De La Hoya Gets Hero's Welcome!!

Pro Boxer is a new business partner of the Houston Dynamo MLS team ... and he told me in a one on one interview that his number one priority now is to get a stadium deal done with the city for his new team. Prior to a downtown rally at lunchtime today ...... De La Hoya pledged his support to the sport of soccer in Houston in a big way.

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Garner Back In Baseball for Awhile .....

There was a note hanging in Phil Garner's locker this morning when he arrived at Victoria's Riverside Stadium, it read: "Gar, don't screw it up. This big machine is rolling. T.P."

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Dynamo Getting New Owner and New Player

The ownership changeover for the Dynamo is beginning to happen. According to my sources ..... Golden Boy Promotions ... owned by pro boxer Oscar DeLoya .... along with Brener International Group .... has agreed in principle to buy 50% of the Dynamo team. How this will affect the current negotiations to get the team's new stadium built downtown is up in the air ..but this would seem to be a positive step in that regard. AEG ...the current owner of the Dynamo ... has been hedging on putting up anymore money to build the stadium at this point ...and the City of Houston .... apparantly just wants to donate the land for the stadium ...... and no cash. Maybe this infusion of new money will break up that logjam. The deal is expected to be officially announced before the end of this week.

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Astros Going Retro??

The jersey number is #36 ..and the name on the back is Niekro. No, it's not one of those throwback "rainbow" jobs from the 80's in a salute to the late pitcher Joe Niekro. No ... this time it's hanging in the locker of a current Astros player. Just across the room from that locker ...hangs the jersey of Jose Cruz Jr. and just seeing those names on the backs of Astros jerseys ...... summons up images of the past.

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For Adelman trade is all about trust

On Thursday night, I watched Rockets general manager Daryl Morey talk about his team's
new trade. He was really excited about the deal that sent Bonzi Wells and Mike James
to New Orleans for Bobby Jackson, but most of the fans seemed to be luke warm about the deal. But after Jackson came off the bench to score 14 points in a 110-97 Rocket rout
of the Chicago Bulls all was forgotten. The Rockets had won 12 in a row and life was grand.

Coach Rick Adelman is giving guard Bobby Jackson the keys to his car again. In the past,
the former 6th Man of the Year did a fine job driving for Adelman.

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Cooper Salivates While Watching Astros Big 3 ......

When you watch Astros manager Cecil Cooper observe Carlos Lee, Miguel Tejada and Lance Berkman take batting practice ..... you can also see a smile come across his face. He calls them his "Big 3" .. and with those three in the heart of his batting lineup .... he's confident about going to battle with any team.

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Astros And Drug Testing ....

Now that the Mitchell Report has brought illegal performance enhancement drugs into the spotlight ...... each individual Astros player is dealing with it in a very personal way. When Miguel Tejada arrived in camp yesterday ......there was a urine sample cup waiting for him on his lockeroom chair. Wednesday .... relief pitcher Doug Brocail .... was worried he'd be late on the field for the morning workout ....because he couldn't go. Ya know ....go. He'd been main-lining bottled water since arriving at the training facility today .... but it didn't make a difference.

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