THE OKLAHOMAN tallies up the news that Oklahoma City voters have approved an arena tax, clearing one more hurdle that will help the Sooner State land the Seattle Supersonics.
Over 62% of the votes were in favor of extending a current 1-cent sales tax that was to expire at the end of the year. The new proposal would continue the tax into 2010, and is expect to raise more than $121 million for improvements to the Ford Center.
The Sonics appear one step closer to pulling out of the Pacific Northwest for the Great Plains. Even their website acknowledges the inevitable. Read more…
MORENO FAKES OUT FANS WITH BOGUS STONEMAN MOVE: You probably don’t care about the Anaheim Angels. Here in Los Angeles, north of the Orange (County) Curtain, we don’t either. But as Dodger faithful, we did get a good piece of news today:
The LOS ANGELES TIMES and ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER have apparently
bought into a shell game perpetrated by Anaheim owner Arte Moreno over GM Bill Stoneman’s *demotion*.
As general manager, Stoneman has been strung up by the SoCal media over the years for not making trades to help the team break through in the playoffs. But Moreno adores him (he offered Stoneman an extension during last season). Today the Angels are announcing that Stoneman is “stepping down” from his GM post into a consultant’s role.
One small detail:
Stoneman’s Moreno’s hire as new general manager, Tony Reagins, is NOT a player evaluator (the LAT notes “
Reagins did not play or coach professionally, and his background leans more toward administration than player evaluation … he could be mentored by Stoneman“).
So with Stoneman still lurking in the organization, you can bet that every player move will continue to contain his fingerprints. In other words, Moreno made the move solely to deflect criticism off his previously much-maligned, malingering GM.
Of course, that’s good news for the Dodgers and the rest of the American League, as it’s business as usual for Moreno’s stuck-in-neutral charges.
ORANGE COUNTY OUTLET TRASHES “LOS ANGELES” ANGELS: The ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER delivered a bonecrushing hit piece on the Angels Sunday, as the newspaper reported that Angels Stadium was cited for “118 vermin violations that county officials logged at stadium kiosks and restaurants over the last 2½ years.
“
Of those reports, 33 represent ‘major’ violations, in which ‘rodent activity’ was observed by health inspectors in a ‘critical area’ of 18 stadium food venues.”
Even more shocking is that Barry Bonds didn’t visit the park a single time during that time period.
The Register concludes that the reason for the rat problem stems from the fact that the Angels don’t clean up discarded trash in the ballpark until the morning after a game. The Padres and Dodgers both clean up trash at their stadiums immediately after the final out.
Excerpt: “
On a recent 6 a.m. tour of the stadium – 12 hours after the end of a day game – Register staff observed nachos, peanuts, melted ice cream and ketchup-stained wrappers, among other edible refuse, lying on the floor of the stands.
“In stadium kitchens, including the Diamond Club Kitchen and Bar, dirty dishes and pots were stacked on tabletops and in sinks. Counters were greasy and unwiped. Wilted lettuce and food products were left out on countertops.”
Question: Do you think if Arte Moreno hadn’t taken a steaming dump on the city of Anaheim (eight miles from the OC Register’s in Santa Ana) with the whole Los Angeles Angels charade, the local yocals would be firing back with (rat) turds of their own (we LOVE the rotting garbage sideshow!)?
DANIELS COVERS COLOR AND HILITES OF DUCKS TRIUMPH: The LOS ANGELES TIMES fingered transsexual sportswriter Christine Daniels (who has glammed it in her new mugshot) to head online coverage of the Ducks’ Stanley Cup triumph last night in Anaheim.
We’re guessing Daniels, who hasn’t covered a sports beat for years, was nowhere near the Honda Center (like us), but she did gleefully unveil the news from behind the Orange Curtain for us unfeeling Angelenos: “
The Anaheim Ducks are Stanley Cup Champions. (Right now, Arte Moreno is on the phone with his attorneys — ‘Maybe we want to rethink this name thing.’ The Dodgers certainly are.
“
With just one postseason victory since 1988, Dodger management is reportedly thinking of a new strategy. Are you ready for ‘The Los Angeles Dodgers of Anaheim’?)”
The Ducks are now officially our second entertainment option in Orange County. Now onto Daniels’ new “Women In Progress” column for the LAT - which reads much like a how-to guide for transsexuals.
On the first day that the former Mike Penner appeared as Christine Daniels in the LAT, this was her day’s highlight: “
By 8 o’clock in the evening, I was walking away from my first-ever salon appointment — having been colored and highlighted, cut and curled, a bright golden-honey hue replacing what three hours earlier had been my usual dirty brown-and-gray. The hairstyle I’d waited a lifetime for.”
And this from emailer “Michelle”: “
It is amazing how many wonderful and supportive friends you have found since your announcement. As a girl in transition, it is the one thing that still scares me the most in that I don’t know if I have the types of friends who will support, or the type who will be judgemental, or simply disappear.”
Speaking of disappearing, LAT users can (surprisingly) comment on the blog, which is an indication the newspaper has plenty of moderators standing on the delete key.
TEAM NAME CHANGE HAS FAR-REACHING CONSEQUENCES: Taking a cue from Angels owner Arte Moreno, the Long Beach Armada of the Golden Baseball League is changing it’s official name:
The team will now be known as the “Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska”.
The newly-named LBALACUSNAIBA plans on honoring its co-city with a
Barrow Alaska Day on June 30th. First, ESPN does some stories about your town’s new high school football team, and now this.
Meanwhile, it appears that LBALACUSNAIBA is taking the opposite route of its SoCal rival Fullerton Flyers.
Remember new Angels Owner Arte Moreno’s pledge to slash concession stand prices at The Ed?
The LOS ANGELES TIMES has the "radical" results: A bottle of soda will be $4 and a large bag of peanuts will be $5, each down $0.25.
Arte graduated from the Michael Eisner school of public relations with honors in just a couple weeks!
The LOS ANGELES TIMES reports this week from the City of Anaheim vs. Angels trial. During court proceedings, the Angels’ lawyers played a video clip of ESPN announcers Jon Miller and Joe Morgan discussing the team. In the clip, Miller called the team the "Los Angeles Angels," and then Morgan added, "Of Anaheim." Miller then corrected himself and said, "They’re the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim." Arte Moreno’s ownership has been great for the Angels, but the name change and subsequent trial is a tiresome embarrassment. The more it drags on, the more Moreno looks like a money-grubbing jackass.
The LOS ANGELES TIMES reports on some of the absurd details of the first day of the trial between the city of Anaheim and the Angels. The city will call as a witness former Angels President Tony Tavares, who is "expected to testify that Disney rejected Anaheim’s request to restrict the name to Anaheim Angels in case [former Disney Chair Michael] Eisner later wanted to change it to Mighty Angels of Anaheim, or something similar." Mighty Angels of Anaheim? That’s almost as good an idea as Eisner’s Califo
