A Dog in the Hand Worth One on Court

A hot dog cost Indiana State a basketball game this week. The Sycamores were leading Drake, 60-59, with 19 seconds to play Tuesday night when the ball went out of bounds and officials gave possession to the Bulldogs.

Angered by the call, Indiana State fan William Butwin tossed his dinner onto the Hulman Center court and was promptly ejected, making it a not-so-free throw.

A subsequent crowd-control technical foul against the home team’s fans allowed Drake to tie the game and eventually win it, 62-60.

A difficult defeat to swallow, perhaps.

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Trivia time: What racing feat did four-time world champion Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher achieve in 1984 at age 15?

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Golfing seer: Perhaps the only person in Carlsbad not surprised by Tiger Woods’ 2-and-1 loss to Peter O’Malley in the first round of the Accenture Match Play Championship at La Costa was O’Malley himself.

The Australian virtually predicted the upset.

“Tiger is not as untouchable as he was 12 months ago,” O’Malley said last week. “Anything can happen in 18 holes of match play. I definitely give myself a chance.”

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Making tracks: Jalen Rose’s initial reaction to being traded to the Chicago Bulls was honest, to say the least.

“Nobody circles the last-place team in the standings and says that’s the place you want to go,” the former Indiana Pacer said.

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Bound for Oklahoma: One of the first people Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said he contacted this week after becoming coach of the U.S. Basketball League’s Oklahoma Storm was John Wooden.

“The first words out of his mouth were that the game today is over-coached,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “It should be about five guys on a team reacting to each other.”

Meanwhile, the NBA’s career scoring leader, now 54, said Oklahoma should react well to him.

“I’ve done a lot of research on Oklahoma and its history,” he said. “Part of my heritage is Cherokee. I think I’ll fit right in.”

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The eyes have it: One of the more unusual questions at Tsuyoshi Shinjo’s introductory news conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., produced one of the more unusual answers.

The San Francisco Giants’ new center fielder was asked why he wore sunglasses indoors.

“Because he doesn’t like his eyes, and doesn’t want people to see them,” Shinjo’s translator replied.

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A tale of two Mikes: The New York Mets’ Mike Piazza doesn’t think much of all the griping being done by Colorado pitcher Mike Hampton, who is unhappy only two years into his eight-year, $121-million contract with the Rockies.

“You make a commitment to be somewhere,” Piazza told Newsday’s Jon Heyman. “It’s like a marriage, for better or worse.... You’re paid to do a job.

“Just shut up and play baseball, it’s not that hard. It’s an integrity thing.”

So there.

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Trivia answer: He became Germany’s junior go-kart champion.

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And finally: From Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury News: “University officials have barred the Stanford band from serving alcohol at its functions but said the suspension won’t affect the band’s performances. Wanna bet?”