AdvertiserIs Called forBatting Outof Order

The folks at the Louisville Slugger Museum must have felt as if they’d been hit over the head with a bat.

The museum recently paid for a billboard in Louisville, Ky., proclaiming it has “more old bats than a needlepoint convention.”

But the creators of the ad overlooked one important detail: Louisville is also home to the Embroiderers’ Guild of America, and the guild was not amused.

“I personally don’t like the reference of needlepoint convention attendees being referred to as ‘old bats,’ ” said Bonnie Key, office manager at guild headquarters.

The organization has 20,000 members, and they’re not all of ancient vintage.

“Our membership is from probably 6 years old up to 100 years old,” Key said.

Workers painted over much of the billboard recently, leaving the words “old bats” above a picture of a century-old baseball bat.

“We really didn’t want to offend anyone,” said Bill Williams, the museum’s executive director. “We just learned our lesson--there are a lot of needlepointers out there.”

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Trivia time: What school leads the Pacific 10 Conference in average football attendance since 1978?

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They didn’t like him: The Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos released Rod “He Hate Me” Smart after one game.

The former XFL player famous for the phrase he wore on the back of his Las Vegas Outlaw jersey returned five kickoffs for 82 yards and two punts for 11 in a loss to the British Columbia Lions.

Team officials said they actually did like Smart, but the return of other players from injuries made him expendable.

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Rocky Mountain High: The summer sojourn of the Stanley Cup reached new heights this week when a Colorado Avalanche executive lugged it to the top of Mount Elbert, Colorado’s highest peak.

Mark Waggoner, vice president of finance, carried the 35-pound trophy to the 14,433-foot summit in a backpack specially designed by Mountain Smith, a Colorado company, the Denver Post reported.

Mike Bolt, official Cup escort, said it was the highest the trophy has been other than in an airplane.

Good thing they held on tight. The bowl-topped trophy with the big circular base probably would roll downhill faster than a dropped water bottle.

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This just in: At the meeting of the American Sociological Assn. in Anaheim, Oregon State sociologist Steven M. Ortiz presented a report on infidelity and professional athletes titled, “When Sports Heroes Stumble.”

Ortiz spent more than four years studying the issue and concluded that “a culture of adultery” permeates pro sports, the Portland Oregonian reported.

Four years? Somebody could have told him that in four minutes.

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Trivia answer: Washington has drawn an average of 66,043 fans. USC is second at 62,435, followed by Arizona State, 62,066, and UCLA, 58,455.

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And finally: Norman Chad notes in a column for America Online that Barry Bonds sat for one of those “touchy-feely, let’s explore-the-inner-Barry” conversations with ESPN’s Roy Firestone.

“Aside to ESPN,” Chad writes. “Since most of these special ‘Up Close’ chats end up with Firestone sitting in the guest’s lap, you can save on production costs by just having one chair on the set.”