The LA Sports Blog - Bowlin', Sackin' and Cadillacin'

By: Nate Gordon

The temperature in Los Angeles is lukewarm according to the thermometer. If you were to stick your toes in this pool you’d say out loud: “Ew, that’s kind of icky.” But that doesn’t keep us Angelinos from frolicking silently in this mildly hot stew.

It’s happened again to Dodger fans as Ned Colletti did his infamous ‘GM Two-Step’. Andruw Jones comes to Los Angeles with the promises of an influx of power and defense being injected into the Dodger line up. His reputation would indicate that the Dodgers got an upgrade from Juan Pierre in Center Field. Jones is 30 and the man boasts so many Gold Gloves he could keep an orphanage warm all winter. Despite major drops in offensive production last season he still had more HRs (26 to 20) and RBIs (94 to 87) then any everyday player on the Dodger roster last season. However, his average (.222) was the lowest in a season in which he plays everyday and Strikeouts (138) where higher then his hits (127) for just the first time since his rookie season. Why am I not only the only person concerned about this, but the only person talking about this??? The Jones signing might improve the Dodgers defense but I expect his offense numbers to continue to tail off and the Colletti ‘GM Two-Step’ will be in full force again.

We jump in the Cadillac and cruise from Dodger Stadium up the 2 Freeway to the 210 where we quickly find ourselves in Pasadena and the Rose Bowl. The University of South Central… er, Southern California has secured their 6th straight Pac-10 Championship and another trip the Tournament of Roses. This time they will take on unlikely Big Ten qualifier Illinois. John David Booty has played increasingly more composed as the weeks since his injury have past; pair that with a USC defense that has matured into one of the most dominating units in the country and you have your Rose Bowl Champion. I like Illinois and I think they have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball, but all it takes is USC to force a couple of turnovers and this game can get away from the Fighting Illini in a hurry.

The team and usually calls the Rose Bowl home, UCLA have fired Karl Dorrell for not meeting program expectations. Pundits across the nation have defended the job Dorrell did at UCLA. In fact, they have defended him so well he is likely to be the next future-fired-coach of Duke. I understand and appreciate the job that Coach did while he was at UCLA but it simply wasn’t enough. People have looked at me like I’m crazy “he never had a season where he missed a bowl! What more do you want from UCLA football?” I’ll tell you what I want; I want UCLA to be in the national picture right there with USC 7 out of every 10 seasons. When you sit every season and watch USC tear apart mid and top level SEC and ACC teams in non conference play year in and year out and UCLA struggle and lose to the Oklahoma States’ and Utah’s and Fresno States’ of the world it gets annoying and frustrating. While USC is winning multiple Pac-10 championships, UCLA is playing in the Las Vegas bowl and the Sun Bowl. It’s as simple as this: when you share a city that doesn’t have pro football with a national powerhouse in college football – you better get results, or your ass will be in the unemployment line. (I didn’t even mention Dorrell’s 1-5 record against USC.)

Back at the start of the month I wrote about the Clippers fast 5-2 start and their favorable schedule, implying that they could play themselves into a position to make a run at a playoff spot. Well after injuries to Corey Maggette and Cuttino Mobley the Clips pissed away their soft schedule and now sit at 8-12, which would make them 3-10 since that article. The Clippers now have 4 road games in a row (@ NJ, Charlotte, Memphis and LAL) then a home game against Toronto before back to back road games at Dallas and San Antonio and a home/away series against Phoenix. Life as a Clipper fan has to be a rough one…

Meanwhile a quick memo to the Lakers front office: Do not… I repeat DO NOT give up Jordan Farmar or Andrew Bynum for anything that is currently on the market including Jason Kidd. Both kids are proving to be blue chippers, especially Farmar and it would be foolish to blow up a team that is playing great team basketball (not usually said about a team featuring Kobe Bryant) and is going 10 deep every night. Usually this means Kobe playing under 40 minutes a night and multiple starters finding themselves in double digits in the points section of the box score. Andrew Bynum is averaging 10.9 pts, 9.7 rebounds, and 2 blocks a game in 26 minutes. The kid already has 10 double-doubles including all 9 of his starts. Farmar averages 20 minutes a night and has yet to start but contributes invaluable ball handling and leadership skills off the bench. Add to that 9.8 pts, and 3 assist a night and he is making a solid contribution. Oh and guess what folks, these two aren’t going to get worse.

On some personal notes, Orange County Angeles fans: We don’t care about Hunter. We don’t care that we didn’t get A-Rod because you didn’t either. Hell guess what Orange County, the only thing that makes us pay any semblance of attention to you at all is the fact you force yourselves upon us with absurd market sharing that the MLB defrauds the Dodgers with. The Angels aren’t located in Los Angeles or Los Angeles County, so why do the Dodgers have to share their market, and in turn their market revenue? It makes no sense to me. I don’t get excited about a team without a tradition or identity. The club was more popular for “Angels in the Outfield” then anything they did on the field prior to 2002. Now you got 1 world championship that’s becoming more and more in the rearview and a couple of stars and now we are suppose to care when I get e-mails like: “We got Hunter and are a lock for a playoffs, how do you like NOT having A-Rod, or Santana?” I like it just fine thank you, because you’re basically irrelevant as a rival. The AL is much better then the NL so naturally the Angels will get over on the Dodgers in interleague (something I don’t care for) so you can dance and hold that over our heads. I’ll allow the multiple championships and pennants, not to mention to reputation of “The Ball club others should strive to be like” keep me warm at night.

On another side note, I’d like to respond to this: “You don’t update your webpage 3 times a day, so how are you a Sports blog? I mean, I want my LA sports news and pictures! And I want it everyday.” Okay, fair enough buddy, I’m not Perez Hilton. I don’t sit around touching myself to gay website all day and make a bunch of useless bullet and link post about every little thing going on in LA Sports. Hell if I update my site more then twice a week it’s something to write home from war about. I guess it’s more of an opinion column or editorial, except it’s not published in a newspaper or magazine publication. You know what? I don’t care, because even unpublished I think I’m one of the top editorial writers that no one is publishing.

Oh and the final note to leave you all on – I was listening to Stephen A. Smith’s radio show while driving to get my check this morning and I got to admit that I agreed with a lot of his rant. He was talking about Author Blank’s “fried chicken and fries” comment regarding Michael Vick’s jail time. Smith articulated: “I’m not ashamed that I love fried chicken, and no one should be. I was depressed for nearly a month when the doctor said I had high cholesterol and couldn’t eat fried foods anymore… Mr. Blank ‘’’should’’’ know better then to use a statement that some have found to be sensitive. But I hardly find his using “Fried Chicken” in this context as insulting. There isn’t anything racial or wrong in Mr. Blanks statements… he spoke ad lib in an on the spot interview and if that’s the worse that comes out of his mouth, I’ll take it.” I’ll take it too Stephen A. When I heard him on air I didn’t think twice about it. I use to have a coach (black man mind you) who would lambaste all the unfit players about their cultural eating habits. He’d let me know that I had to lay off the fried stuff, and suggested to my Latino teammates to push away the tamales. Did we find this offensive or racial? Not at all, these are the things we like to eat and we aren’t ashamed of them, they are what they are. LaDanian Tomlinson reiterated Smith’s feelings while doing his weekly interview on the Steve Mason Show on 710 ESPN Los Angeles: “Nah, I didn’t find the statement offensive, I love fried chicken. If you’re ashamed to love fried chicken, then there is something wrong with you. But Me, you can sign me up for that fried chicken in a quick minute,” I don’t even have to say anything.

So I’ve laid the table for debate and disagreement, but unlike Joe Grande or Petros of 570 KLAC Los Angeles, I don’t make arguments against myself for 15 minutes just to fill a segment. I actually talk about relevant stuff, heads up 570AM management…

E-mail: LASportsblog@gmail.com
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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