O-K: Oprah as Clippers Owner? You Never Know

May 1, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Thursday thoughts (rare as they might be around here): Oprah Winfrey is expressing interest in being part of a group to purchase the Los Angeles Clippers. That could be interesting — especially if commissioner Adam Silver can facilitate her posing with deposed owner Donald Sterling to seal the deal.

Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers is on Thursday’s “Sports & Torts.” Maybe in this attire? Hey, we can dream. Credit: Josh Ryan

* Speaking of Silver, he ought to hurry up and schedule an owners meeting to assure those folks that he isn’t looking to rid the league of everyone who holds discriminatory beliefs. Which should come as a relief to the DeVoss family, which owns the Orlando Magic and helps fund an anti-marriage equality agenda.

* A day after the team’s season ended in the first round of the playoffs, Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau and general manager Gar Forman talked optimistically about the team’s core. My hearing isn’t as good as it once was, so my immediate thought was maybe they were talking about the Bulls’ corps. Or quite possibly corpse.

* Right fielder Nate Schierholtz had three runs batted in in the Cubs’ 9-4 victory Wednesday at Cincinnati to give him 10 RBI for the season. He is the fifth Cub in double digits in RBI. At times he has been the team’s cleanup hitter. He has zero home runs. Which could be a problem.

* Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro went 3-for-4 to raise his batting average to .308. For all those Cubs fans thinking he should be a National League all-star starter, two words: Troy Tulowitzki. The Colorado Rockies star is batting .364 with seven home runs and a .477 on-base percentage.

* Speaking of shortstops, Alexei Ramirez set a Chicago White Sox record for most hits before May 1 in Wednesday’s 5-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers at U.S. Cellular Field. He has 40 to break a tie with teammate Paul Konerko, who had 39 in 2002. Ramirez is batting an American League-leading .351, so he has a chance at being an All-Star starter. Well, unless Derek Jeter (.272) of the New York Yankees wins as a farewell tribute from voters.

* On the bright (?) side for the Sox, their series with the Tigers was only two games. Then again, a longer series would have meant the Sox would have faced pitchers other than Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer.

* If today is Thursday (and the chances of that seem exceptionally good because yesterday was Wednesday — provided that today is May 1, 2014, or a subsequent Thursday), then it is time for another edition of “Sports & Torts” on Talkzone.com with co-hosts David Spada and Elliott Harris at noon Central time. The guests on the May 1 show are baseball Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson and May 2014 Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers (not necessarily in that order of importance to some of us or in order of appearance on the program). The show also will be available later Thursday via podcast at the Talkzone web site.

* Ex-Cub of the day: Cincinnati reliever Sean Marshall gave up four runs on four hits and a walk in two-thirds of an inning in the ninth inning against his former team.

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Here is where to go for a daily dose of non-gratuitous video (thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the editorial and video departments at ElliottHarris.com):