Little Resigns, Torre In. A-Rod, Shilling to Follow?

By: Nate Gordon

(Los Angeles, CA - AGM Exclusive) The rumors had raged across Los Angeles even quicker then last weeks wildfires. They spread so fast in fact that, before Joe Torre had boarded the jet heading for Tampa with Brian Cashman, we in the local media started wondering if the Dodgers commitment to Grady Little would be reconsidered if Joe was available. I went so far as to write this last week: 'The sports equivalent to watching your best friend date your sister and pretend like it's no big deal is being a Dodger fan watching Ned Colletti pretending like Grady Little as our manager is no big deal. Granted I will have to concede that the '07 Dodger collapse can hardly rest on the shoulder of Little alone, but his managing style had a lot to do with it. Grady is a laid back, roll with the punches type of guy, not too much upsets his 'apple cart' and he does little to upset the ship as it sails.' We were all disgusted by the Dodgers losing 11 of their last 14, while Jeff Kent whined and cried and pissed and threw a 6 week fit, destroying locker room chemistry. A change was needed in the Dodger clubhouse and with Joe Torre unemployed and the Dodgers his childhood team, it seemed obvious that they would fire Little and go after Joe. But Grady wasn't pleased with his situation in the organization, with the whispers of Torre's arrival in Los Angeles lurking over his shoulder, Grady took a few moments to reflect on the previous season. Injuries and malcontent veterans on his roster were wearing on him in the second half of the season. Even if the Dodgers stood true to their word and these rumors were just that, rumors, Grady would be on the hot seat all season. An early season skid would see his job all but terminated. Grady saw no need for all that stress and hardship in his life, realized he could negotiate a severance package and resigned. It was the classy thing to do, it was the right thing to do and as always, Grady has found a way to not upset the ship as it sails.

While listening to 'The Big Show with Steve Mason and John Ireland' on 710AM ESPN Radio Los Angeles yesterday, they piped into the Ned Colletti/Grady Little conference call at 4:00 pm PST. Grady stated himself that he was resigning and that the decision was mutual. Ned Colletti had this to say: '"It's a difficult thing for many of us, Grady's a man I'm very fond of and I have grown very close to him these last few years." Grady also contributed: "It's something that had to happen at this time, it's better for this organization. I got so much respect for this organization... it's something me and my family have talked about, we've included Ned in our conversations and it's the decision we made." When asked what he plans to do in the future Grady simply stated "I'm going to play with my grand kids, a lot." I wouldn't be surprised if Little ends up in the Dodger front office in the future.

Colletti was as ambiguous as your buddy who hooks up with the ugly frat girl and doesn't want you to know about it when talking about hiring the Dodgers next manager. A fellow writer from the Orange County Register (I couldn't hear their names over the radio, not like it's important, he's from Orange County) grilled Colletti over hiring Torre. Ned only had this to say: "We haven't hired anybody. We'll talk about it at a later date." That later date apparently was today, as Torre and the Dodgers are currently in negotiations.

I also wrote last week: '''That 3rd base question is a big one, with the Dodger looking for someone with both All Star defense and power. The answer that makes the most sense when not talking about money is Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod would receive all the attention and endorsements he could ever ask for by coming to the Entertainment Capitol of the World.
However will Frank McCourt be willing to shell out the $27-30 million a year that would be required over the next 7-10 years to put A-Rod in Dodger Blue?''' With Torre all but signed on to be the Dodgers skipper, it would seem obvious that Donny Ballgame would come along to be the bench coach (Don's Son Preston Mattingly is in the Dodger Farm system as well). Both men have very good relationships with A-Rod which should give McCourt even more incentive to fork over the monetary compensation that he and Scott Boras demand.

Today Curt Shilling was also associated with the Dodgers as one of the teams he would be willing to play for next season. With 3 World Series rings already on his hand, would Shilling be willing to take less money to come out to Los Angeles to play for Torre, along side A-Rod for a legitimate shot at a 4th championship? It's fun to talk about and kick around, a Dodger offseason with that much impact would rival what Danny Ainge and the Boston Celtics did this summer.

It's been 50 years since the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles, Walter O'Malley gave us a gift, it's time for Joe to come home, 3000 miles away.

E-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com

The Pride and Shame in Being a Fan and a Writer

The LA Sports blog is undergoing some changes, some growth and some development… no it’s not puberty, although I sometimes wonder if Jeff shaves, if I had to guess I’d say no. Also no, we are not all appeasing Matt Berson and converting to Judaism, no matter how many of their holidays we use as excuses for time off. If those loaded words I began with don’t mean crap to you without a bit of context let me fill you in. The other two writers on staff are doing big things in our local university area. Matt created the “Rec-Sports Newsletter” last year with our friend Farva and the publication has exploded. From a 2 page bi-monthly pilot newsletter it has grown into a UC Santa Barbara supported and privately sponsored university publication. Matt and Farva hired our other LA Sports Blog writer Jeff to join the squad; I can’t blame either of them because it is a paid writing position. This might lead you to ask “what about you Nate, why aren’t you on the staff”? That’s a good question; I’m not currently enrolled at UCSB that’s why. So Matt and Jeff will do special pieces for the LASB from time to time but for the most part they will do their Rec-Sports Newsletter which can be accessed at www.recsportsnews.com

It’s been a depressing week to cover LA Sports, with USC and UCLA coming off losses the only peace can be found in the fact that the Orange County Angels have been eliminated from the playoffs, good riddance. Oh and for goodness sake

The Lakers have started pre-season workouts and exhibitions in Hawaii, while the Clippers have set up shop here in Santa Barbara. We had plans to send a reporter to cover the Clippers camp at Santa Barbara City College, however those plans were reconsidered after we sent Farva to interview Mike Brown, Cleveland Cavs head coach for Rec-Sports and his best question was “Is LeBron James really any good”? We apparently aspire to be Jim Gray around here.

The important thing about this is that the Lakers look pretty good with the return of D. Fish being the catalyst for a much improved ball-handling unit. Javaris Crittenton looks like a player who has been in the triangle his whole life. This shouldn’t be surprising because he and Dwight Howard won a state championship in high school running the triangle through Howard, led by Crittenton. What is surprising is how good Crittenton is at making plays on his own, taking on defenders and penetrating thus vastly increasing his options with the rock. Kwame still has tiny hands but the return of Chris Mhim will reduce the minutes we put at-risk having Brown or the depressingly soft Andrew Bynum (he’s a MAN and a professional athlete, I’ll call him soft.) It’s not so much Bynum’s personality that is soft, it is unwillingness to lay claim to the key on both ends of the floor, establishing himself as the dominating presence on the floor. Can this change? Yes, but this season is a make or break season and we will see if he is making significant process in the first 20 games.

Circling back to USC I boycotted watching them this week as I was so disgusted by last week’s mediocre effort against the Cardinal that I didn’t want to be subjected to the Mark Sanchez show, a QB who’s only play of note before this game since graduating from Mission Viejo High School is being accused of sexual assaulting a girl. The charges didn’t hold up, but Sanchez did as he did just enough to help #10 USC defeat Arizona 20-13, led by Sanchez’s game winning 4th Quarter TD pass to Fred Davis.

I can’t believe I just wrote the preceding paragraph about USC. The team that has since ’02 produced Palmer, Lineart, Fargas, Cassell, Bush, White, Mike Williams, Lufa Tatupu and TP42 himself is struggling to beat Arizona in the middle of October with a back-up quarterback that looks painfully average for a top tier D-1 program. Matt Cassel sat behind Palmer and Lineart, never able to call the Trojan offense his own, yet he was still so talented that he was drafted by New England in the 6th round. I don’t think Sanchez, or John David Booty for that matter would go in the 6th round of the World League draft.

That’s enough, I can’t bash anymore, I don’t think I can do much better then saying Booty and Sanchez wouldn’t make the world league, even Kevin Kiely played in the World League, although he pretty much stunk the joint up himself, at least he has Emmys in broadcast journalism. (This is like the Pulitzer equivalent to winning for best writing by a writer who doesn’t really do writing. That’s not fair, that should only be said about TV “Journalist” where Kevin has done a lot of hard-hitting stuff on the radio. So although the awards are justified and deserved, they hold little weight.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of, or changed about LASB let us know, we love your feedback when we get it, expect for those AGM guys… nah just playing. I assume by the low number of votes I get for my pieces that either A. The guys there don’t like my writing or B. They aren’t interested in LA Sports.

Here they come…. The Random Rants:

-The writer who compared the passionate and big-hearted Mike Hart to that of the heartless and money chasing A-Rod was displaying is lack of common knowledge. Moreover comparing a PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER who plays like Cal Ripkin but has the heart of JD Drew to a COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYER who plays like DeShaun Foster and has the heart of Beowolf ready to lead his troops into war is like comparing an autistic music artist to Picaso, they are judged completely differently. And I think A-Rod might be slightly autistic, just a hunch.

-Yea that was a Beowolf reference, what’s more appalling to me is that there is a Beowolf moving coming out soon. Are we lacking so much creativity and work ethic in this nation that we are reaching that far into the Shakespeare play list? Seriously, Beowolf, what’s next King Henry VIII?

-People who were complaining about USC dropping to #10 in the polls are people who don’t watch USC or haven’t watched them in the last 5 years. When looking at the last 5 years of USC teams that were ranked #1-5, all of them are head and shoulders better then this team. Hell if you look at the teams ranked #1-5 this year I’d say they are all currently better teams top to bottom then USC, but then again what do I know, I just watch them every week. (Expect for this last one when I boycotted)

I’m over it, enjoy until next time.
E-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com

The Worse Day In LA Football History

By: Nate Gordon

As a Los Angeles writer I sit in awe, absolute amazement. I'm going to have to hear the ATH guys, 15 article on AGM and every sports talk show in LA talk about "The Play" and the coaching genius of Jim Harbaugh. The thought of the Cardinal being in position to win at the Colosseum in the 4th quarter is nauseating enough, I don't need people telling me about a play that Haurbagh should of never been in a position to call. Fact of the matter is, unlike the Chicago Bears, the Trojans aren't who we thought they were. They don't have the championship drive that the teams earlier in the decade had. I don't see a Palamalu/Palmer combo of leaders who are all-Americans and have that heart of a winner. Neither do I see a Bush/Lineart combo of explosiveness. This Trojan team is a team of really good players who have no identity and they have yet to give us one. This team fluctuates from half to half, some Saturdays quarter to quarter. Still on the schedule are trips to Oregon and California before a season finale at the home against UCLA. Those are three losable games and while I trust Pete Carroll to get the ship straight for a 10-1 season and trip to the Rose Bowl; the possibility of 7-4 has to be addressed individually, how do you react as a fan when your team starts at #1 and ends 5-4 in the Pac-10.

While that upset shook South Central, the Bruins were experiencing their very own nightmare up the 710 at the Rose Bowl. Notre Dame and Jimmy Clauson of Thousand Oaks, an LA suburb came in and kicked the crap out of UCLA 20-6. What the hell am I suppose to do now? I was given a 2 team teaser by Gavin Smith for 5000 bucks with a 20 point spread to the LA teams in each game. I might as well jump off the Hollywood sign if I'm the generic compulsive Los Angeles sports gambler. However, I'm not and no one in their minds would of given me a 2 team teaser with SC and UCLA this week so I'm just a really pissed off fan. The Dodgers choked outta the NL race, SC are a bunch of lost players, Karl Dorrell can't coach out of a paper bag, and the

Angels are alive and kicking in the playoffs. I hate Orange County, that may be beyond the point but do I care? I'm really cynical enough before all this crap.

Oakland is one play from being 3-1 this year, Denver is 2 plays from 0-4, San Diego is 1-3 and Kansas City is one NFL Apparel Children's Fashion show from Herm Edwards resorting to doing a terrible job preparing the team and their season going to shit. Daunte Culpepper doesn't have his accuracy back yet but he is making plays and that's what's important. I keep hearing people ask the question in their blogs: How will Dom Rhoads complement Justin Fargas in the running game? Excuse me, let me clear my throat and proceed to smack and down body slam these fools. Justin had a great half last week, a career half as a matter of fact, but it was against an run defense so shameful JJ Arrington could of busted off 125 and a TD. Justin is an exciting kid in spurts but he can't carry the load and we've seen this before, mainly because he's prone to fumble. LaMont Jordan has used the bye week to properly prepare his back for the long haul and Fargas and Rhoads should split carries to spell LaMont and keep him healthy.

Alright it's time for Random Thoughts: These are thoughts about things going on in the world because I'm cynical of most crap out there and I know that my thoughts commonly spark conversation. That conversation usually has an opposing viewpoint; I set to crush viewpoints while promotion conversation - the contradiction continues.

-In some suburban LA cities, the city counsels want to impose laws that ban smoking everywhere within the city limits, including your own home. I remember the teachers in my public schools growing up preaching pro-nanny state lectures to the class and now city counsels want to do the same thing and I have this to say to them: Get out of my life. It isn't governments duty to rule how we live our lives. If you want to smoke within your own home or in an open air area then by my guest, it's your life. Government should never impose law on our personal choices.

-I'm sure all of you have heard of the Jena 6, well now there is a black girl here in Palmdale, CA. who got out of control during a high school food fight and was restrained by a white campus security guard. Al Sharpton rolled into town with his crap a couple of days ago and said that "This girl was only guilty of 'Going To School While Black'" and that the security guards actions were 'worse then the actions of the Jena 6'". Does this guy listen to what he says? I'm sure he doesn't, Al Sharpton is practically menstrual comedy and a parody of our Civil Rights activist of yesteryear. How is a security guard restraining a girl who is flailing and screaming in the middle of a cafeteria food fight worse then 6 kids beating up another, regardless of race or social status. When you add race into it how is hate crime retaliation not as bad as a security guard doing his job when the girl was clearly a threat to other students well being? This is a joke, I almost don't want to touch the 'Going to School While Black' thing. What the hell Al, that is so embarrassing for you to say. He doesn't even know what happened, he got a phone call saying a little black girl was hurt while being 'assaulted' by a big white security guard and he comes and and does his little speech and checks all the mini-race cards off the list. A 'while black' accusation, an exaggerated injury, a big white man at the center of the alleged problem who acted upon his alleged 'racial hate'. It all makes me sick, shame on you Al Sharpton, your not a voice of my people, your merely a washed up Apollo acted who runs for camera time.

Okay, I think 2 random thoughts will do it, I'll blog again this week because I've been lacking due to laptop issues. Think about this until next time:

Going into Saturday: Notre Dame and Stanford combined record 1-10. UCLA and USC combined record: 10-1.

E-mail: LASportsblog@Gmail.com