Baseball Playoffs

If you are a Dodgers or Angels fan, you may be dreading the playoffs since both teams are currently out of the running. However, if you are a Bruce Springsteen fan, you do have something to look forward to. Major League Baseball announced Wednesday that one of his songs will be the  2012 playoffs theme song. No, it's not "Glory Days. " It's "Land of Hope and Dreams. " A commercial spot featuring the song will show highlights of the 2012 season interspersed with live Springsteen footage.

There's nothing easy or predictable about the 40-team Southern Section Division 1 baseball playoffs that begin Tuesday with eight wild-card games. "The Division 1 games are a juggernaut," Coach Matt LaCour of No. 3-seeded Studio City Harvard-Westlake said. "Single-elimination playoffs are about a team getting hot at the right time and having a little luck. " Santa Ana Mater Dei (24-2) ended the regular season as the best team in Southern California and received the No. 1 seeding for the Division 1 playoffs.

Think Lou Piniella had it easy managing the Reds to the National League pennant? How would you like having to hug Marge Schott as part of the celebration? ALAN HARVEY Arleta

San Fernando (29-3) was seeded No. 1 on Saturday for the City Section Division I baseball playoffs that have first-round games May 22. The quarterfinals are May 24, semifinals May 29 at USC and the championship game June 1 at 1 p.m. at Dodger Stadium. West Valley League champion Reseda Cleveland (21-10) is No. 2, West Valley runner-up Chatsworth (21-10) is No. 3 and Marine League champion Wilmington Banning (15-16) is No. 4. Some West Valley League coaches are not happy. Their league was considered the best in the division.

The NCAA, at its executive council meeting Wednesday in Chicago, approved expansion of the Division I baseball playoffs from 48 to 64 teams beginning next season. The new format calls for 16 four-team, double-elimination regionals followed the next week by eight super regionals. The two teams in each of the super regionals will play a best-of-three series to decide the eight berths in the College World Series, according to NCAA spokesman Jim Wright.

For anyone wondering, yes, the 10-run rule is in effect for the Southern Section baseball playoffs. Highland High found out the hard way in the first round Friday, losing to Crespi, 10-0. Crespi exploded for seven runs in the fifth inning and when Anthony Trejo blasted a three-run home run to give the Celts the 10-run cushion, the umpires left the field. "I didn't know the 10-run rule was in effect," Highland Coach Mike Van Cheri said. "I was on my way out to change pitchers when they called it."

The only thing worse than trying to figure out where to watch the first round of the baseball playoffs is not being able to get them at all on L.A. radio. The TV schedule is about as confusing as Fox Sports' lineup of channels--the Fox network, Fox Sports Net, Fox Sports Net West and West 2, FX, Fox Sports World Espanol, etc. Today's baseball schedule is no problem. Atlanta-Houston at 1 p.m. on ESPN will be followed at 5 p.m. by Arizona-New York Mets on NBC.

Southern Section baseball playoffs--All games scheduled for 3:15 p.m. Today--Wild-Card Division I Hoover at Palmdale Oxnard at St. John Bosco Arroyo Grande at Notre Dame Quartz Hill at Glendora Division III Burbank Burroughs at Westlake Division V Providence at Flintridge Prep St. Monica at Campbell Hall Malibu at St. Bonaventure Friday--First round Division I Hoover/Palmdale winner at Bell Gardens Oxnard/St.

Boston Manager Joe Morgan saw the Weiss-Rice play differently than LaRussa, although not quite as colorfully. In fact, most of Morgan's responses in the post-game interview room had contained as many words as the number of Boston runs on the scoreboard. Question: Would Rice have scored in the second inning if Walt Weiss doesn't make the play? Answer: No. Q: Was this a game you had to win? A: We'll find out later. Q: How do you feel about Roger Clemens pitching tomorrow? A: Outstanding.

The last time the Baltimore Orioles advanced to the postseason, Cal Ripken Jr. was the team's third baseman. Fifteen years later, the Orioles have returned to the playoffs led by a dominant bullpen and a pressure-loving group that won 29 one-run games and also shined in extra innings, reviving the sport in Ripken's town. Ripken will be part of the postseason, too, working as a TBS analyst, first in the booth with Ernie Johnson and John Smoltz in wild-card and division series games, then going to the studio with Matt Winer, David Wells and Dennis Eckersley for the American League Championship Series.

Call it good planning or good luck, but the addition of a second wild-card team this season saved September in the National League. Under the old rules, this September would be one big yawn. The Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves would be coasting right about now, resting the regulars and juggling the rotations in preparation for the playoffs. Behold the cage match for the second wild-card spot, with six teams entering play Saturday within 41/2 games of that golden ticket — among them the Milwaukee Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies, both left for dead months ago. That, in turn, makes the reward for finishing with the best record in the NL far more significant than home-field advantage through the postseason.

  So it's the first game of the season. You are playing on special teams. While racing downfield to cover a punt, you notice the return man fumble. You scoop up the ball and head for the end zone. You get knocked out of bounds after running the ball for a 58-yard gain. What a great first game! But if your name is Andre Parker and you play for Kent State, you made one little mistake: You ran the ball the wrong way. You can watch it all in the video above. And pay attention to who knocks him out of bounds: two players from Kent State's opponent, Towson.

An unidentified 25-year-old fan died after falling off a fifth-floor escalator while attending a preseason Houston Texans game Thursday at Reliant Stadium, police said. Houston Police Department spokesman John Cannon said Friday he could not identify the man until his family had been informed. "He was transported to Memorial Hermann Hospital after we had had some fans get the attention of some Houston police officers who were nearby where the body fell," Cannon said. Police consider the death accidental, Cannon said.

NEW YORK -- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who a year ago reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals and charmed New York crowds with both his tantalizing and attacking tennis and his appreciative demeanor, was an upset loser Thursday in the second round. Tsonga fell to 23-year-old Martin Klizan of Slovakia, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. Tsonga, who recently won an Olympic doubles silver medal for France with Michael Llodra, had been the first Frenchman to reach at least the quarterfinals of all four major tournament events last spring when he made the French Open quarters, lacked power on his serve Thursday and never seem able to fully tap his all-court power.

NEW YORK - Andy Roddick, who turned 30 on Thursday, announced that whenever he is finished playing in this U.S. Open, his tennis career will be over. Roddick, who won his only major title at the U.S. Open in 2003 and who was a finalist at the Open in 2006 as well as being runner-up three times at Wimbledon, said he made his decision after winning his first round here. Roddick, seeded 20th, is scheduled to play Australian teenager Bernard Tomic on Friday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

If you are a Dodgers or Angels fan, you may be dreading the playoffs since both teams are currently out of the running. However, if you are a Bruce Springsteen fan, you do have something to look forward to. Major League Baseball announced Wednesday that one of his songs will be the  2012 playoffs theme song. No, it's not "Glory Days. " It's "Land of Hope and Dreams. " A commercial spot featuring the song will show highlights of the 2012 season interspersed with live Springsteen footage.

Winning is important, but so is learning life lessons, so understand the pride Sylmar High baseball Coach Ray Rivera has in his players when he looks at a photo taken at the school prom this month and sees them surrounding the senior prom queen, Candy Guzman . The story behind the photo is that Guzman is a special-needs student who started hanging out with the baseball players at nutrition three years ago. As Rivera tells the story,...