Athletic Events

Starting at midnight Dec. 31, Time Warner cable customers could find themselves without Lakers, Clippers, Kings, Ducks, UCLA and USC television coverage, thanks to a fee dispute that escalated Friday. Time Warner and News Corp., which owns the Fox stable of channels, have been unable to renegotiate the carriage agreement that runs out at the end of the year. If the impasse is not resolved, local subscribers not only would be without much of the entertainment programming on Channel 11 -- including new seasons of "American Idol," "24" and "House" -- but also Prime Ticket and FS West, home to L.A. sports teams, including the Lakers, Clippers, Dodgers and Angels.

When politics, race or religion prevents people from talking or even shaking hands, it's left to sports competition to save the day. And so it was, 65 years ago, in the middle of World War II, that courage and what was right came through on a makeshift high school football field in Manzanar, Calif., in the Owens Valley. Manzanar High School, made up of sons and daughters of Japanese Americans interned by Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, played their first and only interscholastic athletic event, a football game against Big Pine High on Oct. 25, 1944.

Avid sports fan Tony Pena of Pasadena waits and waits until the price is right for tickets. When he wants to see an upcoming game, he scours two local ticket broker websites daily. "The closer to a game, they're more desperate to sell," said Pena, 27. And he's right. At a recent Clippers home game, Pena sat in section 301 for about 85% off the regular price because he waited until 4 p.m., about three hours before tipoff, to buy it from a local broker, Barry's Tickets.

Excuse me, there's a San Diego Chargers cheerleader in your lap. And that's way less scary than having LaDainian Tomlinson carrying the Oakland Raiders' defensive line into your lap. The Thursday night NFL Network broadcast of the Chargers' 34-7 win over the visiting Raiders was shown in three theaters (one each in Los Angeles, New York and Boston) in three-dimensional or 3-D technology.

As night bar manager at Barney's Beanery in Pasadena, Eric Gonzalez has an awesome responsibility: He's master controller of nearly 100 televisions. So when the Summer Games began Aug. 8, he was nervous. Should he bump Major League Baseball and other mainstream events off the big screens? Would his hard-core sports patrons complain that synchronized diving, team handball, BMX cycling, trampoline and other Olympic fare were for bars that serve arugula salads? "If customers don't like what you put up there, they will let you know," Gonzalez said in the control booth, where patrons aren't allowed.

For years, broadcaster Harry Caray waved his microphone out of the booth to lead White Sox and Cubs fans in the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," a tradition still carried on at Wrigley Field with celebrity conductors. This year, the song turns 100, but it's just one of many that have become a part of the American sports soundtrack. Here are some others that are required listening, whether fans like it or not.

Las Vegas in July. It's the place to be, if you're a lizard, cactus plant or a basketball fan. Long dependent on the tourist trade and convention business, Las Vegas officials have long struggled to attract crowds in the sweltering months, but, in recent years, they have discovered an ideal lure: basketball. While the city is world famous as the mecca of boxing, it has became a hoop hub in July, luring teams from preteens to preps to pros to Olympians. "In the summer months, we are always working harder to bring people in," said Pat Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, the organization that promotes everything from rodeos to monster truck rallies.

The late shows may be back on the air, but except for reality programs prime-time TV is mostly in reruns for the foreseeable future. So what's an advertiser to do? One answer: Think sports. Sporting events have been seeing increased interest from companies looking to promote themselves during shows that will be watched live, rather than recorded and viewed later, sans commercials.

All sports competition scheduled for this weekend involving Orange County public high schools has been postponed or canceled because of health and air quality issues resulting from the ongoing wildfires, county education Supt. Bill Habermehl announced Thursday. Habermehl, in a conference call with 15 Orange County unified and high school district superintendents, made the "collective decision" to postpone indoor and outdoor sports and extracurricular activities through Sunday.

The Boost Mobile Pro will resume today, after a day off Friday, with a surfing marathon beginning at 8 a.m. The Foster's ASP World Tour event at Lower Trestles near San Clemente will open with Round 4 and conclude with the final at about 3 p.m. The sixth of 10 World Tour contests -- the only one on the U.S. mainland -- has been rife with upsets as nine of the top 10 surfers on the tour's 45-man roster have been eliminated. Kelly Slater, ranked No.