Pitch

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

The world is stacked against them, an unspoken prejudice against the poor left-hander. It's not a good thing to have two left feet, to receive a left-handed compliment. Go down the left-hand path and you're into black magic, or maybe just reality shows. Power tools, guitars, cameras, rifles — all designed for a right-handed world. Then there's baseball. In baseball, good left-handed pitchers are prized possessions. They can turn strong hitters into weak-kneed corkscrews.

As I learned in the fourth grade when my first crush told me oh-so eloquently to "Get lost, creepo!," not everything you go after in life will work out as planned. Now, at the ripe, old age of 28, nothing has reminded me of that schoolyard lesson more than when I recently pitched my first show to a TV network. After working in TV and film for the past seven years, from an intern to a production assistant to the writers' office, I decided to move from New York to Los Angeles. I'd been out here eight months when, during a meeting, I ran an off-the-cuff show idea by development executives.

A lobbyist representing a consortium of plastic bag producers was roaming the halls of Los Angeles City Hall this week, trying to torpedo Wednesday's anticipated City Council vote to ban the ubiquitous, flimsy flower that litters the urban landscape and fouls the seashore. Naturally, environmentalists were in a tizzy, fearing the worst outcome while hoping for the best. Under the proposal by Councilman Paul Koretz, paper bags would also be banned, and Los Angeles would become a national leader in the proliferation of reusable bags.

Maria Casanova, an assistant professor of economics at UCLA, toyed with the idea earlier this year of buying a foreclosed property near the Westwood campus. She signed up for a prominent listing service called RealtyTrac. Casanova, 31, canceled her subscription not long after. Yet a few days ago she discovered that some other real estate company she'd never heard of has been billing her almost $45 a month for the last eight months. Consumer advocates say it's an all-too-common problem: People signing up for one thing online and inadvertently signing up for something else that comes with recurring monthly charges.

It's not that Ervin Santana needs another pitch. He did just fine with a fastball, breaking ball and changeup last season, finishing 17-10 with a 3.92 earned-run average and 169 strikeouts in 33 starts. But the 28-year-old right-hander began experimenting with a split-fingered fastball in September and is gaining enough confidence in it that he plans to take it into the season. "Why not?" Santana said. "It's there. My fingers are long enough to throw it. Every year, you do something different.

The Angels appear to be plenty deep in their starting rotation. Going deep into games has been another matter entirely. In their first turn through the rotation, Angels starters averaged only 5 2/3 innings, with no pitcher lasting longer than six innings. "We wanted to do a lot better," said Joel Pineiro , who along with Jered Weaver were the only starters to log quality starts of at least six innings and three earned runs or fewer. "But we're all right. It's five games into the season and we're going to start turning things around."

I assume Bill Plaschke ("Proving his Cy Young mettle," Sept. 16) encourages those of us with children to drill into them the importance of retaliation in sports. To "throw one for the team" — especially when "the other guy started it. " Truth is both Gerardo Parra and Clayton Kershaw were the ones who were childish. Robert McArthur Mar Vista :: Kershaw should not have backed himself in a corner the night before by running his mouth in the dugout. He had no choice but to hit Parra or lose the respect of his teammates.

Dodgers right-hander Hiroki Kuroda threw his cutter for the first time this spring in a bullpen session Saturday and when he threw it, he did so with restraint. You couldn't blame him. His manager was standing in the batter's box. "I had to be careful," Kuroda said, laughing. To get a better idea of what his pitchers are throwing, Don Mattingly was standing next to the plate during several bullpen sessions. He said that was something he started to do when managing in the Arizona Fall League.

A couple of years ago, Kenley Jansen would have found what happened to him Friday unthinkable. The 22-year-old was called up to the major leagues for the first time — as a pitcher. "It was quick," Jansen said. Jansen had never pitched before last season, when he was still known as a strong-armed catcher out of Curacao. The signature moment of his career to that point had come in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, when he caught Willy Taveras trying to steal third base in the ninth inning to preserve the Netherlands' one-run lead over the heavily favored Dominican Republic.

UNDERRATED 'The Pitch' on AMC : Like a real-life "Mad Men" with far less interesting furnishings, this reality show captures the drama behind today's ad game and transcends the cliches while doing it. Sure, it's a little unsettling to consider the economics behind a show about creating commercials — one of which you actually watch by choice once the "winner" for the week's campaign is picked — but it's strangely worth it after seeing the...

The effect of Sunday's solar eclipse was slightly evident at Dodger Stadium in the fifth and sixth innings, the day's fading sunlight growing even dimmer across the ballpark's right-field corner. Then matters suddenly brightened for the Dodgers when rookie Scott Van Slyke slugged a pinch-hit, three-run home run that erased a St. Louis Cardinals lead and led the Dodgers to a 6-5 victory and a sweep of their three-game series. Van Slyke homered in only his ninth big league at-bat and after getting the green light from Manager Don Mattingly to swing at a 3-and-0 pitch from reliever Marc Rzepczynski.

John Grisham is to literature what Cheerios are to a rushed breakfast, something you buy in bulk and consume without too much thought. Honestly, I'm relieved when a new Grisham book doesn't weigh more than I do. Yet his newest work, "Calico Joe," is as slender as a Dodgers shortstop. Coming in at under 200 pages, it is a breezy little baseball novel that will probably appeal to many men the way Nicholas Sparks' stories appeal to that other sex. Strangely, considering the subject matter, it is amazingly unevocative of the game itself.

The Angels lost Thursday because they couldn't see into a blinding sun and because pitcher C.J. Wilson couldn't seem to find home plate. The Chicago White Sox took advantage, using sun-caused misplays and six walks in less than four innings by under-the-weather Angels starter Wilson to earn a 6-1 victory at Angel Stadium. Wilson, battling a stomach virus he said nearly caused him to pass out in the first inning, fell behind, 1-0, in the third on a two-out walk to Paul Konerko and a run-scoring single to right field by A.J. Pierzynski.

NEW YORK — Spanish-language media giant Univision Communications touted something that its English-language broadcast rivals cannot: Prime-time ratings at its flagship TV network, Univision, have grown 7% during the current season. Ratings gains in an era of shrinking TV audiences are uncommon as major broadcasters struggle to maintain their standing. Cable channels, social media and advances in technology — including digital video recorders — continue to nibble away at viewership, particularly among younger audiences.

If Monday didn't represent rock bottom for the Angels, it's going to be a very long summer. A night after getting routed by division-leading Texas, the last-place Angels slipped deeper into the abyss by suffering their major league-leading eighth shutout - a 5-0 loss to the Oakland Athletics compounded by the troubling absence of their most uplifting player. A's starter Tyson Ross, who began the night with a 7.71 earned-run average, threw six shutout innings while retiring Albert Pujols three times and allowing just one Angel to reach third base.

With more than 30 games left on the schedule Angels Manager Mike Scioscia was reluctant to attach too much importance to his team's three-game showdown with the division-leading Texas Rangers this weekend. But he acknowledged the prospect of playing meaningful games in the final month is more appealing than the way the Angels finished last year, when they limped home in third place. "Anytime you see a goal ahead that is attainable and you have games that are obviously going to impact you getting to your goal … the fun stays in the game," he said Friday.

Ivan Rodriguez returned to Rangers Ballpark on Monday to throw out a ceremonial first pitch after earlier in the day announcing his retirement following a 21-year career. But as the public address announcer told the crowd, "It doesn't seem right, ladies and gentlemen. " So instead of tossing a pitch, the player known as "Pudge" walked from the mound to a much more familiar spot -- behind home plate. The 14-time All-Star catcher sent Michael Young out to second base and fired one last throw across the diamond, much to the delight of the crowd.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Pitcher C.J. Wilson considers himself "straight edge," a subculture whose adherents refrain from using alcohol, tobacco and recreational drugs. Utility player Mark Trumbo would like the Angels to be more hard edge. Trumbo was fired up after Saturday's 4-2 win over the two-time defending American League-champion Rangers, and not just because he put the Angels ahead with a prodigious two-run homer in the fourth inning. He loved the way Wilson and four Angels relievers pitched aggressively and fearlessly to baseball's most potent lineup, and the way the Angels bounced back from Friday night's lopsided 10-3 loss.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- It was the baseball equivalent of hooking a tee shot into the woods, taking a mulligan and hitting a 280-yard drive down the middle of the fairway. C.J. Wilsongot a do-over Saturday, just 12 hours after taking the loss in a rain-shortened start Friday night, and the Angels' left-hander nailed it, subduing baseball's best offense for 5 2/3 innings and silencing a hostile Ballpark in Arlington crowd during a 4-2 Angels victory. The former Rangers ace, booed loudly in his old home park, gave up two runs and five hits, Mark Trumbo hit a two-run home run and sparked a decisive two-run rally with a walk, and four relievers combined for 3 1/3 hitless innings, as the Angels rebounded from Friday night's ugly 10-3 loss and evened the series against their American League West rivals.