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

The NFL scared many that there might not even be a season this year but thankfully the owner’s lockout finally came to a hault with a 10 year labor agreement completed on the 130th day. Personally speaking, that also meant that my seasonal gig as a studio host and in-game scoreboard update guy for the SportsUSA Radio Network’s national (over 300 radio stations) Sunday doubleheaders along with Brian Golden began yesterday so my Sunday’s are now officially full until January (so please don’t ask me about any extended vacations this fall, ok?).

Our first game was supposed to be a great AFC South matchup between Peyton Manning’s Colts and Matt Schaub’s usually under-achieving Texans, but we all know about Indy’s pain in the neck which totally changed everything and it wound-up with a 34-7 Houston blowout. Our second game was Washington hosting the New York Football injury-plagued Giants who barely showed up in losing to Rex Grossman of all people and his Redskins 28-14.

Week 1 ends tonight with it’s annual opening Monday night doubleheader after the season began with a old fashioned shootout on Thursday night at the greatest place to watch an NFL game Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The Packers and their Super MVP Aaron Rodgers outlasted the Saints and the amazingly accurate right arm of Drew Brees 42-34.

My plan for the rest of the season is to post our weekly SportsUSA Radio Sunday NFL Wrap-up shows right here on my blog for your listening pleasure. It’s a condensed (without most commercials) version including every score, key stats (to keep you fantasy geeks happy), and some radio highlights from most games. Enjoy…

Week 1 SportsUSA Radio NFL Sunday Wrapup Show:

The new college football season is upon us and thank god money is never involved in any of the decision making by the different conferences or else who knows how much corruption might come into play? (he said with a tongue in cheek the size of Godzilla’s!) 🙂

One thing’s for sure, the new Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott is just what the doctor ordered. After his first two years in charge of the old Pac-10, Scott has led the conference through expansion for the first time since 1978 by adding Colorado and Utah. And now the best marketing commish in the biz has created a Football Championship Game for the first time in conference history while securing agreement for equal revenue sharing for the first time ever. He very importantly delivered a huge media rights agreement with ESPN and Fox giving more national exposure for his schools than ever before, and created the Pac-12 Network and Pac-12 Digital Network. Besides all that, he’s been sittin on his a$$ LOL since leaving the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) behind 3 years ago-and how they still succeed with their incompetent media relations and marketing is a miracle? (and for discussion another time) Just don’t be suprised if acquiring Oklahoma and Okie State are next on his agenda and possibly even Texas after that?

Meanwhile at the recent inaugural Pac-12 football media day in L.A., I got the chance to sit down with a few head coaches (you’ve already heard from Kiffin and Neuheisel) like Washington’s Steve Sarkisian who’s trying to be a So-Cal guy that puts the Huskies back on the football map and Cal’s Jeff Tedford who I spoke with more about his Super Bowl MVP prodigy Aaron Rodgers than anything, although Coach T did mention his school’s hopes for this season as well. Aaron has always praised Tedford around me, so I thought it was time to give Jeff a chance to respond to his guy who is now King of Green Bay these days!

But the most fun I had was having lunch at the same table as Heisman Trophy favorite Andrew Luck, who’s as nice and genuine as anyone you’d like to meet (almost Manning-like in his obvious quality up-bringing). Along with a few other media types who came and went, we gabbed about so many things for at least 30 minutes (unfortunately too much of it not recorded) but I did get some of his thoughts for your listening pleasure including why he came back for another year at Stanford? He also told me a great story (off mic) that his dad Oliver (Ex-NFL QB) who played with Archie Manning, actually baby-sat for Peyton which Andrew used to love to tell his teammates about. I also asked Luck if he knew of the beard that Bill Walton once wore with the Portland Trailblazers? And he said vaguely…so I told him to google the guy because his newly-grown facial hair resembles either Walton’s or Paul Bunyon’s…you be the judge! It will be verrrrry interesting to see if the next year’s likely #1 NFL draftee’s new beard is either good or bad LUCK?… 🙂

Steve Sarkisian with Ted Sobel:

Jeff Tedford with Ted Sobel:

Andrew Luck with Ted Sobel:

With baseball in it’s dog days of summer, college pigskin finally returns tomorrow night with 14 games on the slate. And our locals hit the gridiron on Saturday to begin their brand new Pac 12 eras and both with 12:30 starts. USC is now over a 3 touchdown home favorite over Minnesota while UCLA is a 3 point underdog at Houston.

I just returned from Trojans practice where I got to speak with 2nd year head coach Lane Kiffin, his father and assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Monte, and quarterback Matt Barkley who will all be facing a Gopher team that should have a new killer mentality under new head coach Jerry Kill. SC won at Minny last year 32-21 and expect the Trojans to have the real killer instinct in this one…like some scene from the original Coliseum!

71 year old Monte Kiffin told me that he feels like a little kid at the start of a new season but his usually stoic 36 year old son Lane sounded like in mid-season ‘whatever’ form when I brought it up to him. Here’s your feel for the USC psyche going into their season opener…

Lane Kiffin with Ted Sobel:

Monte Kiffin with Ted Sobel:

Matt Barkley with Ted Sobel:

As for the Bruins, Coach Rick Neuheisel has finally made up his mind and has given the starting quarterback job to Kevin Prince with Richard Brehaut as the backup. Although he’s also supposed to see some action on Saturday against the Cougars and their star senior QB Case Keenum who tore an ACL in last year’s loss to UCLA. Keenum is approaching some all-time NCAA passing records and we’ll see how he does in his 6th of who knows how many seasons against a supposedly deeper Bruin’s Dee this week?

I recently spent some time with Coach Neuheisel and his key running back Johnathan Franklin to get their thoughts on this crucial season for the program…

Rick Neuheisel with Ted Sobel:

Johnathan Franklin with Ted Sobel:

The Angels open up a huge weekend series tonight in Arlington, Texas as they’ve now won 6 straight since the big walkoff homer by Mark Trumbo in last week’s series finale against the first place Rangers in Anaheim. The Halos would’ve been 8 games back if they had lost that one, but instead it was 6 and since then the Rangers have lost 5 of 6 so it’s a race again in the AL West.

More specifically the Angels hot bat lately has been from their $90 million dollar rightfielder Torii Hunter who’s as well known for his Billion Dollar Smile as for his hitting prowess. And when it comes down to media-friendly athletes, there’s nobody better than Torii who I’ve been joking with almost since he came to So-Cal that I seem to be his good luck charm. I don’t cover as many Angels games as compared to Dodgers due to my much longer drive to Anaheim but when I do, Mr. Hunter tends to hit a huge percentage of his ‘Home’ homeruns.

So I finally confronted Torii after Wednesday night’s win over the White Sox in which he belted #18 on the season (and who knows how many when I’m in the pressbox?). And of course, I needed to remind him just how much of a good luck charm I really am to his game and what kind of compensation would be fair in return???? (jokingly-SORT OF)…

Torii Hunter with Ted Sobel:

Good luck this weekend back home in Texas Torii…and sorry I can’t be there to help your cause! 🙂

WOW!!! You sign a new 5 year, 85 million dollar contract extension and it’s called a ‘hometown discount’? Well that’s the story surrounding Angels ace righthander Jered Weaver who likely could’ve made many more millions of bucks if he had waited to become a free agent after his current deal ran out after next season. But the So-Cal native decided for several great reasons (besides leaving mucho cash on the table), that Anaheim was the best place for him to work and thrive with his impending married life ahead of him and his immediate family and friends within driving range of seeing him pitch on a regular basis.

Interestingly enough, Weaver’s super agent Scott Boras was a super no-show at the 2pm newsconference in front the big helmet at Angels Stadium and he’s within driving range himself. So unless he’s out of the country scouting a new prospect at the South Pole one can only assume that he’s not totally thrilled about his 2-time all star client accepting less money then he might’ve expected. Which of course means less commission and maybe one less yacht on his Christmas list this year.

It was a nice turn-out of fans on hand to cheer their favorite Halo hurler and they loved the entire 30 minutes of proceedings except for when Angel’s general manager Tony Reagins was introduced. He recieved a similar kind of Bronx cheer that brother Jeff Weaver once heard when he pitched for the Yankees. Which may’ve been another reason why Jered decided that free agency possibly leading to the Bronx Zoo wasn’t best for him or his family. I asked ‘Weaves’ about that along with if any of the negativity surrounding Lebron James decision to leave Cleveland ever weighed much into his decision as well? Maybe not the best comparison, but it’s a whole new sports landscape out there then many of us grew up with and image is ‘almost’ everything now.

I’ve posted the Weaver portion of the newsconference for your listening pleasure along with my one on one’s afterward which includes Jered’s father Dave, manager Mike Scioscia, pitching coach Mike Butcher, teammate Torii Hunter (on Weaver and about being a higher-priced Angel at $90 mil./5yrs.), and ex-Halo lefty and their all-time franchise leader in wins Chuck Finley who was introduced along with Bobby Grich as part of the Angels’ fraternity in attendance.

Any way you look at it, becoming the richest pitcher in Angels history aint too bad for a kid that had a learning disability that may’ve hurt him in school but not on the mound where he fits most comfortably!…

Jered Weaver newser:

Jered Weaver with Ted Sobel:

Dave Weaver (Jered’s dad) with Ted Sobel:

Mike Scioscia with Ted Sobel:

Mike Butcher with Ted Sobel:

Chuck Finley with Ted Sobel:

Torii Hunter with Ted Sobel:

After taking a few days off myself, I realized today that a few years away from where I want to be would not be easy to deal with. But that’s what now 29 years young Jerome Williams was feeling when he finally made his first big league start in 4 years and earned his first win in ‘The Bigs’ since 2005 after allowing just one run on six hits while striking out six in seven innings as his Angels completed a three-game sweep of the lowly Orioles with a 7-1 rout.

Williams was drafted in the first round by the Giants in 1999 (39th overall) and after stints in San Francisco, Chicago’s Cubs, and Washington Nationals, he’s been toiling in the minors (and in Taiwan last year) getting as low as the Long Beach Armada of the independent
Golden Baseball League before the Dodgers signed him to a minor league deal in June, 2008. But Jerome never did see Dodger Stadium or any other MLB ballpark until today when the Angels called him up from triple-A Salt Lake where he’d been pitching very well of late and the Halos needed his arm to help their overly-used staff during this tough stretch of games.

It was great to see Williams smiling in front of his locker after this huge comeback win with his 5 year old son (who was squeezing a baseball like he was getting ready to warm up in the bullpen himself) alongside enjoying his Dad being enveloped by the hoard of local media wanting his take on this feel-good story.

Jerome has an array of pitches that could only be surpassed by his personal mix of nationalities which includes Hawaiian-Chinese-Portuguese-Spanish-Japanese-Norwegian-African-Filipino and American…and it certainly turned out to be an Aloha Sunday at Angels Stadium for the Hawaiian born righthander, who if he never won another big league game has one great story to tell his 3 kids when they’re all old enough to appreciate the road traveled by their never-give-up father.

Oh and by the way, thanks to Williams and the Angels win combined with the Rangers embarrassing 10-0 loss to the White Sox today, the Halos are now just 4 games back of Texas when they looked dead and buried just 4 days ago just before rookie Mark Trumbo saved their asses with a walk-off come-from-behind homer against the Rangers. And now the next big question is will Jerome get a shot to start in Texas next weekend against a real major league lineup compared to the wing-clipped Baltimore Birds??????

Jerome Williams with Ted Sobel:

Angels manager Mike Scioscia on Williams big comeback win:

Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher with Ted Sobel: