Author: fartheroffthewall

Ugly is in the ire of the beholder.
And uniformly, Todd Radom has a laundry list of targets he can reference when sorting out Major League Baseball’s history on this dirty subject.
The Houston Astros’ rainbow fade that Nolan Ryan was once made to wear after the Angels let him walk away. Check.
The White Sox’ of Chicago’s scandalous attire at different points in the ‘70s and ‘80s – collared shirts, short pants, license-plate “SOX” across their hat and shirt. Double check.
The San Diego Padres’ Taco Bell brown-and-yellow mess that Tony Gwynn embraced out of embarrassment. Check please.
Do not dry clean any of the arguments Radom makes in presenting cases for these — as well as address two other faux paus much closer to our Southern California home – with the release of his new book, “Winning Ugly: A Visual History of the Most Bizarre Baseball Uniforms Ever Worn” (Sports Publishing, 156 pages, $24.99, released May 15).
“I come at it from this perspective,” Radom says, “and it’s a good thing to think about — I used to have a bulldog named Casey. He was stout white … ugly … bulldog. I’d be walking down the street with Casey and people would stop and say, ‘She’s so ugly … she’s cute … she’s beautiful.’
“There’s certainly nothing polarizing about ugly uniforms compared to the rest of our society talks about right now. The book has been a very positive experience so far and people seem very happy overall about it.”
We recently reviewed as one of the top choices for our 2018 edition of the 30 baseball books for the 30 days of April.
It has become more-than-fashionably popular since it started appearing on local bookstore shelves as Father’s Day nears.
Thus, we thought it suitable to call upon the New York-based Radom, a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in N.Y. and a graphic designer/sports branding expert who has worked with the MLB (specifically on the Angels’ brand) in shaping its messages, to see if he could button up some questions we have about where this is all trending: Continue reading “Sports and the media 05.25.18: A tailor-made approach to determining what’s ugly, what’s not and why we love laundry and its logos — a Q&A with “Winning Ugly” author Todd Radom” →

“This race has represented the gateway to summer. Memorial Day and the Indianapolis 500 have been intertwined for almost a century. And this event’s uniqueness is unquestioned. As in any sport, the cast of characters is constantly changing, but in the ultimate, the name itself – the Indianapolis 500 – transcends all else.
“Like the jockey who wins the Kentucky Derby, or the golfer who wins the Masters, or the physicist who captures the Nobel Prize, the winner of the Indianapolis 500 has his life changed forever. It is his calling card … forever. He and his team will have crossed the finish line first through a combination of skill, bravery, engineering, strategy and lucky.
“Any man who drives here is compelled to leave fear in the back seat. And while it goes unspoken for three hours, you must look the grim reaper in the eye and not blink.”
= Al Michaels, in the opening to the ABC telecast of the 1999 Indianapolis 500.

As ESPN Classic airs two-hour portions of the Indianapolis 500 races going back to the late ‘60s during lead up this week to the 102^nd event on Sunday at 9 a.m. (after an hour-long pre-race show), nostalgia can get clouded by Michaels-like hyperbole as we are reminded how much ABC has put into covering this event every year since 1965, much of it on tape-delay.
And now the network is on its final turn.
Continue reading “Sports media notes version 05.23.18: On ABC’s last lap around Indy, and how to Facebook Watch the fact your Angels are going upstream across the border” →

We can count on one hand the number of times we’ve successfully planned our week ahead and nothing fell through the cracks to derail it somehow. Consider this a helpful reminder that doesn’t involve someone asking why you’ve tied a stupid string around your finger:

The Dodgers have a promotion Monday night (7 p.m. game vs. Colorado) they’re calling One Dollar Dodger Dogs – part of the 60^th anniversary of being in L.A. Here’s a story about the dog’s history by team historian Mark Langill.
There are, of course, limits to any promotion — just five Dodger Dogs per transaction here. So get back in line, Joey Chestnut.
It brings up the fact that the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons recently discovered the more you drop the prices on concession stand items, the more people buy – and don’t feel guilty about not finishing them. Think about that, Dodgers’ decision makers, as you take this to the next level and raise the prices back to the $6.50 range.
A better deal, from purely a dollar standpoint, would be to purchase a $45 seat in the Right Field Pavilion and eat all the Dodger Dogs (plus nachos, popcorn, peanuts, Coke and water) you can stomach. But then watching the game over Yasiel Puig’s shoulder ain’t all that great.
The rest of the Dodgers’ schedule at home this week: vs. Colorado on Tuesday (Corey Seager bobblehead giveaway) and Wednesday at 7:10, then three against San Diego on Friday (7:10 p.m., fireworks), Saturday (7:10 p.m., a Corey Seager-Cody Bellinger T-shirt giveway) and 1:10 p.m. (a fidget spinner giveaway). And no word if Clayton Kershaw returns this week, but Rich Hill going on the 10-day DL with another blister issue will surely tax the bullpen.

The Angels closed out the month of April by getting outscored 17-5 in a three-game series loss to the Yankees  at Angel Stadium. A trip to Yankee Stadium for a three-game series this weekend (Friday at 4:05 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m. for Fox Sports West, wrapped around Saturday at 4:15 p.m. on Channel 11) will likely get Shohei Ohtani on Sunday messing with all those free-swinging pinstripers. He didn’t face the Yankees in their visit to Anaheim.
The Angels, a league-best 14-4 on the road, have 11 in a row way from home starting this week with three games in Toronto (Tuesday and Wednesday at 4:07 p.m., and then Thursday at 9:37 a.m. on the Facebook Watch platform, which those who are stuck in their office claim to be something they’re OK with so they can access the game easier).

The Golden State Warriors’ 41-point win over the Houston Rockets in a Game 3 home win in the Western Conference Finals on Sunday night means means this thing could be finished up before the weekend – Game 4 is Tuesday at Golden State (6 p.m., TNT), with Game 5 moving to Houston on Thursday (6 p.m., TNT). Every win in both conference finals has been by double digits, and Boston looks to rebound from a 30-point loss to Cleveland in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference series with Game 4 on Monday (5:30 p.m., ESPN) at Cleveland. They could close it out at home in Boston for Game 5 on Wednesday (5:30 p.m., ESPN), go back to Cleveland if needed for Game 6 on Friday (5:30 p.m., ESPN) and then, if things get really sketchy, there’s a Game 7 penciled in for Sunday at Boston (5:30 p.m., ESPN).

The 102^nd Indianapolis 500 takes place this Memorial Day weekend (Sunday, 8 a.m., Channel 7) with Danica Patrick saying she’s calling a career after this ride. Her four lap average of 228.090 mph in the No. 13 GoDaddy Chevrolet during qualifying puts her inside row three. Local Indy racer Ed Carpenter, who heads the team that Patrick drives for here, will start on the pole. For whatever Patrick couldn’t do during her run at NASCAR, she has six Top 10 finishes in seven races at the Indy 500 and was third in 2009. Isn’t that worth something? So maybe we see Aaron Rodgers dumping milk on her in the winner’s circle.

The LAFC has two more home games at the new Banc of California Stadium – a Wednesday friendly against Borussia Dortmund at 7 p.m., and an MLS match against DC United on Saturday at 7 p.m. In between, there’s the Champions League final – Liverpool vs. Real Madrid, at 11:45 a.m. on Channel 11 (7:45 p.m. local time in Kiev) on Saturday. Travel costs and logistics have resulted in more than 2,200 Real Madrid fans returning their tickets – heck, it’s a 1,783 mile journey from Madrid to the stadium. Real Madrid was offered 12,802 tickets to distribute to their 24,268 season-ticket holders who entered a lottery. Liverpool fans are said to be having the same issues trying to get to the Ukrainian capital. There isn’t a closer mid-way point to do this?

Just in case you spent last weekend out of town at a nephew’s college graduation, helping your brother fill sandbags to protect his patio before the next rainfall, or appeasing your wife by driving around parts of the San Fernando Valley looking at potential new downsizing homes:

When the Dodgers were dragging through a streak that saw them lose six in a row (including four to the dismal Reds) and nine out of 10 from May 5-16, this was one of many versions of a tweet that tended to start surfacing:

Without even going to 7-Eleven, take a big gulp on their latest four-game win streak, all on the road, including three wins bagged within a 24-hour period in Washington D.C. before they escaped to L.A. hoping no one really noticed. Kenley Jansen has even saved two of the last three wins – wrapping up a Saturday double header caused by a Friday rainout – and Alex Wood (1-4) finally has his first victory of the season in the 7-2 series finale. Remember, at this point a year ago, he was 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA en route to a 11-0 run and an All-Star trip. Also the Dodgers won Game 2 of that Saturday doubleheader after Rich Hill decided he couldn’t go more than two pitches before a blister erupted again. So the bullpen retired all 27 outs and they won. That happened 261 times previous in MLB history — as Dodgers play-by-play man Joe Davis points out, that’s more rare than a no-hitter.

Sundays with Shohei should be a shoe-in for best MLB ticket each week. Shohei Ohtani’s line in a 5-2 win over Tampa Bay at Angel  Stadium on Sunday: 7 2/3 innings, two runs, six hits, nine strikeouts, one walk, and a career-high 110 pitches.

Also this gem: His splitter is so devastating that hitters are 1-for-44 with 30 whiff against it. The Angels (26-21) are 6-1 in games Ohtani (4-1) has pitched in this season and they are 19-12 in games Otahni has appeared as a pitcher or DH (so that’s 7-9 without him). And now there’s some buzz that he deserves to at least be invited to the MLB Home Run Derby in Washington in July. Sure, if he can post up a few of the tape-measure shots he hit in Friday’s batting practice that just added to his legend.
Meanwhile, Mike Trout, who ESPN pointed out last week was headed for the greatest season of all time, ended an 0-for-18 streak with a mammoth home run on Friday, two more hits on Saturday and a weird 0-for-1 day in Sunday’s win where he walked three times. Net loss: Lowering his batting average to a meager .294 (it was at .326 on May 10).

When the Belmont Stakes roll around in less than three weeks, you can justify any sort of argument that Justify has a great shot at becoming the latest thoroughbred Triple Crown winner, and the first since American Pharoah ended a long drought in 2015. But you have to realize why only 12 others have done this – it’s really, really difficult. Justify went into a fog and grinded out a head-to-head matchup for most of the race against Good Magic in Saturday’s Preakness, again in a mud-splashed rainstorm, before edging out Bravazo and Tenfold for the second leg. Will Justify go three-for-three as a 3-year-old? “It is the ultimate automatic entry for immortality because nobody lucks their way into the club,” Dan Wolken wrote for USA Today. “The ones who made it earned it, and the ones who fell short weren’t meant to be there. … Saturday, he was more Silver Charm than American Pharoah, which won’t scare anyone away from trying to stop him. “

The Las Vegas Golden Knights, aka “Golden Misfits,” are in the Stanley Freakin’ Cup Freakin’ Final. What kind of odds would the Vegas wiseguys have given us before the season started? R.J. Bell of Pregame.com points out it was 500-to-1. “If the Golden Knights go all the way it would be the biggest net loss ever for Vegas bookmakers on any title winning team — caused by a combination of jumbo odds plus many small bets by local supporting the new team,” Bell says.

Now let’s to back to the headlines posted a year ago, which the Vegas Golden Knights Nation’s Twitter account were more than happy to post:

The Knights became the seventh team in NHL history to clinch three series on the road when they won the Western Conference title in Winnipeg on Sunday. The last team to do it was the Kings in 2014. Tampa Bay has a chance to finish off its Eastern Conference final against Washington in Game 6 of their series Monday at 5 p.m. on NBCSN.

We know there was no way you were up in the middle of the night late Friday/early Saturday to gaze upon the Royal Wedding. No harm done. However, 29 million plus did in the U.S., which was more among the top 50 broadcasts in 2018 so far than the Alabama-Georgia college football national title game, the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony and the Rams’ loss to Atlanta in the NFC wild card game. If anyone asks what your favorite moment was, play it cool and say, “Well, when that choir belted out a version of the old Ben E. King song, ‘Stand By Me,’ I was almost about to shed a tear.” Trust us. It’ll work.

May we point that May is already more than half-way finished.
But there is plenty of time left to make sure it doesn’t escape our minds without acknowledging that Mental Health Awareness Month is an actual thing  in the U.S. since 1949.
“Fitness #4Mind4Body” is the theme for 2018. The corresponding color of ribbon to wear: Green.
And as many of us will admit: Many mornings, it’s not that easy thinking green when you’re really pretty blue.

Three things that have come on our radar this week just before “May Gray” rolls over into “June Gloom” — yup, it’s an actual thing in the beach parts of Southern California where the thick overcast fog hangs over and prevents summer from officially beginning on Memorial Day weekend.
Consider how these stories on various sports media platforms can help lift any cloud of misinformation:

* “Bipolar Rock ‘N Roller,” a Showtime 75-minute documentary about MMA/kickboxing sportscaster Mauro Ranallo and his personal battles with mental illness issues, goes national with the launch on Friday, May 25 at 9 p.m. (and on-demand starting Saturday, May 26).
In L.A. this week to promote the program, including an appearance on the Rich Eisen’s  Show in El Segundo, Ranallo explained why he has decided to go public with this project that exposes his Bipolar Affective Disorder, a condition afflicting nearly five percent of the U.S. population according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI.org).

“I have always tried to do my part to bring awareness to mental health issues,” said Ranallo, the first broadcaster to call play-by-play on boxing, kickboxing, MMA and professional wrestling events on national television. He did the Mayweather-Pacquiao international telecast in May 2015 as well as Mayweather-McGregor for Showtime pay-per-view last August.
“Over the last several years, I allowed my best friend, Haris (Usanovic), to film me at my lowest points as well as at my highest. The idea is simply to show others who suffer that they are not alone and that, even when the outlook is bleak, you can overcome and achieve success. Mental illness is a life sentence — there is no cure — but it doesn’t have to be a death sentence.”

* Episode 254 of HBO’s “Real Sports” on Tuesday at 10 p.m. includes a piece on Royce White, the 16th overall pick in the 2012 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets. Why did he eventually play only three games and nine minutes for Sacramento in 2013-14, before trying to come back with the Clippers for the 2015 Orlando Summer League, then resurface as the MVP and scoring leader of something called the National Basketball League  in Canada?
Anxiety issues.  And little recourse as to how to address it.

Two months ago, he explained to David Zirin in The Nation about how the NBA’s mental health policy falls short.  Yahoo.com had a story as well last March. Bleacher Report did a piece on him last summer. Longreads.com had this one last August. So now HBO picks up the story with Bernie Goldberg, who, according to the network press release, “learns that White is continuing to speak out about mental health as he has once again found success on the basketball court.”
The NBA says it plans to name a director of mental health and wellness. White says he is skeptical, even as former USC star DeMar DeRozan and ex-UCLA standout Kevin Love have talked about their own inner battles.
Hopefully, White’s disposition changes because …

==  A non-profit organizationally playfully referred to as We’re All A Little Crazy came up on my Twitter feed this week, thanks to ESPN sports business reporter Darren Rovell.
I might not have been initially crazy about checking it out, but glad I eventually did.
Before long, I was trying to distinguish the difference between the #SameHere hand sign and the ever-present “Hang Loose” waggle I’m used to seeing when you’re trying to convey that things are chill.
Eric Kussin, a former NBA and NHL executive, said he had what he’ll call his own “Me Too” mental health moment — PTSD, anxiety and depression that was the result of years of trauma in his life that doctors had no clue how to diagnose or cure. He decided to share.
Warning: Electroshock therapy shouldn’t be creating a buzz any more in the brain-fixing department.
“I learned a number of important things as I arose from my severe mental health battle and was contacted by people all over the world looking for help,” he said. “The term ‘mental illness’ further exacerbates the stigma, creating an ‘us vs. them’ message, as if those with poor mental health are different than people in the rest of society beyond just what they are struggling with.
“I don’t deny that mental illness exists and that many are proud of the illnesses they’ve fought. But to the masses suffering and not getting treatment, I consistently heard that this term drives people away from asking for help, because they are concerned with being categorized in such a way. We can be more inclusive with our messaging.  I learned that no one is immune and that suffering from poor mental health doesn’t make you ‘weak.’  In fact, the exact opposite is true. Those battling are some of the strongest people I have ever gotten to know. ”
Many current and former athletes came on board to join Kussin’s #SameHere Celebrity Alliance, including White, volleyball star Sinjin Smith, swimmer Amanda Beard, cyclist Tyler Hamilton, hockey stars Theo Fleury and Kevin Stevens, WNBA star Chamique Holdsclaw … and even hot dog eating champ Takeru Kobayashi.
Rovell read Kussin’s story, explained the impact it had on him, and wanted to be involved in the Global Mental Health Movement through the #SameHere Influencer Alliance to break stigma barriers of mental health. Plain and simple.

Others who joined Rovell are former Indianapolis Star columnist and current Indianapolis WTHR-TV personality Bob Kravitz.
Before I knew it, I was paddling out into the #SameHere waters.
Kussin’s story got me as well, as he was explaining it to me on the phone from New York.

“Sometimes life throws you a curve and you go on a different career path,” Kussin said. “Life’s traumas piled up on me. We all go through some kind of loss or job change or breakups. It’s a common human event. So when we created ‘We’re All A Little Crazy,’ we want to make sure it’s inclusive, even have a little fun with it, remove the stigma.
“The media might cover the Kevin Love story about this for three days, and then DeMar DeRosen for three more days. But this ‘Me Too’ moment for mental health is for everyone to come out and deal with their stuff, form a conversation, be vulnerable, break down barriers, and share ways we cope with things.”
So, let’s start to share … Continue reading “The mentality behind mental health intersecting in 2018 with the sports media, and how to ease your anxiety about it” →