Los Angeles Times - 26.08.2019

PRO CALENDAR
MON. TUE. WED. THU. FRI.
26 27 28 29 30

DODGERS

at San

Diego

7

SNLA

at San

Diego

7

SNLA

at San

Diego

6

SNLA

at Arizona

6:30

SNLA

at Arizona

6:30

SNLA

ANGELS

TEXAS

7

FS1

TEXAS

7

FSW

BOSTON

7

FSW

GALAXY

LAFC

SPARKS

at

Washington

4

ESPN2

at Indiana

4

Shade denotes home game

RAMS:Thursday at Houston (exhibition) 5 p.m., Ch. 2

CHARGERS:Thursday at San Francisco (exhibition), 7 p.m., Ch. 7, NFL Network

NEXT: SUNDAY AT SEATTLE, 3:30, FS1

NEXT: SUNDAY VS. MINNESOTA, 7:30, YOUTUBE TV

D2 MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019 LATIMES.COM/SPORTS

TIME EVENT ON THE AIR

BASEBALL

4 p.m. St. Louis at Milwaukee TV:ESPN

7 p.m. New York Yankees at Seattle TV:ESPN

7 p.m. Dodgers at San Diego TV:SNLA

R:570, 1020

COLLEGE SOCCER

7 p.m. Women, Seattle at Washington TV:Pac-12

HORSE RACING

5 p.m. Race Night TV:TVG

SOCCER

3:30 p.m. Mexico, women, Tijuana at America TV:UDN

5:45 p.m. Mexico, women, Monterrey at UANL TV:UDN

TENNIS

9 a.m. U.S. Open, first round TV:ESPN

3 p.m. U.S. Open, first round TV:ESPN2

TODAY ON THE AIR

Major League Baseball

National League

Favorite Underdog

at Colorado OFF Atlanta OFF

at Philadelphia -130 Pittsburgh +120

Cincinnati -160 at Miami +150

at Milwaukee -133 St. Louis +123

at San Francisco OFF Arizona OFF

DODGERS -153 at San Diego +143

American League

Favorite Underdog

Oakland -147 at Kansas City +137

at Seattle OFF New York OFF

College Football

Thursday

Favorite Line (O/U) Underdog

at Cincinnati 3 (60^1 ⁄ 2 ) UCLA

at Clemson 36 (59^1 ⁄ 2 ) Georgia Tech

at Tulane 2 (57^1 ⁄ 2 ) Florida

International

at Texas A&M 331 ⁄ 2 (57^1 ⁄ 2 ) Texas State

at Arizona State 25 (61^1 ⁄ 2 ) Kent State

Utah 5 (48) at Brigham Young

Friday

at Army 231 ⁄ 2 (50^1 ⁄ 2 ) Rice

at Wake Forest 31 ⁄ 2 (63^1 ⁄ 2 ) Utah State

Wisconsin 131 ⁄ 2 (57^1 ⁄ 2 ) at South Florida

at Michigan State 23 (47^1 ⁄ 2 ) Tulsa

at Rutgers 151 ⁄ 2 (56) Massachusetts

Colorado 13 (58^1 ⁄ 2 ) Colorado State

Purdue 10 (58^1 ⁄ 2 ) at Nevada

Oklahoma State 151 ⁄ 2 (73^1 ⁄ 2 ) at Oregon State

Saturday

at Ohio State 271 ⁄ 2 (63^1 ⁄ 2 ) Florida Atlantic

at Nebraska 36 (64^1 ⁄ 2 ) South Alabama

at N.C. State 17 (55^1 ⁄ 2 ) East Carolina

at Illinois 17 (58^1 ⁄ 2 ) Akron

Indiana 17 (59) Ball State

at Kentucky 111 ⁄ 2 (58^1 ⁄ 2 ) Toledo

Mississippi State 21 (57^1 ⁄ 2 ) La.-Lafayette

at Memphis 6 (68) Mississippi

at Tennessee 26 (57^1 ⁄ 2 ) Georgia State

Eastern Michigan 51 ⁄ 2 (55) at Coastal

Carolina

South Carolina 8 (63) North Carolina

Alabama 341 ⁄ 2 (58) Duke

at Stanford 61 ⁄ 2 (47^1 ⁄ 2 ) Northwestern

Virginia Tech 31 ⁄ 2 (57) at Boston

College

Syracuse 171 ⁄ 2 (66) at Liberty

Florida State 51 ⁄ 2 (53^1 ⁄ 2 ) Boise State

at Arkansas State 21 ⁄ 2 (58) Southern

Methodist

at Michigan 331 ⁄ 2 (54) Middle Tennessee

at Iowa 211 ⁄ 2 (49) Miami (Ohio)

at Louisiana St. 28 (53^1 ⁄ 2 ) Georgia Southern

Georgia 201 ⁄ 2 (58) at Vanderbilt

Virginia 21 ⁄ 2 (45^1 ⁄ 2 ) at Pittsburgh

Missouri 171 ⁄ 2 (54^1 ⁄ 2 ) at Wyoming

Auburn 31 ⁄ 2 (56) Oregon

at Texas 201 ⁄ 2 (55) Louisiana Tech

at Washington

State

32 (64^1 ⁄ 2 ) New Mexico

State

at USC 131 ⁄ 2 (52^1 ⁄ 2 ) Fresno State

Sunday

at Oklahoma 241 ⁄ 2 (83) Houston

Sept. 2

Notre Dame 20 (57) at Louisville

ODDS

7+(32:(567+$7%(

'(/,9(5('

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QHZVOHWWHUVODWLPHVFRP

Tom Brady has been

refused a trademark to a

nickname he didn’t like in

the first place.

The U.S. Patent and

Trademark Office denied

the New England Patriots

quarterback’s application

to trademark “Tom Terrific”

because of the phrase’s

close association with New

York Mets legend Tom

Seaver.

“The applied-for mark is

the nickname of Tom Sea-

ver,” the ruling stated. “Con-

sent to register the nick-

name by Tom Seaver is not

of record, nor is there any

evidence in the record of a

connection between appli-

cant and Tom Seaver. Given

the fame of the mark and

use of the mark in connec-

tion with the applied-for

goods, consumers will false-

ly associate applicant’s

mark with Tom Seaver.

Therefore, registration is

refused under Section 2(a)

of the Trademark Act.”

In May, Brady’s TEB

Capital filed for a federal

trademark registration for

use of “Tom Terrific” on

such items as trading cards,

posters, printed photo-

graphs and shirts.

Once word got around

that the six-time Super

Bowl champion had his eye

on Seaver’s well-known but

not trademarked nickname,

Mets fans were not pleased.

Brady later explained he

wanted to trademark “Tom

Terrific” only so he could

prevent people from calling

him that.

“I was actually trying to

do something because I

didn’t like the nickname and

I wanted to make sure no

one used it because some

people wanted to use it,”

Brady said. “It wasn’t some-

thing I was trying to do out

of any disrespect or ill man-

ner or anything like that.”

But don’t give up, Tom.

Now that “Tom Terrific” has

been denied, there are still

other nicknames you can go

for. Here are some suggesti-

ons:

“The Yankee Clipper,”

“The Iron Horse,” “The

Splendid Splinter,” “Babe,”

“The Man,” “Duke,” “Three-

Finger,” “The Georgia

Peach,” “The Big Train,”

“Junior,” “Mr. October,”

“Crime Dog,” “The Bird,”

“The Big Hurt” and my

personal favorite for you,

“Yogi.”

Ask Orel Hershiser

Readers of our Dodgers

newsletter recently were

able to ask all-time Dodgers

great Orel Hershiser some

questions. Here’s a high-

light:

Dale Brockmeyer of

Oakland asks: A lot of fans

consider you Mr. Dodger, so

what was it like pitching for

the Giants?

“I chose the Giants and

the Mets, and would have

chosen the Cubs next for

completely different rea-

sons than people might

think,” Hershiser said. “I

was a free agent, and I first

chose the Cleveland Indians

because I wanted to have a

well-rounded career and to

have that I needed to experi-

ence American League

baseball. Cleveland came

calling and GM John Hart

said, ‘We have a young team

that needs to learn how to

win and we’re signing veter-

ans who still have a passion

for winning.’ And I said:

‘That’s me.’ So, I decided to

go there.

“But at no time, after the

Dodgers, did I pick a team

for money. I picked them for

family motivation, personal

experience and cities I

wanted to live in. After

Cleveland, the three cities I

wanted to experience living

in were San Francisco, New

York and Chicago. I wanted

my kids to experience that

too. I played for the Giants

and Mets, but my body fell

apart before I got to Chi-

cago.”

Unlucky odds

The odds for the India-

napolis Colts to win the

Super Bowl took a serious

hit after quarterback An-

drew Luck announced his

retirement Saturday night.

A look, courtesy of BetOn-

line:

8 To win the Super Bowl:

Colts went from 16-1 to 50-1

8 To win the AFC: Colts

went from 8-1 to 25-1

8 To win the division: Colts

went from 1-1 to 9-2

8 Total wins: Colts went

from 9.5 to 6.5

Will Andrew Luck play in

a game in the 2019 regular

season?

8 Yes: 7-1

8 No: 1-15

Will Andrew Luck play in

a game in the 2020 regular

season?

8 Yes: 5-1

8 No: 1-10

MORNING BRIEFING

Brady needs a nickname of his own

By Houston Mitchell

A game in progress

might not always seem the

most optimal platform for

the gnashing of teeth about

the state of Major League

Baseball. But ESPN’s “Sun-

day Night Baseball” pack-

age comes the closest for a

nationally live telecast to

work in intelligent and

nuanced discussion amid

committing to the play in

front of all the viewers.

The four-person crew in

Los Angeles this weekend

for the Dodgers series finale

against the New York Yan-

kees has relied, for the last

season-plus, on Alex Rodri-

guez, Jessica Mendoza and

Buster Olney for opinion

and context.

Play-by-play man Matt

Vasgersian, a former San

Diego Padres and Milwau-

kee Brewers TV voice, a

national Fox Sports broad-

caster and host of the MLB

Network’s “Hot Stove”

show, often might be rele-

gated to traffic-cop status.

But we thought it an appro-

priate time and place to vet

him on what three ideas he

might have on making base-

ball more watchable.

Legislating defensive

shifts:

“I advocated for this late

last winter after I heard it

first from [former ESPN

analyst and MLB manager]

Buck Showalter. Keep two

infielders on either side of

the second base bag, wher-

ever they want to be, with

one foot on the dirt. All

you’re doing is kind of

shrinking the footprint of

where they can play.

“Part of it is rewarding

bat-to-ball contact skills,

but the other is rewarding

fans. I want to see athletes

be athletes. The biggest

problem with the launch-

angle revolution and so

many 3-2 scores is we don’t

see players running bases

anymore. If a ball is hit into

the gap, someone’s running

to get it, and someone’s

running the bases.

“Also think of it this way:

In the four major profes-

sional seasonal sports, you

can’t play a zone defense in

the NBA and you can’t have

11 defenders on the line of

scrimmage in the NFL.

There are rules to defend.

Why not in baseball?”

Extra-inning insertion

of runners:

“The extra-innings crisis

in baseball was created in

part by defensive technique

strategies, so tie games can

go late into the night. That

[Dodgers-Red Sox] 18-

inning game in the World

Series last year was good for

nobody. “I covered the

World Baseball Classic and

saw its technique first-hand

— after the 11th inning, put

runners at first and second

and nobody out. The oppo-

nents will say it’s dumb

because all it takes is a

sacrifice bunt and a sacri-

fice fly. OK, so let’s see if it

happens.

“This came up on a Sun-

day night game recently and

I thought Jessica made a

good point about it. Maybe

for that reason I didn’t say

much because I didn’t want

to make it look like we were

all pushing that narrative as

a network. But I feel pretty

strongly about this, despite

any pushback. There’s

overtime rules in football,

shootouts in hockey. You

can’t let baseball go on

indefinitely.”

Split the season into

two:

“[Fox game analyst]

John Smoltz has pushed

this, and it reminds me

about how much I loved

growing up as a fan of the

Oakland A’s about how we

had the 1981 season [divided

into two parts because of a

strike]. If the Dodgers don’t

win the first half, they may

not go to the playoffs that

year.

“Do this, and a team like

Baltimore wouldn’t have to

punt six months of the

season. It would add a lot of

intrigue and make baseball

relative in cities now like

Kansas City, Pittsburgh,

Miami or Detroit. Those are

big markets where the game

has zero pulse.”

So ... no more piling on

about this Players’ Weekend

promotion and uniform

selection? In addition to a

Mad Magazine “Spy Vs.

Spy” contrast analogy on

Sunday’s broadcast, Vas-

gersian added:

“Remember when you’re

a kid and bemoaning that

we have a Mother’s Day and

a Father’s Day, so you ask

your parents: Why isn’t

there a Kid’s Day? And they

say: Hey, every day is Kid’s

Day. Isn’t every day in Major

League Baseball a Players’

Weekend Day? Do they need

their own weekend? It’s

always about the players as

far as I can tell.

“With the black and

white jerseys, I’m not saying

these aren’t interesting to

some extent. But when the

umpires are also wearing

black and standing on the

infield, the pitchers wearing

white and have their release

points that could confuse a

hitter, you can’t read num-

bers ...

“We sound like our

grandfathers shaking our

fist at kids running on our

lawn, but I think more agree

with us.”

Click on

Do we credit the Dodgers

for recruiting Vin Scully to

narrate a video that aired in

the park and on social me-

dia this weekend basically

doing damage control for

what the Dodgers and Yan-

kees wore during their

three-game series? It was

uniformly disheartening to

see him used here as much

as it was nice to hear him

play a small part and “ap-

preciate those who take the

field today.”

Click off

No matter how much

NBC tries to nudge technol-

ogy ahead by utilizing an

overhead sky sideline cam-

era as the main live angle for

an NFL telecast — it tried

again Sunday in the Pitts-

burgh-Tennessee exhibition

— the optics remain too

jarring. Replicating video-

game optics remains a

depth-distorted ride even

with today’s technology. Try

again later.

OUTLAWINGthe three-man defensive alignment on one side of the infield could give a bigger advantage back

to the offense and make major league games more watchable, ESPN broadcaster Matt Vasgersian says.

Dan HamiltonAssociated Press

SPORTS MEDIA

Three ways that baseball

could be more watchable

By Tom Hoffarth