Taking Note

From The Daily News of Saturday, March 22, 2008 . . .

You knew that a minor league baseball team would try to make some hay off
Eliot Spitzer, the scandalized former governor of New York. The Macon Music
of the independent South Coast League has scheduled Eliot Spitzer Night for
June 13. Spitzer has been invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch,
anyone named Eliot, Spitzer or Kristen will get in for $1 off regular
admission, and one lucky fan will win a “one-night stand” at the Mayflower
Hotel in Washington, D.C. . . . Kristen, of course, is the first name of the
young lady who apparently entertained Spitzer in the Mayflower. . . .
ESPN.com’s Gene Wojciechowski, on Chicago Cubs owner Sam Zell pondering the
selling of stadium naming rights: "Renaming Wrigley (Field) would be like
the Vatican's signing off on the Tostitos Sistine Chapel." . . . Mark
Kriegel, over at FoxSports.com: “Been reading up on Brett Favre’s life and
times. Seems he once needed 13 Vicodins to get through the Espy’s. Big deal.
I need that much just to watch it on TV.”

Jay Mariotti, in the Chicago Sun-Times: “The problem with DePaul basketball
isn’t that the team went 11-19, failed to make the Big East tournament and
hasn’t reached the NCAA tournament since Jerry Wainwright became coach. The
problem with DePaul basketball is that no one cares enough about DePaul
basketball to be mad. DePaul has DeParted from the Chicago sports scene.” .
. . That growling you here is the ghost of Ray Meyer on the prowl. . . . The
men’s basketball team at Northwestern, a Chicago school, is in its eighth
season with Bill Carmody as head coach. The team plays in the Big Ten, where
it is 3-31 of late. It also, as Chicago Sun-Times columnist Jay Mariotti
pointed out, has yet to play in the NCAA tournament, which is 70 years old.
The headline on Mariotti’s column: Pull the plug on Carmody Central.

Ken Shamrock, an MMA fighter who calls himself The World‚s Most Dangerous
Man, lasted 74 seconds in Cage Rage 25 in London the other night. As Chris
Foster of the Los Angeles Times put it: "Makes you wonder what they call the
guy who beat him." . . . The Kelowna Rockets held Fan Appreciation Night at
their last regular-season home game the other night. Among the bootie given
away: an ATV, four GPS units and four 42-inch plasma TV sets. Which is why
when it comes to fan support the Rockets are the standard in the WHL these
days. . . . After Billy Crystal got into an exhibition game with the New
York Yankees, Dan Daly of the Washington Times wrote: “Billy Crystal, the
most famous Yankees fan this side of Rudy Giuliani, got to bat for his
favorite team the other day in an exhibition game against the Pirates.
Unfortunately, he was robbed of a hit on an incredible diving catch by Jack
Palance.” . . . And then there was the Miami Herald’s Greg Cote, who put it
this way: “Comedian Billy Crystal, 60, struck out in his only at-bat with
the Yankees, after referring to himself as ‘the DH — Designated Hebrew,’ and
saying he feared he might ‘test positive for Maalox.’ I wish he had gotten a
long-term contract for the quotes alone.” . . . Best wishes to Katie Gleddie
as she recovers from that horrendous accident of the other day. There's a
whole lot of people pulling for you, kid.

Pal Nagy broke into a home in Budapest, Hungary, only to discover that
Olympic fencer Virgine Ujlaky lived there and was practising at the time.
Blade to neck, she pinned him to the wall and called the cops. According to
Ian Hamilton of the Regina Leader-Post, Nagy was heard to utter: “Curses,
foiled again.” . . . Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times added: “Guess he
won’t be fencing any stolen goods from this house.” . . . If you are
wondering why the officials didn’t blow the play dead prior to the Vancouver
Giants scoring the winning goal against the Blazers on Saturday, it’s
because linesman Nick Swaine was in position and was yelling to referee Andy
Thiessen to let him know that the puck was loose. The Blazers and their fans
may not have liked it but the officials handled it perfectly. . . . Two
nights later, Swaine was the referee as the Kamloops Storm went into the
fifth OT period before beating the Revelstoke Grizzlies 1-0 on Austin
(Johnny B.) Goode’s goal.

Elliott Harris, in the Chicago Sun-Times: “Major League Baseball
commissioner Bud Selig’s salary for the fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 2006,
was $15.06 million, the Sports Business Journal reports. Which buys an awful
lot of sand to stick your head into when you feel like it. It also is a
figure greater than the Florida Marlins’ 2006 payroll. Maybe the players
association can try to institute a rule that the commissioner cannot be paid
more than the lowest team’s payroll.” . . . The first Major League Baseball
game to be played in China ended in a 3-3 tie between the San Diego Padres
and Los Angeles Dodgers. Does that define MLB’s Selig Era, or what? . . .
Ken Reardon, the Montreal Canadiens’ Hockey Hall of Famer who died last
weekend, played the 1937-38 season with the Blue River Rebels of the B.C.
junior league. . . . In those days, Reardon’s sister was reputed to be a
better play than he was.

Former tennis great Martina Navratilova is no fan of Maria Sharapova’s
grunting. As Navratilova told Asashi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper: "They
aren't lifting 300 pounds, they're hitting a tennis ball." . . . The next
time you bump into Howie Reimer, the morning man over at Country 103, ask
him about his introduction to Charlie Daniels during a recent excursion to
Nashville. . . . NASCAR driver Kyle Busch won a race the other day and
pocketed $175,575. Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg explained: "So, after paying
for 500 miles of gas at 180 mph, Busch owes them $725." . . . Cam
Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “Three famous number nines: 3.
Bobby Hull; 2. Gordie Howe; 1. Eliot Spitzer.” . . . Two weeks ago, NASCAR
drivers, led by Tony Stewart, were quite outspoken about the poor
performance of the Goodyear tires they were using. “No athlete,” wrote Pete
McEntegart of SI.com, “has been so upset about his rubber’s performance
since Travis Henry.”

Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at
gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.