Author: fartheroffthewall

Someday soon, we don’t know when, we’re going to get to that place where we’re told the Rams and Chargers will walk into a fabulous Inglewood multi-purpose facility, across the street from the once-called Fabulous Forum, on the site of one of the more fabulous race tracks that Southern California ever had. It’s 2020? Sure… But til then, we’ll trample out to the Coliseum for Week 3 of the NFL season – Sunday, 1:05 p.m., Channel 2 — for a meet-and-greet. They still could be destined to win the NFC West and AFC West, respectfully, and until then, they respectfully must play their best at this moment in time and rile up the Los Angeles NFL marketplace.
Other games worth watching this week:
Monday: Seattle at Chicago, 5:15 p.m., ESPN
Thursday: N.Y. Jets at Cleveland, 5:20 p.m., NFL Network
Sunday: San Francisco at Kansas City, 10 a.m., Channel 11; Dallas at Seattle, 1:25 p.m., Channel 11; New England at Detroit, 5:20 p.m., Channel 4

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The Dodgers’ three game series at home against Colorado has several layers of importance with two weeks left in the season and the Dodgers starting their final homestand. Before you get to amped up after that weekend in St. Louis, maybe the team finally realized: They lead the league in runs and ERA, and no team that has been first in run differential and missed the playoffs in 28 years. The rest depends on how they score with runners in scoring position and with two out – they’re among the worst in that department in the last 45 years according to research by Jared Diamond at the Wall Street Journal.
How the pitching matchups work:
Monday at 7 p.m.: Hyun-Jin Ryu vs. Jon Gray, SportsNet LA
Tuesday at 7 p.m.: Clayton Kershaw vs. Kyle Freeland, SportsNet LA
Wednesday at 7 p.m.: Walker Buehler vs. Tyler Anderson, ESPN and SportsNet LA
Also this week for the Dodgers (all on SNLA)
At Dodger Stadium vs. San Diego:
Friday at 7:10 p.m., (Digital Bobblehead Night) The homestand will be highlighted by Jaime Jarrín Night on Friday, Sept. 21, where the Hall of Fame broadcaster will become just the 12^th Dodger to be inducted into the team’s Ring of Hono
Saturday at 6:10 p.m. (Manny Machado real bobblehead night)
Sunday at 1:10 p.m. (final home regular-season game, fan appreciation day, Orel Hershiser real bobblehead day).
Also this week for the Angels:
At Oakland: Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:05 p.m., Thursday at 12:35 p.m., FSW
At Houston: Friday at 5:10 p.m., Saturday at 4:10 p.m., Sunday at 11:10 a.m., FSW

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Before the Rams-Chargers have their Coliseum summit, USC will try to see how many fans it can pretend to can fit into the place on a Friday night at 7:30 p.m. just so ESPN has some programing of a Pac-12 Conference game. The opponent: Washington State. The underlying cause: Get to 1-1 in the conference standings.
UCLA, by the way, is off this week to figure out a way to make 0-3 look cool to future recruits.
The best of the rest in Week 4:
Friday: Florida Atlantic at Central Florida, 4 p.m., ESPN; Penn State at Illinois, 6 p.m., FS1
Saturday: Notre Dame at Wake Forest, 9 a.m., Channel 7; Nebraska at Michigan, 9 a.m., FS1; Louisville at Virginia, 9:30 a.m., ACC Network; Texas A&M at Alabama, 12:30 p.m., Channel 2;  Clemson at Georgia Tech, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7; Texas Christian at Texas, 1:30 p.m., Channel 11; Stanford at Oregon, 5 p.m., Channel 7; Arizona State at Washington, 7:30 p.m., ESPN

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Who isn’t ready for some NHL exhibition matchups? The Kings set the blades in motion with a couple of split-squad contests at Staples Center against Arizona (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.) and at Las Vegas (Thursday, 7:30 p.m.). The Ducks are also in play, including a televised game at home against San Jose (Thursday, 7 p.m. Prime Ticket) to go with games at San Jose (Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.) and at Arizona (Saturday, 6 p.m.)

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Only the top 30 money winners make the field for The PGA Tour Championship  at the East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Thursday-Sunday, to finally close the season and determine this FedEx Cup thing. Bryson DeChambeau goes in with the most advantageous path to win in his first Tour Championship appearance. Dustin Johnson is in the No. 4 spot in a field that includes — against all odds — Tiger Woods, who missed the cut at Riviera back last February but still rallied to have a very respectable season. Also here: Phil Mickelson, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy, Brooks Koepka, Bubba Watson, Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler. Not here: Jordan  Spieth — he finished 31st and did not play in the required 25 events this season. He still made $3 million this season. Jeez. Golf Channel has the first two rounds starting at 10 a.m. Thursday and Friday. Channel 4 has the third round Saturday at 11:30 a.m. and the final round Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

Where in the world is Sergio Dipp? The ESPN sideline reporter who was part of the 2017 first “Monday Night Football” team with Beth Mowins and Rex Ryan on the Chargers-Broncos game from Denver became something of an instant legend for his reporting. But then … nothing.
Since we can’t quite wrap up Week 1 of the NFL regular season without a) the Rams’ participating, b) the Raiders participating, c) a New York-centic story, we have the first two taken care of in the back end of the ESPN Monday Night Football doubleheader with the Rams traveling to Oakland (7:15 p.m., also on Channel 7). That comes after Sam Darnold makes his first start for the New York Jets against Detroit (5:15 p.m.)
Right on the heels of that is Week 2,the L.A. market gets: Rams at Arizona (Sunday, 1:05 p.m., Channel 11), the Chargers are at Buffalo (Sunday, 10 a.m., Channel 2) and that makes room for the Raiders’ game at Denver (Sunday, 1:25 p.m., Channel 2) Continue reading “09.10.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →

Chris Erskine wrote last weekend in the L.A. Times: “There are trace amounts of autumn in the air — pixie dust, or maybe that’s just garden grit. Whatever. Change is good, or so they tell us.”
Back to school. Back to college football. And, finally, the changeover to where we pay attention to the NFL regular season launching.
When can we use our charge card to bet on the Chargers in one of many local and legal sports book? We aren’t there. Yet.
Week 1 starts the Thursday-to-next-Monday exercise of spreading the wealth, and more opportunities for protests during the National Anthem during nationally televised games. The first: Defending champion Philadelphia playing host to Atlanta (Thursday, 5:20 p.m., Channel 4). By Sunday, we have Los Angeles’ second year of the Chargers inviting Kansas City to come over and play in their condo-shaped backyard at the StubHub Center in Carson (1:05 p.m., Channel 2). The Rams don’t end the official first week until they go to Oakland on a Monday night, so hold that thought, and the first Aaron Donald sighting.
The rest of the schedule for the L.A. market :
Note: the Chargers’ single game for CBS meaning there is no Pittsburgh-Cleveland, Cincinnati-Indianapolis, Houston-New England, Buffalo-Baltimore
San Francisco at Minnesota, Sunday at 10 a.m., Channel 11 (chosen over Tennessee-Miami and Jacksonville-N.Y. Giants)
Dallas at Carolina, Sunday at 1:25 p.m., Channel 11 (over Seattle-Denver and Washington-Arizona)
Chicago at Green Bay, Sunday at 5:20 p.m., Channel 4

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As far as brand names go, USC and UCLA go large for Week 2 with roadies that end up as the best bets to watch on a national basis. The Trojans’ Pac-12 opener at Stanford (Stanford, Saturday at 5:30 p.m, Channel 11) should be an eye-opener for freshman QB J.T. Daniels, although the Cardinal (1-0) stumbled around for awhile against San Diego State before recording its season-opening win last week. The Bruins’ trip to Oklahoma (Saturday at 10 a.m., Channel 11) comes with the Sooners’ game film of a 63-14 squashing of Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic in their opener last Saturday.
The best of the rest this week:
Monday: Virginia Tech at Florida State, 5 p.m., ESPN
Friday: TCU at SMU, 5 p.m., ESPN2
Saturday: Arkansas State at Alabama, 12:30 p.m., ESPN2; Georgia at South Carolina, 12:30 p.m., Channel 2; Colorado at Nebraska, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7; Penn State at Pittsburgh, 5 p.m., Channel 7; Michigan State at Arizona State, 7:45 p.m., ESPN.

Continue reading “09.03.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →

The first major weekend of every college football season is rarely a trip down Easy Street for Kirk Herbstreit.
The 2018 version is just a bit more fascinating in watching how tight his seat belt must be fastened.

The ESPN/ABC prime-time game analyst and de facto TV voice of the game today covers three games  in the first five days of this first big weekend, on top of a swing through South Bend, Ind., for the first “College GameDay” show.
Adding on, he agreed to a conference call with a group of reporters late last week, something that took even more expert navigation behind the wheel of opinionating.
The former Ohio State quarterback, who just turned 49 and starts his 23rd season on the “GameDay” franchise, was of course going to be hit with Q&As about this three-game, go-sit-in-the-corner punishment levied on Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer, who actually spent the fall of 2011 at ESPN chilling out between gigs at Florida and Ohio State.
If you’re into connecting irrational dots: Herbstreit’s coach at The OSU from ’89-’93 was John Cooper, who in 1988 was the successor to Earle Bruce (’79-’87), who was the grandfather of former OSU assistant Zach Smith, whose bombshell interview with ESPN earlier this month revealed Meyer knew about allegations that Smith abused his then-wife in 2015, and Meyer apparently decided to ignore “red flags” in Smith’s personal life because Meyer considered Bruce to be one of his great mentors. And ESPN was kind of lax in reporting some of that followup, generated by a former ESPN reporter, Brett McMurphy, who says he would be “stunned” if Meyers is still coaching at OSU after this season.

Herbstreit’s devotion to the OSU program goes back to his father, Jim, starring in the Buckeyes’ backfield during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. But Herbstreit moved his wife and four sons from Columbus, Ohio, to Nashville, Tenn., in the spring of 2011. He explained it was too difficult to maintain some peace and tranquility the more he worked at ESPN while doing a sports-talk show in Columbus:
“Nobody loves Ohio State more than me,” Herbstreit told the Columbus Dispatch at the time. “I still have a picture of Woody Hayes and my dad in my office, and nobody will do more than I do for the university behind the scenes. But I’ve got a job to do, and I’m going to continue to be fair and objective. To continue to have to defend myself and my family in regards to my love and devotion to Ohio State is unfair. …
“Eighty to ninety percent of the Ohio State fans are great. It’s the vocal minority that make it rough. They probably represent only 5 to 10 percent of the fan base, but they are relentless.” Continue reading “Media notes version 08.29.18: The rollicking intersection of “Herbie Rides Again” and “Goodbye, Columbus”” →

When USC opens its college football season Saturday at the still-in-facelift-mode Coliseum with a 1 p.m. game against UNLV (Pac-12 Network), followed by UCLA starting it face-lifted program with Chip Kelly against Cincinnati at the Rose Bowl with a 4 p.m. kickoff (ESPN), one of the natural inclinations isn’t to ask: Is it possible to drive and see both games?
That’s often a sports writer’s dilemma, if that’s the correct words to use here. It becomes a dilemma not because it’s a choice of two bad things, but because it’s deciding to try something that’s highly impractical.
Pick one, and stick with it, based on parking, freeway traffic and the overlap – one will still likely be going when the other kicks off.
The easier answer is: Can I watch both on TV? That’s another dicey proposition if you’re a DirecTV user and have come to the realization that the Pac-12 Network will (probably) not be on your menu unless AT&T figures things out as the new DTV caretaker.

For openers, neither is an eye-grabber along the lines of Michigan-Notre Dame (Saturday, 4:30 p.m., Channel 4). Or Washington-Auburn (Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Channel 7). Then there’s Miami vs. LSU at the JerryDome in Arlington, Tex. (Sunday, 4:30 p.m., Channel 7). The nation’s No. 1 team, Alabama, starts off at home against Louisville in the prime-time window (Saturday, 5 p.m., Channel 7). There’s also some compelling reasons to check in on Ohio State (hosting Oregon State, Saturday, 9 a.m., Channel 7) and Maryland (hosting Texas, Saturday, 9 a.m., FS1). There’s even Lane Kiffin’s Florida Atlantic testing itself at Oklahoma (Saturday, 9 a.m., Channel 11).
But just celebrate that Sept. 1 is here, and the sport that has some real issues with trust among the coaching fraternity can put that aside, maybe, and play some ball.
As for some of the rest:
Thursday: Northwestern at Purdue, 5 p.m., ESPN; Missouri State at Oklahoma State, 5 p.m., FS1; Weber State at Utah, 5 p.m., Pac-12 Network
Friday: Utah State at Michigan State, 4 p.m., BTN; Western Kentucky at Wisconsin, 6 p.m., ESPN; San Diego State at Stanford, 6 p.m., FS1; Colorado at Colorado State, 6:30 p.m., CBSSN
Saturday: Mississippi at Texas Tech, 9 a.m., ESPN; Tennessee vs. West Virginia at Charlotte, N.C., 12:30 p.m., Channel 2; Washington State at Wyoming, 12:30 p.m., CBSSN; North Carolina at Cal, 1 p.m., Channel 11; Akron at Nebraska, 5 p.m., Channel 11; Bowling Green at Oregon, 5 p.m., Pac-12 Network; UTSA at Arizona State, 7:30 p.m., FS1; BYU at Arizona, 7:45 p.m., ESPN; Navy at Hawaii, 8 p.m., CBSSN Continue reading “08.27.18: Five things you should plan for the week ahead based on unscientific evidence of guaranteed importance” →