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By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor Exactly one year after they made one of the biggest trades in baseball history, the Dodgers and Red Sox completed a three-game series Sunday night at Dodger Stadium. Both teams remained mediocre last season following the nine-player trade but this season both have emerged as division leaders and World Series hopefuls. The teams had completely different reasons for getting together for the deal but, remarkably, making the dramatic moves allowed both to...
By Mitch Chortkoff Sports Editor The Clippers continued to build a deep and talented roster this week by signing veteran forward Antwan Jamison. After playing for the Lakers last season Jamison became a free agent. He is expected to take Lamar Odom’s place in the Clippers’ plans as a reserve on the front line. Jamison will be in his 15th NBA season. He signed a one-year contract for $1.4 million, a low number by NBA standards. That’s the same amount he played for last season. Jamison had diffe...
Ex-Laker Jamison Joins Clippers The Clippers continued to build a deep and talented roster this week by signing veteran forward Antwan Jamison. After playing for the Lakers last season Jamison became a free agent. He is expected to take Lamar Odom’s place in the Clippers’ plans as a reserve on the front line. Jamison will be in his 15th NBA season. He signed a one-year contract for $1.4 million, a low number by NBA standards. That’s the same amount he played for last season. Jamison had diffe...
Dodgers, Red Sox Thrive One Year After Trade Exactly one year after they made one of the biggest trades in baseball history, the Dodgers and Red Sox completed a three-game series Sunday night at Dodger Stadium. Both teams remained mediocre last season following the nine-player trade but this season both have emerged as division leaders and World Series hopefuls. The teams had completely different reasons for getting together for the deal but, remarkably, making the dramatic moves allowed both to...
Good Laker News: Mark Madsen Is Back There’s been a lot of negative news about the Lakers in the recent past. The team hasn’t done much in the playoffs the last three years, Kobe Bryant has been injured and Dwight Howard has left to play for Houston. But here’s some good news. Mark Madsen is back. Madsen was the Lakers’ first round draft choice in 2000. The 6-foot-8 forward from Stanford was a member of two Laker championship teams although he didn’t play a lot or compile impressive statistics....
Many Dodgers Contribute To Remarkable Streak As the Dodgers have burst from last place to a runaway lead in the National League West division, it has truly been a team effort. Examining a sheet of accomplishments provided by the Dodgers’ public relations department in the press box before Saturday’s victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, I underlined passages that would be helpful for this piece. Soon I realized I was underlining almost everything. Here are some of the best ones and a few others tha...
USC, Now An Underdog, Tries To Recover Can this really be happening? USC, so dominant on the football field in the recent past, enters the 2013 season trying to recover from a dismal year. Not only did USC lose to UCLA, it finished with a 7-6 record after being ranked No. 1 in the nation at the outset. The season ended with a loss in the Sun Bowl, and reports surfaced about a dispute in the locker room among players, with quarterback Matt Barkley among the peacemakers. Barkley, previously a...
Respect Builds For UCLA Football When the Pac-12 Conference football media day was held at the Sony Studios in Culver City last week the biggest news was UCLA being picked to win the conference’s South division. This has been USC’s territory for a long time. But UCLA beat USC last season, 38-28 and now the media has picked Arizona State second and USC only third. Oregon was picked to win the North even though highly successful coach Chip Kelly left for the Philadelphia Eagles. Stanford was pic...
Poor Decisions Lead To Angels’ Collapse Today’s lesson in economics: It’s not how much you spend on players, it’s how wise you are in choosing the players. The Dodgers went on a spending spree this season. They got off to a terrible start, partially due to injuries, but have made a spectacular recovery. The Angels, by contrast, went on a spending spree, made some poor decisions, and are now buried so deep in the standings they’re unlikely to recover this season. Albert Pujols, the Angels’ h...
Transfer Boosts Culver Quarterback Depth Culver City High will enter the upcoming football season with roles well defined at quarterback. David Handler, a 6-foot-5 transfer from Palisades High, is expected to be the starter. Junior Sam Funches and sophomore Xavier Ryan will be the backups. Both have gained valuable experience in the Centaurs’ summer passing league games. A newcomer has recently arrived to make the depth even greater. Ahmari Rogers, a 6-foot-4 sophomore who attended Culver C...
When Fear Knocks, Let Faith Answer The Door It was right up there with the most heartwarming moments I’ve ever experienced in sports. Robin Roberts, the ESPN sportscaster and more recently co-anchor of Good Morning America who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, then endured a bone marrow transplant in 2012, received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPY awards last week at the Nokia Theatre across the street from Staples Center. Looking superb, she was introduced by LeBron James, who...
The Fans Speak: New Dodger Owners Are Succeeding The Dodgers got off to a terrible start, then made a dramatic recovery and reached the Al-Star break with a 47-47 record, good enough to be a contender in the Western Division. It remains to be seen if they’ll continue their recent surge. But one conclusion can be drawn. Fans are very happy with the new ownership. The fans spoke their mind when more than 206,000 turned out to see the Dodgers play the Colorado Rockies last weekend. It was the f...
Centaurs Progress In Summer Football Handler Excels At Quarterback The Culver City High School football program advances with summer passing league completion. The Centaurs recently reached the consolation bracket championship game in the Bonita High Air Assault Tournament involving 30 teams. Culver lost the title game, 38-18 to Santiago High of Corona. David Handler, the 6-foot-5 quarterback who previously played for Palisades High, excelled for the Centaurs. Among other accomplishments he...
Lakers May Be Doomed Until 2014 It’s portrayed as stunning that Dwight Howard rejected the Lakers, with their grand history, and selected the Houston Rockets as his new employer. But it’s really not a surprise if you’re aware of the Lakers’ recent steady decline. They haven’t gotten very far in the playoffs for the last three years. New owner Jim Buss hired the wrong coach, Mike Brown, fired him and hired Mike d’Antoni over Phil Jackson, another poor decision. Howard says he asked the Lakers...
Rivers Or Garnett: Did Clippers Choose Correctly? Chris Paul is staying with the Clippers for five more years. Doc Rivers is the new coach and a popular choice. All is well, or is it? If it came down to a choice between Rivers and Kevin Garnett, did the Clippers make the right decision? We won’t know until next season’s playoffs. Here’s where we are. There was plenty of media speculation in recent weeks that the Clippers were trying to hire Rivers and acquire Garnett in a blockbuster trade...
Rivers Becomes Clippers’ Coach Glen (Doc) Rivers had three years and $21 million remaining on his contract to coach the Boston Celtics. But when it became obvious the Celtics were going to enter a rebuilding phase next season Rivers wondered if he wanted to be a part of that plan. He had coached the Celtics to the 2008 NBA championship, and other than Phil Jackson he would be the highest profile coach available if he sought to escape his Boston contract. Rivers was granted permission to d...
Remarkable NBA Final Gets My Mind Working During the years I traveled with Laker teams I covered the NBA Finals 10 times. There were many memorable games and etched in my mind was winning a championship in Boston Garden, at last conquering the Celtics. When we flew home there were several billboards in West Los Angeles. The words were ‘The Lakers have never beaten the Celtics in the NBA Finals.’ The word never had a line drawn through it. Now we’ve had an NBA Finals that will rank with the great...
UCLA Makes Astounding World Series Debut The UCLA baseball team was good enough to qualify for the 67th College World Series in Omaha this week. But among the eight participants the Bruins weren’t highly regarded. How could they be with a .250 team batting average, one of the lowest in the NCAA? As of this writing on our Wednesday deadline it’s unknown what will happen by the end of the week. But if UCLA was to continue its astounding beginning that would be quite a story. You see, UCLA won its...
Dodgers: First Fernandomania, Now Puigmania As I advanced through the press gate at Dodger Stadium Sunday morning I knew the day was going to be special. I often have a brief chat with radio broadcaster Fernando Valenzuela, who created Fernandomania with his spectacular debut 33 years ago. And I knew the Dodgers’ latest phenom, Yasiel Puig, would be adding another chapter to his remarkable first week in the major leagues. Before the game I discussed Puig with Vin Scully. I asked if Puigmania rem...
New Phenom Gives Dodgers Life The last place Dodgers needed a spark, something to energize a perplexed fan base, someone to inspire teammates to perform better. They had a 22-year-old phenom in the minor leagues but there was a difference of opinion in the front office. Sure, Yasiel Puig had talent. Sure he would inspire comparions to Mike Trout, the similarly-talented kid who came up to the Angels last year and quickly thrived in major league competition. But this Dodger, a Cuban defector who...
It’s not like it used to be in high school football, when kids from a neighborhood took on kids from another neighborhood. Through the years competition intensified, rules changed and parents began looking for greater opportunities for their sons. Transferring became the way to go for many and the CIF loosened its rules to halt the practice. The practice of looking elsewhere, seeing which school might need someone at your position became prevelant. Last season the quarterback at Culver City H...
Shawn Kemp has been in a slump lately and he hit bottom Monday night by striking out four times and dropping a fly ball against the Angels. Kemp is the Dodgers’ biggest star, a National league MVP candidate and a proud man. “He has a lot of pride,” says manager Don Mattingly. But it is Mattingly’s job to give the Dodgers the best chance of winning each day, and sometimes a manager is inclined to take drastic action. So Kemp was removed from a game last week in a double switch, a move commonly ma...
Even a first round loss in the CIF playoffs hasn’t prevented Santa Monica High baseball coach Kurt Schwengel from being pleased with the Vikings’ season. Samohi was eliminated last Thursday, 8-3, by Knight High of Palmdale. The Vikings held a 1-0 lead until the visiting team pit together a four-run inning. The loss followed Samohi’s unbeaten Ocean League showing. The Vikings went 10-0 in the league and finished the coach’s first season with a 20-11 record. The Ocean League didn’t do well in the...
Before debating the merits and deficiencies of Vinny del Negro, let’s remember the Clippers have a long history of replacing coaches. It’s the way they solve problems. I wish they’d notice that stability is something to cherish in professional sports. There were Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda with the Dodgers, about 20 years each, the players knowing there was no doubt about who was in charge. There were Phil Jackson and Pat Riley in the NBA, and the players knew what was expected. Do it right...
The Dodgers’ 2013 payroll is the highest in the history of baseball. The Dodgers are in last place. The Angels spent heavily on players last summer too, but now they are 12 games out of first place, trailing Texas, Oakland and Seattle in their division. Is it too early to declare both teams out of playoff contention? Yes. Only a small portion of the 162-game schedule has been played. Is it too early for Dodger and Angel fans to worry? Not at all. Let’s start with the Dodgers. Certainly the...
