TED SOBEL SPORTS AUDIO VAULT: Your Inside Access to TOUCHING GREATNESS

The Anaheim Ducks played their home opener tonight after a 1-1 regular season start in Europe. The best news is that goalie Jonas Hiller looks healthy again stopping all 31 shots for his 12th career shutout in a 1-0 win over the San Jose Sharks. The lone goal was scored 14 minutes into the game by Maxime Macenauer, his first in the NHL.

Strangely enough The Ducks are now 2-1 despite scoring just three goals so far and Anaheim’s stars have yet to light the lamp. League MVP Corey Perry, the NHL’s leading goal-scorer last season, and linemates Bobby Ryan and captain Ryan Getzlaf are all scoreless in three games and so are Teemu Selanne and his center Saku Koivu.

As for Perry, he now gets to enjoy ‘Corey Perry Night’ on Sunday against the visiting St. Louis Blues. And Corey was kind enough to call me on Thursday to preview his club’s first big weekend back on U.S. soil…

Corey Perry with Ted Sobel:

Tiger Woods was back in his hometown of L.A. yesterday (Tuesday) to promote his Chevron World Challenge (which I’ve attended every year when in town) in early December at one of the most prestigious country clubs on the planet-Sherwood CC in Thousand Oaks.

The Tiger Woods Foundation took over the Hollywood & Highland Center in the heart of Hollyweird for a few hours to hold their pre-tournament press conference followed by a putting challenge with 4 fans given the chance to putt with Tiger. And the lucky winner (after some good-natured ribbing and laughs) received passes to walk inside the ropes with Woods during the opening round of his tourny on December 1.

Tiger is not only the host of the tourny but also a four-time champion, and after the putting fun he was kind enough to stop and talk with me about his interactions with the local fans and what it would mean to win his own event for a 5th time? (he hasn’t won anywhere in almost 2 years and is now ranked an almost unthinkable 52nd in the world)

Tiger’s foundation President/CEO Greg McLaughlin led off the presser by announcing the 2011 Chevron World Challenge field and then Woods spoke with us media types and I got several questions in. Including if he can still pass Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships (Tiger’s at 14), and if he still likes hot dogs after Sunday’s incident on the green at the Fry’s Dot Com tournament (where he finished T-30) when a fan threw a dog at Tiger on his way to being arrested near the 7th green. And you think you had a weird Sunday? 🙂

The following is a shortened version of Tiger’s newsconference where he describes in great detail the state of his game and mind along with my very brief one on one afterwards…

Tiger Woods newser in Hollywood with Ted Sobel:

Tiger Woods 1on1 with Ted Sobel:

We had another good NFL doubleheader today on Sports USA Radio. Although the games didn’t turn out as close as I had expected. First it was the Steelers surprisingly handling the Tennessee Titans in Pittsburgh 38-17 and then the Patriots outlasting the Jets in Foxborough 30-21.

It seems strange to say, but the usually tough to beat Indy Colts are still winless at 0-5 after choking away an early 24-7 lead at home to the lowly Chiefs…as the Peyton Manning era now seems like a hundred years ago. And the Minnesota Vikings finally scored a win even after I thought that a 28-0 first quarter lead might not be enough for the way they’ve blown 2nd half leads this year…lol.

Of course it was also the day after Raiders owner Al Davis died and during our less than half hour wrapup show, we played a great emotional play by play highlight of the final play that sealed Oakland’s win in Houston.

It’s all here with the commercials edited out just for your listening pleasure…I hope! 🙂

NFL Sunday Wrapup on Sports USA Radio with Sobel/Golden:

A few of us media types met with Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti today at Dodger Stadium to get his take on the 2011 season and beyond. And interesting timing as it was shortly before his owner Frank McCourt failed again to convince U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross that he needs documents about other Major League Baseball teams. Gross said he would issue a formal ruling in a day or two but said he did not anticipate reversing his previous order denying the Dodgers access to confidential financial data involving other teams.

What this now means is that Frank is running out of legal brick walls to run into and sometime next year he will have to sell the team like it or not? (That’s after several likely lawsuits involving MLB, his old lawyers, dealing with Jamie, etc., etc., etc. of course)

Here are the 17 plus minutes we had with Colletti where I got several questions in regarding how the team nicely responded to manager Don Mattingly late in the season, the needs for next year (including Andre Ethier’s sensitive mindset these days), the Kershaw/Kemp affect, and if the club can actually spend any substantial money for next season? After asking him about the $, your guess is as good as mine…

Ned Colletti with Ted Sobel:

The Kings conclude their preseason schedule in Germany tomorrow against the appropriately named ‘FREEZERS’ before the real season begins on Friday morning (our time) in Stockholm, Sweden as they show off their new black and whites against the N.Y. Rangers.

After Friday’s night’s game in Anaheim I got a few minutes with captain Dustin Brown before the media gang bang started. We talked about the return of his roomy Drew Doughty, the trip to Europe, how the team has come together with the addition of Mike Richards, Simon Gagne, et al…and the club’s mindset going into a season as a supposed solid contender for the Cup (for once!).

Cruising the latest odds, I’ve seen the Kings as favorites to win the Pacific Division, as low as +12.50 to win the Stanley Cup (a co-6th pick), at +600 to win the Western Conference (a co-3rd pick), and their over-under for total season points is at 102 1/2. So the expectations are truly there and now Captain Brown and his mates need to show it on the ice and into June (for a change!)…

Dustin Brown with Ted Sobel:

We had another solid NFL doubleheader on the Sports USA Radio network today. First it was Chicago holding off Carolina and Cam Newton 34-29 as the Bears tried to give it away a few times but were fortunate to win. And then the N.Y. Football Giants got a huge break on a late controversial judgement no-call on a fumble and they stole one in Arizona 31-27.

And they also stole most of our postgame show which looked for awhile like it might be an hour or even longer so that we could give you more stats and highlights. But the game slowed down so much that Brian Golden and I had to settle for about 25 minutes including several commercial breaks which meant a verrrry fast-paced get as much in as possible show, which you will hear below…

Week 4 NFL Sunday Wrapup on Sports USA Radio: