Daly’s Arrival on Scene a Nice Feel-Good Movie

The high points, low points and ticklish talking points of the weekend that was:

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I spent this sunny weekend trying to get with the program.

Hey, Bob Daly is a Dodger fan! He’s guaranteed to be a great Dodger owner! Guaranteed! He’s rich, he’s ours, he’s... perfect!

The weather’s too nice to start being skeptical!

But wait.

Try as I might, and mightily as I tried, I could not escape reality: This rush to joy among Dodger followers at the news Daly will assume control of the team really isn’t backed up by any tangible facts.

It’s all mood and talk. Zero hard evidence. It’s Hollywood, basically.

Wait, you argue: He’s friends with Vin Scully and Tom Lasorda! He saw games at Ebbets Field!

Which is all well and good, and it all means about as much as Dyan Cannon’s qualifications to run the Lakers, Warren Beatty’s to be president or mine to manage the career of Ashley Judd.

It’d be fun, but who knows how it’d turn out? There is no honest way to tell.

How many times do we have to see it: Success in one field of business does not mean you can avoid_or even see_the landmines in another.

Donald Sterling is a hugely successful real-estate magnate, OK? I am told Disney was a reasonably profitable entertainment business before unleashing the 1999 Angels upon us.

What we know about Daly: He’s rich, talks about restoring O’Malley family tradition, oversaw a lot of movies, could pony up the cash when Fox wanted out of the spotlight, and, like most of L.A., is friends with Lasorda.

And that’s all, folks.

Even if Daly is the true progenitor of the O’Malley era, it wasn’t as if the Dodgers, straw hats, organ music and all, were in glorious shape in the last years of that slowly eroding reign, unless trading Pedro Martinez and winning no playoff games is dynastic evidence that I somehow have missed.

So is Bob Daly the savior? The answer is that we cannot know, and we should not let Fox or anybody else tell us that he is after so many other missteps and misunderstandings.

THE BIG PICTURE

Too many ambulances. Too many medical scenes. Too much rubble and smoke on our TV screens and tears on the faces of those left behind.

The collision of sports and tragedy was too obvious and too jarring these last few days... even as the smoke cleared and the games went on, minus some of the players.

Davis Love III and many other golfers wore their pants in Payne Stewart’s signature style, and if you clicked to them quickly, for a flash second or two, you saw Stewart there_because you [beg ital] wanted [end ital] to_back on the course.

The Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys froze in fear for several minutes on Sunday afternoon as Colt defensive lineman Mark Thomas lay motionless on the field after getting kneed in the helmet.

Then, as the cameras followed Thomas into the ambulance, boom, the Cowboys were at the line of scrimmage for a crucial fourth-and-one play.

At the same time, drivers and team owners struggled to come to grips with the crash and death of 24-year-old Canadian driver Greg Moore, after his car literally split into two at the California Speedway.

“Really bad,” said driver Juan Montoya, struggling to express on his feelings about winning his first CART points title on this tragic day.

ABC’s Mike Tirico touched the spirit of the moment in his sign-off Sunday from the PGA Tour Championship, in a quiet, quaking voice, reminding sports fans to cheer the athletes when we can, “for we do not know when they will hear our applause again.”

WEEKEND TALKING POINTS

1. The World Series: If Yankees’ Jim Gray-boycott went any longer, NBC would’ve had to get Ahmad Rashad ready on only three days’ rest.

2. Titan Coach Jeff Fisher vs. Rams: In case you hadn’t heard, L.A. Rams should’ve hired him in 1992. Instead, they went for Chuck Knox, got even more listless, moved to St. Louis, and still got beat by him Sunday.

3. More Fisher: USC could’ve hired this former Trojan, too.

4. Mike Tyson: Nevada Commission inflicts no legal punishment in latest fight fiasco. Funny, neither did Tyson.

5. UCLA, on three-game losing streak, and USC, on four-game skid: Think of it this way_your Fall Saturdays have never felt freer. And just a few fast weeks before basketball starts. Steve Lavin and Henry Bibby, be ready.

6. John Fox: In an ugly season, his revival as starting Trojan quarterback is best story going. If rest of USC roster had his determination (hello, R. Jay), Trojans would be Rose Bowl-bound.

7. The Angel owner-GM-manager search: Why not one-stop shopping? Recruit Kevin Costner for all three jobs, and he can pitch, too. Well, at least better than Steve Sparks.

8. Latrell Sprewell: Lands five-year, $62-million deal. Choke on this, America.

9. Tiger Woods: 23 years old, seven victories on tour this year, and doesn’t it seem that, despite the dominance, he can play much, much better? Anybody want to bet he won’t win, say, 14, next year?

10. Payne Stewart, rest in peace: In a sport that can seem so distant and over-corporatized, this last week has been terribly sad, and wonderfully revelatory. Through tears, we saw these golfers clearer than ever before, and, among many other things, God bless Stewart for that.

LEADING QUESTIONS

Can you blame Steve Young if, as has been reported, he is planning the proper time and place to make his final NFL appearance?

Will Jerry Rice be right behind him into retirement?

If you’ve been banged around as much as those two, accomplished as much as those two, and can see the San Francisco 49er glory run fading from sight, would you stick around much longer?

Isn’t it strange that Bill Walsh, the man who started it all_and left first_probably will be the last great 49er still active with the team?

Will the last 49er future Hall of Famer please turn out the lights when he retires?