They Still Have a Soft Spot for a Steak

Red meat, once considered the staple of Tour de France riders during competition, has fallen from favor for more low-fat foodstuffs such as pasta, rice and muesli, but cyclists still find a good steak can be useful.

“Nothing absorbs shocks like animal tissue,” said Yvan Vanmol, a team doctor, who said he recommended slipping a steak in a rider’s cycling pants to protect a tender rear end on long stages.

Stomachs are now protected from such extravagances.

“They [riders] are like high-powered engines. You put some funny motor oil in and it all explodes,” said Willi Balmat, chef for the Motorola team.

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Add red meat: Stephen Roche, winner of the 1987 Tour de France, says the cyclist’s diet is so limited that when he retired, “I went to a restaurant and picked up a menu and it was like learning a new language.”

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Trivia time: When was the first night game played in the major leagues?

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But does he bark? Animal mascots have become commonplace since the San Diego Chicken started the trend, but the Memphis Mad Dog is different--it actually is a dog.

Alien, a 4-year-old black Labrador, is a favorite of Canadian Football League fans wherever the Mad Dogs play. He races onto the field after each kickoff, retrieves the kicking tee and returns to the sidelines.

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Good casting: Dennis Rodman, on ESPN’s “Up Close,” told host Chris Myers: “Someone asked me to play a villain on the next ‘Batman.’ I’d make a very good villain.”

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Talking trash: A lot of harsh words are being said about conditions in the British Open this week, but it’s nothing new.

Former U.S. Open champion Ed Furgol said, “There’s nothing wrong with the St. Andrews course that 100 bulldozers couldn’t put right.”

Even winners have been critical. Fred Daly, the 1947 champion, called the Old Course “an uninteresting stretch of drab linksland.”

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Life in Big Apple: New York Knick fans just got the word on what it’ll cost to watch Don Nelson’s team next year, and they’re not happy.

Courtside seats, where Woody Allen, John McEnroe, Spike Lee and about 50 other fans satlast season, will cost $1,000 a game--double what they paid to watch Pat Riley’s team. That amounts to $86,000 for a pair of season tickets, not including playoffs.

“These owners are greedy. Just plain greedy,” Lee said, referring to ITT-Cablevision and other owners.

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Strange sight: Kevin Little, who finished second in the 200 meters to Michael Johnson in the U.S. track and field championships, is the first white sprinter to make the national team since Mark Lutz in 1976. The former Drake runner will compete in the World Championships next month in Sweden.

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Trivia answer: May 25, 1935, at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. The Reds defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt threw the switch from the White House to turn on the lights.

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Quotebook: Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle: “We don’t know this for a fact, but we’re betting the Raiders’ favorite play now is the reverse.”