They Were Giving This Devil His Due

Folks in hockey-crazed Alaska apparently love the Stanley Cup.

When the New Jersey Devils’ Scott Gomez, an Anchorage native and the NHL rookie of the year, took the cup home with him, more than 8,000 people showed up at a downtown park where the cup was on display for six hours.

“This is yours too,” Gomez told the crowd. “Kiss it, grab it, do whatever.”

Gomez also took the cup to bars, a senior citizens home and two hospitals.

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Trivia time: St. Andrews hosted the first of its 26 British Opens in 1873. Where had the tournament been played its first 12 years?

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The Intimidator: Dale Earnhardt has heard enough about fellow drivers wanting to slow speeds in their NASCAR Winston Cup stock cars. The seven-time champion comments:

“I’ve heard some drivers saying, ‘We’re going too fast.’ I say, get the hell home. If you’re not a race car driver and not a racer, stay home. Don’t come here and grumble about going too fast. Get out of the race car if you’ve got feathers on your legs.”

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Fiscal lesson: Soumaila Samake, a 7-foot-1 center, is trying to make the New Jersey Nets’ roster while his father and younger brother tend to the family farm in the West Africa republic of Mali.

“They don’t know that much about basketball,” Samake told the New York Times. “I’m just telling them how important it is--how much money I can send back to them.”

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Just asking: ESPN radio’s Jack Arute, mentioning broadcaster Bob Costas’ new best-selling book of proposals on how to improve baseball: “Who died and left Bob Costas in charge?”

Priorities: Bruce Summerhays’ streak of 36 consecutive starts on the Senior PGA Tour ended this week, but he had a great excuse.

Summerhays was caddying for his daughter, Carrie, at the U.S. Women’s Open in Gurnee, Ill. And he knew what to expect.

“Show up, keep up and shut up,” Summerhays said. “That’s what all the caddies have been telling me.”

Summerhays’ duties ended Friday, as Carrie missed the cut.

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This is serious: Morocco has recalled its ambassador to Qatar because Qatar failed to vote for Morocco to hold soccer’s 2006 World Cup.

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Too close to home: Rookie driver Sarah Fisher is “big for motor racing, not just the IRL,” says Eddie Cheever, the 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner. “I have an 11-year-old daughter who just loves Sarah.”

Now, his daughter wants to be a race car driver.

“I wish she’d never heard of Sarah Fisher,” he said.

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Trivia answer: Prestwick Club in Scotland.

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And finally: Former Angel outfielder Jim Edmonds has found a happy home in St. Louis and it’s not only because the Cardinals gave him a six-year, $52-million contract and made him feel at home. What else makes him so happy?

“There’s only one beat writer,” he told the Sporting News.