Finally, a game worthy for the stars
JERRY CROWE
Text messages from press row ...
Stephen Colbert swung and missed Tuesday night when he said at the top of his Comedy Central show, "I'm like my own All-Star game in that tonight, I'm also not trying very hard." . . .
Finally, an All-Star game worth remembering. . . .
If you could stay awake. . . .
It was a fitting sendoff for Yankee Stadium, but a more appropriate swan song for the former home of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, et al., would be a game played in cool, blustery conditions in late October, with a World Series championship riding on the outcome. . . .
As it stands now, the finale is scheduled for Sept. 21. . . .
Thanks to Tuesday's 15th-inning sacrifice fly by former La Puente Bishop Amat High star Michael Young of the Texas Rangers, the American League will have home-field advantage in the World Series for the seventh year in a row. . . .
The last time a National League team had the home-field edge, in 2001, the Arizona Diamondbacks won Game 7 against the Yankees on a run-scoring single by Luis Gonzalez against Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth inning. . . .
The Clippers, basically given Marcus Camby by the Denver Nuggets, are lucky the NBA didn't take up the suggestion by San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich that it create a trade-advisory group with veto power. . . .
You remember: After the Lakers obtained Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzles for a package that included Kwame Brown, Popovich noted, "There should be a trade committee that can scratch all trades that make no sense. . . . I'd like to elect myself to that committee. I would have voted no to the L.A. trade." . . .
He probably didn't care much for this L.A. trade either. . . .
What a steal. . . .
The Clippers might be better off with Camby and Baron Davis than they were with Elton Brand and Corey Maggette, who in seven seasons together led Donald Sterling's crew to exactly one playoff appearance. . . .
The Spectrum in Philadelphia, where a Lakers rookie named Magic Johnson staged his memorable 42-point, 15-rebound, seven-assist masterpiece in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, is scheduled to be demolished next year. . . .
