Keeping Score

Paris Hilton has told the London Star that she is tired of having soccer's Cristiano Ronaldo in hot, hot, hot pursuit. “Cristiano has been on my case since we met in L.A. and he keeps trying to get me to meet him again,” she said. “I like guys who are manly, not the sort who look in the mirror more than I do.” . . . Outfielder Anthony Cros, who played baseball at TRU, was a first-team all-star this season after hitting .393 with the Western Major Baseball League's Okotoks Dawgs. He's headed back to TRU to finish up a degree but has used up his baseball eligibility. . . . Jeff Blair, in The Globe and Mail, decrying the high cost of hockey equipment and merchandise like Hockey Canada's Olympic hockey jerseys: "The only reason Nike and the like charge these high fees is because you're stupid enough to pay for it.”

Larry Read, the always smiling sports information officer over at TRU, says that Errol Wild, who left us far too soon two weeks ago, “would give you the shirt off his back.” According to Read, Wild “paid for . . . three or four kids to play soccer. These were kids from low-income families and he paid out of his own pocket.” It's gestures like those that this community will miss the most by not having Wild around. . . . You realize, of course, that when the Chicago White Sox picked up pitcher Jake Peavy and outfielder Alex Rios, owner Jerry Reinsdorf took on salaries — US$110 million — that almost are worth more than what he has offered for the Phoenix Coyotes. . . . When hockey equipment belonging to Kamloops Blazers forwards Matej Bene and Dalibor Bortnak went missing on the flight from Slovakia earlier this week, you don't suppose it was The Curse of Habby getting an early workout, do you?

The Left Coast Sports Babe, after Manny Ramirez whined about his post-suspension performance: “Apparently if this baseball thing doesn't work out Manny thinks he has a chance to replace Paula on American Idol.” . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino is in a pickle after admitting he had sex at a restaurant with the woman who now is accused of trying to extort him. I'm thinking Pitino now is getting his just desserts.” . . . Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel: “Does anybody really buy the story coming out of the Pitino camp that the coach didn't give his pregnant squeeze $3,000 so she could get an abortion but gave her the money so she could pay for health insurance? Who does this guy think he is — Barack Obama?” . . . If you are intelligent enough to be in university, you should at least recognize our national anthem, wouldn't you think? Why, then, did 20 members of the UBC Thunderbirds football team disrespect O Canada by continuing to walk along the Hillside Stadium track as our national anthem played prior to last Saturday night's BCFC game?

So there was Tom, a sports junkie and a regular here, driving home from work on Monday while listening to the Jacksonville feed of an NFL exhibition game with Miami. He heard the two announcers mention former B.C. Lions defensive end Cam Wake, now of the Dolphins, and his back-to-back defensive player-of-the-year awards. “They said that receiving that award in the CFL, he might as well have been playing in Antarctica, completely and rudely downplaying his talent,” Tom wrote in a smokin' email. “But they did recognize that he played college football at Penn State, so maybe he wasn't all that bad.” . . . Careful, Tom, or you'll be hearing from the Senator, Pamela Wallin. . . . Spies report that Dean (aka Mike) Pierson, a former morning radio man at The River, will be first public address voice of hockey's TRU WolfPack.

Larry Rawson, who covers the world of track and field for ESPN, spent some time breaking down Usain Bolt's world record 100-metre performance into NFL speak. Bolt's last 40 yards were covered in 2.95 seconds. Rawson had Bolt covering the first 40 yards in a hand-timed 3.73 seconds, or 3.97 electronically. The NFL's unofficial hand-timed record is Deion Sanders' 4.29. The fastest official time, electronically, is 4.25 seconds by cornerback Fabian Washington at the 2005 NFL combine . . . Is there anything sadder than Brett Favre's inability to stroll quietly away into retirement?
In a revealing interview with USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale, pitcher Bronson Arroyo of the Cincinnati Reds said it's time folks quit pointing fingers at MLB commissioner Bud Selig — has anyone seen him lately? — or union boss Don Fehr over the sport's performance-enhancer problem. “You think this country really cares about what ballplayers put in their bodies?” Arroyo said. “If we really care, why are we pumping Coca-Cola in every kid's mouth, and McDonald's, and Burger King and KFC? That (stuff) is killing people.” . . . If the Golden Baseball League winds up with a franchise here, let’s hope we don't see (m)any games like this one. On Monday in Edmonton, the Calgary Vipers beat the Capitals, 15-14. The game lasted four hours 17 minutes and featured 35 hits, five errors, 16 walks and six players hit by pitches.

How about Chunky Thatcher, who coaches the Butte, Mont., team that played in the Little League Senior Softball World Series last week? As Bruce Sayler wrote in the Montana Standard: “As boys basketball coach at Butte Central High School in the 1990s, Thatcher once drew ire and a fine for subbing a player into the game to guard the referee, 'because that's who was hurting us the most.' It cost him two technical fouls — one for doing it and the other for laughing about it."

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