Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their stories in their own words.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Sports Medley: The Dodgers are the Dumbest “Best” Team in History 17 Jul 17

by Tony Medley

The Dodgers are the winningest team in baseball, despite an appalling ignorance of fundamentals and consistently poor judgment, and not just in handling starting pitchers. Items:

 

  1. In the top of the second inning of Friday night's game against Miami the Dodgers had runners on first and third with two outs and Chris Taylor at bat. With two strikes, the runner on first, catcher Yasmani Grandal, attempted to steal second on what looked like a double steal. When the catcher threw the ball through the infield to the second baseman, however, Joc Peterson, the runner on third, was retreating towards third base. If it was an attempted double steal, it was the ugliest one in the history of baseball. When the ball was bobbled by the second baseman, Peterson then made an ill-advised belated break for the plate. He would have been out by 20 feet but a bad throw allowed him to score a run.
  2. With a runner now on second, on the next pitch Taylor lined a short single to left field. It was short and hard hit, so the lead-footed Grandal could really only be expected to make it one base to third (Mickey Mantle couldn’t have scored on this one). Coming up was Corey Seager, arguably the Dodgers’ second best hitter. Despite this, third base coach Chris Woodward, whose only responsibility is to either hold runners at third or send them in, sent Grandal in to try to score and he was thrown out by 10 feet, ending the inning with Seager in the on deck circle.
  3. Validating why he is a Dodgers broadcaster, former shortstop Nomar Garciapiarra, said that sending Grandal was a good decision. That will probably get him rehired, but Nomar has some ‘splainin to do about why it was a good decision to send a slow catcher in to try to score from second on a short single to left with your second best hitter ready to step in the batter’s box. Yeah, sure.
  4. Dodgers’ pitcher Brandon McCarthy failed dismally to lay down a sacrifice bunt. If you're going to accept the fact that pitchers are terrible hitters, then you should have them spend a substantial amount of their time in spring training learning how to put down a sacrifice bunt. Yet pitchers are traditionally as bad at bunting as they are in the other aspect of batting. The fact that nobody in major league baseball knows how to properly put down a sacrifice bunt is a disgrace. But the fact that a pitcher in the National League can't put down a sacrifice bunt is due solely to lack of training. Other players don't concentrate on bunting because they are, basically, batters who want to hit the ball. As it is, watching these pitchers try to bunt is akin to watching a circus clown.
  5. In Sunday’s game against Miami, in the top of the seventh inning of a 3-0 game against Miami with the bases loaded and 2 outs, NL home run leader Cody Bellinger was at the plate and, guess what? Corey Seager gets picked off second base! I repeat, the bases are loaded, 2 are out, and the NL home run leader is at bat. And Seager gets picked off SECOND BASE…WITH A RUNNER ON THIRD! Even one of the 3 Stooges wouldn’t be so stupid as to be picked off second base in this situation.
  6. Earlier in the week Bellinger led off the second inning with a single and promptly got picked off first base.
  7. A week ago in the 8th inning first baseman Bellinger wandered 45 feet to his right to intercept a routine ground ball hit almost directly at the second baseman, resulting in an infield single since no one was covering first, and depriving Clayton Kershaw of his second no hitter.
  8. Already this year at least two Dodgers runners have continued last year’s practice and been thrown out trying to advance from second to third on a ground ball hit in front of them to the shortstop.

I’m outa room, but I could go on and on. Manager Dave Roberts’ luck keeps holding, because after all these bonehead plays, the Dodgers pull victory from the jaws of defeat time and again and the faux pas are overlooked or ignored because Roberts evidently takes no action to make them play smarter since their gaffes continue to occur. To give Roberts the benefit of the doubt, maybe he doesn’t know any more about how baseball should be played than his oblivious players.

 

 

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