Then Again, Who Put the Top Down?

GolfWorld reports that William Reese of West Dundee, Ill., is seeking $50,000 in damages from the Golf Club in Algonquin, Ill., and its former management company, American Golf Corp.

Reese claims he suffered neurological problems after being hit in the head by a golf ball while driving his car past the facility’s practice range.

The magazine didn’t report what kind of car he was driving. If it was a convertible with the top down, he certainly was at risk.

Trivia time: Who was the first player from a Pacific 10 school to be included among the top three in the Heisman Trophy voting?

He’s all riled up: Gary Shelton in the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays losing 100 games for the second year in a row:

“A hundred losses! There should be a feeling of betrayal. It’s an outrageous number, and it should result in outrage. A hundred losses should be a rare, horrifying experience. A hundred losses should cancel all leaves, suspend all raises and shiver all timbers.

“Here, we look the other way.... Frankly, it would be a healthy thing to see a little anger, from the players, from the front office, from the stands. It would be better to see impatient, impassioned people demanding a little more than a team going gently into the good night. It should matter.”

His heritage: Jon Saraceno in USA Today: “Six suspected Al Qaeda sympathizers from the Buffalo suburb of Lackawanna probably think they’re receiving more national airtime than anyone ever for that blue-collar town, but they would be wrong--ESPN’s Ron Jaworski is a native Lackawannian.”

Note: he’s also a former L.A. Ram quarterback.

Brrr: Thirty-five years ago next New Year’s Eve, the Green Bay Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 21-17, in the coldest NFL game on record--the 1967 NFL title game, dubbed the “Ice Bowl.”

The official game-time temperature was 13 degrees below zero with the windchill at minus-48.

That’s a real mess: After the Lions were routed, 31-7, by 36-year-old quarterback Rodney Peete and the sad-sack Carolina Panthers, Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press wrote, “Two weeks into the season, Detroit is as messed up as a 15-year-old’s sock drawer.”

Looking back: On this day in 1934, St. Louis Cardinal ace Dizzy Dean shut out Brooklyn on three hits in the first game of a doubleheader, then brother Paul pitched a no-hitter against the Dodgers in the second game.

Looking back again: On this day in 1955, Rocky Marciano knocked out Archie Moore in the ninth round at Yankee Stadium in New York to retain the world heavyweight title.

Trivia answer: Quarterback Frankie Albert of Stanford, third in 1941 behind Bruce Smith of Minnesota and Angelo Bertelli of Notre Dame.

Albert was also fourth in the voting in 1940.

And finally: Bob Sansevere of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, commenting that Viking Coach Mike Tice hasn’t felt the heat from fans despite an 0-2 record:

“However ... if the Vikings lose Sunday to the Carolina Panthers and fall to 0-3, Tice will be about as popular in Minnesota as mosquitoes. Actually, mosquitoes might hold a slight edge.”