Culture
Saints report to camp July 23
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080624/SPORTS/806240358/1287
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Saints will report to training camp at Millsaps College on July 23, with the first set of two-a-day practices scheduled the next day.
The team will break camp and return to New Orleans on Aug. 12, giving the Saints roughly three weeks to bake in the sweltering Mississippi heat.
This will be the Saints' third straight year in Jackson, a tradition that has met with mixed results. In 2006, new coach Sean Payton used the grueling getaway to set the tone for one of the most remarkable single-season turnarounds in NFL history. Last year, however, the Saints got off to an 0-4 start and failed to reach the playoffs.
clarionledger.com
6/24/08
Georgia comes back to win Game 1 of CWS finals
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/8276712/Georgia-comes-back-to-win-Game-1-of-CWS-finals
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Gordon Beckham's teammates had given him a hard time for a week because he hadn't hit the home run that would make him Georgia's career leader.
"Tonight," he said, "was a pretty good time to do it."
Yes, it was.
Beckham's two-run shot to left-center started a four-run eighth inning that brought Georgia from three runs down to defeat Fresno State 7-6 in Game 1 of the College World Series finals Monday night.
Matt Cerione and Joey Lewis followed with consecutive doubles for the tying and go-ahead runs, and then All-America closer Joshua Fields pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to finish off Fresno State.
Georgia (45-23-1) now stands one win from a second national championship to go with the one it won in 1990. Fresno State (45-31), 4-0 in elimination games in the NCAA tournament, will try to keep its improbable postseason run alive when the teams meet in Game 2 on Tuesday.
"We're a loose ballclub," Fresno State third baseman Tommy Mendonca said. "We can't play tense and tight. That's when errors and mental mistakes come. We can't be all angry about every little thing. It's baseball. You're going to fail. We just have to be calm, be loose, be easy."
Fresno State appeared to take control in the top of the eighth when it scored three runs to go up 6-3 against Alex McRee and two other relievers.
But Georgia, which had rallied in the seventh inning or later to win its first two CWS games, wasn't finished.
foxsports.net
6/24/08
How NBC/Notre Dame can amp ratings
http://www.fannation.com/blogs/post/206899
NBC and Notre Dame football have extended their exclusive TV contract through 2015, even though the 3-9 Fighting Irish drew their lowest ratings last season since the network started airing their games in 1991.
Though the terms were not disclosed, the current contract (which runs through 2010) is reportedly worth $9 million a year. So we're talking a fair chunk of change for the last-place network to be tossing around.
As always, the 10 Spot is eager to dispense unsolicited advice. Here are some things NBC and Notre Dame might tweak to juice the ratings:
10. Replace the leprechaun mascot with Regis Philbin
9. Schedule games against Coast Guard, Merchant Marine and the cast of Stripes
8. Network cross-promotion -- hand defensive coordinator job to The Office's Michael Scott and let the laughs begin!
Fannation.com
6/21/08
Soaring SEC salaries turn up heat
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/SPORTS0201/806230316/1028/RSS05
When Mississippi State bumped Sylvester Croom's salary package to $1.7 million for next season it meant every head football coach at a public institution in the SEC will be making more than $1.5 million next season.
But with great financial reward comes great expectations.
Those expectations may be greater in the SEC West — where two coaches will be making more than $3 million this year and two more will be making more than $2 million — than anywhere.
"You can't pay that much money to six different coaches and expect them to all win the SEC West," former Auburn coach Terry Bowden wrote for Yahoo.com earlier this month. "Can you imagine paying between $2 million and $4 million each to (LSU coach Les) Miles, (Alabama coach Nick) Saban, (Auburn coach Tommy) Tuberville, (Arkansas coach Bobby) Petrino and (Ole Miss coach Houston) Nutt knowing that every year one of those guys is going to come in fifth in their division?"
To at least one of those coaches, this is nothing new.
LSU's Miles hasn't coached as a $3 million man, but he doesn't forsee any greater expectations now that he joined Saban in the $3 million club.
"Pressure has never been an issue," Miles said last week during a visit to Shreveport. "It's all self-derived ... Nobody puts pressure on me greater than what is my pressure to do a great job."
Shreveporttimes.com
6/23/08
