So What Are They Singing in St. Louis?

“Take me out to the ballgame . . . buy me some peanuts and . . . “

What, no Cracker Jack? Not at Busch Stadium in St. Louis this season.

Sports Service, the St. Louis Cardinals’ vendor, has stopped selling Cracker Jack snacks in favor of a competitor, Crunch ‘n Munch.

Buy me some peanuts and Crunch ‘n Munch?

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Trivia time: Who was the only Angel ever to lead the American League in batting?

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No North Pole? Here are seven unlikely places that get NBA telecasts: North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Cambodia, Laos and Croatia.

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No nostalgia: Bill Sullivan of the Houston Chronicle isn’t sentimental about Arlington Stadium, the former home of the Texas Rangers. Here’s what he wrote:

“The real legacy of the old place, which gives way to to the new Ballpark in Arlington this season: Warm beer, cold nachos and bad baseball.

“Bring on the bulldozers.”

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Counterpoint: Columnist Bernie Lincicome, in the Chicago Tribune: “The two-point conversion will be used in the NFL about as often as mouthwash.”

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Humble: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, in GQ magazine:

“People bring up money issues--why athletes aren’t worth it. I’m worth it. Sorry. OK? You can take it however you want to take it.

“Jump off the Empire State Building, as far as I’m concerned.”

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Incentive: Nigerian national soccer team players who won the African Nations Cup will be getting three-bedroom apartments and $18,400 bonuses from the government.

The state is also giving the team $42,000. The gifts are intended to encourage the players to excel in this summer’s World Cup.

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Similarities: Former Oklahoma basketball Coach Billy Tubbs, who recently became coach at Texas Christian, likened his Sooner team to the school’s football team, once coached by Barry Switzer:

“We like to run, and nobody likes to pass.”

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We didn’t know: Andy Van Slyke, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 33-year-old outfielder, told Paul Meyer of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he doesn’t feel old.

“I do feel like a veteran player. Absolutely,” Van Slyke said. “But old is a sycamore tree. Old is the Great Barrier Reef. That’s old.

“Do you know it’s five or six thousand years old? And it keeps growing. It’s the only thing astronauts can see from space. Did you know that?”

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Reality: Croatian Dino Radja, frustrated by the Boston Celtics’ dismal season, in an interview with Jackie MacMullan of the Boston Globe:

“It’s like talking to a nice girl on the phone. You like what you hear, and you make a date, but then you meet in person and see what it really is. . . . “

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Trivia answer: Alex Johnson, with a .3289 average in 1970, barely beating out Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski.

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Quotebook: Winston Bennett, former University of Kentucky forward: “I’ve never had major knee surgery on any other part of my body.”