Title IX has benefited anyone who loves sports: The landmark legislation saying that no one will be denied the opportunity to play sports turns 40 this year. It has been wonderful for everyone, including the 6-year-old girl who plays soccer and her not-so-athletic father, columnist Chris Erskine writes.
Happy 40th, Title IX, a plain-Jane name for the biggest, most colossal sports development since someone stuck an air needle in a pig’s bladder. Bigger than Lombardi, bigger than Gatorade. Bigger, almost, than Chris Berman.
Photo: Brandi Chastain says that Title IX impacted more than just the way people viewed sports. Credit: Los Angeles Times
Vin Scully will be back in the booth next season: The legendary Dodgers broadcaster has been the sound of summer in Southern California for more than half a century. We are blessed to be able to pull up a chair and spend part of another year with him.
Photo: Vin Scully. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
Olympic Games and the tricky science of telling men from women: Gender tests may be the most controversial obstacle the athletes face. The London Games tries a new approach based on testosterone.
Consider the Spanish hurdler Maria Jose Martinez-Patiño. A gender test revealed that she had a Y chromosome, which normally makes a person male. She also had complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, or CAIS, which prevented her body from responding properly to testosterone and caused her to develop as a woman.
… For the London Games, officials are going by a new set of rules that shifts the focus from DNA to testosterone, a hormone that aids muscle development, endurance and speed.
To a group of increasingly vocal skeptics, the very notion of gender testing is flawed and efforts to measure it biologically are doomed to fail. But some experts said they had to try anyway.
Photo: South Africa’s Caster Semenya, center, was singled out for gender testing at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics in Berlin. She eventually was cleared to compete. Credit: Martin Meissner / Associated Press
Gonna take some getting used to…“First look at @SteveNash wearing the @Lakers home gold. What’d you think?” by lakers http://instagr.am/p/M9HhdHrOwE/
I have a lot of feelings about this right now
test reblogged from thenoobyorker
A Pennsylvania woman has filed a civil suit over the antics of the Phillie Phanatic, alleging that the furry green Philadelphia Phillies mascot “approached plaintiff, picked up her chair and threw plaintiff and her chair into the pool” at a hotel.
The suit contends that the woman suffered “severe and permanent injuries” to multiple body parts, “mental anxiety and anguish” and “humiliation and loss of life’s pleasures.”
The Phanatic was negligent, the lawsuit says, for “failing to consider the risks inherent in throwing a patron into a pool.’’ Worse, it says, he failed “to give the plaintiff the option of not engaging in such an activity.’’
Still worse: He led “plaintiff to believe that he would not throw her into the pool … thereby causing her to lower her guard.’’
The Phanatic has been the subject of at least three previous civil suits — “once for hugging someone too hard and once for plopping on a woman’s lap, aggravating her arthritis,” The Times’ David Zucchino reports.
Photo: The Phanatic entertaining students at a school event on May 22. Credit: Ellen F. O’Connell / Associated Press
The L.A. Kings have just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. This is what our homepage looks like right now.
For the Kings fans: More photos from tonight’s Game 6, and some shots from Times assistant managing editor Michael Whitley that offer a glimpse into the paper’s layout tomorrow. There’s a parade planned for Thursday.
Kings have interesting, some might say colorful history: The original Kings, an NHL expansion team in 1967, had a zany cast, including owner Jack Kent Cooke, who bestowed nicknames and “Forum Blue and Gold” uniforms but skimped on some basics, like pucks.
Photo: Kings goaltender Terry Sawchuk moves into position to make a save during a game against the Minnesota North Stars at the Forum in 1967. Credit: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images
Kings defeat Coyotes in overtime, advance to Stanley Cup finals: Dustin Penner scores the winning goal in overtime as the Kings defeat the Phoenix Coyotes, 4-3, in Game 5 and advance to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1993.
Photo: Kings forward Dustin Penner, third from right, is mobbed by his teammates after scoring the winning goal in overtime to lift the Kings to a 4-3 series-clinching victory over the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday. Credit: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times
This felt like the end of a Lakers era: The playoff loss felt like more than the end of the season. For a team that is 9-13 in the last two postseasons, the question is “What now?”
Photo: Thunder point guard Derek Fisher gets past Lakers guard Kobe Bryant after faking a shot during Game 5 on Monday night in Oklahoma City. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times
If you’re heading downtown, it’d be a good idea to leave your car at home today.
The Junior Seau no one knew: On Monday, former NFL and USC great Junior Seau went surfing and seemed his usual gregarious self at a charity golf event. On Wednesday, he took his own life. Not even those close to him saw it coming.
Photo: Former NFL linebacker Junior Seau was in suit and tie for his induction into the Chargers Hall of Fame during a halftime ceremony last fall. Credit: Denis Poroy / Associated Press
Developing Chavez Ravine is likely in play for new Dodgers owner: Real estate experts say the rich price Guggenheim Baseball Management paid for the team probably means it is looking to do more with the land surrounding Dodger Stadium than simply park cars.
Photo: An aerial photograph of Dodger Stadium in November. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times
Time-lapse video of changing the Lakers basketball court to the Kings ice rink.
They have a love affair solidified by music and Dodgers baseball: Nancy Bea Hefley is in her 25th season as the team’s organist, and husband Billy has been beside her all along.
Photo: Nancy Bea Hefley and her husband Billy before a game against the Padres on Friday at Dodger Stadium. Credit: George Wilhelm / Los Angeles Times
