The morning becomes hectic
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The morning is hectic.
The rest of the day doesn’t promise to be any less so.
By the time most of the Dodgers arrive at Chavez Ravine tonight, they could be NL West Division champions. In case you missed it, the Dodgers clinched a tie last night for the division title.
Bill Plaschke was there and wrote that it don’t mean a thing if they don’t have that swing in the playoffs. Have we ever pointed out that the Dodgers have won one playoff game since 1988.
Arizona’s game at St. Louis started at 11:15 a.m. PDT, and if the Diamondbacks lose, the Dodgers clinch the division title. Their first-round playoff opponent hasn’t been determined, but it looks like they will open Wednesday at Philadelphia. The Diamondbacks are not optimistic.
If the Dodgers do go to Philadelphia, I would advise them to avoid the hot dogs.
This doesn’t look as if it’s going to be one of those easy shifts for our night crew.
USC has an ESPN game at Oregon State, which, fortunately, starts early. That’s 6 p.m. PDT. But with television timeouts, it won’t end early enough to make it comfortable for our writers and copy desk. Gary Klein, David Wharton and Helene Elliott are in Corvallis to cover the action for us. Adam Rose also will updates on his All Things Trojan blog.
Interesting to see ESPN’s college football expert diss his network’s game.
We’re also covering the 7:30 p.m. game at Staples Center between the Sparks and San Antonio. It’s the first game of a best-of-three series for the Western Conference championship. San Antonio is formidable because of its notorious Russian player, Becky Hammon. You might recall that Lisa Leslie gave her the silent treatment after the United States beat Russia in Beijing.
Oscar De La Hoya doesn’t fight for more than two more months, on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas against Manny Pacquiao, but tickets are all sold out after less than a day of sales. Prepare for huge hype, much like De La Hoya-Mayweather. Let’s hope this is a better fight.
Liam Durbin was fast out of the gate as the Times’ handicapper for Wednesday’s opening of the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. He won his first race. Otherwise, it was a pretty bleak day. At least one of his top three choices finished among the top three in all but one race. That and a dollar doesn’t even buy you a Daily Racing Form. In Durbin’s defense, his competition in town didn’t do much better.
Give the new kid and his computer some time.
-- Randy Harvey