Media Guide

They're called media guides, and they're published by every team in the big leagues. They're put together by people who often are referred to in the paper as "a Dodger official" or a "Brave spokesman," but actually have names, like Ned Colletti and Robin Monsky, Jay Horwitz and Rich Griffin, Steve Brener and Toby Zwikel. Media guides are filled with every statistic imaginable, and many you couldn't dream up if you stayed awake nights reading the Baseball Encyclopedia.

UCLA basketball star Shabazz Muhammad is 20 years old, not 19 as widely believed. The news comes just hours before UCLA is scheduled to play against Minnesota in its opening game of the NCAA tournament in Austin, Texas, Friday night. That revelation, first reported by the Los Angeles Times in a front page article today , has led to speculation that his NBA draft prospects could be negatively impacted. Muhammad, UCLA's leading scorer, is expected to leave the school and enter the June draft after the NCAA tournament.

The Rams' new media guide devotes 3 pages to Eric Dickerson, the team's holdout star, but has nothing at all to say about Georgia Frontiere, the team's owner. Nobody else, including Coach John Robinson, has more than two pages. Does that say something about Dickerson's importance to the franchise? "It was just a matter of preference," executive Marshall Klein said in explaining why the guide has only a picture of "Georgia Frontiere . . .

From Phoenix — Louisville Coach Rick Pitino will have only himself to blame himself if he is outcoached and loses to Florida's Billy Donovan in Saturday's West Regional title game at US Airways Center. If not for Pitino, there probably would not have been a "coach" Donovan. "Billy the Kid" would have gone straight, without fanfare, to "Billy the Adult. " Donovan was an out-of-shape, ineffectual guard at Providence College in 1985-86 when Pitino took over a program coming off an 11-20 season.

Twenty-six species of rare plant life dot the rolling hills around Duke University. The question is: What could unusual flora possibly have to do with dunks, rebounds and the Final Four? The answer is nothing. But that did not stop Duke from including this fact amid statistics and player bios in the basketball team's media guide.

While the lobby of USC's athletic department now lacks one very prominent Heisman Trophy, the media guide for next season's football team will include something extra. Asterisks. Lots of them. The university must qualify every winning score, every statistic and every mention of former tailback Reggie Bush that pertain to the two-year period covered by recent NCAA sanctions. All those asterisks will be followed by some form of the phrase "later vacated due to NCAA penalty."

UCLA basketball star Shabazz Muhammad is 20 years old, not 19 as widely believed. The news comes just hours before UCLA is scheduled to play against Minnesota in its opening game of the NCAA tournament in Austin, Texas, Friday night. That revelation, first reported by the Los Angeles Times in a front page article today , has led to speculation that his NBA draft prospects could be negatively impacted. Muhammad, UCLA's leading scorer, is expected to leave the school and enter the June draft after the NCAA tournament.

Mike Royko of the Chicago Tribune comes to the defense of the Cleveland Indians' Albert Belle for being rude and hostile to TV reporter Hannah Storm during the World Series, resulting in a $50,000 fine. "Now Belle is even grouchier, and I can't say I blame him," Royko wrote. "Anyone who has watched more than one minute of TV news knows that TV reporters are not known for politeness, consideration and civility. And they aren't heavy on brainpower, either.

Minnesota became the first 11th-place football team in Big Ten history last year, and Coach Jim Wacker noted this dubious achievement by saying: "I used to think it was mathematically impossible. It just shows you what you can do if you stay focused." * Trivia time: How many major league players have hit 500 or more home runs while playing for only one team?

While some high school coaches do their best to deter media coverage, others go out of their way to assist the media. Dean Bradshaw of Simi Valley, Mike Plaisance of Village Christian and Jay Gudzin of Burroughs are leaders in the latter group. Bradshaw, in his fifth season as the Pioneers' basketball coach, produces an elaborate 108-page media guide. The 17-year-old guide, started by former Coach Bob Hawking, is patterned after media guides issued by professional and college teams.

Another day, another drama for the Lakers. Which seems to be just the way they like it. Their emotions seemed to have steadied after an insistent Kobe Bryant on Sunday demanded that management clarify its trade intentions regarding Pau Gasol. Bryant and Fisher led a locker room discussion after the Lakers routed Portland on Monday and everyone seemed settled. "Relatively speaking," Fisher said, knowing that might be as settled as they get. Then on Wednesday, before the Lakers' first visit to American Airlines Center since the Dallas Mavericks mercilessly swept them out of the playoffs last spring, Magic Johnson stirred the emotional pot. No longer an owner of the Lakers but still a vice president — and influential enough for his biography to precede General Manager Mitch Kupchak's in the team's media guide — Johnson told reporters during a conference call that Kupchak doesn't run things and that the real decision maker is Jim Buss.

This should be one heck of an exciting final weekend because it says on Page 5 of the Bowl Championship Series media guide "The BCS delivers the most meaningful regular season in sports. " The manual reiterates, "The BCS plays an important role in preserving and enhancing college football's unique regular season where every game counts. " Except every game this weekend doesn't count. In fact, if you listen to the pundits, none of the games count. "You've got to be kidding me," BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock shot back Wednesday.

While the lobby of USC's athletic department now lacks one very prominent Heisman Trophy, the media guide for next season's football team will include something extra. Asterisks. Lots of them. The university must qualify every winning score, every statistic and every mention of former tailback Reggie Bush that pertain to the two-year period covered by recent NCAA sanctions. All those asterisks will be followed by some form of the phrase "later vacated due to NCAA penalty."

Who's the face of the Dodgers? Manny Ramirez? He was signed to a two-year, $45-million contact last spring to be a headlining act in a star-driven city — only to be exposed as a drug cheat, slump miserably and return four months later promptly predicting that this season would be his last with the Dodgers. So who's on deck? Before Ramirez put himself under a gag order this spring, he encouraged reporters to spend less time talking to him and more time talking to the players he considered the cornerstones of the franchise: Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp.

Twenty-six species of rare plant life dot the rolling hills around Duke University. The question is: What could unusual flora possibly have to do with dunks, rebounds and the Final Four? The answer is nothing. But that did not stop Duke from including this fact amid statistics and player bios in the basketball team's media guide.

On the Internet http://www.diegorivera.com A bilingual, comprehensive, interactive Web museum that includes extensive biographical information, a gallery of paintings and murals, interactive/3-D view of some murals and a small sampling of film stills of Rivera at work in Detroit. http://www.diamondial.org The Detroit Institute of Arts' photographic archive of Rivera at work on 1930s Detroit frescoes commissioned by Edsel Ford. Images of Rivera are paired with a photo of the completed fresco.

From Phoenix — Louisville Coach Rick Pitino will have only himself to blame himself if he is outcoached and loses to Florida's Billy Donovan in Saturday's West Regional title game at US Airways Center. If not for Pitino, there probably would not have been a "coach" Donovan. "Billy the Kid" would have gone straight, without fanfare, to "Billy the Adult. " Donovan was an out-of-shape, ineffectual guard at Providence College in 1985-86 when Pitino took over a program coming off an 11-20 season.

The Heisman Trophy winner will be announced today at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, but the University of Miami already declared quarterback Gino Torretta the winner. An awards page prepared for the top-ranked Hurricanes' postseason media guide listed Torretta as the 1992 Heisman winner--even though the deadline for ballots to arrive in New York was last Thursday.

Their business suits make a handsome fit. Their smiles are relaxed and confident. The four returning seniors on the Cal State Northridge men's basketball team exude optimism standing side by side in a photo on the back of the Matador media guide. Who knew the smiles would so quickly turn to anguish? Who knew the confidence was so fragile?

Mike Royko of the Chicago Tribune comes to the defense of the Cleveland Indians' Albert Belle for being rude and hostile to TV reporter Hannah Storm during the World Series, resulting in a $50,000 fine. "Now Belle is even grouchier, and I can't say I blame him," Royko wrote. "Anyone who has watched more than one minute of TV news knows that TV reporters are not known for politeness, consideration and civility. And they aren't heavy on brainpower, either.