Now You Can Pin the Blame for IOC Scandal

Olympic pin designer Bill Hipson is poking fun at the Salt Lake City bid scandal. He is selling a series of 10 pins, each depicting a different “bribe” that the bid committee reportedly used to entice members of the International Olympic Committee to vote for Salt Lake City.

The final two--one featuring a curvaceous nurse standing by a hospital bed and the other featuring a gift-wrapped rifle--are fresh off the Taiwan assembly line.

The references are to the free medical treatment and plastic surgery offered IOC members, and the fancy firearms presented to IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch that were revealed in the bribery scandal investigation.

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for steals in an NBA playoff game?

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Nervous time: Quintin Thomas Sr., manager of the District of Columbia’s Memphis Red Sox, one of the teams picked to play in the first T-ball game on the White House South Lawn next Sunday, is concerned that his pint-sized players will be distracted on the field.

“All it takes is a butterfly,” he said.

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Move ‘em out: Jerry Greene in the Orlando Sentinel: “The University of Kentucky is selling the courtside seats for men’s basketball that had been amply filled by sportswriters. Season tickets for those super seats are going for big bucks.

“As for the lowly scribes, all the school says is a ‘new location for the print press hasn’t been set.’ We hear they’re thinking about Louisville.”

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More Greene: “I know it’s long over, but I just can’t let go. I felt suicidal about getting the placement of just five of the 31 players exactly correct in my NFL first-round mock draft--until I realized Sportsline.com had four right and Mel Kiper Jr. had three. Moral: Nobody knows nothing.”

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Sick stuff: David Letterman complimented “61*” director Billy Crystal:

“There are some great moments in there. I don’t want to embarrass you, but I loved it--and don’t take this the wrong way--and I don’t think you see this much on television, cable or not: Mickey Mantle throwing up in a bucket.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1986, Boston’s Roger Clemens set a major league record for a nine-inning game when he struck out 20 Seattle Mariners in a 3-1 victory at Fenway Park.

Tom Cheney of the Washington Senators struck out 21 Baltimore Oriole batters in a 16-inning game in 1962.

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Trivia answer: Allen Iverson of Philadelphia, 10, against Orlando on May 13, 1999.

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And finally: It’s an open bar at Maloney’s Pub in Milwaukee--literally.

Inspired by the Brewers’ new Miller Park, pub owner Jerry Rhodes outfitted a section of his bar with a retractable roof that can open in 22 seconds. Miller Park’s signature feature is a unique, fan-shaped retractable roof.