Turf Toe

Happy Gloat Year.

From the LA Times, " After spotting Northwestern 22 first-quarter points, the Bruins scored 36 in succession en route to a 50-38 victory, their first bowl win in three seasons under Coach Karl Dorrell."

My prediction was UCLA 47, N’Western 38.  Again, Yee Haw!  Please set you line and odds on the Turf Toe's rantings.  Thanks.

Sun King.

While most of LA is waiting in vain for the USC/Texas game this Wednesday night, the ‘Other’ big LA bowl game gets going today.  That’s right, UCLA vs. Northwestern at the Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX. 

I think Bruins Coach Karl Dorrell has done a pretty good job of turning the team around the last few seasons.  But are they a top 5-ranked team, not a chance.  How about next year? I don’t think so on that either. 

But they are ranked 17th and if they didn’t fold against Arizona (?), 14-52, they would be 10-1 and somewhere a little bit higher, like maybe — gasp — top ten.

I’m feeling good about this game and the Bruins.  My prediction, UCLA 47, N’Western 38.  Yee Haw!

Gee, your hair smells terrific.

I am burning that WWJDD tee shirt.  I am so pissed.  Look at this, he looks like a mensch, not like the Johnny Damon we love.  I know, 52 million over 4 years is a lot more than 40 over 4, but to me, this is one more reason to hate the Yankees.

Clippers in a Tailspin?

I'm not going to dump the team from my bookmarks menu just because they lose a few games.  Like their fifth loss in six games.  Basketball, as they say, is a game of runs.  It just seems like the Clipps got a little cold on their road trip.  Some good news from the 97-75 loss at Indiana.  Shaun Livingston, in his first start of the season,  had 10 points and five assists in 39 minutes.  That kid is going to be a star.  Just bring back the 'fro Shaun.

Kobe Shoots 62!

Kobe shoots for 62 freaking points and outscores the whole Mavs team after three, the Clippers get rolled up by the lousy Nets and the Dodgers, which are slowly becoming a graveyard of players once in their prime, sign a one-year deal with another old timer, Kenny Lofton. 

All good stuff and interesting news for sports fans.  But it’s nothing – NOTHING – compared to the fact that the Astros gave Roy Oswalt a Caterpillar D6N XL bulldozer for winning game six of the NLCS.  They pay the dude 17 million over two years and then buy him a bulldozer for winning a game he needed to win anyway.  This is everything that is so right and so damn wrong with sports today.

As always, your comments are welcome.

Nomar! Nomar!

With Nomar's new one year contract, Bill Mueller and perhaps, Johnny D coming to Chavez Ravine, LA is beginning to look at lot like Boston, minus the ear-splitting accents, the abundance of cute preppy girls and the overall homogenized ethnic diversity of BoTown.

This is my question:  Why the short deals?  What the hell are the Dodgers waiting for?  This isn't basketball, it's baseball, where contracts are long.  Don't get the Toe wrong, I don't want to see another Dreifort or Todd Hundley debacle, but come on, how about three year deal so people can Vulcan Mind Meld with the Blue?  Sour Grapes on my part?  Looking for an excuse to bash a team that is down?  Still pissed at the Blue?  All of these I say, maybe.  Now let's see what the boys down in the O.C. do.

Also, does Grady realize the BoSox lost the '93 ALCS?

Comments?  Send me a email.

Oh, How We Miss Thee.

I'm was in Miami this week on assignment and as I was flipping through the channels at the Shore Club, where I was staying,  the local news came on.  I always like to see the local news outside of LA to get a compare and contrast kind of deal.  Like, is the news elsewhere as vapid as what we have in LA.  The answer, natch,  is always yes.

So the news is on and I'm watching and when it gets to the sports segment, it was all about the Heat.  How they dumped Van Gundy and put in Riley as Head Coach, the first game played with Shaq back, the team dynamics.  Fred Roggin with a Latin accent kind of stuff.  The sportscaster was interviewing Shaq, who was just being himself, which means that he was being the best center with the greatest personality ever.  I got kind of sad, I miss the big fella.  I miss his jokes, his semi full of Hanukkah gifts for underprivileged youth, his all around Shaqness.

Is he as great a player as he once was?  No.  Is he worth the dough the Heat are paying him?  No.  Did Jerry and Mitch make a good move trading him?  Sort-of.  But that's not the point. 

This is:  I love Shaq.  When he played for the Lakers, I would sometimes have a dream where Shaq and I would be riding go-carts, or hanging out playing horse.  I'm serious about this.  I would have bromance dreams of hanging with the Big Man.  What I am trying to say, the Lakers (and Clippers for that matter) need someone to take up the mantel of awesomeness and make hoops in LA more fun and dare I say it, vapid, like it used to be, like it should be.  We need someone at Staples to act a fool, just like a good celebrity sports figure should do.

Where's my Afro and fur coat, I'm trying out for the ABA.

Miller? Mueller!

OK, Ned.  Good work, Mr. McCourt.  You signed Bill Mueller, that's pronounced Miller, for all of you West Coast people who have never seen a BoSox game in your life.  Yeah, Miller, er, Mueller won an AL Batting title, a World Series ring and did some good work with Boston.  But, c'mon, the dude is 34.  Yeah, the Toe knows it's only a 2 year deal, like the Dodgers would really sign someone long term and he came fairly cheap.  I'm a little up in the air, but  still feel sort-of good about this.  Now sign Johnny Damon!   Slowly Dodgers, I'm coming around.  I'm still sleeping with my Red Rally Monkey but I'm willing to try if you're willing to try, OK?

Go Toreadors!

When I was a kid growing up in the San Fernando Valley, I wasn't too much into high school sports, so going to the game on a Friday night wasn't high on my list of things to do.  In high school, I had my photography classes and books and seeing bands at Bebop Records in Reseda and hanging at Bob's Big Boy to keep me occupied.  I also went 'Over The Hill' into 'The City' to hang out.  It wasn't jocks vs. dweebs thing, back then, it just was.

But when I moved back to LA in the mid-1990s to go to grad school at CalArts -- Jedi in the house! -- I started to follow my high school team, Woodland Hills Taft High School Toreadors.  I don't go to the games as an adult, that’d be West Texas Style, I just follow the team from afar.  So this year when they got off to a great start, I was pumped.  5-0, 8-0, 10-0, 13-0.  On Friday night was the City Championship game against Crenshaw, who Taft beat 35-34 in their opening game of the season.  Taft wasn't so lucky this time around and they lost the game 20-14.

Now, some of you out there may read into it a subtext of inner-city vs. the suburbs, a triumph of the poorly funded team beating a richer one, there is class and race and all of that involved and if you want to write a movie about that, be my guest.  I know those issues are there, but I’ll leave those types of things to a better writer than myself, someone like HG Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights.

I look at the championship game purely like this; it was about high school football at its finest and if you know it or not, Southern California has some of the best teams in the nation.  Think of that next season when you look through the LA Times sports section and wonder how your old school is doing.

Ned, You Blockhead!

After an extensive search, Grady Little is the new Dodger manager.  Wow, what a choice. 

For Shame, Ned. 

Look for the this photo to happen a lot, except with the pitcher in Dodger Blue and in a game that won't matter a lick.  Oy Vey.