It’s a Water Polo Fund-Raiser; That’s the Naked Truth

Colombia’s national water polo team, trying to raise enough money to get to the World Championships, is promising “The Full Monty” in a one-time-only striptease show.

The unlikely male strippers hope to earn the $32,000 needed to travel to Essen, Germany, in May with Thursday’s show at a disco. Only women will be admitted, at $12 a ticket.

The idea, inspired by the 1997 British movie about oddball male strippers in unemployment-stricken Sheffield, England, came from a team member’s girlfriend.

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Trivia time: What is the NHL playoff record for goals by a team in one game?

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Disappearing Worm: Sam Smith writing in the Chicago Tribune: “It was done late at night, after most of the newspapers and newscasts in the East and Midwest were produced.

“That was perhaps most appropriate about the Lakers’ Thursday night decision to release Dennis Rodman, a move likely to end Rodman’s NBA career.

“Rodman was an embarrassment, something best disposed of after dark, when few would see or remember.”

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Look out, Erik: Cade McNown in an interview with Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times, on his prospect of becoming the starting Bear quarterback:

“If someone is ahead of me, I’ll just keep pushing. When I get the opportunity, I’ll make that guy a Wally Pipp.”

Pipp was the New York Yankee who was replaced at first base by Lou Gehrig and virtually was never heard from again. Erik Kramer is the prospective modern-day Wally Pipp.

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Identity crisis: Ted Green, coaching the Edmonton Oilers in 1991, was told that rookie center Shaun Van Allen had suffered a concussion and didn’t know who he was.

“Good,” Green said. “Tell him he’s Wayne Gretzky.”

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Broken record: San Francisco Giant utility man Charlie Hayes, on why he charged Arizona Diamondback pitcher Todd Stottlemyre and tried to punch him Friday:

“I don’t like him, I don’t like him, I don’t like him. A lot of guys in this league don’t like him.”

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Mission impossible: An avid high-handicap golfer who was being treated for a stiff back asked his chiropractor if the treatment would improve his game?

The reply: “I can heal the sick. I can’t raise the dead.”

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We won’t: From Quotes of the Century in USA Today: Jockey Robyn Smith: “Don’t ever call me a jockette.”

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Trivia answer: 13, by Edmonton against the Kings, April 9, 1982.

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And finally: Grace Thorpe, Jim Thorpe’s 77-year-old daughter, is orchestrating a drive to get her father declared the 20th century’s top athlete.

“Dad was not only good at one sport. He was good at three,” she said. “There’s no competition.”

Yes, there is. Jackie Robinson was outstanding in four sports at UCLA in 1939 and 1940--football, basketball, track and field and, of course, baseball.