They’ve Found 88 Keys to the Season

Ken Maguire of the Associated Press writes that Boston Red Sox fans will go to great depths to break the Curse of the Bambino.

“On Saturday, a group went to the bottom of a suburban Boston pond in search of Babe Ruth’s piano, which, the story goes, was tossed into the water by the slugger in 1918.

“The group hopes to refurbish the piano and play it again, just as the Babe did in 1918, the last time the Red Sox won the World Series. A season later, Ruth was sold to the New York Yankees, who have since won 26 championships.”

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More piano: It hasn’t been found yet, but organizers say they have proof the piano is there. An infrared camera identified a rectangular shape with wiry weeds at the bottom, 15 feet below the surface and near shore.

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Trivia time: What former major leaguer grounded into only 33 double plays in 4,553 at-bats--the best in history with one for every 138 at-bats? Hint: He also played football for a local university.

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The West way: Skip Bayless of the San Jose Mercury News suggests that the Golden State Warriors entice Jerry West out of retirement to rebuild the floundering franchise.

“West is the best at identifying, drafting and luring talent. Jerry St. West.... He would do in the front office what Rick Barry once did on the court. For the first time in a long, long time the Lakers would glance uneasily at Northern California.”

Dream on, Skip.

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Required reading: A footnote to the story about the Canadian writer who locked himself out of his Salt Lake City hotel room--in the nude.

“He covered himself with a newspaper,” said Michael Ventre of MSNBC.com. “This is a great argument for getting your news the old-fashioned way instead of downloading it with one of those Palm organizers.”

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Pest control: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Mystery to me: why the Japanese players in America seem to treat the Japanese media like lepers. Ichiro Suzuki barely spoke to the legion of Japanese scribes who followed him all last season....

“Sure, we media are annoying, but those poor ink-stained Japanese wretches are the players’ link to their loyal fans back home.”

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It’s fiction now: Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “John Feinstein hasn’t seen ESPN’s movie ‘A Season on the Brink,’ which will air March 10, but he read the script that was adapted from his book about Bob Knight and hated it.

“Aside from the factual inaccuracies, Feinstein told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, the movie uses made-up characters, including a halftime tirade that didn’t happen, and has ‘just the general feeling that they went more for melodramatic screaming scenes.’”

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Trivia answer: Don Buford, who played for USC’s baseball and football teams in the late 1950s.

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And finally: Jerry Magee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, commenting on Jon Gruden, Tampa Bay’s new coach: “The man daily gets up a few minutes after 3 in the morning during an NFL season in order to begin his scheming.

“Excuse me, but this doesn’t impress me. The late Paul Brown, as accomplished a coach as ever lived, did not work nights and neither did Chuck Noll, who did pretty well in four Super Bowls.”