Bilked Fan Has Perfect Suit for Swindler

Ohio State fan Alan Pressman paid $4,162 for eight tickets to the Fiesta Bowl after his Internet bid was accepted.

But when the Columbus (Ohio) businessman and seven relatives arrived in Tempe, Ariz., to see the Buckeyes play Miami for the national championship, the tickets never materialized.

An arrest warrant was issued last week for Salt Lake City resident Mark Beaver, who was charged with bilking dozens of fans on tickets offered through EBay.

Pressman, who owns a company that supplies prisons with footwear and clothing for inmates, is working on getting reimbursed.

“I hope [Beaver] ends up being one of my customers,” he said.

Trivia time: Which two USC football All-Americans attended Long Beach Poly High?

Let him in: Greg Cote of the Miami Herald took issue with voters who denied Andre Dawson entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame for the second consecutive year:

“The numbers, though! Eight-time all-star. Eight Gold Gloves. An MVP award and twice runner-up. Nearly 1,600 RBIs. Three players, ever, have 400-plus home runs and 300 stolen bases: Willie Mays, Barry Bonds, Andre Dawson.

“Dawson is being made to pay his penance because he played for lousy teams throughout his career. If he were a Yankee, flashing rings, he’d be in.”

Up in smoke: Keith Olbermann of ABC radio, on the Topps rookie baseball card pairing of Atlanta’s Jung Bong alongside Houston’s Brandon Puffer:

“You got it -- it’s the ‘Bong-Puffer’ card. Unclear if its publication will cause Topps’ reputation to take a hit.”

Fowl predicament: A golfer who was eliminated from a qualifying competition for this year’s New Zealand Open complained to the PGA that he missed a putt on the first playoff hole because duck droppings were in his line and constituted a “loose impediment.”

Responded Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle: “But the tournament director said the droppings had adhered to the green, been baked by the sun and would not have impeded the track of the ball. In other words, tough dung.”

Crystal ball: Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald, with one of her predictions for 2003:

“Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden is ‘stunned’ to learn his fourth-string quarterback was caught stealing an alarm clock from the local Walgreens.”

Looking back: On this day in 1969, quarterback Joe Namath carried through on his prediction that the New York Jets would upset the heavily favored Baltimore Colts by leading the champions of the old American Football League to a 16-7 victory in Super Bowl III.

Trivia answer: Quarterback Morley Drury, 1927, and safety Mark Carrier, 1988, ’89.

And finally: From David Letterman’s top 10 NFL referee explanations:

“Who cares? It’s best of seven, right?”

“Not actually a referee, I’m just a guy who works at Foot Locker.”

“Not that it’s an excuse, but I suffer from acid reflux.”

“Spent pregame tailgating with Diana Ross.”