| | The Daily Insider
Morning News & Headlines
Thursday, April 11, 2002
9:00am ET | |
| • | Cablevision Bails Out Of Legislative Meeting Over YES |
| • | Cadillac Expected To Be Named Title Sponsor Of National Grand Prix |
| • | Gonzalez Ends Gumgate By Chewing New Piece For Charity |
| • | Will Bonds Break McGwire's Auction Mark, Too? |
| • | Record College Baseball Crowd Sees LSU Pitcher Flirt With Perfect Game |
| • | A Lighter Buzz/In Other News/TV Monitor/Laugh Track/Final Jeopardy! |
CABLEVISION PULLS OUT OF YES MEETING AT LAST MINUTE
NEWSDAY reports that Cablevision execs "would not attend" this morning's Suffolk County legislative meeting on the YES Network controversy because the company believes the forum "was likely to become a public negotiation that would be divisive and counterproductive." Consumer Protection and Government Operations Committee Chair Cameron Alden (R-NY) "said he received a call from Cablevision at about 5:15 p.m. yesterday, but that he still will hold the meeting at 11:30 a.m." (NEWSDAY, 4/11).
ONE HUNDRED DAYS OUT, GRAND PRIX EXECS PLAN UPDATES
National Grand Prix founders will conduct a media preview event at 1:00pm ET today, where they are expected to name Cadillac as the title sponsor of the July race. Track and venue construction, as well as a new race name and logo will also be discussed. Cadillac's American Le Mans Series driver Wayne Taylor will be on hand for a reception, which will be followed by a brief presentation at 1:30pm ET (THE DAILY).
GONZALEZ CHEWS AGAIN! SLUGGER ENSURES AUTHENTICITY
The ARIZONA REPUBLIC reports D'Backs OF Luis Gonzalez "said he will chew a piece of gum this morning in front of witnesses in Denver and send it to a Tucson radio station" after concerns were raised about the authenticity of the gum that is currently being auctioned for charity (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 4/11). Gonzalez, on the controversy: "This was a runaway train that needed to be stopped" (USA TODAY, 4/11).
The high bid for the gum in the charity auction is $3,275 (THE DAILY).
BONDS' 70-HR BALL AVAILABLE AT AUCTION
The HOUSTON CHRONICLE reported the ball that Giants OF Barry Bonds hit out of then-Enron Field for his 70th HR last year is now up for auction. The bidding ends today, and so far the collectible has drawn only the minimum bid of $50,000 (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 4/10).
LA STATE UNIV.-UNIV. OF TULANE SET COLLEGE BASEBALL RECORD
The Baton Rouge ADVOCATE reports that a "Louisiana Superdome crowd of 25,101 – out of an NCAA-record 27,673 tickets sold" watched LSU P Bo Pettit carry a perfect game into the fifth inning before the Tigers settled for a 9-5 win over the Tulane. The paid and actual attendance figures "broke the previous NCAA records for a regular-season game (21,043) and for any college baseball game (24,897)" (Baton Rouge ADVOCATE, 4/11).
A LIGHTER BUZZ
The Masters begins today at Augusta National, and the weather forecast calls for overcast skies, showers and a high of 73.
The DENVER POST reports that the smallest regular-season crowd in team history attended last night's Astros-Rockies game, as 29,522 watched the Rockies 4-1 victory at Coors Field (DENVER POST, 4/11).
The Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL reports that last night's announced crowd of 5,422 for the Expos-Marlins game "looked more like 3,000" at Pro Player Stadium and "was the smallest in the Marlins' 10-year history." The previous low was 6,955 on May 17, 2000 against the Padres (Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 4/11).
The WASHINGTON POST reports "only 22,781 showed up" for last night's Devil Rays-Orioles game at Camden Yards, which was "the smallest crowd for a regularly scheduled game in the stadium's 10-year history, breaking the previous low of 24,558, set last April 16, also against Tampa Bay" (WASHINGTON POST, 4/11).
TODAY'S EVENTS
SI Sports Marketing & Promotion Manager Jill Royster will be the moderator for the National Sports Marketing Network's "Event Marketing: What Makes A Great Event?" The panel will be held at the ESPN Zone in N.Y. from 8:00-10:00am ET (THE DAILY).
The Triple A PCL Sacramento River Cats will showcase renovations made to Raley Field during the off-season to members of the media at 1:30pm PT (THE DAILY).
Ripken Baseball will host a 4:00pm ET press conference to formally announce the team name and logo of the Class-A New York-Penn League, which will play this season at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen, MD (THE DAILY).
The Pistons, in conjunction with the NBA and IBM, will unveil a Reading and Learning Center at the St. James PAL Activity Center as part of the league's "Read to Achieve" program. The event takes place at 3:00pm ET in Detroit (THE DAILY).
Celtics Fs Tony Battie and Rodney Rogers will visit Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Dorchester, MA, to honor students in the "Boston Stay in School" program. The special assembly takes place from 9:00-10:00am ET (THE DAILY).
Vikings coach Mike Tice will take part in the "Principal for a Day" program at Groveland Park Elementary School in St. Paul, MN (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 4/11).
Lions TE Bradford Banta, OL Kerlin Blaise, Eric Beverly and Tony Sample, DL James Hall and RB Cory Schlesinger will visit Children's Hospital of MI at 2:00pm CT (THE DAILY).
The Red Wings and Little Caesars Pizza will unveil a bobblehead doll of Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman at 1:00pm ET. The doll will be available for sale at Little Caesars restaurants throughout metro-Detroit (THE DAILY).
IN OTHER NEWS….
Comedian Robin Williams "has fired" Michael Ovitz' company, AMG, the "latest blow to the troubled agency" (N.Y. TIMES, 4/11).
The WALL STREET JOURNAL reports that Yahoo "posted its sixth consecutive quarterly loss, but raised its revenue forecast for the year while continuing to expand services and reduce its reliance on advertising" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 4/11).
FINAL JEOPARDY QUESTION
Last night's "Final Jeopardy!" category was "Movie Directors."
"Appropriately, the last name of this current director means 'characterized by abject fear.'"
LAUGH TRACK
NBC's Jay Leno: "Yassar Arafat has been hold-up in (his) compound for the last four weeks. But on the bright side, at least when the cable guy shows up, somebody will be there from [8:00am-5:00pm]. ... More facts are coming out on that second American Taliban kid they caught (in Afghanistan), the one born in Baton Rouge, (LA). In fact, they knew he was from the South because he was the only terrorist with a car bomb on cinder blocks in the front yard. ... Have you seen the new Wall Street Journal? It's in color now. Kind of like USA Today with a GED." Leno: "You can now get tapes of baseball games with the boring parts edited out. I just got a tape of the Detroit Tigers game. It just shows the National Anthem, and then the Budweiser commercials. They lost again (yesterday). They're 0-8. 0-8! In fact Monday, the Tigers fired their manager. From now on, their dads are just going to take turns (managing)" ("Tonight Show," NBC, 4/10).
CBS' David Letterman: "If your accountant is Arthur Anderson, today was the last day you can have your tax documents shredded by April 15." Letterman, on the drought in N.Y.: "It's very dry, all kidding aside. (N.Y. Mayor Michael) Bloomberg inadvertently started a brush fire. He flipped a joint out of his limo." Letterman: "The Mets, sadly, are tied for last place in the (N.L.) East. I saw that this morning, and I said to myself, 'Thank God the Queen Mother did not live to see this'" ("Late Show," CBS, 4/10).
Last night's "Top Ten" list was "Top Ten Reasons John Ashcroft Would Not Sing On Our Show" ("Late Show," CBS, 4/10).
| 10. | "Pre-show partying with Mayor Bloomberg left him in no condition to perform." |
| 9. | "He insisted on singing shirtless." |
| 8. | "Depressed there were only a dozen screaming teenage girls at the stage door." |
| 7. | "Refused to sing 'Let The Eagle Soar' unless we paid for hair and makeup for the eagle." |
| 6. | "Needs to rest voice for upcoming Ashcroftpalooza Tour." |
| 5. | "Too busy tapping my phones." |
| 4. | "Been depressed ever since his eagle stopped soaring, if you know what I mean." |
| 3. | "For some reason he thought we were going to make fun of him." |
| 2. | "The vibe wasn't right, man." |
| 1. | "Blah, blah upholding the dignity of the office blah, blah" |
| |
WEDNESDAY NIGHT'S TV MONITOR
ESPN's 11:00pm ET "SportsCenter" led with Yankees-Blue Jays.
FINAL JEOPARDY ANSWER
"Who is Wes Craven?"
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