Morning Buzz, July 8, 2003

PEPSI PRO SUMMER LEAGUE OPENS TODAY AT TD WATERHOUSE

The Pepsi Pro Summer League begins today at 3:00pm ET inOrlando, and the ORLANDO SENTINEL reports that the “furor created by18-year-old rookie LeBron James – who hasn’t played a single game – willreach a new peak today when an estimated 12,000 fans and 105 mediarepresentatives from around the nation come to TD Waterhouse Centre to watch anotherwise meaningless summer-league game” against the Magic. While Magic season-ticket holders will beadmitted free, “7,000 more tickets have been sold” for $5 each (ORLANDOSENTINEL, 7/8).

USA TODAY notes that with three of the top eight NBA Draftpicks – Heat G Dwyane Wade, Bucks G T.J. Ford and James –expected to play, the Magic “moved today’s games to the TD Waterhouse Centre toaccommodate the crowd” (USATODAY, 7/8).

Today’s schedule is as follows:

James’ agent Aaron Goodwin: “This is supposed to be alearning experience, but it’s hard for it to be when there will be more than10,000 fans there and more than 100 members of the media.” While the Magic has earmarked proceeds forthe Orlando Magic Youth Foundation, Goodwin said that as of Monday night, “itwas still unclear whether the team would give any proceeds to theCavaliers.” Goodwin added that James“will wear Nike shoes, but will not preview James’ signature model” (ESPN.com, 7/7).

MLBP OFFERS HIDDEN SOUND DVD

MLBP today will release “MLB All-Access Sound,” and the L.A.TIMES writes that the “highly entertaining DVD … is mostly about hidden soundand conversations captured through the magic of microphones.” There are seven main segments, plus fivebonus features. Past and presentplayers featured on the DVD include Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Angels CFDarin Erstad, 1B Scott Spiezio, RF Tim Salmon and A’s P BarryZito (L.A.TIMES, 7/8). While retail priceis $19.95, the DVD can be found on Amazon.comfor $14.96 (THE DAILY).

NCAA MEN’S HOOPS TOURNEY TO DROP REGIONS, PRE-SETPAIRINGS

The K.C. STAR reports that the NCAA Div. I Men’s BasketballCommittee has “recommended that it be permitted to change the regional pairingsduring the selection weekend. No longerwill regional semifinal matches be etched in stone before the selectionprocess.” Beginning with ’04, thepairings would be made during the selection process. Additionally, the committee will “do away with the geographictitles. Regionals now will be known bytheir host city.” The four host citiesin ’04 are St. Louis, Atlanta, Phoenix and East Rutherford (K.C.STAR, 7/8).

PWBA SAVED FOR THIS SEASON, BUT IN SEARCH OF CASH FORNEXT

The PWBA Dallas Open begins today at Don Carter’s All-StarLanes West, and the FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM reports that thanks to the Women’sInt’l Bowling Congress (WIBC) “advancing it $400,000 of sponsorship money originally budgeted for2004, the PWBA is able to finish this season.” The biggest task the PWBA “faces now is finding money to replace theWIBC income for next season. If not,there likely won’t be a next season” (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM,7/8).

PWBA President JohnFalzone: “Right now I would say our chances of surviving are about 50-50” (DaytonaBeach NEWS-JOURNAL, 7/8).

CHRYSLER-JEEP SUPERSTORES TO SPONSOR DETROIT’S GOLD CUP

The DETROIT NEWS reports that Detroit River RegattaAssociation Chair & CEO Tom D’Eath today “is expected to announce athree-year agreement with Chrysler-Jeep Superstores to sponsor” the Gold Cup, ahydroplane race on the Detroit River. The June event was canceled after falling “on hard times under theprevious promotional group, the Spirit of Detroit Thunderfest.” The revived event, the Chrysler-JeepSuperstores Detroit American Powerboat Association Gold Cup, promoted byD’Eath’s group, is scheduled for August 22-24 (DETROITNEWS, 7/8).

MORNING BRIEFS

NFLVP/Communications Greg Aiello, on whether the league would allow theVikings to move to L.A.: “We’re not at that stage where we’re addressing team issues. We’re seeing if it’s viable to put a stadiumtogether, and if we do, then at some point down the road there would be theissue of a team. There is notimetable. We have not addressed theissue of a team in any way, shape or form” (ST.PAUL PIONEER PRESS, 7/8).

The LondonINDEPENDENT reports that IOC President Jacques Rogge yesterdaymet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, LondonMayor Ken Livingstone, London 2012 bid Chair BarbaraCassani and British Olympic Association Chair CraigReedie to discuss bidding for the 2012 Olympics. Rogge: “Ifyou look at what I’d say were essential elements in a bid, I would put securityfirst” (LondonINDEPENDENT, 7/8).

The N.Y. DAILY NEWS reports thatYankees Owner George Steinbrenner has turned over control of the Triple-A Int’l League Columbus Clippers to manager Bucky Dent and GM KenSchnacke, moving Yankees Senior VP/Baseball Operations Gordon Blakeley“out of the daily operation.” Thedecision has “outraged severalhigh-ranking executives,” and one source said that Blakeley “wants to resign” (N.Y. DAILYNEWS, 7/8).

The ATLANTACONSTITUTION reports that Skip Caray and Pete VanWieren will be “back on TBS’ national broadcasts” of theBraves next week. Turner Broadcasting removed the pair from TBSgames in an “effort to grow the national audience by making the broadcasts,renamed ‘MLB on TBS,’ more neutral and less Atlanta-oriented.” The decision “created a firestorm of protestfrom Braves fans” (ATLANTACONSTITUTION, 7/8).

The LouisvilleCOURIER-JOURNAL reports that Churchill Downs held a ceremony Sunday tobegin the second phase of the track’s $121M renovation. During the track’s 52-day meet,on-track attendance rose 5.7% from last year to 716,212. On-trackhandle grew 1.7% from a year ago to $93.7M. The total handle of$649.2M was 17.4% higher than last year (LouisvilleCOURIER-JOURNAL, 7/8).

Following the approval of the AHL BOG, Minnesota Sports& Entertainment yesterday officially announced the acquisition ofcontrolling interest in the Wild’s AHL affil, the Houston Aeros from ChuckWatson (THE DAILY).

During last night’s edition of ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight,” PeterGammons’ “3 Up 3 Down” segment offered who he considers the best and worstMLB owners ("Baseball Tonight," ESPN, 7/7).

THE BACK PAGES

The Morning Buzz offers today’s back page sportscovers from some of the nation’s major metropolitan tabloids:

N.Y. Post	N.Y. Post
N.Y. Daily News	N.Y. Daily News
Philadelphia Daily News	Philadelphia Daily News

TODAY’S EVENTS

Tickets for the Univ. of KY-MI State Univ. basketball game,“BasketBowl,” December 13 at Ford Field go on sale to the general public. Over 19,000 tickets remain, priced at $8,$12 and $14 (THE DAILY).

Baseball HOF broadcaster Bob Wolff, the voice of theMLB Senators for 14 years, will be honored at a Congressional reception at theRayburn House Office Building to celebrate the annual Congressional BaseballGame (N.Y. POST, 7/6).

Molson Indy week begins at 11:00am ET with the Molson IndyDowntown at the Toronto-Dominion Centre Courtyard (TORONTO SUN, 7/8).

The Women’s U.S Boxing Championships begin at the Ft. LauderdaleMarina Marriott, and the Ft. Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL reports that thetournament is “expected to help increase the talent pool in women’sboxing.” More than 150 athletes from 33states will compete (Ft.Lauderdale SUN-SENTINEL, 7/8).

Jockey Shane Sellers will release his first CD, acountry music album entitled, “Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Earnhardt” (THOROUGHBREDTIMES, 6/21).

INOTHER NEWS….

The AP reported that Spike Lee and Viacom havesettled a lawsuit Lee filed to keep the company from renaming TNN as “SpikeTV,” causing NY State Supreme Court Justice Walter Tolub to lift thetemporary injunction Lee had obtained last month. Details of the settlement were not disclosed (AP,7/7).

FINAL JEOPARDY!

Last night’s “Final Jeopardy!” category was “HistoricAmericans.”

“He turned down an appointment as a U.S. Senator in 1875because it meant accepting a pardon for treason.”

LAUGH TRACK

THEMONOLOGUES:

NBC’sJay Leno: “It was so hot today, Demi Moore saw a young boyselling lemonade – grabbed the lemonade. In fact, the only breeze in LosAngeles was from the Dodgers’ bats as they were striking out. I was sweating like President Bushtrying to pronounce the names of the African countries he’s going to go visit.... The best fireworks of all were right here in Los Angeles. They were right over Kobe Bryant’shouse when he was trying to explain to his wife what happened. Kobe Bryant – we love Kobe – arrested onsuspicion of sexual assault. I don’tbelieve it for a minute. Who ever heardof Kobe making a pass? This is the mostembarrassing thing to happen to the Lakers since the playoffs. ... DamonStoudamire was arrested Thursday on a drug charge as he was about to boarda plane. It sounds like some prison isgoing to have a hell of a pick-up team pretty soon. ... The CIA is now sayingan audiotape supposedly made by Saddam Hussein is probably reallyhim. They think Saddam Hussein made thetape in a deep underground bunker as a message to his few remainingsupporters. No, I’m sorry. That’s California Governor Gray Davis.... Happy birthday to President Bush. He turned 57-years-old. If youhaven’t gotten him a gift yet, you can’t go wrong with an economic plan. He doesn’t have one of those. ... They’renow saying if ‘Terminator 3’ reaches $200[M] at the box office, Arnold Schwarzeneggerwill not run for governor. … So far, Gray Davis has seen it 380 times” ("TonightShow," NBC, 7/7).

MONDAY NIGHT’S TV MONITOR

ESPN’s 11:00pm ET “SportsCenter” led with further reports onLakers G Kobe Bryant’s arrest for felony sexual assault, followed by RedSox-Yankees and Reds-Astros.

FINAL JEOPARDY ANSWER

“Who was Jefferson Davis?”

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