​While competing in a standup paddleboard race Sunday, glasser/shaper Steve Adler stopped 40 yards before the finish due to chest pains.

He got himself checked, took the doctor's advice to take it easy for awhile and then went about his business at the Westminster shaping factory he shared with Tim Stamps.

It is there 41-year-old Adler passed away Thursday of a possible heart attack.
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Will Peter the Anteater or Tuffy the Titan win the ultimate mascot-off?

​If you've ever wondered who would whip whose ass--UC Irvine's Peter the Anteater or Cal State Fullerton's Tuffy the Titan--the answer may be fothcoming today in Irvine.
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​Random notes scribbled onto a soggy napkin from the "Norm stool" at a working-class, Central Orange County watering hole during Sunday's USA-Canada Olympics gold medal hockey game . . .

12:22 p.m.: The first shot is a slapper from Canada's Duncan Keith that Team USA goalie Ryan Miller handles with 52 seconds gone. Miller and Canada's goalie Roberto Luongo seem unbeatable today.

12:24 p.m.: A guy with ink-covered arms sitting to my right and his bro standing beside him holding a cue stick commiserate on their respective Canadian roots. The tattooed love boy has family there, while the other chap has traced his roots to the Great White North. The sleeved one slurs that had he hung out with the Canadian side of his family more, he'd surely have become such a solid hockey player that perhaps he'd be playing in this gold medal game . . . instead of watching it from a barstool.
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​A U.S. Army National Guard recruiter who previously served a dozen years in the Marines spends his spare time running a recreational basketball league that is holding its championship tournament this week on the far west side of Santa Ana, almost in Fountain Valley.

Last summer, the Sarge was close to a deal that would have had his tourney taking place in Costa Mesa. He was going to pay the cash-strapped city $39,000 for seldom-used courts for a few hours on Sundays for a few weeks. But he finally walked away, frustrated, because every time he addressed a city concern, the city came up with a new one. It's not difficult to figure out why.
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Golfer Gene Park: better game than Tiger

​"I'm gonna get me a new iron set," Gene Hae Park tweeted on Feb. 3.

The 42-year-old PGA golfer out of Buena Park did just that--times eight, according to police.
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​Aaron Boone, the former Villa Park High School star and son of the Angels catcher from 1982-88 Bob Boone, today announced he will retire and become an ESPN baseball analyst.
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Photo by Andrew Youssef

Two Orange County icons thrill Disneyland guests last June.

​J. R. Moehringer is a former Times Orange County sportswriter and the ghostwriter of Andre Agassi's controversial autobiography Open. Moehringer profiles Kobe Bryant in the March issue of GQ. Actually, it's more like a profile of Bryant's assorted broken and stressed body parts, which help introduce different candid moments from the Lakers shooting guard's life, including some here in Orange County.
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​After losing Lackey and Figgy to free agency, you'd think the Angels would do all they could to keep a budding potential superstar like shortstop Erick Aybar as happy as possible.

Happy in the lock-him-up-in-a-long-lucrative-contract sense, because Aybar is not exactly a brooder.

But, after Aybar sought a $2.75 million deal after making $460,000 last year, and the Halos countered with a $1.8 million offer, the two sides agreed to a $2.05 million, one-year pact to avoid a salary arbitration hearing.

Aybar batted .312 with five homers and 58 RBI last season, something Baseball Prospectus labeled as a fluke (and the Orange County Register Angels blogger brushes right back here).

Freak season or no, Aybar will bunt to get on, light up the basepaths and turn in spectacular plays in the middle in 2010. Performance bonuses totaling $100,000 for plate appearances certainly won't hurt.
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​Before Tiger Woods takes the podium of his press conference broadcast live from Florida to the rest of the known universe, a camera scans the small audience.

It resembles the small gatherings at executions.

Actually, that's what this kind of is.

The pride of Cypress emerges looking as if he has been balling his eyes out all night. There are no visible signs of Woods having taken a violent 5-iron to the face, save for a couple nicks here and there.
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​The Honda Center in Anaheim warns motorists that the streets, freeways and exits around the arena will experience heavy traffic between 7 and 9 a.m. today.

Center officials blame Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Phelps, Lou Holtz and Condoleeza Rice for the expected Sig-Alerts.

No, those sports and political superstars are not participating in the most random auto-caravan ever conceived.

They are among the speakers generating the traffic into the Honda Center--during the heart of the morning rush hour.
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