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

My trek down the 405 freeway got me first thinking baseball when hearing Vin Scully for the first time this spring calling the Dodgers and Cubs practice game from Vegas. Vinny was sounding spry as usual as I was headed to Newport Beach to watch Scully’s other passion-golf.

It was the final round of the Champions Tour Toshiba Classic (which often is on ‘Selection Sunday’) and former world number one Nick Price won wire to wire after an amazing opening round 60 and then hanging on for a 1 stroke victory over Mark Wiebe. It was the 4th over 50’s Tour win for Price and he was kind enough to give me a few minutes after holding up the trophy…

Nick Price:

Thanks for another great week of tournament golf, Toshiba!

Just minutes after speaking with Nick, I quickly had to get back on that freeway again just to reach Honda Center in time for the last period of the important Ducks-Coyotes hockey game. And when I turned on the car radio the locals were already quacking up trailing 4-2 which was also the final score while ironically falling to their former goalie Ilya Bryzgalov. Anaheim began the day 2 points behind Phoenix for a share of the final playoff spot in the West with only 14 to play so every point is crucial now but it was the visitors who dominated in this one. Afterwards I found myself going from doing the light-hearted interview with a newly crowned celebrating champion to dealing with a bunch of disappointed Ducks (as in forwards Todd Marchant, Corey Perry, and Coach Randy Carlyle) who are seeing their playoff chances slowly slipping away…

Ducks postgame locker room:

Won’t we EVER get to see the Ducks and Kings in the playoffs in the same season? EVER? It’s almost mathematically impossible that it still has NEVER happened!

The Pac 10 hoops tournament took over Staples Center this week and our locals could only squeeze out one win between them with USC beating Cal and UCLA losing to Oregon. Afterwards I was able to get Trojans coach Kevin O’Neill one on one in the locker room to talk about his team peaking at the right time and his thoughts on getting into the real tournament.

Kevin O’Neill:

Unfortunately for O’Neill he got involved in an altercation with an Arizona booster later that night which cost him a one game school imposed suspension and his Trojans then lost to the Wildcats. But the good news for both So-Cal schools is that they’ve made it onto everyone’s bracket sheets and have their chances of advancing in this ‘who knows?’ post-season of college hoops.

I got an awesome text from Mark Howe on Friday afternoon which read “Dad, Marty n I saw interview. Turned out great. Thx”

And thank you Howe family for the opportunity. Hopefully I’ll get to chat with Gordie sometime soon and let him bring you up to date with the latest on the incredible life of Mr. Hockey.

Unfortunately I missed Saturday night’s Clippers’ win over Denver and more importantly getting the best joke from Blake Griffin for you. If you don’t know, my running gag with the star of the Blake Show is for him to show us that he’s really not a boring interview (as described in a recent L.A. Times story). I bought him a thick book with over 7,400 jokes which he said he read plenty of on that long Grammy road trip. But Blake told me this past week (with a giggle and that sheepish grin) that he only remembered the dirty ones so that the next time we met up, he’d have a good one for me to share with you. So as N.Y. Jets linebacker Bart Scott’s new patented (literally) phrase states: “Can’t wait!”
Stay tuned…

Please check out my interviews (below) with three of the Hall of Fame golfers who are playing in this week’s Champions Tour event in Newport Beach. Tom Watson, Bernhard Langer, and Mark O’Meara all talk about their games amongst other topics going into the Toshiba Classic. And you add Masters champ Fuzzy Zoeller into the mix and it’s guaranted smiles for anyone who plays the game or just sits back and marvels how these guys can hit that stupid ball so cleanly for so many years…

WOW, what a race and what a decision by the stewards to leave the Bob Baffert trained Game On Dude as your longshot (at almost 15-1) winner of the most controversial non-disqualification finish in Santa Anita Handicap history! And Baffert had entered 4 horses in this race including the early leader (and 2nd betting choice) First Dude, so I guess it was only fitting that the finest chick on the grounds led one of his dudes to victory.
And it was exciting to be in and around the winner’s circle as the racing world debated (during a 12 minute video tape review by the stewards) whether or not the first female winner of the ‘Big Cap’ Chantal Sutherland should’ve been taken down for her horses’ bumping incident at the top of the stretch (which you can see clearer if you click on the picture to the right that I took from the press box). Victor Espinoza, who was aboard the 2nd place finisher and 25-1 shot Setsuko even said “I don’t know why it took so long to make the wrong decision. I think the stewards are blind.” Refreshingly, Espinosa is allowed to speak his mind…could you imagine if David Stern was the racing commissioner? I could see Victor being suspended and fined most of his day’s earnings for that comment!

So after receiving many boos and plenty of cheers too on her way back to the jock’s room, I caught up with the winning jockey after changing silks before the final race of the day (which she finished in 3rd at odds of 20-1) and she explained her entire viewpoint of what could’ve cost her greatest victory while possibly affecting the race’s heavy favorite Twirling Candy’s chances as well (although he was ruled to have been responsible for the bumping incident).

How’s this for a photo finish in the biggest annual race on the West Coast?

Chantal Sutherland:

And I then spoke with the winning trainer Bob Baffert who was beaming after his 2nd straight Big Cap win and 3rd overall…

Bob Baffert:

The best part of my day was sharing smiles with Chantal in the press room afterward as she got to more fully enjoy the biggest win of her career. And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person who has continued the tradition of being as friendly as she is professional like a couple of Hall of Fame Canadian jockeys who preceded her (and who I’ve had many interactions with) in Ron Turcotte and Sandy Hawley.
Congrats Ms. Sutherland!

NO, not that type of cougar! This is the time of year that always brings back special memories of my favorite Santa Anita race ever (at least until Zenyatta’s Breeder’s Cup win). Only a few months after the man who introduced the sport of kings to me (my father) had died, the 1973 version of the Big Cap was run and the field included my all-time favorite So-Cal horse Cougar II (under Laffit Pincay, Jr.). If you click on the painting to the right, you’ll get a clearer look at how beautiful Cougar was with his always perfectly coiffed long full tail and mane that usually seemed as if he’d just jogged in from seeing his favorite Beverly Hills stylist. Trainer Charlie Whittingham had brought “The Big Cat” back off of a long layoff and some solid works and the horse was ready to roll; beating a game Kennedy Road after a long stretch drive, a photo finish and steward’s inquiry by a whisker! That $50 win ticket (the most costly for me up to that race) had my palms sweating while waiting seemingly forever for the stewards to finally give Cougar, ‘The Bald Eagle’ (his 8th Big Cap title), and I a win that is forever etched in my mind.
Here’s the bobbing of the heads stretch call by track announcer Terry Gilligan…

Cougar barely beats Kennedy Road:

Well ‘Coug’ is long gone and it really feels strange to say that tomorrow marks the 74th running of the $750,000 Santa Anita Handicap at the Great Race Place where they’re loading up the card with three Grade 1 stakes races in one day. The Big Cap is headed up by 4/5 morning line favorite Twirling Candy, the 4 year old son of Candy Ride and his trainer John Sadler (the Long Beach native) told me that he’s expecting a sweet Saturday from his colt that is considered by many to be the best thoroughbred in the nation right now. Twirling Candy is 6 of 7 lifetime on the track and anything less than a 7th win tomorrow would be a big disappointment for his connections…as you’ll hear from Sadler, who’s as confident as a trainer can be in this game…
Good luck John and Joel…

John Sadler:

March is not only the month of college hoops madness or baseball’s spring training. It’s also the month that back in 1928, probably the greatest 2-way hockey player who ever lived was born in Saskatchewan. His name, Gordon Howe. He’s also the only player I’ve ever known to have had nicknames in double figures such as Mr. Elbows, Power, Mr. Everything, The Legend, Mr. All-Star, and Number 9. But there’s only one official name that sums up what he’s all about and that’s
“MR. HOCKEY”!

And Gordie did it all, and for a length of time that’s impossible to fathom. Howwwwwe about skating for 26 years in the NHL while winning 4 Stanley Cups while being the face of the game as a 21 time All-Star before retiring with more records than the Beatles (and he still holds several to this day-but not for total NHL goals scored which Gretzky broke in 1994!). You can see how Gordie was relieved when it was over after traveling around waiting for ‘The Great One’ to finally become the greatest one!

And oh howwwwe I love this stat, Howe was in the National Hockey League in 1948 when the great Bobby Orr was born and he was still in the league when Orr retired in 1979. Another classic conquest that will never be touched is coming back at the age of 69 to take a shift in the old IHL with the Detroit Vipers to be the only pro to ever play in 6 straight decades (40’s-90’s). I was in the league then calling Long Beach Ice Dogs games but unfortunately we were not on the schedule for that one, which would’ve been a real thrill to see it and call it live.

But with all of Gordie’s legendary achievements on the ice, there was none greater than coming back from a 2 year retirement which included his Hall of Fame induction to then getting to play 7 years with his 2 sons Mark and Marty starting at the age of 45. First with the WHA Houston Aeros (where they won 2 Cups together) and then finishing up with the New England/Hartford Whalers who moved Gordie back to the NHL for his final curtain call in 1979/80. You want more rediculous numbers on this physical phenom? How about Howe playing in more regular season games (80) during his final season than in any of his other 31 pro seasons! Folks, this isn’t slow-pitch softball…this is the NHL and as Mark will tell you in our chat that Dad wanted to play even another year! You think that kids could learn something from that scenario? Are you listening Greg Oden and Andrew Bynum? THE man finished as a 52 year old grandpa in the Stanley Cup playoffs with a goal and assist in 3 games after scoring 15 goals/26 assists along with 42 penalty minutes during that last regular campaign just to give the opposition something to remember him by forever!

A chip off the ol’ block himself, Mark Howe played 16 of his 22 pro seasons in the NHL before hanging up the skates for a long and distinguished scouting career with ironically his Dad’s beloved Detroit Red Wings. I first met Mark while on a long eastern road trip in the ’96 or ’97 IHL season and thought what great stories he could provide our Ice Dogs radio listeners with as a between periods guest and he’s been a nice friend ever since. So how apropos it was to see Mark on his only trip out West this season on Sunday at Honda Center before the Ducks and Avalanche collided and again the next night at Staples on NHL trade deadline day before the Kings took on his Red Wings. Folks, no exaggeration here: two more humble, down to earth and straight forward gentlemen you will never meet than Mark and Gordie Howe. And it was great to get a very candid and sincere update on how his legendary father is doing before reaching the big 8-3 on March 31 along with some inside stories I just know you’ll be telling others forever.
A HAPPPPPY AND HEALTHY BIRTHDAY GORDIE…AND HOWWWWWWE!

Mark Howe: