The Buddy System Could Be on the Way Out

Former investors of the Montreal Expos are using a famous piece of law enforcement legislation in their lawsuit against baseball Commissioner Bud Selig and other officials for allegedly “determining that Major League Baseball in Montreal should be eliminated.”

The Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act has been used against organized crime, labor unions and motorcycle gangs. RICO, the act’s acronym, also was the name of Edward G. Robinson’s character in the classic gangster film “Little Caesar.”

At the end of the movie, when Robinson’s character is gunned down in the street, his last words are, “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?”

Thom Loverro of the Washington Times asked the act’s author, Robert Blakey, if he came up with the acronym to fit the “Little Caesar” character.

“I decline to answer that,” Blakey said. “But I will say I am a movie buff.”

Responded Loverro: “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Buddy?”

Trivia time: Who are the three NFL quarterbacks who have not missed a game in the last three seasons?

What, me worry? Arkansas football Coach Houston Nutt set the tone for Southeastern Conference media day when he cheerfully announced that star defensive back Ken Hamlin is serving a jail sentence.

“He reports [to jail] every afternoon at 4 p.m.,” Nutt said. “If he is on work release, he can go out during the day, but he has to be back by 4. He might be out right now with some other inmates alongside a highway.”

Gone Hollywood: Thomas Henderson, former flamboyant linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys, says he and his famous nickname parted company after he won $28 million in the Texas lottery two years ago.

“Ever since I won the lottery ... I make an 88-year-old man look like a workaholic,” Henderson told the Miami Herald. “I’m 49 and fat. So who’s going to call me Hollywood?”

Whiff of futility: Ventson Donelson, a former player for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, is suing the Canadian Football League because he claims a referee’s penalty flag that struck him in the face two years ago cost him his sense of smell.

Which isn’t such a bad thing, writes Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “The Roughriders have stunk up the CFL with the league’s worst record since the incident.”

Looking back: On this day in 1938, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals used an experimental yellow ball in the first game of a doubleheader. The teams went back to a white ball in the second game.

Also on this day, in 1979, New York Yankee catcher Thurman Munson died in the crash of his private plane while practicing takeoffs and landings at an airport in Canton, Ohio.

Trivia answer: Brett Favre of Green Bay, Rich Gannon of Oakland and Peyton Manning of Indianapolis.

And finally: NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue presented Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi with a 49er helmet and a No. 1 Redskin jersey to commemorate Saturday’s American Bowl between San Francisco and Washington at Osaka, Japan.

“The helmet will come in useful when I go to work,” Koizumi joked.