Left Coast Sports Babe

Whie I wish Barry Zito all the best in his efforts Sunday to avoid an 0-6 start I must admit he gives the San Francisco Giants something even the Yankees don’t have  —

A $17 million a year fifth starter.

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And for any non-USC Trojan fans who didn’t have enough fun when Stanford’s football team upset the then #2 Trojans 24-23, I refer you to Saturday’s baseball game at Stanford’s Sunken Diamond:

USC 5-  Stanford 26.

You read it right.

Josh Howard in an interview with a Dallas ESPN affliiate today said “Most of the players in the league use marijuana and I have and do partake in smoking weed in the offseason sometime.”

Well, Howard may be in for fines and discipline from the league but he’s well on his way to signing a big endorsement contract with 7-11.

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And in Washington, the Nationals have a shiny new ballpark, but inside they still have a lousy team.

Kind of the same result we get by voting in a new Congress.

The New York Times reports that a new football league is forming to be a feeder league for the NFL.   Wait a minute, isn’t that college football.

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 Good news for couch potatoes.  Three new organizations have applied to the NCAA to start new college bowl games.  If approved, it would bring the total number of bowls to 35!

What a relief for all those 6-6 teams that just missed out on post-season play.

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After the Pennsylvania primary, Hillary Clinton said “I won that double-digit victory that everybody on TV said I had to win.”    And went on to say why that was a rationale for continuing her campaign.

Except that this morning the Pennsylvania Secretary of State said the margin was 9.2 %.  With potentially a block of votes from urban Philadelphia   -an Obama stronghold – yet to be counted.  .. Which could mean more the final total is more like 8.5 percent.

(Yeah, I know, a win’s a win, unless you’re Al Gore.  But if you are going to base a speech on a line of rhetoric, good idea to get your numbers right.)

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And once again the headline this week:

“Kenyan wins Boston Marathon”

Which could now join a long list of “duh” (as in, tell us something we don’t know) headlines.

Like for starters:

Yankees expect to have highest payroll in Major League Baseball.

Cubs fans optimistic this will be their year.

Controversy erupts in figure skating judging results.

IOC vows drug free Olympics.

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More to follow.  Suggestions accepted.

Last year: President Bush took his private 747  to  California, rode to Stanford University in a long motorcade with  dozens of  police cars, and then took a private helicopter to Napa, just so he
could ride a bike for Earth Day.

So John McCain is on a campaign tour of the South,  where he says he is embracing “forgotten places.”

Of course in his case those forgotten places can be where he left his keys, his glasses, his teeth….

It’s been a rough start to the playoffs for the Wizards.  Not only are they down 2-0 after big losses to the Cavaliers,  but Deshawn Stevenson really seems to have lit a spark under LeBron James by calling him “over-rated.”  And then Brendan Haywood gets called for a flagrant foul on James.

It’s enough to make Washingtonians looking for a little more dignified performance turn on C-Span.

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And this might be the quote of the week from new Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles.

“Anybody that is going to come to work with enthusiasm, concentrate and play hard will never have a problem with me. I don’t care if they throw the
ball in the seats 25 times a game.”

“They’ll be pulled out of the game before they get to
25, of course, but they will never have a problem with
me,” he added

The Pennsylvania primary is in two days.  Weary state residents cannot wait to get back to regular life and  to be done with all the negative campaigning.  Especially in Philadelphia, where they can go back to focusing on booing the Phillies.

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After losing his job as  the team’s president, last week Isiah Thomas was also fired from his job as coach of the Knicks.  This came as a surprise to many New Yorkers – someone was actually COACHING the Knicks?

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Barack Obama on Sunday said that while either he or Hillary would be the best choices, even Senator McCain would be a better president than George W. Bush.  With all due respect, Nixon was a better president than George W. Bush.

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Actually with all due respect, Chauncey Gardiner would be a better president than George W. Bush.

And stung by allegations that she lied about the risks she faced on her trip to Bosnia, Hillary Clinton has decided to do something truly dangerous – flying on American Airlines.

Regarding Hillary Clinton’s healthcare plan:

Barack Obama says mandates do not work.

George W. Bush says he is also against mandates, saying dates should be between a man and a woman.

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When asked if he thought Barack Obama was being condescending towards some voters, President Bush replied, I don’t know what you mean by condescending but I do think he was talking down to people.

Okay, it’s a slow time of year for sports.

The Ottawa Senators, based in Canada’s capital city, started the season off as the NHL’s hottest team, and ended up making the playoffs.  But they were swept in four games by the Pittburgh Penguins. 

Frustrated Senators fans said it was the worst performance they had seen from Ottawa since the last session of Parliament.

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Last night/yesterday morning, the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 2 to 1 in 22 innings.

Now THIS was a situation that might have really needed super delegates.

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Worst thing for the fans – they cut off beer after the 7th inning.

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And this is a really tacky late night joke.

Yorvit Torrealba of the Rockies and Josh Bard of the Padres both caught the entire game.   Meaning they spent more time on their knees than Monica Lewinsky.

Barack Obama released his tax returns.  He earned almost 4 million dollars from the two books he wrote before he ran for president.

As opposed to President Bush, who had two books he read before he ran for president.

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A man was kicked off a plane this week because he wouldn’t stop praying.   Considering all the bankrupties and grounded planes, it’s a wonder the whole plane  wasn’t praying.

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When did the presidential debates become events to tide people over until the next Super Bowl media day?

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And okay, an actual hockey joke.  Feel free to ignore if you ignore hockey.

What’s the difference between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Ottawa Senators?

About a week.

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And the Yankees have reconsidered their digging up that Red Sox jersey, and have told Boston they can bury another jersey in its place.  So long as Manny Ramirez is in it.

So Cindy McCain has copied her “family recipes” from the Food Network?

I worry less about that than the fact that her husband has now copied President Bush‘s tax plan.

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And yes, an actual bible verse in this blog.  With no comment I think needed:

Romans 12:9

     Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good

Delta Airlines has the industry’s lousiest mileage upgrade policy, and they have outsourced most of their reservations to India.  Northwest Airlines, with the lousiest seating policy, is affectionately referred to in the travel industry as “Northworst.”

So will the combined airline be  De-Worst?

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And this is a true comment from a Southwest agent, who patiently changed a reservation for a client of mine who had told me one thing and meant another –

My favorite question from customers –  “What’s after the last flight?”

The San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers are celebrating 50 years since they moved their teams to the West Coast.

To give you an idea how long ago that was, 50 years ago Barack Obama hadn’t been born yet, Hillary Clinton was running for 4th grade class president based on her “lifetime of experience”, and John McCain had just
received his first senior discount.

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CNN.com talks today about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s discussion of their faith, but notes of McCain, who talks little about his own religion that he is “from an older generation, one that is more private about prayer.”

Either that or based on his recent and repeated confusion of Sunnis and Shiites, his advisors have suggested he keep quiet so as not to publicly confuse Catholics and Protestants.

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And a re-do of the Michigan primary seems all but impossible at this point.  The latest hitch, when it was requested that any do-over in the state include the Detroit Tigers.

New bumper sticker?

If you aren’t bitter you aren’t paying attention.

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Stanford star Candice Wiggins was drafted by the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx.  Where as a star rooke she will probably make the WNBA maximum for players with less than  3 years experience – about $42,000.   Which is less than one year’s tuition, room and board at Stanford.

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Congrats to the Boston College Eagles, whose hockey team won another Frozen Four title. Concidentally “Frozen Four” is also the name Bill Clinton uses to refer to himself and Hillary’s three previous boyfriends.

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And is this a strange country or what?  A black man who just finished paying off his student loans can be called “elitist.”  A woman who with her husband has earned over $100 million in the past five years can call herself “middle class.”  And a 71 year old man who has earned nothing but government paychecks his entire adult life can call himself an “outsider.”

Which is more elitist and  out of touch?

In a country where gas and food prices have
skyrocketed, bridges and levees have collapsed, jobs
and pensions have disappeared.

To say that people are bitter?

Or pretend they have no reason to be?

Rough week, ATA, Aloha and Skybus shut down, and Frontier Airlines just filed for bankruptcy.    Meaning a whole lot of people have paid money for nothing, that is, besides donors to Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Actually, it wasn’t that long ago that the high-flying expensive operation that looked most on the verge of collapse was the Clinton campaign.

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President Bush saw his approval ratings drop to 28 percent, at the same time a NY Times polls showed only 19 percent of Americans think the country is on the right track.  George W. hasn’t seen numbers this low since he got his graded exams returned at Yale.

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The top-seeded San Jose Sharks avoided an embarrassing second straight loss against Calgary tonight in the first round of the NHL playoffs.    Thus also avoiding for now the embarassing headline:  “Sharks Flame Out in First Round.”

Matt Dempsey’s two-out RBI bloop single in the top of the 12th inning scored Rikki Foster with the game-winning to lift UC Davis (21-10) to an 9-8 victory over No. 10 Stanford (15-10-1) in a wild
non-conference contest at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Wednesday evening. Foster had started the inning with a leadoff double that was also his first collegiate hit but was stranded there until Dempsey’s game-winner off Stanford reliever Carey Schwartz, who took the loss in the first outing of his career despite a solid performance with only the run and two hits in the 12th inning off him over 3.0 innings of work.

(Carey is my son.  Unrecruited walkon at Stanford.  Gave up no hits in first two innings, 3 Ks, no walks, 1 double play after an error.   Yeah, mom is proud.)