These Kids Behave Like True Sportsmen

The long-awaited goal was within reach, a few slap shots away, for a group of hockey-playing teenagers near Edmonton, Canada.

But they scored much bigger by stopping, putting their sticks down and taking their skates off.

The kids from St. Albert, who were trying to establish a world record for the longest hockey game and raise money for their area, were a minute away from the mark when they stopped, according to the Edmonton Sun.

They’d heard that players from Sherwood Park had hit the 80-hour mark Sunday in a fund-raising effort for cancer research, so they halted their game and donated $2,000 to the Sherwood Park endeavor.

“We had a lot of respect for the Sherwood Park guys and everything they’ve done and we decided they deserve the record,” Jeff Beaton told the newspaper.

Trivia time: Who was Andre Agassi’s doubles partner in the 1992 French Open?

Add Agassi: Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News raised some appropriate questions in the aftermath of Agassi’s singles title in San Jose on Sunday:

* That’s a record-tying fifth victory in the Bay Area. If Agassi stopped coming, would there be a tournament here anymore?

* What’s the difference between the economics of golf and tennis? [Tiger] Woods’ winning check Sunday was more than 15 times greater than Agassi’s winnings of $52,000.

E-fashion: What is the world coming to when Tony Gwynn gets thrown out of a college baseball game?

Nine games into his new job as coach at San Diego State, Gwynn was ejected from a game against Santa Clara on Saturday.

It was, apparently, all about the color of his jacket when he came out in the ninth inning to make a lineup change.

“I had to get my money’s worth,” said Gwynn to the San Diego Union. “That’s the first time I actually got to shake my head a little bit and feel like I was into it. But that shouldn’t happen.

“The bottom line is, [the umpire] made a mistake and I end up getting tossed because of it. He made an assumption. He told me later on, when I was chewing on him, that he thought our team jackets were red. And he was wrong. They weren’t red.”

Breaking ground: The ATP guide may have to update Frenchman Arnaud Clement’s biographical details. A new entry might look like this: Plays -- Right-handed and left-handed.

Clement, who reached the Australian Open final in 2001, sat out the first major of 2003 because of tendinitis in his right wrist.

But the French sports daily L’Equipe reported that he played a tournament in the town of Gap, switching the racket to his left hand. On top of that, he knocked off two local players, winning both matches in straight sets.

Trivia answer: John McEnroe. Agassi and McEnroe lost in the quarterfinals to Pablo Albano of Argentina and Cassio Motta of Brazil.

And finally: Miami probation officer Ileana Ortiz on Jose Canseco, the former major league outfielder who was jailed Tuesday for probation violation:

“The subject does not appear to take probation seriously.”

-- Lisa Dillman