BCS End Justifies the Mean Comments

Woody Paige of the Denver Post, like others, has had it with the bowl championship series:

“NCAA basketball has March Madness. NCAA football now offers, for your pleasure, December Dementedness. BCS stands for Bonkers Crazy Scary....

“Maybe, just maybe, the debacle in December will force the NCAA to hold a national playoff to determine a real champion in Division I-A football. We only can hope.”

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Trivia time: What was the Lakers’ overall record after their NBA-record 33-game winning streak ended in the 1971-72 season?

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Tough guy: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Here’s a man I nominate to lead an S.F. campaign to toughen up our pedestrians: Sri Lankan runner Amradu Cooray.

“Late in a recent marathon, Cooray was hit by a car, suffered cuts to his shoulder and elbow, got up and ran the last four miles, finishing fourth.”

Was the car badly damaged?

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More Ostler: “The torch relay for the Winter Olympics will pass through 46 states, including Alaska.

“What happened to the other four states? Did they test positive for steroids?”

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You’re forgiven: At the Raleigh (N.C.) Marathon, Steve A’della, 44, got lots of media play after juggling his way through the race. It took him five hours to finish but he performed the whole way.

“I juggled the whole time, though I dropped seven times,” he said.

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A solid deal: A trade between two Turkish soccer teams exacted a heavy price.

Sarigol Municipality, which plays in the first division of the Manisa Amateur League, traded two players to Canakcispor for 225 sacks of cement.

Sarigol officials were so delighted with the deal they threw in two more players as a gesture of good will.

The Turkish sports news Web site Ajansspor quoted Sarigol chairman Adnan Aygun as saying, “They got four good players and we repaired the stadium.”

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Are candles next? Enron has filed for bankruptcy. However, with no other prospective sponsor on the horizon, the Houston Astros say the company will keep its name on their stadium as long as it can make payments.

Comment from comedy writer Alan Ray to the San Francisco Chronicle: “Some of the Astros’ promotions next season at Enron field reflect a trend to cut costs for the troubled energy company--’Flashlight Doubleheaders.”’

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Offense-oriented: San Francisco 49er defensive coordinator Jim Mora, the younger, on the St. Louis Rams: “They don’t make many mistakes. They don’t care if they do because they’ll just attack more. Everybody makes a big deal about turnovers. I bet they don’t care about turnovers.”

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Trivia answer: They were 39-4. The streak lasted from Nov. 5 through Jan. 7.

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And finally: Rick Morrissey in the Chicago Tribune, commenting on the toughness of former Bear linebacker Dick Butkus: “[He] would get ready for games by working himself into a lather. He was an anger-mismanagement class of one.

“He would see an opposing player laughing during warmups and convince himself that he was the object of ridicule.”