It was 50 years ago last night when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single NBA game. . . . He put down 100 as his Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks 169-147 in a game played at the Hershey Sports Arena in Hershey, Pa. . . . Did you know: There is no video footage of that game as it wasn’t televised. . . . You may remember Chamberlain as Wilt the Stilt, which he hated, or The Big Dipper, which he didn’t mind. His 10 brothers and sisters called him Dippy. . . . According to NHL statisticians, the Columbus Blue Jackets outhit the visiting Detroit Red Wings 33-2 in a Tuesday night game. . . . In case you put any stock at all in the NHL’s ‘hit’ stats, the Red Wings won the game, 5-2. . . .
After Manny Ramirez signed a contract for this season, Ann Killion of SI.com wrote: “The Oakland A’s are the clown car of baseball, a small-market team crammed with weird ideas. Just when you think they’ve all emerged, another one pops out.” . . . Scott Ostler, in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Ramirez, at age 40, without PEDs? Sounds like a formula for Manny being granny.” . . . Who knew that one of the perks that comes with being a TRU senator is sleepovers in a campus computer lab? . . .
It turns out that Ricky Williams, who played last season with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, hasn’t retired. The veteran running back noted via Twitter: “I did not retire, I graduated. With a degree in millionaire.” . . . Phil Mushnick, in the New York Post: “The NBA announced Friday that Nike capo di tutti capi Phil Knight has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in the ‘Contributor’ category — proof that one can buy his way into this Hall of Fame.” . . . Capo di tutti capi? The boss of bosses. . . . Don’t know which post-Oscar party you attended, but Denver Broncos QB Tim Tebow was at the Vanity Fair bash, where he hung with Tom Cruise for a bit. . . .
Mike Scioscia, the manager of the Anaheim Angels, is 38 pounds lighter than when last season ended. As he told Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: “I was born 10 pounds, 12 ounces, and I’ve been trying to lose weight ever since.” He hopes to lose another 20 pounds before he’s done. . . . Pitcher A.J. Burnett turned down a trade to the Angels, and accepted it when the New York Yankees dealt him to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now he’s out with a broken orbital bone after bunting a ball into his face. . . . Perhaps the baseball gods have spoken. . . .
It wasn’t just your average Wednesday. Yes, it was Feb. 29. But it also was the day that is the highlight of The Daily News Christmas Cheer Fund. Six cheques were handed over to representatives of local charities and I wish you all had been there to see the appreciation in the faces of them all. It was fun, folks, and thank you for giving us 82,676 of your hard-earned dollars to pass along. . . . We’ll do it again in November. . . . The NFL discovers that one of its coaches was paying bounties and we’re supposed to be surprised? . . .
Officiating didn’t cost the Kamloops Blazers the game with the visiting Vancouver Giants a week ago tonight. But the standard set by referees Steve Papp and Matt Thurston in the first period when they let a number of violations pass them by had certainly changed by the last minute of the third period. . . . The Vancouver Canucks opened a seven-game homestand with a 2-0 victory over the St. Louis Blues. In their last six games, the Canucks have scored 11 goals and allowed 11. Is the NHL headed back to the days of the dead puck era or is it already here? . . . Greg Cote, of the Miami Herald: “Tiger (Woods) continues (to be) the biggest thing in his sport even though he rarely wins. He’s sort of like the male Danica Patrick.” . . .
Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun with two words of advice for Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi now that he has Mike Richards and Jeff Carter in his dressing room: “Early curfew.” . . . One more from Simmons: “How old do you want to feel today? Among the most heavily recruited high school football talents in the U.S. is a defensive back named Leon McQuay, grandson of the famous Grey Cup fumbler.” . . . Just wondering, but which team is sinking faster, Burkie’s Toronto Maple Leafs or Dr. Heckle’s B.C. Liberals? . . . Hey, Burkie, if you're not going to tie the tie, ditch it. That part of your act has worn thin. . . .
The Minnesota Twins have former reliever Eddie Guardado in camp to help throw batting practice. That won’t be a problem because, as he told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “My last five years in the big leagues, I was pretty much throwing batting practice.” . . . Headline at SportsPickle.com: Ryan Braun feeling lucky enough to enter 2012 Tour de France. . . . Ron Judd, in the Seattle Times: “Looks like taxpayers in Sacramento are about to be suckered into paying the lion’s share of a new money-sucking NBA arena to keep the Sacramento Kings from fleeing to suddenly-stalking — and highly over-excited — Seattle. Man. Who could have seen that coming?” . . . Cam Hutchinson, in the Saskatoon Express: “The top (NFL) combine names in Indianapolis continue to be Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III. In Saskatchewan, it’s still John Deere.”
(Gregg Drinnan is sports editor of The Daily News. He is at gdrinnan@kamloopsnews.ca, gdrinnan.blogspot.com and twitter.com/gdrinnan. Keeping Score appears Saturdays.)
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