Touring the sports world, here and there …
• A good chance exists that a former Angels starting pitcher returns to the team. That’s because there are so many of them. Among the ex-Halo starters who are free agents are Bartolo Colon, Dan Haren, Scott Kazmir and Ervin Santana.
• The Angels might be able to get Colon on a relatively inexpensive one-year contract, or maybe Santana for an affordable two- or three-year deal.
• And how much would a change of scenery benefit Phil Hughes if he comes home? Hughes, of the Yankees, attended Foothill High in North Tustin (really, Foothill is in unincorporated Santa Ana but many snooty residents hate the “Santa Ana” label). He is only 27 years old.
• Another free-agent starting pitcher is Ubaldo Jimenez. After the All-Star break, only the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw had a lower ERA than did Jimenez for the Cleveland Indians.
• Ex-Angels Fernando Rodney and Francisco Rodriguez are free-agent relievers. Rodriguez is only 32.
• Sadly for the Angels, and the Dodgers, there are no enticing free-agent third basemen.
• This news of the death of Gates Brown in September kind of came and went, but his career deserves the late spotlight. Brown was a great pinch-hitter, accumulating an American League record 107 hits in 414 pinch-hit at bats. He hit .450 as a pinch-hitter for the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers.
• The MLB record for career pinch hits belongs to Lenny Harris, who had 212 pinch hits in 804 at bats.
• UC Irvine 7-foot-6 freshman basketball center Mamadou Ndiaye’s shortcoming at Brethren Christian High was conditioning. His overall coordination, quickness and free-throw shooting were remarkable for a young man his size, and you won’t meet a nicer person. If Ndiaye gets his stamina right, he is going to be great for the Anteaters.
• The athletic training room at Fullerton College is to be dedicated to Bill Chambers, who has been the community college’s athletic trainer for 38 years. There will be a ceremony, including the unveiling of a plaque, at halftime of the Hornets’ 1 p.m. game against Santa Ana College on Nov. 16 at Yorba Linda High. There will be a gathering after the game at Brian’s Bar in Fullerton that day from 4:30 p.m.-7 p.m.
• Re: Miami Dolphins lineman Richie Incognito. So a guy who is called a dirty player on the field might be an ignorant racist in daily life? That would be stunning.
• Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden is averaging just 3.6 yards a carry, a hamstring injury kept him out of the second half of the Raiders’ 49-20 loss to the Eagles, and already that’s his second injury of the season.
• In that game, Philadelphia quarterback Nick Foles had more touchdown passes, seven, than the Jacksonville Jaguars have had all season.
• The Chargers had the ball inside the Washington 1-yard line, with a first down and fewer than 30 seconds remaining, and could not score what would have been the winning touchdown. They have a 260-pound fullback, Le’Ron McClain, and running back Ryan Mathews has done the leap-over-the line thing expertly. On three plays, neither McClain nor Mathews got the ball, the Chargers had to kick a tying field goal and Washington won it in overtime, 30-24.
• One might think Mathews running behind McClain in I-formation, like LaDainian Tomlinson did behind Lorenzo Neal so many times, would get a yard.
• Danny Woodhead is a nifty running back, but the 5-foot-8, 200-pound veteran from Chadron State should not be standing where McClain or Mathews should be standing on whatever down it is at the 1 on either end of the field.
• On first down, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers had the option to call a run or a pass, he chose run and Woodhead’s dive to the pylon did not work. On second down, with Mathews in the backfield, Rivers called for a pass and threw it over the head of tight end Antonio Gates on a fade route that is not Gates’ forte. On third down, Rivers rolled out and decided to gun the ball incomplete to save the field-goal opportunity.
• ESPN’s Michael Wilbon called the preceding sequence “the worst play-calling in the history of the NFL.” Wasn’t Wilbon being ridiculously dramatic? No.
• Chapman University will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the college’s 2003 NCAA Division III baseball national championship at halftime of its football home game Saturday. Sadly, the coach of that team, Tom Tereschuk, is unlikely to be there.
• Tereschuk resigned as Chapman baseball head coach this past April following player allegations of abusive language directed toward them. “Coach T” might have crossed the line of good taste. A great coach and a good man, Tereschuk, who has relocated to Hawaii, declined Chapman’s invitation to attend Saturday’s celebration.
• Dwight Howard will play better against the Lakers at Houston on Thursday than he did against the Clippers at Staples Center on Monday. Howard did tie for the game high in rebounds, with nine, in the Rockets’ 137-118 loss to the Clippers.
• Walt Bellamy, who died Saturday, was a very good center in an era of great centers in the 1960s and early ’70s. “Bells” averaged 20 points a game against the Lakers when his Atlanta Hawks were swept in four games in the 1969-70 playoffs. The Lakers’ center was Wilt Chamberlain, who was coming off of a serious knee injury but still that was Wilt out there.
• The NBA debut of Michael-Carter Williams of the 76ers last Wednesday: 22 points, 12 assists, nine steals and seven rebounds. No player has produced such statistics in his first NBA game.
• The just-retired Allen Iverson brought outdoors style to the NBA. He was a gas to watch.
• So far, the Lakers have lived up to expectations. They are 2-2. They are a .500 basketball team.
• Steve Nash and yours truly have something in common, besides first names. I’m also laying down much of the time when the Lakers play.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
