A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: OfficialStuff.com

Ever go to a major sporting event with a request from a friend for a souvenir program? Or maybe you were the one asking. Now, thanks to the Internet, official programs are available through www.OfficialStuff.com. And you can usually get one in advance.

OfficialStuff.com, based in Atlanta, is the brainchild of Eric Douglass, a one-time tennis pro whose father in New Orleans always would ask him to pick up a program when he was at a major tournament.

Douglass for years thought about a business in which programs could be ordered in advance, but couldn’t make the numbers work until the Internet explosion. OfficialStuff.com launched in October 1998 and is starting to catch on. This year’s Masters Journal is the Web site’s biggest seller--more than 60,000 having been ordered to date.

OfficialStuff.com sells the programs at face value, plus shipping and handling. The Masters program is $15.95, plus $6 for shipping and handling.

Four packages also are offered--tennis’ four major tournaments for $99.95, golf’s majors for $109.95, the championship package--Super Bowl, NBA finals, Stanley Cup finals and World Series, plus an Olympic viewers’ guide--for $124.95, and the Millennium package for $249.95.

The Millennium package includes a program a month from a major event. February’s is the NHL All-Star game, March’s the Final Four, and May’s the Indianapolis 500.

The site also offers programs for entertainment events, such as the recent Grammys at Staples Center, and has a “Raiders of the Lost Archives” section. Here, consumers can request back issues of any program in print or make requests for hard-to-find programs.