This week we open with good news. . . . A note from Jim Doan, over at the Western Karate Academy: “Every year the Mitra family, whose daughter is a student at the academy, has a Haunted House at Halloween and raises money for a charity. This year they collected $200 and donated it to The Daily News Christmas Cheer Fund! We’re off to a great start.” . . . Yes, we are. . . . Rod Murchie, a fine neighbour, handed me a Christmas Cheer Fund cheque the other day. I’m wondering whether my lawn is going to need another trim and he’s thinking about Christmas. Wonderful! . . . It was the late Tommy Cooper, a British standup comic, who said of dining with former world chess king Garry Kasparov: “There was a check tablecloth. It took him two hours to pass me the salt.” . . .
Janice Hough, aka The Left Coast Sports Babe, lives in the Bay area and is something of a San Francisco Giants fan. After the Giants wrapped up the World Series title on Monday night, she emailed me: “What a pure joy. Just hoping I don’t wake up and find out this is some dream episode of Dallas.” . . . Was that Nolan Ryan or J.R. Ewing in the front row for all five games? . . . All you need to know about the World Series is that while the Giants were scoring 29 runs in five games, the Texas Rangers were getting 29 hits. . . .
Wondering what it might have cost you to sit courtside to watch the Miami Heat’s home-opener the other night? According to StubHub.com, one pair of ducats went for US$25,884. . . . Last season, the average ticket price for a single seat at the Heat’s opener was $50. This time around that average was $325. . . . The owners of a bar near Miami have said they will pay all tabs up to $25 on nights the Heat loses. Obviously, the owners of Whiskey Tango aren’t anticipating too many losses. It did cost them $4,000 when the Heat lost its season-opener to the Celtics in Boston. . . . If you missed it, the British Columbia Golf Association, the governing body for golf in this province, died with October. It now is known as British Columbia Golf. . . .
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre admits to leaving voicemails for Jenn Sterger, when both were in the employ of the New York Jets a couple of seasons ago. To which the Left Coast Sports Babe notes: “Who knew, despite all those interceptions, Brett’s most ill-conceived passes may have been off the field?” . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix: “The Roman Colosseum reopened earlier this year. The Colosseum was completed in 80 AD, the same year Lloyd Robertson started at CTV.” . . . After hearing that Paul, the octopus that had been so successful in picking World Cup winners last summer, had died, Seattle Times reader Bill Littlejohn noted: “Paul will be laid to rest at a Detroit Red Wings game.” . . . Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, on the best thing about octopus funerals: “It only takes one pallbearer to carry the casket.” . . . According to NBC-TV’s Jay Leno: “In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that people send lemon wedges and tartar sauce.” . . .
“Wayne Gretzky will join seven PGA Tour players, teaming up with Ricky Barnes, at the 2010 ADT Golf Skills Challenge in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 15,” writes Perry. “The touring pros, no dummies, have already conceded the five-hole.” . . . John Daly — yes, that John Daly — is working towards launching Blue Collar Golf, a clothing line. Part of the plan is to have golf shirts on sale at Walmart for US$20. Each shirt would have a tag inside the collar that reads: “Not For Sale At Private Clubs.” . . . Sarah is a member of the Washington Capitals’ cheerleading team. On the team website, Sarah lists her favourite book as, uhh, Facebook. . . . Hopefully that is just her whacky sense of humour at work. . . . Mike Bianchi, in the Orlando Sentinel: “It was good to see Tiger Woods in the house at the Magic’s new $480 million arena Thursday night. Tiger was probably thinking, ‘$480 million? That’s my alimony payment!’ ” . . .
Scott Phillips, a reader of the Chicago Daily Herald, has come up with a rather innovative idea aimed at helping the NFL’s Bears. He calls it the Wild Cutler formation. As he told the newspaper: “Where a Bears safety lines up in the backfield behind (quarterback Jay) Cutler, ready to prevent interceptions from being returned for touchdowns.” . . . Greg Cote, in the Miami Herald: “Shaquille O’Neal posed silently for photographs in Harvard Square, not speaking to fans because, as he’d told the Boston Herald, ‘I’m a statue.’ Analysts who have watched him play lately did not argue.” . . . The Dallas Morning News has reported that Walter Byerly, 80, is something of an active runner. It seems he has done at least one mile every day since Nov. 5, 1974. As the headline at Fark.com put it: Unfortunately, he’s now 39,000 miles from home. . . . Ron Judd, in the Seattle Times: “Once again, an Alaska Airlines jet has collided with another parked jet on a concourse at Sea-Tac Airport. It raises all sorts of alarming questions, chief among them: What in the world is my mom doing driving jets at Sea-Tac?”
Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. Email him at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, follow him at twitter.com/gdrinnan, or visit his blog at gdrinnan.blogspot.com. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.
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