Touring the sports world, here and there …
•Of the four NFL teams that played in the “Monday Night Football” doubleheader – Baltimore, Cincinnati, Oakland and San Diego – which one had more penalty yardage than rushing yardage? Oakland is the history-based guess, sure, but the answer is the Chargers. San Diego rushed for 32 yards and had 78 yards in penalties in its 22-14 victory over the Raiders.
•Chargers linebacker Larry English had zero tackles Monday. A first-round draft choice in 2009, the oft-injured English had 12 tackles in 2010 and five last year.
•Receiver/kick-and-punt returner Roscoe Parrish spent seven seasons with one team, the Buffalo Bills, a remarkably stable career for a guy with his duties. Instability came quickly. Parrish in April was signed by the Chargers, who released him on Aug. 27, the Raiders signed him that day, but cut him four days later after Parrish fumbled both of his punt return attempts against Seattle on Aug. 30.
•Some Chargers fans were miffed that the team cut fullback Jacob Hester, but Le’Ron McClain is superior to Hester at the position. McClain, a free-agent signee who was with Kansas City last season, on Monday had four receptions for 15 yards. He just might get more than Monday’s two carries for 5 yards when the Chargers play their home opener Sunday against Tennessee.
•The hope here is that the Chargers some day draft UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley while retaining running back Curtis Brinkley. And that they develop a wonderful relationship. Then we could write about the Hundley-Brinkley rapport.
•Lou Holtz is not a fan, not yet anyway, of UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin. On ESPN’s “College Football Final” Sunday, Mark May praised Franklin for his 217 rushing yards, etc., against Nebraska after a pair of highlights showing Franklin running around and through Cornhuskers. Holtz, smirking, said, “I counted seven missed tackles.”
•Mike Trout makes it worth staying at an Angels game until it’s over, no matter the score or the inning, because he just might do something spectacular. And so it was at Angel Stadium on Saturday, the Angels leading Detroit, 6-1, with two outs in the ninth inning, the outcome obvious and no reason to not begin exiting the stadium. So Detroit’s Prince Fielder launches one to center field, Trout makes another of his leaping, home-run-stealing catches and adds another clip to a highlight tape that is getting Ben Hur-like in length.
•And was that the Captain Morgan stance Trout and Torii Hunter were doing behind second base while celebrating that latest great Trout catch?
•The Orange County Breakers play Sacramento on Friday in the World TeamTennis Western Conference final in Charleston, S.C. The Breakers (8-6) won their final four regular-season matches in July to win the Western Conference regular-season championship. The Western Conference champion plays the winner of the Eastern Conference final, Washington vs. New York, in the WTT final Sunday.
•The Breakers’ Lindsay Davenport returned to pro tennis this year, just a few months after giving birth to her third child. She has played doubles and mixed doubles.
•The IndyCar season finale is Saturday at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana – the MATV 500. It’s the first IndyCar Series race at the track since 2005, and the track’s first IndyCar night race, starting at 5:50 p.m. If you’re an Auto Club card holder, use it to get $10 off tickets in certain seating areas.
•Saddleback College’s football team lost to state-ranked No. 2 Mt. San Antonio College by three points two weeks again, then beat College of the Canyons, 50-34, last week. The No. 15 Gauchos play host to No. 12 Riverside City on Saturday at 6 p.m.
•Golden West is No. 11 and Fullerton is No. 14 in the California Community College Football Coaches Association state rankings (there are others). Golden West (1-1) plays host to Allan Hancock on Saturday, and Fullerton (1-1) plays Saturday at Bakersfield College which was defeated by Mt. SAC last week. Fullerton plays Golden West College on Sept. 22.
•Santa Anita begins its autumn racing session Sept. 28. The next day is the first Saturday of the meet, and it has five Grade 1 stakes races on it. All five are Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” races, meaning the winners of the races are guaranteed entry into a Breeders’ Cup race Nov. 2 and 3 at Santa Anita, as long as the winner is able to pay the entry fee.
•A group of big races are coming up at Los Alamitos Race Course. On Sept. 23, it’s the Go Man Go Handicap, with a $100,000 purse, followed by the Millie Vessels Memorial Handicap, Sept. 30, with a $150,000 purse. The PCQHRA Breeders Derby and Futurity races highlight the schedule early next month.
•Some of us horse players spend a lot of time analyzing the Daily Racing Form, going over Beyer ratings, looking for horses that dropped into a more favorable class, etc. All that studying, but some pretty girl on her first day at the track picks more winners based upon horses’ names or jockeys’ silks. Happens every time.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
