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By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter It wasn't the kind of ending the 2015 Culver City High baseball team had dreamed about as they solemnly bussed home just before sunset along the scenic peninsula drive on the 19th of May. Skirting northward above the shimmering blue Pacific Ocean offered little solace to the Centaur squad that had lost 2-1 at Palos Verdes High on the very last play of their opening CIF playoff game. "Without question it was a well-fought game. I felt that of all the games we had...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter Game. Set. Match. The Culver City High boys 2015 tennis season came to a close 92 miles up the Pacific Coast Highway in determined but conclusive fashion with a 16-2 first round CIF Division 1 playoff loss to talented Santa Barbara High on Wednesday, May 13. The Centaurs were only one of two at-large teams to be invited to the elite division tournament. The boys finished the regular season with a 13-5 record. Their only season losses were to Division 1...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor They blew it. There’s no denying that. The Clippers had an excellent chance to end 31 years of falling short but couldn’t hold a 19-point lead in the final quarter of Game 6 and then fell flat in Game 7. So the Houston Rockets advanced to the Western Conference playoff finals, a place where the Clippers have never been. The talk show guys have been running wild in the last few days. One even suggested the Clippers hang banners in Staples Center for winning the...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor When the Lakers moved up from their original No. 4 slot in the NBA draft lottery Tuesday to No. 2 Kobe Bryant made an observation. 'We played like crap this season so it's fitting that we moved up," he said. There's no assurance the Lakers' good fortune will trigger a major rise in the standings but it's the best news they've heard in awhile. Unless they decide otherwise the Lakers will get either Jahlil Okafor of Duke or Karl-Anthony Towns of Kentucky, the...
The Culver City High baseball team will begin their 2015 post-season quest on the road. The Centaurs travel locally to Palos Verdes High on Tuesday, May 19, to take on the Sea Kings at 3:15 p.m. in a CIF Southern Section Division 3 matchup. Culver lost 8-4 earlier in the season to Palos Verdes, who finished third in the Bay League, on March 20 in the same ballpark. In that game the team had the lead until the bottom of the sixth inning when they gave up five runs. The winner will travel to...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter Pitching and defense wins baseball games. It also allowed the Culver City High baseball team to clinch a CIF playoff spot on a beautiful spring afternoon at Beverly Hills High on Tuesday. The Centaurs shutout the Normans 6-0 on a baseball diamond temporarily laid out on the campus' synthetic turf at Nickoll Field. Once again the fine pitching of Jay Sterner and Culver's stellar defense propelled them to win their third league game in a row and four of five to...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The love affair between Culver City and classic cars revved up once again in downtown on Saturday as the 12th Annual George Barris' Culver City Car Show took center stage. Thousands of car enthusiasts reunited, reveled in and admired the hundreds of vintage rides lined up along Culver Blvd. from Duquesne to Canfield and adjacent streets leading to Venice Blvd. The festival also included celebrities, live music, a beauty contest, introductions, interviews, city...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The National Football League was far too lenient in punishing Ray Rice for domestic abuse. Commissioner Roger Goodell took a beating from the national press and admitted he had to do better. Well, folks, he did better this time. Coming down hard on Tom Brady and the New England Patriots was his way of saying, “yes, the NFL gets it.” Brady’s four-game ban will probably be reduced on appeal, most likely to two games, but at least the NFL won’t have to save face th...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor As the Houston Rockets begin play in the second round of the NBA playoffs I can’t help wondering what might have been for the Lakers. You see, Dwight Howard wasn’t ready to commit to the Lakers when he became a free agent but he decided to give it a try by signing a one-year contract. Unfortunately, Howard was quickly disenchanted with Coach Mike D’Antoni’s offense which didn’t revolve around a center. So he left and joined the Rockets. Fast forward to this seas...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor How surprising. The Clippers went to Houston with short rest, learned that Chris Paul couldn’t play and proceeded to win Game 1 of their second round playoff series. But I have something to say to Clipper fans. Don’t expect to win this series unless Paul can play at his usual high level. On Monday night Paul was held out due to a hamstring injury even though they reported that no serious damage had shown up in an MRI. What happened in the game was something I’v...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter Right now the sound of a broken record is sweet music to Culver City High baseball. The artist is Jay Sterner, the senior lefty pitcher who recorded his second no-hitter of the 2015 season. For this performance he and his Centaur teammates took their act on the road to tame Hawthorne High, 3-0, on Tuesday. More importantly, the win allows Culver to control its own destiny concerning a CIF playoff spot with three games remaining in Ocean League action. The...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor When an arbitrator ruled that Josh Hamilton would be entitled to his full 2015 salary from the Angels despite a relapse of cocaine addiction the club responded with harsh words. “From the moment Josh came here two years ago there’s been turbulence,” said Angels General Manager Jerry Dipoto. Angels owner Arte Moreno said he couldn’t guarantee that Hamilton would play for the Angels again. On Monday, the Angels traded Hamilton back to the Texas Rangers, where h...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter Baseball 2015, Ocean League style, is no walk in the park. The Culver City High Centaurs are currently 2-2 in competition with three crucial series remaining on their schedule. Archrival and league defending champion Santa Monica High is the next test this week. At stake is the league title and the now-difficult task of qualifying for the CIF Playoffs that starts in three weeks. Part of the early sense of urgency has to do with the two new league additions:...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The Clippers were dazzling in the first quarter of Game 5 Tuesday night. They raced to a 28-13 lead over the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center The Clippers have the reputation of possessing the best starting five in the NBA and were living up to the reputation. Then Coach Doc Rivers inserted three substitutes and the Spurs scored the next 16 points. From there the teams engaged in a dramatic, thrilling game that the Spurs won, 111-107....
(Editor’s Note: Three seasons ago, after the Lakers were swept out of the NBA playoffs in the first round a summary of their troubles was analyzed in part 1 of this series. I didn’t plan on a part 2 but readers asked for one. Now part 3 is required because the Lakers have just completed their worst season in franchise history, 21 wins, 61 losses) By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I understand the reasoning. The Lakers were going to sacrifice this season in order to retain money to sign free age...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor When Doc Rivers found out the Clippers would be playing the five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs in the first playoff round he asked ‘this is what we get for winning 14 of our last 15 games?” It was nothing personal. The Clippers were the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference. The Spurs were No. 6. The No. 3 always plays the No. 6 in the first round. But it’s still unfortunate. This could easily be a conference championship matchup. Instead, one of these...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter The 2nd Annual Culver City Varsity Volleyball Tournament was once again a resounding success for the eight teams that participated at Del Goodyear Gymnasium on Saturday, April 18. The one-day competition ended in a seesaw thriller as Bishop Montgomery High pulled out the championship match over Granada Hills High, 28-26. The host Culver High team was on an early roll as the boys swept all three of their Pool 2 matches beginning with an 8 a.m. starting time...
(Editor's Note: Three seasons ago, after the Lakers were swept out of the NBA playoffs in the first round a summary of their troubles was analyzed in part 1 of this series. I didn't plan on a part 2 but readers asked for one. Now part 3 is required because the Lakers have just completed their worst season in franchise history, 21 wins, 61 losses) By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor I understand the reasoning. The Lakers were going to sacrifice this season in order to retain money to sign free...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter Tennis anyone?! That's the question the 2015 Culver City High boys tennis team is asking this season as they have rolled out to a 10-1 preseason record leading into league play. The winning pace surpasses any the school has seen for the program in awhile. More impressively, the wins have been over the renowned South Bay schools, non-league teams the Centaurs have had little to no success against in the past. The team began Ocean League play this week by hosting pe...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Major League baseball has announced it won’t investigate the Josh Hamilton case, and that means the Angels are stuck with his sizeable contract for this season. Recovering from a relapse of substance abuse, Hamilton probably won’t help the Angels much this season even though the Angels signed him for five years for $125 million which includes $23 million for this season. In all the years I’ve been a sportswriter I’ve seen teams often back their players, asking...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor John Wooden guided UCLA to 10 national championships and there’s a solid case that he’s the greatest coach in college basketball history. But if you’re a fan of Mike Krzyzewski your man is building a solid case too. When Duke defeated Wisconsin, 68-63 in the NCAA Championship game Monday night it was Krzyzewski’s fifth national championship in his record 12th appearance in the Final Four. And this was one of his best coaching jobs. Even with spectacular freshma...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter For the greater part of the country the golf season unofficially begins in April with the Masters Golf Tournament in Georgia on the hallowed grounds of Augusta National Golf Club. In Southern California the Culver City High golf team officially began its season weeks ago in March at Alondra Golf Course, a Los Angeles County public track in Lawndale. The Centaurs got off to a sweeping start by taking two matches from Bay League opponent Redondo High. Considering...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor So many times during the Lakers' feat of winning 16 NBA championships I've been in the building, feeling the excitement, eager to do my work and being thankful I'm in the sportswriting profession. On Tuesday night those years came back to me as I watched the Golden State Warriors, who have the best record in this NBA season, outlast the Clippers, 110-106 before a raucous sellout crowd in Staples Center. The playoffs haven't started yet but you wouldn't know it ju...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor When John Wooden was coaching 10 UCLA basketball teams to national championships there was no ESPN. Times have certainly changed. Now the schools best identified with the network rule college baskrtball. The conferences that have Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky etcetra have a big advantage in recruiting. High school stars want to be seen nationally, getting the exposure that will help them be recognized by NBA teams. That's the reality of the situation. Steve Alfo...
By Fred Altieri Sports Reporter While the majority of the Culver City High students have been enjoying Spring Break 2015 at the many entertainment spots, beaches, mountains and deserts of Southern California and beyond the school's track and field team has been training and competing as the season accelerates past the preliminary stage. The Centaur sprinters, runners, hurdlers, jumpers and throwers took a short ride to Manhattan Beach to participate in Mira Costa High's 21st Mustang Relays on...
