Get Ready for Jordan’s Favorite Caddie

It would be folly to suggest that Michael Jordan’s second comeback from a second retirement wouldn’t have an effect on the media.

But according to Joe Hawk of the Las Vegas-Review Journal, one broadcaster has more at stake than others.

Writes Hawk: “Happiest man on earth now that Michael Jordan has decided to ‘unretire’? It’s Jordan’s personal Kato Kaelin: Ahmad Rashad. We fully expect to see that suck-up arm-wrestle fellow NBC-TV sideline reporter Jim Gray for the right to kiss His Airness’ NBA championship rings every game. ‘Yo, Ahmad, can you grab M.J.’s bag?”’

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Why bother playing? Video game maker 989 Sports has already played the World Series on its MLB 2002 Playstation and the Yankees won in six games, by taking the last two, 6-5 and 4-2.

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Trivia time: Who hit the first home run into the pool at Arizona’s Bank One Ballpark?

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History in the making I: San Jose Earthquake defender Jeff Agoos had won three MLS Cup titles while with D.C. United, but the one he won with the worst-to-first Earthquakes last week meant more, he told USA Today.

“It has to be the best turnaround story in the league’s history. I don’t know how this ranks in other professional sports leagues or what the media thinks, but hopefully in 40 or 50 years someone will ask me about this special day. This was done with a group of players that nobody’s ever heard of.”

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History in the making II: According to the San Francisco Chronicle, when Paul McCartney was introduced at Yankee Stadium during the divisional series, Oakland Athletic third baseman Eric Chavez asked Oakland General Manager Billy Beane who McCartney was. Beane said, “Ah, he played with Wings.”

Beane knew a reference to the Beatles would go over the head of the history-challenged Chavez, who already had admitted he hadn’t heard of Sal Bando, whose club records he had broken.

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Looking back: On this day in 1960, Cassius Clay, who would later be known as Muhammad Ali, made his professional debut and beat Tunney Hunsaker on a six-round decision in Ali’s hometown of Louisville, Ky.

*A Pat hand: Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald sees an ulterior motive in Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley taking a chance on oft-troubled guard Rod Strickland. Writes LeBatard: “Pat Riley is not betting on Rod Strickland here, obviously. No, Pat Riley is betting on Pat Riley. It’s a $1-million gamble, which is pocket change in his world.

“Riley’s ego, which has been earned, allows him to think he can squeeze out of Strickland what no other coach has. Riley took a discarded Tim Hardaway and Anthony Mason and made them All-Stars without incident, so why can’t he rehab one of the league’s most notorious bad boys too?”

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Trivia answer: As a member of the Chicago Cubs, Arizona first baseman Mark Grace had the first splashdown home run at Bank One Ballpark when he went deep May 12, 1998.

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And finally: Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle is bemused by Fox’s exclusive coverage of the baseball playoffs. “And, gee, does Fox love close-up shots? During the ALCS, I thought I was watching a lunar landscape on the Discovery Channel. It was just Jay Buhner.”