Piniella can't prevent another early postseason exit for Cubs
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
The memory is nearly 27 years old, but it bothers Lou Piniella to this day.
It was Oct. 23, 1981, the first inning of the third game of the World Series. The New York Yankees had two on and one out when Piniella decided to muscle up against the Los Angeles Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela.
More Tim Sullivan Columns
ANAHEIM, Oct. 4 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Red Sox making monkeys of Angels: The Rally Monkey is slipping, and the Boston Red Sox are his banana peel. The patron primate of the Los Angeles Angels, the marketing masterstroke that has heralded so much comeback baseball, is evolving rapidly toward irrelevance.
Oct. 3 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Fuson's pipeline making progress: If you're wondering why the Padres have such a hard time keeping hitting coaches, consider the job description.
Oct. 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Red Sox give Bay a shot on big stage: ANAHEIM – When Jason Bay broke in with the Padres, his cup of coffee carried a kick. Just three games into his big league career, the young slugger owned a home run, a double and a fractured wrist – all of them in the span of a single May weekend in Phoenix.
Sept. 29 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Money may be sticking point in signing Giles: Literally and figuratively, Brian Giles ended the baseball season in the on-deck circle. Giles was the next scheduled hitter after Luis Rodriguez, who lined out to right field for the last out of the last game the Padres could lose in 2008.
Sept. 28 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Black shows that he is a definite-maybe man: Bud Black is not a yes man. Not much of a no man, either. The Padres manager was asked yesterday if he was on board with the baseball philosophy imparted by upper management, and he might as well have been asked to split the atom with the bill of his ballcap.
Sept. 26 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Point, counterpoint: LaDainian Tomlinson is not ready to promise pirouettes. His big toe is healthier, but it is not yet healed.
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 24 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Team friction rising as Joyner goes?: Technically speaking, Wally Joyner fails the scapegoat test. He resigned rather than await his anticipated firing at season's end. He beat the Padres to the punch.
Sept. 23 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Castillo still standing after scary collision: Before the doctors could examine Luis Castillo's knee, they had to persuade him to pry his fingers loose.
Sept. 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
History lives in the walls of The Stadium: My first visit to Yankee Stadium was a diversion. My maternal grandmother had died, and my two fraternal uncles agreed to take charge of the small children.
Sept. 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Will Ferrell's star status is big draw in charity tee-off: Will Ferrell traipsed off the first green in triumph. “What's better than an eagle?” the Hollywood hacker inquired yesterday afternoon at The Country Club of Rancho Bernardo.
Sept. 18 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
For Williams, It's Pound For Pound: Jamal Williams is 32 years old. In nose guard years, that makes him about 224. He is part monster, part museum piece, a huge, hulking presence whose postoperative knees demand delicacy and whose practice schedule has been pared back to bystanding. Though his Chargers contract runs through 2010, Williams will be lucky to last that long.
Sept. 17 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Rules leave Hochuli helpless to fix mistake: Ed Hochuli screwed up and he's sorry about it. He has been accountable and he has been apologetic. He has answered the e-mails of aggrieved Chargers fans, and has succeeded in turning some of their scorn into sympathy.
DENVER, Sept. 15 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Procedural call snatches win right out of thin air: The rules provide no remedy for an inadvertent whistle, no means of restoring life to a play that has been blown dead.
Sept. 12 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Employees, fans need more than phantom owner: John Moores surfaced Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee. The Padres' stealth owner waited in the dugout while Chris Young completed a postgame interview, and then he congratulated the pitcher on his thwarted attempt at perfection.
Sept. 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Chargers' site search entering terminal stage: The conceptual art shows a football stadium tucked unobtrusively in the northeast corner of an enormous bayfront platform, a project so stupendous that the cruise ships depicted at anchor could be bathtub toys.
Sept. 9 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Bye-bye Brady means Vegas bump for Bolts: The best thing that can be said for the San Diego Chargers was said Monday in Massachusetts. Tom Brady is out for the season.
Sept. 8 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Is it misfortune or a sign of things to come?: Eric Weddle grazed the ball, but he couldn't grab it. He misread its flight between sunlight and shadows and he mistimed his jump by maybe a millisecond.
Sept. 7 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Injury report provides pause for Bolts' cause: To paraphrase John F. Kennedy or, more likely, his speechwriter, the San Diego Chargers bring to the table the most extraordinary collection of talent since Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
Sept. 4 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Losses aside, Del Mar still 'a sound ship': DEL MAR – If Joe Harper is feeling the pinch, it is in much the same way a moose feels a mosquito bite.
Sept. 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Rookie Tolbert knows role as Tomlinson's leading man: Mike Tolbert's plan is to lead by following. He will clear the way for LaDainian Tomlinson by sticking to his script, obeying his instructions, and leaving the improvisation to the fellow toting the football.
BEIJING, Aug. 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
The challenge will now be to keep up with the Chinese: Peter Ueberroth has done the math and it is daunting. It tells him his China problem is only going to get bigger; that the Summer Games of Beijing were more of a clue than a culmination; that the host nation's ravenous appetite for raw materials applies to gold, silver and bronze as it does to oil and natural gas.
BEIJING, Aug. 24 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Leslie still living Olympic dream: You could hear her coming from the clinking. Lisa Leslie moved about the Olympic Basketball Gymnasium with four gold medals jangling gently around her neck. She sounded like a set of wind chimes in a soft breeze.
Aug. 23 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Redeem Team puts dysfunction to rest: BEIJING – There is no time like the present for USA basketball, and this is no team like the past.
Aug. 22 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Taking a bow and bowing out: BEIJING – Mike Candrea must take us to be morons. He must think we all fell off a turnip truck, through a rabbit hole, into a delusion. The head coach of USA softball must think proclaiming parity can make it so.
