One possibility is that another team will lose its starting center in training camp or a preseason game and will call the Lakers with a deal. Otherwise, like Ian said, I wait for the trading deadline. There will always be some interest for a solid 7-footer, it’s jst the matter of getting the right deal.

Murray was another (Vinny, Chick) reason that Los Angeles sports held such intrigue for its fans.

My favorite part of that Twilight Zone episode is when he goes to the ball game and moves second base when the runner is stealing…

I hope the rest of that Tex book is more interesting than the excerpt…

The Samba Stars still haven’t quite found their ritmo and Ronaldo has a couple more kilos to lose, but…

In the immortal words of Tony Bruno,
“beautiful.”

I’m not even a fogy, never mind an old one,
but this is one of those “back in the day” items
where you can clearly see when institutions
like journalism are not following their own standards
and ideals when you see who the current “exemplars”
of the profession are.

Sports journalism ain’t a cure for AIDS, true,
but sports is important to the fans as well
as the players and teams they follow
and the writers and pundits in print
TV and radio also have a role
but they’re exploiting the need of the fans
and wrapping it in self-hype.

Sports stories
have become rumor-mongering and muckraking
( perhaps to overcompensate for the free ride
athletes got from the media in the ‘golden age’
whenever that was )
and the sports punters are more about
showing off how on the inside they are
with an organization, an owner or a player
or like Plaschke, what a “maverick”
and straight-talker they’re supposed to be,
and radio jox are provocateurs and clowns.

What I get less of is the reporter who LOVES SPORTS
and wants to know about the sports they don’t
regularly follow, instead of kicking on them
just because they’re not big money major league
US mainstream primetime luxury skybox
supersized college conference madness and $$#!!@.

I don’t get to watch many hockey games
or WNBA or soccer games, but when I have
gone to a live joust, I get caught up and
have a great time, not in small part because
the fans are into their teams, no matter
that it’s not big ticket.

Plaschke and others like him
( and unfortunately their readers or listeners as well )
habitually spout off without even making the feeblest
attempt to pop the top and check out
what they’re being PAID to bloviate about
if there are no perks to be had.

I don’t know that his comments are racist as such,
but they are institutionally prejudiced and meant
to be more provocative than informative.

That they also expose his ignorance
is the extra sauce of unintended consequence
on the side.

I push back the plate of indigestible glop served up
that provides no nutritive value about a sport
that I might have become interested in if the article
had been more about the sport than the sportswriter.

Enough with the annual self-fulfilling catbox filler
asking why US sports fans ain’t feeling soccer
or similar stories where the writer’s nose is in the air.

Go to a game a give us a cool profile.
Then one might actually have grounds
for an article about players’ ethnic backgrounds
and know what they’re talking about.

Readers used to envy the sports beat crew
because that had a job that gave them entree
to their favorite pasttimes.

Now I think many resent them
for lame and lazy efforts,
just as they would a player dogging it on the field.
But they don’t get benched and fined,
they churn out another column
and listen to the sound of one hand
patting one’s own back.

Think I’ll go to the library
and check out a Ralph Wiley or a Wm. Nack book.

Up with Copa Mundial
Down with sports hax.

- 5 -

This year has been my first real attempt at getting into soccer and I’m really enjoying it, I don’t understand why more people aren’t in to it by now as long as you don’t take a patriotic go US angle to try to get into it and instead watch some real games

If I ever start another blog, it will be simply to rip Bill Plaschke day in and day out. Here’s a great one.