The day's look at sports

In the NFL, the 49ers' Mike Nolan continues to lobby Reebok for the "right" to wear a suit on the sidelines, like his dad, former Niners head coach Dick Nolan.

The younger Nolan, by the way, is probably more popular around here than un-defeatable Mayor Gavin Newsom. The 49ers, on the other hand, continue to be an organization of jokers off the field. A colleague in the business recently told me her struggles to get important phone calls returned are par for the course.

In the NBA, much is being made of Lebron James' dunk over Tim Duncan. But Warriors fans know, it doesn't even compare to Baron Davis' de-pantsing of Andrei Kirilenko earlier in the playoffs. Hell, Duncan didn't even jump. Red Herring today to those media boofs -- represented today, because he's a good sport, by Charles Barkley.

(I'm obliged to say that Barkley, though a knee-jerk loudmouth, is not exactly a hardened criminal like some athletes you may hear about.)

Okay, take care of those tootsies.

-Zed

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"The NFL, like life, is full of idiots."
-Randy Cross

Mooning over it all

Thoughts over my Cheerios (no relation to Moons Over My Hammy)...


No real surprise: MySpace launches a dozen video channels...

Good company, bad company: in hindsight, Oracle got an absolute bargain on naming the Warriors' arena. For all the mentions of Oracle over national air in recent weeks, the Warriors actually see less than $2 mil a year...

And, just for the heck of it: Bill Clinton is making campaign ads for Hillary, while not bothering to hide his new squeeze. There's hope yet for Newsom.

Rest easy.

-Zed

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"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base."
-Dave Barry

Yanks, Apple founder

It seems Apple, who normally gets practically a free pass on security, is having major issues with QuickTime, its media player. It's bad enough that experts are worried that experts could use the company's recent fix of a gaping QuickTime-Javascript error to reverse engineer hacks, putting millions of iPod users at risk.

The U.S.-CERT gave the vulnerability a 10 out of 10 points in its risk-rating scale. That's before the fix/hack issue.

In Sports, Red Herring to a twenty-year-old hamstring. The 'string belongs to uber-prospect Phillip Hughes, who defied recent Yankee tradition by holding the Rangers scoreless and even hitless into the seventh inning, before succumbing to another recent Yankee trend, and leaving with the injury.

Yanks GM Brian Cashman: "We seem to be getting hit every day." Hughes could be out a month or more. This is part of why there was internal pressure not to summon the talented Hughes in the first place.

Meanwhile, improbable opening day starter Carl Pavano, languishing on the DL, continues to have credibility problems.

Chien-Meng Wang is the best thing they have going, not only from a baseball standpoint, but for international public relations. MLB continues to develop its Taiwanese interests, including a new website that doubles as a dry run for China. Stay tuned on this one; using Taiwan's western-friendlier enterprise to sidle up to the Chinese economy looks like a major strategy.

As for China itself: everyone's chasing the NBA on this one.

-Zed

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"My dear boy, if God had intended for us to walk, he wouldn't have invented roller skates."
-Willy Wonka

Skateboard Holmes! says it all

NBA:
Headline today: Kansas' Rush meets with Self. I guess he's preparing for the "refer to yourself in the third person" press conference.

Meanwhile, the Warriors find their own unique way of announcing they've given up on a game. How will they fare with their nose finally bloodied? I don't know, but I'll be sitting down front tomorrow night...

NFL:
Ever been thoroughly ashamed of a QB who runs a 4.4 40? Check out this ESPN story, in which you'll find this gem:

"The Humane Society of the United States has heard troubling reports for some time that Michael Vick has been involved in organized dog fighting, and we fear that this investigation may validate that very disturbing allegation."

No, Michael does not get a Red Herring. We're saving them all for the poor damn dogs.

Also: How does the NFL Draft get such insane coverage? Do you know it's April? Do you know what the show is? And yet, once again, you're perversely intrigued by Kansas City's fourth round options...

Finally, in local, a friend emails to complain about the writer of this rather bizarre piece, an ad hoc obit on a fellow by the handle of Skateboard Holmes.

Don't be offended, B-Money. Yes, it's an article on a fatality written in a disturbingly offhand way.

Little ol' Nevius left the sports section years ago, to be a Local Interest columnist several adorable years behind the story. He's harmless.

We should all -- even Skateboard -- be so blessed.

-Zed

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"In heaven all the interesting people are missing."
-Friedrich Nietzsche