Steve Ballmer apologizes to Clippers fans |
From Iliana Limón Romero: Clippers owner Steve Ballmer released a lengthy statement Sunday night apologizing to fans and accepting the findings of an NBA investigation of salary cap violations. |
“This has been a very difficult time for everybody associated with the Clippers, and for that, I have sincere regrets,” Ballmer’s statement read. “I want to apologize to our fans, employees, and my fellow NBA team owners for the distraction and distress this matter has caused, for which I accept responsibility as principal owner.” |
The NBA handed down stiff penalties to Ballmer and the Clippers after the law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz found “a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations” that benefited Clippers star Kawhi Leonard. |
The investigation found Leonard received $66 million in cash and equity from four companies facilitated by Ballmer and Clippers executives at the behest of Dennis Robertson, Leonard’s uncle and then-agent. Ballmer invested $60 million in Aspiration Partners, while Boingo Wireless, Daktronics and Lockton Insurance received $22 million from the Clippers in consulting fees. |
“We are committing to put this chapter behind us,” Ballmer’s statement read. “We have communicated to the NBA that we are complying with the penalties assessed by the league, have paid the fine and are moving forward. While there are still disagreements concerning the findings in the report, this is not where I want to focus. Team owners should support, not distract.” |
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Chargers lose season opener |
From Sam Farmer: The Chargers are trying to find their sea legs with their new offense. |
More pre-snap motion. Unbalanced formations. A dizzying array of plays. |
They unveiled the new scheme Sunday and mostly came away queasy, losing to the Arizona Cardinals 26-14 in what proved to be Jim Harbaugh’s first Week 1 defeat as an NFL head coach. |
Arizona, meanwhile, attacked in waves — blocking a punt in the fourth quarter and taking over three yards from the end zone. The visitors scored two plays later, silencing the already-subdued SoFi Stadium crowd. |
“Sloppy at times, too sloppy,” Harbaugh said. “That’s something we’ve got to get fixed.” |
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Chargers summary |
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Marlins rally past Dodgers |
From Maddie Lee: Dodgers rookie Josue De Paula’s first major-league hit was a no-doubter off the bat. |
He’d already fouled off three sinkers in the at-bat and was rewarded with a four-seam fastball on the inner third of the plate. He extended through it and admired the ball’s flight to loanDepot Park’s right-field upper deck, his bat at his side. |
The Dodgers dugout turned raucous. |
In the Dodgers’ 6-4 walk-off loss against the Marlins on Sunday, De Paula’s three-run home run in the fourth inning gave the team a spark on offense. He also drew a walk and hit a double to reach base in every plate appearance. |
As Dodgers starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan turned in a two-hit gem over the course of six scoreless innings, De Paula carried the offense. De Paula drew a walk and hit a double to reach base in every plate appearance. The Dodgers logged just two other extra-base hits, a double from Will Smith to lead off the fourth, and an RBI double from Mookie Betts in the ninth. |
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Dodgers box score |
MLB standings |
Keep up with California |
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Dodgers poll |
How will the Dodgers do in the postseason this year? |
They will win the World Series |
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They will lose in the NLCS |
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Myles Garrett injury a warning sign for Rams? |
From Gary Klein: This season, for a game on the night before Thanksgiving, the Rams will don their new “Fearsome White” uniforms, which honor the era of the team’s legendary Fearsome Foursome defensive line of the late 1960s and ‘70s. |
After a season-opening performance more fragile than fearsome, the Rams’ defensive front has work to do if it aims to compare. |
It’ll have to do it without Myles Garrett, a two-time NFL defensive player of the year, who will undergo surgery on his left knee and will be placed on injured reserve, meaning he’ll miss at least the next four games. |
A unit that featured edge rushers Garrett and Byron Young and linemen Kobie Turner and Braden Fiske seemingly had all the makings of an elite group. And that was before Aaron Donald came out of retirement to join a team favored to win Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium. |
But after a humiliating, season-opening defeat by the San Francisco 49ers in Australia — Donald did not make the trip — expectations were thrown for a loss. |
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Angels swept by Nationals |
Daylen Lile tripled to key a four-run rally in the eighth inning, Jacob Young and Dylan Crews added RBIs and the Washington Nationals beat the Angels 6-5 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep. |
The Angels dropped to 56-93 and must win at least seven of its last 13 games to avoid its first 100-loss season. |
Washington improved to 3-61 when trailing after seven innings, sweeping the Angels for the first time. |
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Angels box score |
MLB standings |
UCLA isn’t perfect, but they are trying |
From Mirjam Swanson: UCLA promoted Saturday’s 28-10 home-opening victory against San Diego State like a friend’s band does a local show — by telling all his friends to tell all their friends to come. |
By buying up tickets — 300 by UCLA CEO of Athletics Tim Harris and 300 more by the Champion of Westwood NIL collective — to distribute to fans. |
By having its frontman — new head coach Bob Chesney — personally invite people to the Rose Bowl: “I told you it would be different on our side; we need it to be different on their side as well.” |
By getting everyone excited, in the aftermath of last weekend’s thrilling season-opening win at Cal, about the new tune they’re singing. By building anticipation, getting the hopes up of people like El Monte’s Aaron Flores, a lifelong UCLA fan, who will tell you he’s ready for some winning after seasons of suffering from “Battered Bruin Syndrome.” |
Flores and his family were among the 31,973 fans who showed up on a toasty Saturday afternoon, a bit better than the 27,785 who attended last season’s home opener in the 89,702-seat Rose Bowl stadium against Utah, the first loss in a disastrous 3-9 season. |
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Alexander Zverev wins U.S. Open men’s title |
Alexander Zverev‘s best year in tennis goes on, and so does that lengthy Grand Slam drought for American men. |
Zverev won his second major championship and disappointed a crowd that was desperate to see the first Grand Slam title by an American man since 2003, beating Ben Shelton 6-3, 7-6 (2), 5-7, 6-2 on Sunday in the U.S. Open final. |
Zverev finally broke through in the majors by winning this year’s French Open and followed up by adding the title in New York that he so painfully let slip away in 2020. |
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U.S. wins fifth straight FIBA World Cup |
Breanna Stewart and the U.S. faced a stiff challenge from France before dominating in the second half to win its fifth consecutive women’s FIBA World Cup. |
The 97-79 victory extended the Americans’ streak to 36 straight World Cup wins, dating to the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup, where they lost to Russia. The U.S. improved to 9-0 in gold-medal games since finishing second in 1983 to the Soviet Union. |
Despite the final score, this one wasn’t easy; the Americans faced their biggest deficit in the tournament in a long time, trailing by 14 points in the first half. They calmly rallied behind Stewart and Jackie Young to get within two at halftime, and Caitlin Clark hit a three-pointer just before the buzzer. |
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U.S. box score |
This day in sports history |
1923 — Jack Dempsey knocks out Luis Firpo in the second round for his last successful defense of his world heavyweight title, at Madison Square Garden in New York. |
1947 — Jack Kramer beats Frank Parket to win the U.S. Lawn Tennis Assn. championship. Kramer wins 4-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. |
1959 — The new $32 million Aqueduct, operated by the New York Racing Assn., opens. |
1968 — Jimmy Ellis wins the WBA heavyweight title by beating Floyd Patterson in the 15th round in Stockholm, Sweden. |
1986 — Chicago’s Walter Payton rushes for 177 yards, to reach the 15,000-yard plateau and scores his 100th rushing touchdown as the Bears beat the Philadelphia Eagles 13-10. |
1991 — Freshman Marshall Faulk of San Diego State rushes for an NCAA record 386 yards and scores seven touchdowns in his second collegiate game. Faulk sets an NCAA record for most rushing touchdowns in a game by a freshman as the Aztecs beat Pacific 55-34. |
1991 — Texas A&M freshman Greg Hill has the greatest debut by a freshman running back in college football history as the Aggies rout LSU 45-7. Hill sets a major college record with 212 yards rushing in his first game and scores twice in 30 carries. |
2002 — Tim Montgomery of the United States sets a world record in the 100 meters, clocking 9.78 seconds at the IAAF Grand Prix Final in Paris. The previous world record of 9.79 was set by fellow American Maurice Greene in 1999. |
2003 — Jamal Lewis rushes for an NFL-record 295 yards on 30 carries in Baltimore’s 33-13 victory over Cleveland. |
2006 — Tiger Woods’ five-tournament winning streak finally ends when Shaun Micheel knocks him out in the first round of the World Match Play Championship. The score was 4 and 3, matching Woods’ worst loss in match play. |
2014 — Mirjana Lucic-Baroni beats Venus Williams 6-4, 6-3 to win the Coupe Banque Nationale and set the record for the biggest gap between WTA titles. Lucic-Baroni wins her third WTA title and first in 16 years and four months. |
2014 — New England’s Bill Belichick becomes the sixth head coach in NFL history to reach 200 regular-season wins with a 30-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings. Belichick has a 200-106 (.654) record in the regular season. |
Compiled by the Associated Press |
This day in baseball history |
1903 — Red Ames’ debut with the New York Giants was a five-inning, 5-0, no-hit victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. The game was called in mid-afternoon because of unusual darkness. |
1923 — Red Sox first baseman George Burns pulled off an unassisted triple play against the Cleveland Indians. |
1951 — Bob Nieman of the St. Louis Browns hit home runs in his first two at-bats in the majors. Both came off Boston Red Sox pitcher Maury McDermott. The Red Sox won 9-6. |
1968 — Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers beat the Oakland A’s 5-4 to become the first pitcher since Dizzy Dean in 1934 to win 30 games. |
1986 — Bob Brenly of San Francisco tied a major league record with four errors in one inning, but atoned with two homers, including the game-winner, to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves. Brenly, a catcher, was playing third base. |
1987 — Ernie Whitt hit three of Toronto’s major league record 10 home runs as the Blue Jays rolled to an 18-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Baltimore shortstop Cal Ripken had his consecutive-inning streak stopped at 8,243 when he was replaced at shortstop by Ron Washington in the eighth inning. |
1990 — Ken Griffey and his son hit back-to-back homers in the first inning of the Seattle Mariners’ 7-5 loss to the Angels. The unprecedented father-and-son homers came off Kirk McCaskill. |
1994 — The baseball season, already shut down by a month long strike, was canceled along with the World Series in a vote by 26 of the 28 teams. |
1998 — The Atlanta Braves clinched their seventh straight division crown, winning the NL East with a victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. Among the major pro sports leagues — baseball, NFL, NBA and NHL — only seven franchises had finished first during the regular season at least seven times in a row. |
2002 — Tampa Bay’s 8-4 loss at Toronto was the Devil Rays’ 100th of the season. The Devil Rays (48-100) became the quickest AL team to lose 100 games since the 1949 Washington Senators lost 100 in their 147th game. They also became the first team to lose 100 in consecutive seasons since Toronto did it from 1977-79. |
2003 — The Detroit Tigers lost to the Royals 7-2 to become the first team in 34 years to lose 110 games in one season. Detroit (38-110) has the most losses since the Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres went 52-110 in 1969, their first seasons in the major leagues. |
2008 — Carlos Zambrano pitched the first no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs in 36 years, striking out 10 in a 5-0 win over Houston in a game relocated to Milwaukee because of Hurricane Ike. |
2011 — Colorado catcher Eliezer Alfonzo became the first player suspended twice under the Major League Baseball drug program. Alfonzo, will serve a 100-game suspension, was suspended for 50 games in April 2008 while a member of the San Francisco Giants. |
2011 — Pittsburgh clinched its 19th consecutive losing season, a record for a major league franchise in North America, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2. The Pirates, who were 51-44 and led the NL Central by a half-game before play on July 20, dropped to 67-82. |
2017 — Jay Bruce hit an RBI double in the 10th inning as the Cleveland Indians rallied for their 22nd straight win to extend their AL record, beating the Kansas City Royals 3-2. After blowouts, shutouts and easy wins, the Indians went into extras for the first time to keep the longest streak in 101 years intact. The Indians were down to their last strike in the ninth before Francisco Lindor hit a tying double. Jose Ramirez led off the 10th with a hard hit into right-center off Brandon Maurer that he turned into a double with a head-first slide. After Edwin Encarnacion walked, Bruce, ripped a 2-0 pitch into the right-field corner. |
2017 — Rhys Hoskins homered again, Freddy Galvis and Jorge Alfaro also went deep in a seven-run second inning, and Philadelphia routed slumping Miami 10-0. Hoskins’ two-run shot gave him 18 home runs in 34 games since his call-up from Triple-A on Aug. 10. The Yankees’ Gary Sanchez previously held the record for fastest to 18 homers. Sanchez needed 45 games. |
2022 — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hits the 100th homer of his career off Drew Rasmussen in the first inning to put the Blue Jays ahead and they never look back, defeating the Rays, 5-1, behind Ross Stripling. The Jays now lead the Mariners by half a game and the Rays by a game and a half in the wild-card standings. For Guerrero, who also hit his 100th double earlier this week, it is his first long ball of the month. |
2025 — The Mariners defeat the Angels, 11-2, for their ninth straight win. In the game, Cal Raleigh hits his 54th HR, giving him a couple of records, most home runs as a catcher in a season with 43, passing Javy Lopez, and most homers by a switch-hitter, tying Mickey Mantle. |
Compiled by the Associated Press |
Until next time... |
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here. |
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