Sorted by date Results 426 - 450 of 522
If you’ve read this column the last two weeks you know I’m not encouraged by the Lakers’ recent movements, which have left them out of salary cap room while needing roster changes. But in the NBA off-season maneuvering surprises can happen. Last week the Lakers used up their final salary slot that could reward an elite player by acquiring Steve Nash in a trade with the Phoenix Suns. The acquisition of Nash made some Laker fans and even some news outlets speculate on whether the Lakers could win...
The Culver City High football alumni defeated the varsity on Saturday in the annual game on Helm’s Field. An exact score was not kept. Former Centaur quarterbacks Darius Banks and Lukas O’Conner directed the alumni. “We had about 30 former players here and I appreciate their interest,” said Centaur coach Jahmal Wright. “Our players received good experience as they played against primarily college players.” Banks, who excelled in two years at Fullerton College, is now at Central Washington,...
Are we ready to live in a world where the Clippers do things right and the Lakers fumble around like the Clippers did for decades? Well, we don’t yet know what the Lakers are going to do this off-season. The free agency period has just begun. But the Clippers have left no mistake about their intentions. Acquiring Lamar Odom and making Chauncy Billups their primary target in free agency sends the clear message that the Clippers are trying to win the NBA championship next season, or at least t...
Judging by summer passing league play, newcomer Xan Cuevas is making a strong bid to be Culver City High’s quarterback this season. Cuevas is a senior who has transferred from Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach. in last week’s passing league tournament at USC Cuevas directed Culver’s offense most of the time. The Centaurs won three early games to earn a No. 3 seed for the playoff round, won another game, then were eliminated in the semi-finals by Rancho Verde High of Temecula, a defending CIF ch...
Culver City High’s football season will begin on Aug. 31 with a game at West Torrance. The Centaurs, coached by Jahmal Wright, have been successful in recent years and will play a challenging non-league schedule to prepare for Ocean League competition. The home opener will be Sept. 7 against Peninsula. On the following Friday night, Sept. 14, Culver will play at Redondo. The Centaurs should have a pretty good idea of what to expect in that game because Redondo will have played a game against S...
One advantage of being a long-time sportswriter in Los Angeles is I’m welcome in locker rooms and press boxes so I can talk to past and present players. On Sunday, before the Dodgers earned a thrilling 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox I was discussing pitching with Fernando Valenzuela. Since he’s one of the greatest Dodger pitchers of all time I thought he could enlighten me on why some outstanding pitchers are struggling this season. The Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw isn’t dominating as he w...
Culver City High senior pitcher Tyler Mark has been named Ocean League Player of the Year. Mark, who made all-league in four straight seasons, led the Centaurs to a 10-0 league record, the first time in school history a Culver High baseball team has gone undefeated in league games. Mark had a 9-2 record and 2.13 ERA. He was also a prolific hitter, batting .338. Also named to the all-league first team were Culver’s Brian Ibarra, Jon Kocker, Skyler Blocker and freshman Jay Steiner. Adrian Perez a...
My journalism career was launched at the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, where a brilliant sports editor named Bud Furillo taught us the business. We were young, fresh out of college and eager. What a thrill it was to have a job where we’d go to baseball, football and basketball games , write about them and see our names in print. Hockey wasn’t a big deal in LA then, and most of us ignored the sport. But Allan Malamud, probably the most talented writer among us, was the exception. He was pas...
Fuller Guided Championship Teams Former Culver City High football coach Fred Fuller died last weekend. In the recent past he had undergone cancer surgery. Fuller had three children who attended Culver City High, two sons and a daughter. Both sons played football. He is survived by his wife, Cris, a former teacher at Farragut and Culver Middle School. Fuller coached championship Culver freshmen football teams from 1970 to 1978 and became the varsity head coach in 1979. His initial Culver varsity...
Vinny Del Negro will coach the Clippers again next season and that’s the right decision. The Clippers have had a dismal history which includes replacing coaches too often. But owner Donald Sterling appears to be on a winning streak lately. Clippers President Andy Roeser and general manager Neil Olshey went to Sterling and said they were in agreement that Del Negro should be retained. Sterling listened and agreed. There was considerable speculation late in the season that Del Negro was in trouble...
In evaluating Culver City High baseball in 2012 Coach Rick Prieto says “it was a good season.” Despite being eliminated in the second playoff round by Paramount High the Centaurs had of their best seasons ever. They went undefeated in the Ocean League for the first time in school history, reversed last year’s final week pair of losses to similarly unbeaten Santa Monica and shut out their first round playoff opponent, Eastside of Lancaster. In discussing Culver’s 3-0 loss to Paramount, a team th...
While we were all concentrating on the Lakers and Clippers’ march into the NBA playoffs a funny thing happened. The Dodgers, who struggled to a third place finish in the Western Division last season and were forecast third or worse this season, began the baseball season on a hot streak. Then, despite a barrage of injuries, they widened their lead. At the same time, division favorites Arizona and San Francisco got off to terrible starts. So the Dodgers began this week with a 7 ½ game lead on th...
Since the Lakers have a grand history – 16 NBA championships – they are associated with success. When the playoffs begin, fans tend to believe the Lakers will prevail, regardless of what happened in the regular season After all, these are the Lakers. So, when the Lakers were driven out of the current post-season tournament by the younger, faster Oklahoma City Thunder Monday night, four games to one in the second round, a lot of people were jolted. They shouldn’t have been. The Lakers’ season...
The Culver City High baseball season, one of the most memorable in school history, is over. The Centaurs lost their second round CIF playoff game, 3-0 to Paramount High Tuesday afternoon. Last year Culver eliminated Paramount in the second playoff round. Both of the Centaurs’ playoff games resulted in shutouts. Culver defeated Eastside of Lancaster, 1-0 in the first round. Rick Prieto had one the better teams in his long reign as the Centaurs’ coach. Culver finished with a 20-9 record. The tea...
As the Ocean League champion, Culver City High will begin the CIF baseball playoffs in a home game Friday at 3 pm. The Centaurs will host an opponent to be determined following a wild card round earlier in the week. By defeating defending champion Santa Monica, 7-6 and 1-0 last week the Centaurs completed a 10-0 league season. It’s the first time in school history Culver City has gone undefeated in the league. In the final league game Jay Steiner pitched the shutout. Culver had six hits, i...
Sixteen years after I met Derek Fisher at the Lakers’ training camp in Honolulu I am writing about his departure from the team and his move to Oklahoma City. If the rest of the second round NBA playoff series goes like Game 1 – when the Thunder routed the Lakers – this will be a story of how Fisher outsmarted his former team. They essentially decided they needed a younger, faster point guard and they obtained Ramon Sessions late in the season. That’s fine. But instead of keeping Fisher as a back...
A year makes a big difference. One year ago, after Culver City and Santa Monica Highs each won their first eight Ocean League baseball games they settled the league championship in two contests. Santa Monica won both games and Culver settled for second place. On Tuesday, in this week’s similar showdown, Culver City won Tuesday’s game on Santa Monica’s field, 7-6. The teams were scheduled to play Thursday at Culver City, but the result wasn’t known at press time. Tuesday’s outcome assures t...
Magic Johnson is the biggest name and Mark Walter supplies a lot of the money, but among the Dodgers’ new owners Stan Kasten is the one fans should get to know. You see, Kasten’s decisions will have the biggest impact on how successful the Dodgers will be on the field on upcoming years. He’s going to run the daily operation, decide which free agents fit, decide where the roster needs to be upgraded. “I have an office in Dodger Stadium and I’m going to be in every day,” said Johnson. “But I won’t...
The busiest week of the high school baseball season is underway for the Culver City Centaurs. Due to a rainout last week, a makeup game this week and a Saturday tournament game Coach Rick Prieto’s team will play four times – and right in the midst of a league championship showdown with Santa Monica the following week. On Tuesday Culver hosted Morningside. On Thursday culver will play at Morningside. On Friday Culver will make up the rained out game at Inglewood. On Saturday Culver will com...
The Lakers’ player known as Metta World Peace, who changed his name from Ron Artest, won’t be eligible to play in the team’s next seven games. The NBA showed its displeasure with World Peace by handing him a harsh suspension which includes playoff games for a vicious elbow to the face of Oklahoma City’s James Harden Sunday at Staples center. In many cases the NBA suspends players for the first few games of the next season but doesn’t include the playoffs. The Lakers conclude the regular s...
One more strike and Brian Ibarra would have had a no-hitter on April 19. However, with a 1-2 count a Hawthorne High batter singled and the Culver City High righthander settled for a one-hitter in a 5-1 victory. After the single Jay Steiner came in to get the final out. However, Ibarra’s performance highlighted a grand week for the Centaurs, who had defeated Hawthorne, 13-1 two days earlier. As a result Culver City stayed even with defending Ocean League champion Santa Monica, which also has a 4...
In recent months it was proper to wonder if Ben Howland would continue to be the UCLA basketball coach. Howland had guided three Bruin teams into the Final Four, but what had he done lately? UCLA hadn’t even qualified for the NCAA Tournament two of the last three years. Howland had to survive a meeting with Athletic Director Dan Guerrero before an announcement was made that he would return. I now have a pretty good idea of what took place in that meeting. Howland assured Guerrero that help was o...
There have been two chapters in Culver City High’s 2012 baseball season, non-league and tournament games for Coach Rick Prieto to evaluate his talent, and the start of Ocean League competition. Last week a third chapter was added – a showcase game in a college stadium between two of Southern California’s premier teams. Culver City lost to nationally-ranked Harvard Westlake of North Hollywood, 3-0 at USC’s Dedeaux Field. But the experience of competing on that level was a highlight of the Cen...
The Dodgers were given an extremely soft schedule to begin the 2012 season. Give them credit for taking advantage of the opportunity. It’s hard to find anything negative about nine wins and only one loss. But don’t minimize the fact that all the games were against the Padres and Pirates, two of major league baseball’s worst teams. At the same time the Dodgers were breezing to easy victories the DiamondBacks and Giants were playing each other. Then the DiamondBacks had a series against the Rockie...
After struggling in non-league play during the holiday period the Culver City High baseball team drew this evaluation from Coach Rick Prieto. “We had good pitching and defense but could not execute offensively,” he said. The Centaurs lost a home doubleheader to Capistrano Valley Christian, then lost to St. John Bosco, 4-1. Daruan Sylvester had two hits in one of the games against Capistrano Valley Christian and Jay Steiner pitched 4 2/3 innings without a decision. In the loss to St. John Bos...
