LITTLE ROCK — Dodgers have lost their shine
Someone pinch Bill Plaschke.
All that star power on the Los Angles Angels’ roster has the Los Angeles Times columnist swooning.
“Josh Hamilton?,” Plaschke wrote after the Angels landed the former TexasRangers slugger with a five-year, $125 million contract. “Are you kidding me?
“Nobody makes a surprise splash like the Angels, but this was a flying cannonball into the middle of a SouthernCalifornia pool that had been awash in Dodger blue.
“Nobody breaks down the door in the middle of the night like the Angels, but this was a bullhorntoting, helicopter-descendinginvasion into the consciousness of a local baseball population that has been resting peacefully atop those Magic millions.
“Josh Hamilton? Are you serious?
“With one huge swing-fromthe-heels signing Thursday, the Los Angeles Angels of Nowhere are back, back, back, back.
Hamilton may be fragile, his past may be checkered, the Angels may be giving him far too much time and money with a five-year, $125 million contract, but he still represents the kind of flashy billboard that owner Arte Moreno understands best.
“The Dodgers can spend millions, but the Angels will spend flashier millions. The Dodgers can play hardball, but the Angels are going to play long ball.
The Dodgers can steal Zack, but the Angels are going to respond with Whack!
“And, oh yeah, the rival Texas Rangers can stick it in Nolan Ryan’s cackle.” Flushing it away
For the love of Gordie Howe, someone please get the NHL players back on the ice.
Hockey fans have lost their minds.
The Canadian Press reported that Ontario lawyer Jim Vigmond recently bought a toilet from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ former dressing room for $5,300. Even more disturbing, he admitted he was willing to spend up to $10,000 for the toilet.
Vigmond jumped on the throne at an auction after the item he really wanted, a 1967 Stanley Cup banner, was priced out of his range.
Vigmond told The CanadianPress that he plans to put the toilet in his memorabilia room, light up a Cuban cigar, open a 30-year-old single malt and watch a Maple Leafs game once the lockout is over.
Ken Campbell of The Hockey News doesn’t know what to make of the whole situation.
“It’s not every day you get something that has had an intimate relationship with every bum who has played for the Maple Leafs over the years,” Campbell wrote. “And, Lord knows, there have been plenty of them.”Dance it out
Opponents haven’t missed Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis’ bone-jarring hits, but they sure have missed his Squirrel.
Lewis hasn’t been able to do his pregame dance, known as “The Squirrel”,since being sidelined by a torn right triceps Oct. 14. Lewis’ shimmying and shuffling during pregame warmups is a big hit with Ravens fans and teammates, and even some opponents.
“The Squirrel is awesome,” Denver Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley told The Associated Press. “It definitely fires guys up. It fires the crowd up.”
Make no mistake, though, The Squirrel belongs to only one man. Stokley said he’s never thought about trying to do the dance himself.
Well, at least not in public.
“No, never in the stadium,” Stokley said. “Maybe in my bedroom I tried it a couple of times, but never out on the field.”Quote of the day
“We haven’t valued the ball. We’ve still got to be able to handle adversity.
When it goes south on
us, we struggle to get it turned. That’s the trouble with young guards.” UALR Coach Steve Shields on his team’s struggles with turnovers this season
Sports, Pages 22 on 12/15/2012