5-at-10: California dreamin', Braves beatdown, Redskins and what would you ask Mark Emmert

From the "Talks too much" studios,

We love L.A. (and Oakland)

That's a shout out to our man Randy Newman, who had a hit with "I Love L.A." Not as big as his "I Hate Short People" and no where as lucrative as his works with Disney and PIxar, but still a catchy tune none the less.

As for the sports world, there are some spinning pieces coming from the city of angels. Consider:

• Clayton Kershaw dropped one of the five best pitching performances of all-time for the Dodgers on Wednesday, throwing a no-hitter with 15 Ks and zero walks. Only an error by Hanley Ramirez stopped it from being a perfect game.

photo Mark Emmert

• While further up the coast in Oak-town, the O'Bannon trial really picks up speed today when NCAA bigwig Mark Emmert takes the stand. Our ace columnist Mark Wiedmer penned another great column here, saying that regardless of what you feel about Emmert, who has an overall approval rating somewhere between tax audits and root canals, unless you are fully in support of paying players and the unknown frontier that that change presents, we need Emmert to deliver today. The NCAA is fading and needs a big pick-them-up today from Emmert.

• As ESPN reported here, Shelly Sterling, the estranged wife of Donald Sterling, has filed a court order against The Donald. They will appear in court this morning. Quick question: With all the crud on TV today, we could not get a reality show on the Sterlings? Really? That's disappointing.

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Braves

And with Wednesday afternoon's stumble against the Phillies, your Atlanta Braves look positively pedestrian.

Atlanta has lost six of its last eight, and after a 17-7 start to the season, the Braves are 36-35 on the season and are tied with Miami, 1.5 back of Washington in the dreadful NL East.

photo Philadelphia Phillies' Ryan Howard swings on a pitch in the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, in Atlanta.

The questions are clear for a Braves team that still ranks well within the top 10 in ERA and 29th out of 30 MLB teams in batting average.

There also have been cracks in the bullpen and in pressure situations.

Their leading hitter is Justin Upton, with a robust .278 average. Sure Tommy La Stella has been the anti-Uggla, but he does not have enough at-bats to qualify.

And now the Braves sprint into a four-game series in Washington.

That's all the bad news. Here's the real news that must be considered: The season is long and you have to trust it. The ups and downs and the ebbs and flows of the marathon that is a MLB can convince any fan that any team is way better and way worse than they actually are.

Still, right now there are not a lot of reasons to feel very confident about this Braves bunch.

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Offensive holding

The U.S. patent office has denied the Washington Redskins six trademarks that include the word Redskins on the grounds that it is offensive.

This could be the first step toward forcing Daniel Snyder to change the name. It could be overturned on appeal as it was in 2003.

The actual meaning of this is debatable. The fact of whether Snyder should change the name because it is the decent thing to do seems long since past.

Are we too politically correct in this society? Of course we are. And please, dear Lord, let's get Congress involved in this because, since there are no bigger problems at home or abroad, let's spend the taxpayers dollars on finding a better college football playoff and worrying about the single most successful entertainment BID-ness out there. (Did the sarcasm come through there? We think so.)

And we do not see a whole lot of offensiveness in Braves or Chiefs or any other walk of a culture that could be viewed as a level of distinction, be them Generals, Patriots, Warriors, Gladiators or what have you.

But if you believe Redskins is fine, well, we'll ask you this, if an American Indian walked into the room, would you say, "Hey there Redskin, what's up? Did you read the 5-at-10 today? That blockheaded TFP sports editor's a nut, right?"

(Plus Mike Tyson agrees with us, so we have to be on the right track.)

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This and that

photo A sellout crowd enters the gate at AT&T Field in this file photo.

- The Chattanooga Lookouts appear to have a new potential buyer. TFP all-around ace David Paschall has the details here.

- The US Women's Open starts this morning. That is all.

- As ESPN reports here, college football administrators are studying the suggestions of an early signing period for college football. Here's hoping they figure something out and get this worked out sooner rather than later.

- Alabama landed another super-stud recruit, getting four-star quarterback Blake Burnett, who originally committed to Notre Dame. Alabama has 19 commitments for the 2015 class and 16 of them are ranked in ESPN's top 300. Wow. Nick Saban is the best recruiter ever. Period.

- Moe from the Three Stooges would have turned 117 today if he had not died in 1975. What's our Rushmore of Moes? Also celebrating birthdays today are Bill Cosby's TV wife Phylicia Rashad, Lou Gehrig, Dirk Nowitzki and Ferris Bueller's girlfriend Mia Sara.

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Today's question(s)

We are still looking for as many mailbag questions as you got.

If you need talking points, here are a couple:

If you were an attorney this morning and got a chance to ask Mark Emmert a question while he is under oath, what would your question be?

There is an 11-year-old girl in the U.S. Women's Open. Would you allow your 11-year-old to compete with the best in the world in their sport of choice?

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