Other Than That, They Got Almost Everything Right

Here’s a correction that appeared last Thursday in the Guardian, a British newspaper:

“On page 8 of Monday’s sport section we captioned a [soccer] picture: ‘Mark Rivers swoops in on Tranmere Rovers’ Alan Mahon during Crewe Alexandra’s 2-0 win.’

“The Crewe player was Shaun Smith, not Mark Rivers. The Tranmere player was Dave Challimor, not Alan Mahon. Crewe did not win, 2-0. They lost, 2-0.”

As Paul Chapman of the Vancouver (Canada) Province points out, the Guardian once ran this note in its corrections column: “The absence of corrections yesterday was due to a technical hitch rather than a sudden onset of accuracy.”

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Trivia time: How many times has USC beaten Notre Dame at South Bend, Ind., since 1980?

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NFL stinker: Frank Luksa of the Dallas Morning News was disgusted with Sunday’s Dallas-Philadelphia game, which the Eagles won, 13-10:

“The game was performed to such a wretched level that it didn’t deserve a victor. It deserved an undertaker. Or a rep from the sanitation department to bury it in a landfill.”

And Luksa wasn’t even talking about Philadelphia fans cheering the injury of Dallas receiver Michael Irvin.

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New home: Bill Veeck’s wooden leg isn’t hanging out any more.

It will be auctioned in Oak Brook, Ill., next month.

The leg of the former Chicago White Sox owner has been hanging in a Chicago tavern since 1977 when Veeck gave the autographed prosthesis to the owner. Bids open at $1,000.

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Bull’s-eye: In Sweden, the Elite League’s top scorer now wears a yellow helmet into hockey games.

Said Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs: “Imagine the target you’d be in the NHL wearing that.”

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What’s next? Gareth A. Davies of the London Telegraph commenting on Margaret McGregor’s boxing victory over a man, Loi Chow, in a four-round bout Saturday in Seattle:

“Only in America, you might say. However, time was when the same was said of ‘The Jerry Springer Show,’ which has been successfully exported to Britain, and where self-humiliation aired in front of a national audience is seen as mainstream entertainment.”

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FYI: Ty Cobb and Rusty Staub are the only players in major league history to have hit a home run as teenagers and after their 40th birthdays.

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Trivia answer: Only twice--14-7 in 1981 and 20-17 in 1997.

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And finally: Woody Paige of the Denver Post commenting on Hall of Famer George Brett as a surprise candidate to become the next manager of the Colorado Rockies:

“He could teach the Rockies where to illegally apply pine tar on their bats.”