwolves had reached an agreement on Garnett, I skimmed the Internet and found a link I initially mistook for an analysis of the Garnett trade: “NBA stars robbed at gunpoint.” That’s what it took to pry Garnett, who had been quite clear about not wanting to go to Boston, from McHale and the T-Wolves, right? Hadn’t the Lakers tried everything but that?
The news that Garnett had U-turned and was willing to accept a trade to Boston for apparently every Celtic Ainge had on his speed-dial and could reach at that hour was yet another depressing blow to Lakers fans in this summer of “Who’s Not On Our Roster.” But it’s good that this happened now. It’s better this way. For as long as Garnett remained a Timberwolf in limbo, Lakers fans would pine away with their pipe dream that KG could be theirs for Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and maybe a bunch of young and untested and easy-to-fit-under-the-cap point guards. That had to be the reason the Lakers were stockpiling them, right?
Now that the deal is done, Lakers fans can get on with their lives. They can now eat breakfast without obsessing over KG. They will no longer miss their freeway exits while driving while obsessing over KG. They can stop looking at news of another minor signing and obsess, “The Lakers just added one more body they can throw into the KG deal!”
Garnett-to-L.A. was never going to happen, not unless Jerry Buss bought that “Austin Powers” time machine and brought back 1965-era Jerry West and Elgin Baylor for the purposes of trade material. But that doesn’t make any sense. Buss doesn’t have the kind of money to buy that machine. And once West and Baylor had been restored to their 1960s athletic prime, who would want to trade them? Not even Mitch Kupchak would do that. We think. We hope.
There was something strangely reassuring that on the night the Garnett-to-Boston story broke, the story that the Lakers had signed undrafted point guard Coby Karl also broke. Big deal over there. Little deal over here. It’s the Kupchak way.
More unsettling was the notion that this was something done for the appeasement of the NBA office, reeling from a refereeing scandal, a Spurs-Cavaliers Finals apparently watched by only the players Ainge dispatched to Minnesota, and the exile of rookie stars Greg Oden and Kevin Durant to far-flung Northwest outposts. That this trade needed to be made for the betterment of the league, which needs at least one member of the Knicks-Lakers-Celtics major-market troika in contention with must-see names in the lineup.
For years, while the Shaq-Kobe Lakers were dominating postseasons and prime-time TV appearances, NBA have-nots would complain about the league catering to the Lakers, from suspect refereeing decisions (Hmmm . . .) to its habit of not so secretly hoping for the Lakers to reach the Finals. A couple years ago, David Stern half-joked (and only half) that the league’s dream Finals matchup would be the Lakers against the Lakers.
Now, the Lakers are seeing NBA life from the other side. It’s not a happy view, but it is the same one the Bucks, the Grizzlies, the Hawks and T-Wolves have known for years. Now the Lakers have their turn on the other side of the store window.
However, Lakers fans, all is not lost. Lots of good young point-guard prospects in camp this fall!
And now, for a few carefully chosen words about Bill Walsh from the Raiders, who released the following statement earlier today:
OAKLAND RAIDERS STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF BILL WALSH
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Bill Walsh. Our thoughts and prayers
go out to his wife, Geri, two children, Craig and Elizabeth.
He was a giant among giants and an innovator whose Commitment to Excellence
was unparalleled.
Bill began his legendary pro coaching career with The Oakland Raiders as
offensive backs coach in 1966 and went on to achieve greatness in the coaching
ranks, both at the college and professional level.
Bill will be sorely missed.
And that's the extent of the statement. There is no mention of San Francisco or the 49ers. Only the Raiders, and a reference to Al Davis' obsessively perpetuated "Commitment to Excellence." It has been awhile, but this was a refresher course in how Davis views his universe. It's a Raider World, a Raider Nation and a Raider League, even if Walsh and his 49ers apparently owned a greater commitment to excellence throughout the 1980s.
Walsh and Davis shared the same NFL market for only three seasons, 1979-1981. The Raiders owned the Bay Area the first two seasons, going 9-7 in 1979 (the 49ers had a rebuilding-pains 2-14 record that year) and defeating the Philadelphia Eagles in the following season's Super Bowl. It wasn't cause and effect, but it is interesting to note that as soon as Walsh and the 49ers broke through to win the 1981 championship, Davis took his act down to L.A., where he stayed until he was sure Walsh was good and retired. Walsh was a two-year Hall of Fame veteran by the time the Raiders returned to Oakland in 1995.
The Raiders won L.A.'s only Super Bowl championship in January 1984, defeating the Washington Redskins in Tampa, 38-9. But how close Walsh and Davis came to meeting in that game! Joe Gibbs' Redskins held off the 49ers, 24-21, in the NFC title game -- and held off is the correct phrase. Washington led, 21-0, after three quarters, but San Francisco evened the score in eight minutes on three rapid-fire Joe Montana touchdown passes. With 40 seconds left, Redskins kicker Mark Moseley converted his first field goal after four misses, and by that much, we missed out on a Walsh-Davis championship duel.
Somehow, I think Montana might have fared a bit better against the Raiders than Joe Theismann did.
San Franciscans have it wrong about Los Angeles when it comes to sports. There is nothing going on in the Bay Area we really covet.
Barry Bonds? They can have him.
Lakers or Warriors? Despite the recent local angst, no one down here is willing to trade legacies.
Stanford and Cal, or USC and UCLA? Why even go there?
Even in our 12-year-old NFL-free condition, L.A. is managing just fine with its fantasy leagues and sports bars and, in a pinch, trekking down to San Diego for fix of live quality professional football.
But once upon a time, we wanted Bill Walsh. We either wanted him coaching the Rams or out of the NFC entirely. Lacking those options, we wanted him shipped to Canada. Better to have his West Coast offense tear up Hamilton, Saskatchewan and Edmonton -- even though none of those places quite have a West Coast -- than risk the chance of a Walsh-coached AFC squad wrecking another Rams championship bid in a Super Bowl.
How many Super Bowls might the Rams have reached if Walsh, who died of leukemia on Monday, had never coached the 49ers? It is telling to see that the Los Angeles Rams’s only Super Bowl season, 1979, coincided with the 49ers’ last bad one before launching into Team of the 80s overdrive. Walsh’s first season as 49ers head coach was 1979. It was also Joe Montana’s first season as a 49ers quarterback. Things in San Francisco were starting to happen then.
Walsh and Montana won their first of three Super Bowls together in the 1981 season. Then, the Rams were still struggling to sell Anaheim on the fact that the sweetheart land deal the city had gift-wrapped was worth it. In 1983, the Rams took two big steps that should have paid off in much more than one NFC West title and five wild-card berths through the end of the decade: They hired John Robinson to coach them and Eric Dickerson to run for them. The best years of Robinson’s Ram tenure played themselves out almost undercover -- under the gigantic shadow Walsh’s 49ers cast over the state, and the rest of the league.
In 1984, Dickerson ran for an NFL record 2,105 yards. Walsh’s Niners went 15-1 and defeated Dan Marino in the Super Bowl.
In 1988, after a disgruntled Dickerson had been traded for a bundle of draft choices the Rams would bungle, the California rivals finished the regular season with the same record, 10-6, as did New Orleans. The 49ers earned the NFC West title by virtue of their 3-1 record against the Rams and Saints. The Rams took the wild card and lost -- shades of yesteryear! -- in the first round at Minnesota. San Francisco went on to win its third Super Bowl under Walsh.
After that championship, Walsh handed the dynasty, still fully loaded, to George Seifert. The ’89 Rams had a miracle late-season run, flying to New England to clinch a wild card in nerve-wracking fashion, then flying to Philadelphia to win the wild-card game, then flying to the East Coast again to beat the Giants in overtime. That set up the first and only Rams-49ers NFC final, played at Candlestick Park in January 1990. That was the day Jim Everett under-threw Flipper Anderson and sacked himself under duress from the 49er pass rush during a 30-3 San Francisco victory that paved the way for the demise of the Rams’ Anaheim tenure. The SoCal Rams never again qualified for the playoffs.
Walsh was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, but had been canonized as a football revolutionary long before. He went 3-0 in Super Bowls, went 3-1 in NFC championship games, won 102 out of 166 games with the 49ers. He ranks with Bill Belichick as the greatest NFL coaches of the post-Lombardi era.
That is the big picture view. From a more localized perspective, Walsh was among the rarest commodities to ever saunter across our sporting landscape. He was something San Francisco possessed that we wished had been ours.
Since watching the Chicago Bears reach the Super Bowl on the strength of their defense, running game and home-field playoff advantage, we have seen them:
a) Lose to the Colts in the rain (that was supposed to an advantage for them, no?) when an old issue kicked up again (that would be forward passes attempted by Rex Grossman);
b) Trade 1,200-yard rusher Thomas Jones to the Jets;
c) Listen all off-season to Pro Bowl linebacker Lance Briggs gripe so much about the Bears that he has vowed to sit out at least the season’s first 10 games;
d) Do nothing to improve their quarterback situation except drop pennies into a downtown wishing well.
That, plus a tougher 2007 schedule, plus the onset of Super Bowl Loser Syndrome (when a team loses the Big One, the encore season is seldom pretty), ought to reduce the Bears to non-factors this fall.
Except that they play in the NFC, where every team not named “the Atlanta Falcons” has a reasonable hope of reaching the playoffs this season. More than that, they play in the NFC North. If you sum up the combined offseason activity of the Vikings, Packers and Lions in 10 words or less, it would be: Fall down and assume the fetal position.
By simply showing up with Grossman or Brian Griese or Kyle Orton or an autographed photo of Jim McMahon at quarterback, the Bears should go 6-0 within their division. Split their remaining 10 games and they’re 11-5 and in with a real chance to reclaim NFC home-field advantage. Meaning another rout in Super Bowl XLII, this time at the hands of old friend Randy Moss and the New England Patriots.
New Orleans is getting some preseason play as the NFC team to beat, but that’s assuming a lot about a franchise that owned a total of one playoff victory in 40 years before last season’s triumph over Philadelphia, which also will rank as a conference contender so long as a) the Eagles remain in the NFC and b) Donovan McNabb remains vertical.
Every season, the NFL sees a Team Out Of Nowhere jet into Super Bowl contention / unexpected and temporary respectability. In 2005, it was Cincinnati. In 2006, New Orleans. This year, it could be San Francisco or St. Louis, because both have excellent running backs and decent-or-better quarterbacks and softish schedules because, well, they play each other and Arizona four times every season.
A quick scan at the NFC at the outset of training camp:
EAST
1. Philadelphia: If McNabb’s so good, why did the Eagles burn the 36th overall pick of the draft on a quarterback, Kevin Kolb? In baseball, they call it “pennant insurance,” as provided in ’06 by Eagles’ bullpen savior Jeff Garcia.
2. Dallas: Over-under on when we will hear the last of the Cowboys-are-in-the-hands-of-Tony-Romo jokes: Maybe never.
3. New York Giants: Impatient Giants fans want to know: When, at last, is Eli coming? Can they handle the truth? Maybe never.
4. Washington: If Jason Campbell does a Campbell’s commercial, will the Chunky Soup Curse burst into a billion tiny bits of beef and potato, just like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in “Ghostbusters”?
NORTH
1. Chicago: One Bears game plan, which could work in this division, has them direct-snapping the ball to Cedric Benson.
2. Detroit: The Lions will go as far as Jon Kitna takes them. My apologies to Lions fans for being the bearer of such bad tidings.
3. Green Bay: Brett Favre decided to stick around on the hope the Packers would bring him more help. He's probably going to get a cheap gold watch too.
4. Minnesota: Yes, you read it right. The Vikings’ QB depth chart is 1) Tavaris Jackson; 2) Brooks Bollinger; 3) Tyler Thigpen; 4) Drew Henson.
SOUTH
1. New Orleans: Just like the Galaxy, David Beckham wears the team’s uniform in a TV commercial but doesn’t actually play for the Saints.
2. Carolina: The Panthers embarrassed one too many prognosticators (that would be me) by shanking on preseason predictions to make the last two Super Bowls. Won’t get fooled again.
3. Tampa Bay: If Garcia and Chris Simms both operate better coming off the bench, who starts, then? Paging Jake Plummer.
4. Atlanta: Whatever happens in the Michael Vick case, Atlanta sports fans have been advised: For the sake of your emotional well-being, focus your rooting attentions right now on the Hawks and the Thrashers.
WEST
1. San Francisco: Been awhile since I typed that. But in this division, in this conference, it could happen. And when / if it does -- get this, San Francisco! -- probably no one will ask for an asterisk to be attached.
2. Seattle: Did Jim Mora Jr. know something about the Falcons that we didn’t until very recently? And if so, when did he know it?
3. St. Louis: The Rams just re-signed Marc Bulger for $65 million. For that money, Rams fans can commence complaining right now.
4. Arizona: All yours, Matt Leinart.
This season I will be serving as NFL correspondent for Jay Christensen’s and John Woolard’s Sports Overnight America radio show. As I prepared for last week’s training camp preview, I quickly found no team capable of winning the NFC, four AFC teams capable of winning the Super Bowl, and a very good argument for Roger Goodell to beat David Stern to the concept of re-seeding the semifinals.
To save everybody a lot of time and expense, let’s do it now:
No. 4 Cincinnati at No. 1 New England
No. 3 Indianapolis at No. 2 San Diego
Shocking, I know.
This suggests San Diego actually won a playoff game to get this far. With Norv Turner! I realize I have leaned out onto a very shaky limb on this one, but as of late July, I still like Norv’s chances against any playoff opponent quarterbacked by Jay Cutler, Chad Pennington or Trent Green.
A quick scan of the AFC:
EAST
1. New England: Randy Moss and Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. As socio-cultural experiments in group dynamics go, it's tough to beat this one.
2. New York Jets: “Me and Mr. Jones” was a hit way back when for Counting Crows. But then the Crows didn’t have to bank their success on the fate an injury-cursed quarterback. This fall, Eric Mangini will be spending his Sundays hoping Thomas Jones holds up and wincing and counting Chad Pennington’s throws.
3. Miami: The Dolphins have a new coach, Cam Cameron, and a new / old quarterback, Trent Green, who is 37 and missed half of last season because of a concussion and averaged almost two interceptions in the games he did play. With the Dolphins, this is considered an upgrade.
4. Buffalo: Dick Jauron is now coaching Detroit Lions Northeast.
NORTH
1. Cincinnati: After wading through a billion pros-and-cons jokes, you get down to the crux: the Bengals have upgraded their defense (the only way they could go was up) and Carson Palmer seems primed for a big year.
2. Baltimore: Replacing Jamal Lewis with Willis McGahee sounds almost unfair, but any poetic resolution to the Ravens 2007 season will come down to McNair.
3. Pittsburgh: No Cowher. No post-Super Bowl malaise. No new mishap for Roethlisberger. In Pittsburgh, they call that a push.
4. Cleveland: When Miami passed on drafting Brady Quinn, who had the worst luck? The Dolphins? Or Quinn?
SOUTH
1. Indianapolis: One year after Edgerrin James bolts the Colts for the Cardinals (!), Dominic Rhodes exits Indy for the Raiders (!!!). Don’t these Colts running backs practice with helmets on?
2. Tennessee: With Travis Henry, Drew Bennett and Bobby Wade gone, last season’s late 6-1 run looks more and more a fluke.
3. Jacksonville: Byron Leftwich is not the answer. Send up the white flag and give the ball to Jones-Drew.
4. Houston: Who else besides Gary Kubiak thinks Matt Schaub handing off to Ahman Green is really a better option than David Carr pitching to Reggie Bush? What's that I see? Now even Kubiak is shaking his head.
WEST
1. Chargers: More talent than anyone, but I’m not convinced Turnertactics are an upgrade over Martyball.
2. Denver: Pretty much by default.
3. Kansas City: Evidently, Larry Johnson wants no part of the, ahem, “Damon Huard-Brodie Croyle QB controversy.”
4. Oakland: Thirty teams enter training camps with at least a sliver of optimism. Then there are the Falcons and the Raiders.
Dodgers: When the fan group BoycottBarry.com began enlisting members in anticipation of this week’s Bonds-Needs-Two-More-(Fill In The Blank) tour stop in L.A., who’d have thought an entire Dodgers starting rotation would sign up? . . . Expected to boycott Barry during the Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday series/circus/Selig's Prolonged Nationwide Nightmare: Jason Schmidt (former Bonds teammate, out for season after shoulder surgery), Randy Wolf (out with sore left shoulder), Hong-Chi Kuo (out for season after elbow surgery), Derek Lowe (questionable for next start due to left hip irritation). That reduces the Dodgers’ once-upon-a-time rotation to Brad Penny, still suffering from an abdominal strain and listed as probable for Tuesday’s Giants-Dodgers opener. . . . LADs, you picked a fine time to recuse yourself from the upcoming activities, which will feature the type of media horde the Dodgers haven’t seen since the ’88 World Series. Just for old times’ sake, there are rumored plans of a nostalgic throw-back news conference so Kirk Gibson can once more show off his fabled five-tool skills: scowling, snarling, cursing, glowering, and stomping out of the room after the third question. . . . Who’d have guessed that nearly two decades down the line, a surlier personality than Gibson would come to L.A. with a chance to strike an even more memorable home run? . . . That is, if he even sees a single homeward-bound pitch without the need for binoculars?
Angels: When the Angels opened their weekend series against the defending league champion Detroit Tigers, who’d have thought the Angels could win Sunday’s game, 13-4, without the aid of a single home run? . . . Wait. OK, I know. Nobody, not even the Tigers, is surprised by that one. . . . The power-besieged Angels, who obviously need to bring Edison back into the corporate-sponsor picture, scored 13 runs Sunday without putting a baseball over the outfield fence. That means the Angels have gone 20 of 22 games without hitting a home run, moving them into a last-place tie for least home runs in the American League with Kansas City (68). . . . With the perennial Dog Days nipping at our feet, is this reason for the Angels to fret and Bill Stoneman to get so worked up that he actually scribbles on his scratch pad the name of an opposing power hitter he’d like to acquire even if it takes (gasp) more than a waiver-wire? . . . Have things in Los Angeles Of Anaheim really gotten THAT desperate? . . . Um, no. The Angels just swept the 2006 AL champs to boost their victory total to 61, second in the majors only to the Red Sox. . . . This might not be the traditional path, but the Angels open a seven-game trip tonight with a four-game AL West lead over Seattle, where this seven-game trip opens, Kelvim Escobar (11-4) against Miguel Batista (10-7) at 7 p.m.
Barry Bonds: No home runs Saturday or Sunday, so he comes to L.A. with 754 and the Asterisk-Waiting-To-Happen. Former Giants feud-mate Jeff Kent, apparently disgusted by the entire production, strained his left hamstring Sunday and could join this week’s Boycott of Barry. . . . More than three decades ago, the Dodgers yielded the home run that enabled Hank Aaron to surpass Babe Ruth’s long-standing record. The Dodgers could live with that, and themselves, Aaron reaching 715 in what everybody considered a fair fight. As for Bonds-chasing-Aaron? Three signs of hope for Dodgers fans: 1. Pitching around suspected steroids abusers are still permitted in baseball; 2. So are intentional walks; 3. In the most recent Dodgers-Giants series, Bonds went 0-for-12.
Galaxy: In this weekend’s soccer not-news, David Beckham does not play for the Galaxy. The Galaxy loses to Chivas Guadalajara, 2-1, at the Coliseum Saturday in front of a much-less-than-hyped 37,337 -- the vast majority of those Chivas supporters. Why did the fans of Big Chivas stay away from this “SuperLiga crucial?” -- which warranted special game-day wrap-around treatment in the Times? Big Chivas fans know their futbol. They are not sold on BeckhamHysteria. They are not sold on the Galaxy. They prefer to rally in larger numbers for Coliseum matches that matter, such as any involving Club America or Tigres. . . . With Big Chivas in town, the Galaxy slipped to No. 3 in the local professional soccer rankings, which read: 1. Big Chivas; 2. Little Chivas (8-6-3 after Sunday’s 3-2 loss to Kansas City); 3. Galaxy (3-5-4 vs. MLS, 0-2 vs. Big Chivas and Even Bigger Chelsea).
Tour de France: Spain’s Alberto Contador won this year’s Tour, which seemed to be conducted in conjunction with Barry Bonds’ alleged sponsors. Interestingly enough, Contador won the 2007 Tour de Barry while riding for the Discovery Channel team. That was the problem with this year’s Tour coverage on Versus. Far too much discovery on that channel.
This was the week we switched from ESPN to CNN to get away from all the depressing news . . .
1. USC football: Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh says the ’07 Trojans might be the best team in college football history. I guess we better put them here then.
2. Alex Rodriguez: He hits his 499th career home run just before his 32nd birthday. Impressive. George Brett tells the NY Times that A-Rod “is the best player I’ve ever seen.” Dear George: Pine tar is for gripping, not smoking.
3. Cal Ripken, Tony Gwynn: Baseball Hall of Famers who played their entire careers for one team and free from steroids controversy. Did they retire five years ago? Or 50?
4. Craig Biggio: Got to admit, that was one rousing pep talk before the Astros-Dodgers game the other night. Biggio: “I’m going to retire after the end of the season.” Biggio: “All right, Me! This grand slam’s for you!”
5. David Beckham: Hasn’t done much of anything this week. Sorry. Force of habit.
6. Curtis Martin: Retires as the NFL’s No. 4 all-time leading rusher. Played for Pete Carroll before Pete Carroll was Pete Carroll.
7. Marc Bulger: New six-year, $65-million contract makes him the high-paid Ram ever. Let’s see: Bob Waterfield, Norm Van Brocklin, Roman Gabriel, Kurt Warner . . . OK, he beats out Jim Everett, Vince Ferragamo, Billy Wade and John Hadl for fifth-best Ram quarterback ever.
8. Uruguay men’s basketball players: Better than ours.
9. Panama men’s basketball players: They’re better too.
10. Bad News Barry: He’s now one swing away from tying Hank Aaron. He comes to L.A. on Tuesday. What do Dodgers fans do? Boo him from afar today or boycott him tomorrow?
Stories about sports gambling getting you down? Me too. But with the NFL opening camps this week, football gambling is back with a fury, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it as we hear from preseason oddsmakers and some very odd fantasy league scouting combines.
The Website BetUS.com has posted Super Bowl odds for every California NFL team -- plus some tongue-in-cheek proposition wagers that might be worth a flyer. At the very least, in an attempt to brighten the mood, they are worth a quick scan:
SAN DIEGO CHARGERS
--Chargers win the Super Bowl: 7/1
--LT breaks his record of most TDs by a running back: 5/1
--Philip Rivers breaks Drew Breese’s single-season passing records: 2/1
--Shawne Merriman gets busted with steroids: 1/2
--Shawne Merriman goes to the Pro Bowl (consecutive seasons ): 1/3
--The Chargers go unbeaten the first half of the season: 4/1
--Wild Animals escape from the San Diego Zoo: 20/1
-- An earthquake hits SD (Over 7 on the Ritcher scale): 20/1
--Quentin Jammer leads the league in interceptions: 30/1
-- You get a speeding ticket: 3/1
--You win the lottery: 1,000,000/1
--You walk under a ladder - 5/1
--You order a pizza this year - 1/1,000
SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS
--49ers win the Super Bowl: 30/1
--An earthquake (Over 7 on the Richter scale) hits San Francisco: 30/1
--The Golden Gate Bridge collapses: 200/1
--The regular season goes without one shark attack (in the USA) : 100/1
--The 49ers win their division: 5/2
--California Becomes a Republican State in the 2008 presidential elections: 2/1
--Mike Nolan gets fired as head coach: 3/1
--49ers do not have at least one player in the Pro Bowl: 2/1
--Frank Gore rushes for over 1,000 yards: 1/2
--Alcatraz reopens as a jail: 10,000/1
--You run out of hot water mid shower: 100/1
--Lose your cell phone: 50/1
--You see pigs fly: 1,000,000,000/1
--Hell freezes over: 1,000,000,000,000/1
OAKLAND RAIDERS
--Raiders win Super Bowl: 125/1
--Raiders win over three regular-season games: 1/5
--Raiders have the most number of player arrests of any NFL team this season: 4/1
--Warren Sapp retires: 5/1
--Lane Kiffin is as successful as Eric Mangini (as this season’s youngest NHL head coach): 50/1
--Raiders move to L.A.: 150/1
--Warren Sapp goes to the Patriots: 5/1
--Oakland goes winless the first half of the season: 3/1
--A major Earthquake (Over 7 in the richter scale) hits Oakland: 25/1
--You throw out your back: 1,000/1
--You get a flat tire: 2/1
--You will find money: 25/1
--You will slip on banana peel: 150/1
Not listed by BetUS.com, but also worth checking into:
--Marty Schottenheimer stands as good a chance of winning a playoff game this season as last: 1/infinity
--Los Angeles gets an NFL team: Get real, already.
--Los Angeles fans give up the ghost and officially adopt the Chargers as "Our Team:" 3,000/1
--San Diego says to Los Angeles, "We heartily welcome your support!": 3,000,000/1
--San Francisco fans wish some 49er hero wannabe blitzes and tackles Barry Bonds before he can break Hank Aaron's record: 3/1
--Football fans everywhere get sick of "Bush Vs. Gore" references whenever ESPN or somebody thinks it cute to compare the rushing totals of the Saints and 49ers running backs: 1/5
--DaMarcus Russell wishes before Halloween that he'd have been drafted by ANYBODY else: 2/1
--Kiffin wishes he never left USC: 1/3
--USC would defeat Raiders on a neutral field: Even.
As we sit around and contemplate all that has gone wrong in sports in L.A. this year, it helps to remember that despite Dodger outfielders dropping flies and Dodgers pitchers dropping like flies and Kobe Bryant wanting to be traded and the Clippers missing the playoffs and the Kings missing the playoffs and the Angels’ first-place shrinking as fast as AEG’s credibility when talking about “rebuilding hockey in this town,” despite all that, we have suffered through worst years. At least one.
The humor Website ThePhatFree.com has done the legwork on this issue (via the ever-resourceful FARK.com), tossing out its list of Worst Sports Years Ever by city. San Francisco, for instance, was singled out for 1979, when the Giants lost 91 games, the 49ers went 2-14 and the Warriors had their first losing season in a decade. San Diego’s Annus Horriblis Award went to 1983, when the Padres are a mediocre 81-81, the Chargers went 6-10 while surrendering a league-high 462 points and the Clippers lost 57 games in front of tiny home crowds (yes, in ’83, the Clippers were still San Diego’s problem).
The PhatFree has nominated 1992 as L.A.’s worst sports year, using the following rationale:
Los Angeles: 1992 -- The music was great, the rioting was better, but it wasn't Indo and Six-Fo's when it came to the city's teams, that's for sure. The Raiders and Rams combined for a 13-19 record as they greased the skids for departure a couple of years hence. Playing without Magic Johnson for the first time since 1979, the Lakers shed fifteen wins off their previous year's total and were quickly eliminated by the Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs. The Kings continued to frustrate, as they finished only four games over .500 and suffered the indignity of a first-round playoff lose to Wayne Gretzky's old employer in Edmonton. The loudest implosion came at Chavez Ravine, where the usually successful Dodgers rolled out their worst season ever in Los Angeles, going 63-99.
There was a lone break in the smog of '92. Larry Brown's Clippers, who had never lost fewer than 50 games in seven seasons since arriving from San Diego, finally grasped respectability, as Ron Harper and Danny Manning led the denizens of the run-down Sports Arena to a 45-37 record and a playoff berth (The Clips fell to the Jazz in the first round). But the Lakers are L.A.'s true love, and no year in which they finish worse than the Clippers can really be considered a good year for that gigantic suburb on the Pacific.
That was a bad year, no doubt. But let me throw out (if only we literally could) another candidate: rotten by any standards you want to use 1995.
In the history of professional sports, no major city lost BOTH of its NFL franchise within a matter of weeks. But that is what happened with the Rams and Raiders in early 1995, the teams treating their idling moving vans like Indy cars rumbling at the starting line. And few cities have witnessed a more agonizing late-season meltdown than the Angels’ AL West spin-out. The Dodgers were swept by the Reds in the first round of the NL playoffs, the Clippers won 17 games, the Lakers lost to San Antonio in six games in the second round, and both hockey teams missed the playoffs. Worse, for Kings fans, the organization was beginning to tire of Wayne Gretzky (memories of the Miracle of ’93 quickly fading), setting the cogs in motion to actually trade the Great One to St. Louis in early 1996.
Any video collection of 1995 L.A. Sports lowlights would have to replicate the sad, sad picture of Angels pitcher Mark Langston resting flat on his back on top of home plate after Seattle Mariner (and ex-Angel) Luis Sojo broke open the one-game playoff with the most ludicrous inside-the-park home run in postseason history. Langston lay there for several moments, his hands clasped across his chest, lacking only a lily in those hands to complete the picture.
Any other nominees for Worst L.A. Sports Year, please send this way. Provided you have medical clearance, are not already on antidepressants, and do not follow the Kings too closely.
So, in a best-of-five series, with everybody in top working condition, which starting rotation would you prefer?
Now-Active Dodgers: Brad Penny, Chad Billingsley and Mark Hendrickson.
Disabled Dodgers: Jason Schmidt, Randy Wolf and Derek Lowe.
Lowe put the Disabled Dodgers over the top Wednesday with a strained left grown that forced him out in the fifth inning of an eventual 2-1 loss to Houston. Lowe first sustained the injury when asked by Grady Little to throw an inning of relief in Sunday’s 10-inning lost to the New York Mets -- though it should be noted, Lowe worked the seventh inning, which was not quite Last-Ditch Desperation Emergency Time.
History has shown Little not to be the most adept handler of pitching staffs, a reputation Lowe thought he left behind after the Red Sox changed managers after the 2003 and he won a World Series ring under Terry Francona in 2004 and signed with the Dodgers in January 2005. Little signed with the Dodgers 11 months afterward, proving to Lowe that you can never really outrun bad luck, so long as bad luck keeps getting hired.
A Tale of Two SoCal College Football Coaches (Ever Ongoing):
At Pac-10 Media Day, USC’s Pete Carroll is asked to address Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh’s assessment that the 2007 Trojans might be the best team in college football history . . . and UCLA’s Karl Dorrell is asked to address LSU Coach Les Miles' assessment that the 2007 Bruins are among the soft touches on USC’s schedule -- “pansies of the Pac-10” as the question was put to Dorrell.
And that wasn’t the most difficult topic Dorrell had to confront. Also on the agenda was Eric Scott, the UCLA receivers coach whom Dorrell put on administrative leave after Scott was arrested on suspicion of felony residential burglary.
Before anyone could formally ask a question about Scott, Dorrell took the initiative by commenting that “We really can’t comment about it. When something like this happens, there has to be a legal process.”
Dorrell said he would take over as receivers coach during Scott’s absence. “It do know our offense,” Dorrell said, which has to be comforting to longtime Bruins supporters who had been wondering about that very thing before today. He added, “It’s not going to affect this team. It’s not going to affect our expectations this year. I’m very optimistic about (how the case will develop).”
About those expectations: If you go strictly on consensus preseason rankings, UCLA will be favored in every game it plays this season before USC. A lot can happen between now and then; just ask Coach Scott. But as the consensus rankings have it, the Bruins have a decent chance to go 11-1 or 10-2.
If the Bruins wind up 9-3 or worse, however, Dorrell could be taking a different kind of leave come 2008.
Especially considering that cupcake Pac-10 schedule Miles was talking about.
“This conference needs to continue to be of the mindset of improving our resume,” Dorrell said. “I do believe that the reputation outside the conference is ‘There’s one school in this conference and everybody else.’
“I think if you ask the other (Pac-10) coaches, we don’t like that. . . . (To change that perception) we have to perform. Our measuring stick is bowl games. I’m one of those who lost our last bowl game. We have to do a better job in bowls, myself included.”
In other words, the Bruins need to perform better on the field after Thanksgiving. And off the field, it would help to shore up a few things that allegedly happen between spring and fall practice.
As soon as you stepped into the information area at today's Pac-10 Football Media Day, almost everything you needed to know about expectations for USC this season was laid out on the table.
First there was a purple piece of paper announcing the results of the preseason Pac-10 media poll -- purple, evidently, as a subtle dig at Washington for being ranked ninth, just ahead of Stanford. This sheet of paper carried the headline, "USC UNANIMOUS PICK TO WIN PAC-10 IN PRESEASON MEDIA POLL" along with the tabulated results. USC received at 39 first-place votes and the 390 points that went with them. Cal was No. 2 with 323 points. UCLA was No. 3 with 305.
This was not really news, as "USC UNANIMOUS NO. 1" is pretty much an accepted piece of knowledge, both within the conference and across the nation. According to a USC news release also available at Pac-10 Media Day, the Trojans are ranked No. 1 in the nation in 11 polls: Athlon, The Sporting News, Street & Smith's, Lindy's, Phil Steele's, USA Today Sports Weekly, CBS Sportsline.com, GamePlan, Scout, NationalChamps.Net and, yes, they included it on the release, SI Kids. That last one was very important for the recruiting classes of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 -- and further on on down line, provided someone is reading the SI Kids rankings to current 5-and-under O-Line prospects.
We get it. The Trojans are supposed to be good this season. Very good. Maybe even extraordinarily good.
"They may be the best team in the history of college football," new Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh said, right out of the chute.
Well, there's the Sound Byte of the Media Day for you. Let's take that one and run with it awhile, everybody. Pass it down, pass it along, all the way to Pete Carroll, the last coach of the day to make it to the microphone.
"You got to love Jim, don't you?" Carroll said with a grin as the room broke up with laughter. "I'm glad he thinks that."
Carroll shrugged.
"There's no way I can begin to (comprehend) what that's all about. We're just a bunch of guys trying to put together a terrific team."
Carroll paused and grinned again.
"Thanks, Jim."
Five Potential Reasons Why Harbaugh Might Have Been Moved To Say What He Said:
1. He took an awful lot of hits while quarterbacking the Bears, Colts and Chargers all those years.
2. He coaches Stanford, for goodness sake. How else is the Stanford football coach going to make a headline at Pac-10 Football Media Day?
3. He was the second speaker of the morning and still hadn't had his coffee.
4. Karl Dorrell slipped him a twenty to get him to say it.
5. His team plays USC at the Coliseum on Oct. 6. If he loses, 58-3, he's already on record with USC having maybe the best team ever. So he's off the hook with alumni and his AD on that one. As for the other games on Stanford's schedule? Harbaugh's on his own.
The Angels played their 100th game of the 2007 season today amid a rallying cry that doesn’t figure to carry them very far for very long:
THE ANGELS AVOID ANOTHER SWEEP! THE ANGELS AVOID ANOTHER SWEEP!
Doesn’t have the same kind of visceral tug as “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!” or “WE GO TO CHICAGO!”, does it?
Game 100 for the Angels provided the latest evidence in an argument that continues to build steam by the inning: Despite appearances to the contrary during May and June, nothing about holding on in the AL West is going to be easy. In Game 100, the Angels took a 6-3 lead over Oakland into the ninth inning and handed it to Francisco Rodriguez. As things go for the Angels these days, that equation is about as easy it is going to get. K-Rod proceeded to blow the lead on a run-scoring ground-out, a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly. That forced a 6-6 tie and a bottom of the ninth, where the Angels squeezed out a 7-6 victory on Maicer Izturis’ two-out RBI single.
With that, the Angels won for the 58th time in 100 games. Big picture, that looks fairly impressive. The Angels will awaken Thursday with either a 2 1/2- or 3 1/2-game lead over Seattle, depending on what the Mariners do against Texas tonight. That 58-42 mark ties Cleveland for the third-best record in baseball. Unfortunately for the Angels’ World Series aspirations, the only teams with better records play in the American League -- Boston (61-39 after 100 games) and Detroit (59-40 after 99 games).
Examining the finer print, we see that the Angels are 3-7 in their last 10 games, 5-7 since the All-Star break and 8-11 in July. They have also lost three consecutive series in similar fashion -- losing the first two games (to Tampa Bay, Minnesota and now Oakland) before salvaging the finale.
The consensus view as the Angels opened the season was that the starting rotation and K-Rod would keep the club in contention, but the team needed more run-production. For awhile, the Angels dazzled the majors with an avalanche of singles and doubles, which camouflaged the continued lack of quick-strike potential. When Vlad Guerrero went dry, the entire power attack shut down. The Angels recently ended a 14-game homerless drought, with Guerrero spinning through a 97-at-bat homerless streak, the longest of his career.
At the same time, the Angels’ rotation is now operating at only 60% of its expected efficiency. Bartolo Colon is back on the DL, and Ervin Santana is in the minors. No wonder the Angels have started to sputter and misfire. Joe Saunders (4-0) has provided salvation at the bottom of the rotation and the team can probably muddle through with four able starters and throw-a-dart on the fifth day. But power remains a pressing issue. And although you frequently see the Angels linked to trade rumors involving Mark Teixeira, Paul Konerko, Adam Dunn and the burgeoning “Bring Troy Glaus Back Down From Canada” movement, it all comes down to the man with the least itchy trigger finger in the business, Bill (Stand Pat) Stoneman.
Word had it that the Rangers might bite for a package that would send Teixeira to Los Angeles Of Anaheim for Casey Kotchman and Santana, which sounds like a reasonable deal. But that was before Santana turned himself into the baseball equivalent of Kobe Bryant -- Untradeable Under Current Conditions. It doesn’t take advanced scouting to see that Santana cannot win, for whatever odd reason, away from SoCal. The Rangers play half their games in Texas and most of their others not in SoCal. More recently, Santana stopped winning even within the friendly confines of Los Angeles Of Anaheim, which explains why is now working on trying to win in Salt Lake City.
And even if the Rangers, or the White Sox, or the Reds, or the Blue Jays were especially motivated to move their power hitters, would Stoneman actually be able to push the button? Twenty-first Century Angels fans are frustrated by Stoneman’s inertia, but older observers know he is not without precedent with this franchise. Back in the 80s, when the Angels were driving followers nuts and/or to the ulcer medication with one excruciating near-miss after another, the man running the trade operation was Mike Port. Port was the perfect complement to the Angels’ manager at the time, Gene Mauch; both preferred Little Ball over anything bold and ostentatious, such as three-run home runs and top-of-the-sports-page trades.
On the field and in the front office, Little Ball took the Angels as far as the 1982 and 1986 playoffs, and then Little Ball hit a heart-breaking wall. You don’t need two-plus decades of hindsight to know that the ‘82 Angels could have used another starting pitcher, or that the ‘86ers desperately needed more bullpen support for Donnie Moore.
As the trade deadline approaches with the distinct possibility that the Angels roster status will remain quo once it passes, fans can console themselves with knowing that the situation could be worse. Two words, all: Whitey Herzog.
Dodgers: It’s the oldest ploy in the playbook. You are trying to emotionally rally your team against a troublesome opponent, your manager/coach isn’t quite getting this important job done, so you dig down deep and search your soul and your heart, and it comes to you. You decide to announce your plans to retire at the end of the season. . . . That is what Houston’s Craig Biggio did before Tuesday’s game at Minute Maid Park. He succeeded wildly in emotionally rallying himself. In the sixth inning, Biggio hit a grand slam, and that was the difference between the Astros, so inspired that they scored three additional runs besides that, and the Dodgers, who scored only four total runs, lacking someone to step up and announce they were quitting at the end of the season. . . . I know what you’re thinking. Why couldn’t Brett Tomko take one for the team?
Angels: The Angels team bus is awfully crowded these days, what with the ghosts of ’95 cramming themselves into every available seat and now spilling into the aisle. Who was that Shea Hillenbrand just bumped into? Gary DiSarcina? Tony Phillips? Garret Anderson? Oh wait. He’s still on the active roster. . . . This summer re-run of the Angels looking over their shoulders at the oncoming Seattle Mariners took a new twist on Tuesday. The Angels lost to Oakland, 4-3; nothing new about that -- the Angels have lost 15 of their last 23. But despite defeat, the Angels actually gained a half-game in the standings, because on Tuesday, they lost only once. Seattle lost twice against Texas, meaning the Angels’ Incredible Shrinking First-Place Lead is now back up to 2 1/2 games. In the anxious ‘burb of Los Angeles Of Anaheim, this qualifies as real progress.
One-Time SoCal Pitching Aces: First Jason Schmidt and now Bartolo Colon has moved to the disabled list. In 2004, Schmidt won 18 games with the Giants. In 2005, Colon won the AL Cy Young Award. In 2007, they were supposed to anchor the Dodgers and the Angels rotations. At least that was the plan we heard about during spring training. . . . Where would the Freeway Series Twins be without Schmidt and Colon? Well, at least that is one question we don’t have to ask anymore.
Barry Bonds: He did not hit a home run on Tuesday. And the republic rejoiced.
On the other hand, if we can’t eradicate all the excesses that come with sports gambling, we can always embrace them. Hasn’t Taking The Easy Way Out become our national pastime? Why fight an uphill battle when you can get where you want to go without even trying just by sliding downhill? Why not give in, give up and simply legalize point-shaving?
Better than that, encourage it! Make it an accepted part of the ground rules and award standings points for Times Covering The Spread and Times Going Over The Over, with bonus points given for special proposition-bet payoffs during selected events -- the American Avarice Assn’s equivalent to MLB’s inter-league schedule.
Quickly now, here is how we would align the AAA:
Let It Ride Division
Pittsburgh Stealers
Buffalo Gotta Pay My Bills
New Jersey Net Loss
Detroit Lines
New York Fix
Miami Vice
Baby Needs New Shoes Division
Chicago Blackjack
Houston Texas Hold-‘Em
Kansas City Royal Flush
Denver Golden Nugget
Minnesota Joker’s Wild
Los Angeles Kings Or Better To Open
Chasing Our Losses Division
Green Bay Backers
Atlanta We’re Up To Our Ears In Hock
Nashville Creditors
San Jose Loan Sharks
Los Angeles Bookie Dodgers
New Jersey Make A Deal With The Devils
We Are Emotionally Handicapped Division
New York Bets
Milwaukee We’re In It For The Bucks
Washington Capital Gains
San Diego Charge It To My Room
New England Place-your-bets
Columbus Me & My Crew
Key Staff
Commissioner: Gary Bettman
Players union rep: Earnie Shavers
Television commentator: Charles Barkley
Postseason Awards
Most Valuable “Player” (wink, wink)
Lady Luck Memorial Trophy
Bookie of the Year
Comeback of the Year
Most Influential
Championship Trophy
It’s All A Grey Area Cup
Where have you gone, Henry Aaron? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you while grinding its teeth at the notion of Quadruple-B (Bloated Body Barry Bonds) breaking your career home-run record, which he has threatened to do before we can escape from this month.
Quad-B (aka “BX4,” aka “BBBBalco,” aka “4 Bs B4 Conte,” aka “Asterisk Waiting To Happen”) begins today needing two home runs to tie the record. Most of us can barely bear to watch, but when you break the assignment down to its very essence, it is our duty to watch -- either as journalists or potential eye-witnesses.
By now, we have simply learned to accept that this is Barry’s World, we are just occupying non-luxury, non-private seats as we watch his world go ‘round and, well, just grow, grow, grow. Everything happening in sports today bears at least one connection to Barry. As Bonds’ still-jailed personal trainer Greg Anderson can tell you. A quick six examples:
1. Dodgers: Jeff Kent went 4-for-4 and drove in two runs in the Dodgers’ 10-2 victory over the Astros Monday night. Kent and Bonds hated each other when they were teammates. Likely they still do.
2. Angels: The Angels lost on Monday, 12-6, to the A’s in Oakland. Oakland is situated not too far from where Bonds plays his home games. Oakland hates that.
3. Michael Vick: Vick plays for the Atlanta Falcons. Or used to, before NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell ordered him to steer clear of training camp. Right now, the Atlanta Braves are camped out in San Francisco, trying to figure out ways to pitch around Bonds, for the good of the game, for the good of the greatest Atlanta athlete of them all, Aaron, who wants no part of any of this.
4. David Beckham: For every larger-than-life villain, this summer's comic-book sports saga needs a ride-to-the-rescue hero who possesses mystical and magical powers, such as the ability to get NFL-'N-NASCAR Nation to spend a July Saturday night watching an MLS game on ESPN. Is it just a fluke that Bonds wears a black hat and Beckham a white shirt?
5. NBA referee gambling controversy: Bonds’ former mistress has posed for Playboy, her interview and photos being published in the November issue. I bet lots of NBA refs read Playboy.
6. Sergio Garcia: Still can’t win the big one. Neither can Bonds.
For all you youngsters out there, Blue Oyster Cult is the name of a heavy metal band quite popular in the 1970s, not an obscure Dodgers fans Website. Most famous for their single “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” -- which has nothing to do with NFL cut-down day -- Blue Oyster Cult recorded a song on that same album that included these lyrics:
This ain't the garden of eden
There ain't no angels above
And things ain't like what they used to be
And this ain't the summer of love
Well, the Angels are barely hanging in there, still a couple games above Seattle in the AL West standings, but the rest of that chorus, recorded in 1976, has a Nostradamus sort of feel when taken in context of this sorry sports summer of ‘007.
The most prestigious record in sports is about to fall, amid of a wave of grudging public indifference, to one of the surliest men to ever pull on a baseball uniform who is widely suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs and soon could be indicted for perjury and/or tax evasion.
The once-crowned “Michael Jordan of the NFL,” unprecedented in his scrambling ability and unstoppable in video-game re-creations, could be suspended by the league for his alleged involvement in a brutally sadistic dog-fighting operation -- joining the young star NFL cornerback nicknamed for a video game who is already serving a year’s suspension for his involvement in a shooting incident at a Las Vegas strip club.
The once-crowned “next Michael Jordan,” a reasonable facsimile only as far as his 50-plus-point explosions take him, has divided Los Angeles and polarized Lakers fans by sending out the doubled-edged message that he wants the team to win so badly that he wants to leave as quickly as possible.
The once-crowned queen of track and field, winner of an unprecedented five medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, has -- while under cloud of doping suspicion -- declared bankruptcy.
And most recently, the NBA, already reeling from a series of public-relations blows, has been hit with allegations that one of its referees wagered on games he officiated.
Amid this kind of sweltering, oppressive humidity, is it any wonder we all went a little overboard last weekend for an international pop-culture icon who happens to dabble a little in the subtle science of delivering a soccer ball on-target into extreme tight spaces?
Every year we have to wade our way through a couple sports controversies and scandals. Last year it was Floyd Landis and Barry Bonds. The year before it was the NHL lockout and Barry Bonds. But this summer, our sports world has taken one hit immediately after another. The onslaught has been relentless. Once our speedometer passed 07-07-07, it seems that all the luck stored up in our reservoir ran out.
What gives?
A large part of the problem stems directly from the out-of-control state of the American sports gambling culture, which is directly responsible of the current power rankings of the nation’s most popular spectator sports.
The NFL ranks No. 1, far and away above the field. But where would pro football be in this country in 2007 without point-spread gambling, proposition wagering and fantasy leaguing? Back behind baseball, where it was in 1977.
Fifteen years ago, the NBA seemed poised for a run at the top spot, but its greatest player ever, Jordan, began playing the retire-unretire game when he wasn’t getting in hot water playing gambling games. The NBA’s best studio analyst, Charles Barkley, admitted this year that he has a significant gambling problem but has no plans to stay away. The league then courts disaster by putting its All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas – and the NFL finds it, with Pacman Jones doing his share to strip a bit more of the protective coating off the Great Teflon Shield.
Michael Vick continued the erosion with his alleged involvement with a dog-fighting outfit carrying the appropriate handle of Bad Newz Kennels, illegal dog fights gaining popularity as a form of underground place-your-bets modern-day gladiator warfare.
Gambling and sports are impossibly intertwined in this country, as David Stern is rediscovering anew as NBA referee Tom Donaghy finds himself under investigation for betting on games he was working. Right now, baseball is sitting back and breathing a sigh of relief -- Next to this stuff, Pete Rose was child’s play.
There is no way to “cure” the nation of this ill. Gambling on sporting events is already outlawed almost everywhere from coast to coast. What next, outlaw sports? The NHL tried that in 2004-2005. Good news: The NHL had no significant gambling scandals in 2004-2005. Bad news: Didn’t you used to be a sport we cared about?
England has tried a different tack and has legalized and regulated sports gambling. Go to any Premier League soccer match and right alongside the meat pies-and-tea stand you will find a bookmaking booth, where you can freely and openly wager on winner of the game, player to score the first goal, final score, goalkeeper to keep a “clean sheet,” and on and on.
That hasn’t prevented the occasional soccer match-fixing scandal, but I don’t imagine the English Premier League wishing to trade places with the NBA or NFL any time soon. Maybe its most famous soccer player isn’t the only thing England should have exported to America during this summer of anything but love.
Dodgers: Matt Kemp giveth (three-run home run in the Dodgers’ 8-6 Saturday victory to the Mets), Matt Kemp giveth away (dropped fly ball in Sunday’s 5-4 10-inning defeat). Life can be like that for a 22-year-old still-learning big-league outfielder. But did the immediate media backlash have to be so harsh? As of early Monday morning, the Dodgers’ roster on the Times Website did not include Kemp’s name.
Angels: Garrett Anderson delivers a home run on Sunday pretty much in the nick of time for the Angels, who avoided a series sweep and ended a 14-game homerless streak with Sunday’s 7-2 triumph over the Twins. Those 14 games represented the club’s longest home run drought since the 1976 Angels went 18 games without hitting a home run. That season, the Angels totaled 63 home runs -- 10 fewer than Barry Bonds had in 2001. The Angels’ leading home-run hitter that season? Barry’s dad, Bobby, with 10.
Bill Stoneman: He made a trade! He made a trade! Let the record show, anyway. Anxious Angels fans, watching that AL West lead over Seattle dwindle to one game before Sunday’s victory, won’t be calmed by the news that Stand-Pat Stoneman sent Jose Molina to the Yankees for a minor-league pitcher. Worth noting: Molina had no home runs in 40 games this season. Somebody had to pay for the 14-game drought.
British Open: Padraig Harrington’s triumph at the expense of Sergio Garcia and his epic fourth-round collapse sent shivers down the spines of local baseball fans. Dodgers fans say: Padraig sounds nervously close to “Padres.” Angels fans say: We hope Sergio’s meltdown remains the most notable one this summer.
Galaxy: They dodged a Chelsea blue bullet when David Beckham crumpled to the turf after a hard but clean tackle by Steve Sidwell, then recovered to complete Saturday’s exhibition without the need for a stretcher. Turns out this town is big enough for two franchises known as the Dodgers.
Beckham: His Weekend Wrap? An ankle wrap.
Herbalife: America is now discovering how the rest of the world pays for its soccer players -- with clubs plastering the name of some sponsor across the chest of their jerseys. It was something of a shock to me when I started following the English Premier League in 1994 and thought JVC was battling Sharp for the Circuit City Cup when I watched Arsenal play Manchester United. Herbalife is the Galaxy’s big, bold-type new sponsor, which takes some getting used to, for sure. Herbalife sounds like something that should be sponsoring an NBA team, not an MLS team.
NBA refereeing scandal: The latest disturbing question for David Stern is: Did referee Tim Donaghy have an unofficial sponsor?
ESPN sideline reporter Allen Hopkins snags the first-ever postgame interview with Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham. But then he had connections.
Beckham is standing as he talks, not bending over to clutch his left ankle. MLS, AEG, Galaxy and U.S. Soccer officials take this to be a good sign. Beckham says he was "pleased to get out there a little bit. But, you know, I haven't trained since I've been here, so . . . It was nice to be out there just for 15 minutes."
Hopkins asks about the state of the left ankle, post-Sidwell. "It's sore," Beckham replies. "It's not going to go away for a week or two. But it's good. I'm happy to be here."
Beckham describes the HDC atmosphere as "incredible. That's what we want to achieve by filling stadiums and seeing the atmosphere like it was today. So, yeah, it's good."
On ESPN's pitch-side set, Rob Stone says he had Beckham down for eight touches, apparently not counting the times he grabbed his throbbing ankle. Julie Foudy likens the evening to a wedding. "You can't wait for the day to happen," she says, "but when it's done you're, like, 'Oh, thank god!' "
It's an apt analogy, although weddings are much less dangerous, physically speaking, than July exhibition matches against Chelsea. I don't know about you, but I have never seen a wedding where someone jumps out of a church pew to slide-tackle the groom into an altar-side flower arrangement.
We are all doing hard time waiting for Beckham. I was assigned a credential to the overflow auxiliary press box in the southeast corner of the stadium, where I finished the previous post around the 10-minute mark and spent the rest of the first half trying in vain to file via WiFi. Turns out there are so many media trying to file wirelessly out in the aux box that tenuous connections were getting sent off right and left. Including and especially mine.
So I moved into the work room adjacent to the press box to find a less popular connection. Finally. My own set piece, launched and converted at last. . . . Now we are into the second half, and Waiting For Beckham hits an emotional crescendo. In the 65th minute, Beckham pops up off the Galaxy bench and begins jogging on the sideline. The score is 1-0, Chelsea. The HDC crowd, releasing more than hour’s worth of pent-up exasperation, goes nuts.
The countdown to history (ahem) now begins in earnest:
68th Minute: Beckham get his first touch, if all touches indeed count. The HDC crowd thinks so, roaring its approval as a ball is knocked out of bounds in front of the Galaxy bench and Beckham collects it and sends it back into play, hitting Galaxy defender Ante Jazic with a perfect pass to set up . . . well, a midfield throw-in.
69th Minute: Beckham jogs into the tunnel toward the Galaxy locker room. Is he unable to go and the training staff is recalling him to safe sanctuary? Or has he broken enough of a sweat to go in for final medical clearance? Is he going to return a text message from Posh? As has been the theme all evening: Place your bets here.
74th Minute: Beckham jogs back through the tunnel onto the area behind the Galaxy goal, not seeming to favor his left ankle, making his way back to the sideline for his imminent (eminent?) entrance into the game. In front of the Galaxy bench, Beckham exchanges high-fives with a couple teammates. The Moment to test his ankle appears to be at hand – for better or worse, inevitable. Crowd going bonkers now.
77th Minute: The Future Is Now, as George Allen used to say, even though when he was coaching the Rams and the Redskins he probably would have cut any placekicker prospect such as Beckham on-sight. Too slight. Too British. Too much an American rookie. Allen trusted only proven veterans. Although he also liked ice cream. If Beckham showed up at Rams practice with a bowl full of vanilla ice cream, Allen likely would have let him stay. At least until wind sprints were over.
78th Minute: Beckham enters his first Galaxy game, coming on for new trivia-question answer: Galaxy forward Alan Gordon.
81st Minute: Beckham gets his First Official Touch! He traps the ball along the left side of the pitch, pauses to look up and then launches a long, lofting ball for Quavas Kirk. Kirk gets his head on the ball but he is closely marked, and that is all. Too bad Landon Donovan is wearing the captain’s armband and not Kirk, thus depriving sports scribes of writing the timeless line, “And on a Galaxy far, far away from Manchester and Madrid, David Beckham boldly goes deep with his first MLS pass to Captain Kirk.”
82nd Minute: ESPN goes to its BecksCam Super Split Screen: four quadrants, two curiously occupied by close-ups of an animated soccer ball, the upper left quadrant devoted to game action, the bottom right quadrant devoted to Beckham’s every move. Talk about wasted space. One of those quadrants should have been dedicated to Beckham’s left ankle. The other should have been trained on Posh. As Her Majesty’s Public-Relations Service must have wanted.
83rd Minute: Beckham’s second touch. He plays a ball on the ground through the midfield, but it is off line and intercepted by Chelsea’s Steve Sidwell. Just a hunch, but I’m thinking this Sidwell bloke could become a real pain to Becks tonight.
86th Minute: Galaxy defender Abel Xavier is getting a lot more air time than Beckham. What gives? I mean besides Xavier having thoughtfully dyed his hair the color of the Galaxy’s new home whites for the occasion.
87th Minute: Sidwell has drawn the assignment of marking Beckham. He appears to be taking it quite seriously.
88th Minute: Beckham wants the ball, doesn’t get it. He throws his right arm up in anger. Better get used to it, David. You’re not in La Liga or the Premiership anymore.
89th Minute: Watching the action on an overhead TV monitor in the media workroom, one writer asks, “Beckham used to wear No. 7. Why did he switch to 23?” A second writer talks about Beckham being a fan of Michael Jordan, famous for No. 23, and wearing the number as an homage to MJ. A third writer, David Neiman of the Washington Post, strokes his chin and muses, “I thought it was for Ryne Sandberg. But I could have heard wrong.”
90th Minute: There’s 50-50 ball near the west sideline and a Chelsea-Galaxy collision. Ball caroms out of bounds. “Is that a free kick?” ESPN analyst Eric Wynalda hopefully exclaims. “No. It’s a throw-in,” he adds, sounding a little dejected.
Stoppage Time (aka “The Moment Time Stood Still for MLS, AEG, the Galaxy, and the Future of U.S. Soccer"): Beckham takes a ball near midfield, has a bit of space and decides to play around with it. Not his smartest decision ever. As Beckham dribbles left to right, Sidwell comes in with a hard tackle that clears Beckham out. Beckham sails head over heels, landing in a lump, holding his left ankle. All MLS, AEG, Galaxy and U.S. Soccer officials immediately see their lives flash before their eyes. . . . “Impossible Is Nothing” says the commercial Beckham does for Adidas, but re-aggravating a six-week-old ankle injury in a needless appearance in a meaningless exhibition is always a distinct possibility. But at least ESPN lived up to its word. Beckham did play on July 21. For a dozen minutes, anyway.
Replays show Sidwell’s tackle for what it was: Aggressive but legal. That’s soccer. Especially at Chelsea’s level. Especially when you are a player of Beckham’s reputation. Under these conditions, when you dribble the ball you do so at your own risk. . . . Beckham is clearly hobbling, and not too happy about it. As the final whistle nears, play-by-play commentator Dave O’Brien has to say it: “Beckham will come off in a little more pain than when he came on.” But not before the Galaxy earns a last-gasp corner. One final touch for Beckham, one of his specialties. Delivering the ball left to right, Beckham curls his corner toward the near post, but the ball is headed clear and the game ends.
Beckham walks off the field and O’Brien says, “He’s smiling. Which is a good sign.” Or he's grimacing. The exact motivation behind the facial expression is clearly in the eye of the beholder. . . . Beckham exchanges handshakes and half-hugs with Chelsea players, but not jerseys. This one stays on Becks’ back. Much too valuable to give away .. . . O’Brien announces that tonight’s Man of the Match designation goes to Chelsea’s John Terry, who scored the winning goal. Hmmm. Anyone watching ESPN’s coverage would have guessed that the only candidate eligible was the Galaxy’s No. 23.
It is minutes before kickoff at the Home Depot Center in this existentialist melodrama MLS, ESPN, the Galaxy and David Beckham’s swollen left ankle that have dragged us through. (Some of us kicking and screaming.) I have always felt one of soccer’s great appeals is how it mirrors life in so many ways. The cream doesn’t always rise to the top. Hard work can often outstrip raw talent. An inexplicable fluke can make the best-set plans unravel like a dubious penalty call. No one except the Ultimate Arbitrator – whose on-pitch surrogate is the referee – knows exactly when it is going to end.
And tonight, a sold-out HDC crowd and presumably millions watching on ESPN are standing and sitting by to see if Beckham really makes his Galaxy debut.
This is truly a television-driven moment. Beckham hurt his ankle during the last legs of Real Madrid’s league championship run in mid-June. Beckham has had this sort of injury before. He told ESPN’s Rob Stone during halftime of this week’s MLS All-Star Game that “physios” have told him that such an injury takes seven to eight weeks to heal. Beckham’s current recovery is in Week 6. Clearly, it is too early for him to play in a competitive match, especially tonight’s exhibition against Chelsea. But ESPN has hysterical weeks of “David Is Coming July 21!” propaganda on the line, so the pregame press box buzz had Beckham playing anywhere from the game’s last five to 20 minutes.
About two hours before kickoff, I am walking to the media will-call window when I spot a massive big blue bus parked near the northwest corner of the stadium. More Chelsea supporters, I think. Then I get closer and see the big bold message plastered on the side of the monstrosity: “U.S. Open Series – The Greatest Road Trip On Earth.” It’s a tour bus promoting ESPN2’s summer tennis coverage parked outside a soccer stadium, hoping to draft off the interest caused by Beckham’s To Be Or Not To Be Theater. Welcome to U.S. professional sports, mid-year 2007.
A woman with a microphone is calling out to soccer fans to stop by the bus to “Meet Tennis Pro Luke Jensen!” Jensen is an ESPN tennis analyst and unlike such Bristol teammates Sean Salisbury and Screamin A. Smith usually an interesting listen. I introduce myself and ask Jensen the questions of the hour: “Do you think Beckham is going to play tonight? And if so, when?”
Jensen offers me a scoop. He and ESPN’s crew are staying at Chelsea’s hotel, within earshot of the all-crucial scuttlebutt. “The word around the campfire,” Jensen said, “is that he will play around five minutes. . . . We were at a little reception last night and heard some of the Chelsea people say, ‘His ankle is not fit to go all out,’ so maybe the last five minutes.’”
So I will check back around the 85th minute. Or perhaps a little bit before.
This was the week we learned that "Bend It Like Beckham" refers to the all-important ability of our MLS-saving mega-millions midfielder to rotate his swollen left ankle . . .
1. David Beckham: This Ankle Dilemma has become great fodder for a reality / fantasy league show. You spend an ungodly amount on an over-the-hill superstar on the off-chance that he still has a bit of petrol in the tank and might be able to buy you enough time to rebuild your team to championship caliber and give your league a desperately needed PR boost. It's a big risk, but after downing enough cannisters of Boddington's, you decide to take the plunge. You then proceed to sweat a lot, and a Nagging Injury Problem lingers on (your big gamble is, after all, 32) and you hope he'll be able to play in Saturday's Massive Game, but no one, not even the doctors, can say. And if he plays, when will he enter the game? First half? In the 50th minute? In the 60th minute? The 75th minute? Place your wagers now!
2. Victoria Beckham: You know she has to be jealous. She buys outrageously expensive shoes to show off her well-turned ankle, yet the only ankle anyone really cares about is David's.
3. British Open: Answers to the questions: 1) What is Beckham's nationality? followed by 2) What kind of season is it for Beckham Gossip-Mongering?
4. Sergio Garcia: If and when he holds on and grabs the Claret Jug, who replaces him as the Best Golfer Who Can't Win The Big One? Michelle Wie?
5. Barry Bonds: Next opponents to face Bonds during the Most Joyless Record Chase In All Of Sports History are the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves -- Hank Aaron played his entire career with those two franchises. Someone Up There, who evidently has a twisted sense of humor, is really messing with us now.
6. Bud Selig: He lives in Milwaukee. He says he will attend tonight's Giants-at-Brewers game. If you can't bring the commissioner to the Most Joyless Record Chase In All Of Sports History, you bring the Most Joyless Record Chase In All Of Sports History to the commissioner.
7. Tour de France: You mean to say it's going on right now? No Becks, no Bonds, no Lance, no Landis, no busts, no buzz.
8. Philadelphia Phillies 10K Defeats: If you're not going to win in historic fashion, the next best policy is to lose (and lose, and lose) in historic fashion.
9. MLS All-Star Game: All it proved is that the Colombian national team is better than the one of the top two clubs in Scotland.
10. Michael Vick: The allegations of dog abuse are horrifying. Note to all the Pigskin Obsessives covering this sorry story: The Falcons have much bigger "distractions" than having to face the prospect of going through the 2007 season with Joey Harrington as their starting quarterback.
(*Just trying to see how many hits THAT might get . . .)
Once upon a time, sportswriters used to write about hits, not try to stockpile them. But that was before the Internet rewrote the journalistic rule book in a language newspaper editors and Web specialists and especially writers are still struggling to figure out.
"Hits" means Web hits, and right now, Web hits have become as big a deal to editors as earned-run average has become to baseball fan and contract arbitrators. Locally speaking, any sportswriter wanting to maximize hits on a particular story knows that it is now highly beneficial to get one of the following words up high and in the headline:
"Beckham" (David or Victoria, we have seen this week that it doesn't matter which one.)
"Kobe"
"Lakers"
"Dodgers"
Earlier this summer, L.A. experienced Kobe Overload (although that hasn't stopped us from writing about him) and now is sizing up this Beckham lad as a possible obsessive alternative. MLS, ESPN and the Galaxy are already pushing the Beckham envelope here, there and everywhere. If there is a saturation point about Beckham news-gossip-rumors, the MLS-ESPN-Galaxy troika either doesn't want to know about it or doesn't care about obliterating it before Becks makes his first start.
Thursday's MLS All-Star Game -- held, fittingly enough, in a Colorado town called Commerce City -- was essentially one prolonged commercial for Beckham's Galaxy debut, which might or might not be Saturday evening's exhibition match against Chelsea. Beckham is still recovering from a June ankle injury and probably shouldn't play in a game that doesn't count in the standings. That, however, did not stop ESPN from airing Beckham highlight packages, recycling Beckham commercials, plugging Saturday's pregame Beckham special, interviewing Beckham, interviewing MLS All-Stars about Beckham, and cutting away from MLS All-Star goal celebrations to zero in on Beckham watching from the stands.
Before the start of a game that featured 11 players from MLS clubs and 11 players from Celtic F.C., play-by-play guy Dave O'Brien told viewers, "You really can't talk about MLS in 2007 without talking about Becks -- we'll have him on at halftime!" Well, that certainly goes for anybody paid to talk about MLS on ESPN.
In the 27th minute, the MLS All-Stars were lining up a free kick about 10 yards outside the Celtic penalty area. "Of course, this is the spot where you expect Beckham | |
