This Could Be the Next Big Reality TV Series

A truck driver from Des Moines, Iowa, has taken out a personal ad in “Winston Cup Scene,” a NASCAR publication, for a date to the May 25 Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, N.C.

Dan Robbins, a 38-year-old bachelor, has attended the race the last four years with a brother who is on military assignment in Korea and can’t make it this time. So he’s looking for a female companion.

The ideal date, Robbins told Associated Press, would be between the ages of 21 and 35 and “an Earnhardt fan, but it’s not a deal breaker.”

He is happy to educate a novice, but added, “if Miss Winston wants the ticket, we’ll definitely talk.”

And since he’s flying in, Robbins also is hopeful his date can “bring a grill and cooler -- stuff my brother usually brought that I can’t bring on a plane.”

Sounds more like a married guy.

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Trivia time: On this date in 1915, what pitcher hit his first home run as a big leaguer?

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Not Day’s month: The rookie of the month for April in the National League was Zach Day.

But only for a day.

The Montreal Expo right-hander was stripped of the honor when it was discovered he was seven days over the rookie limit in major-league service.

Day, who was 2-1 with a 2.48 earned-run average last month, was replaced by Chicago Cub first baseman Hee Seop Choi.

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Cheap shot: In the NBA, Bobby Jackson of the Sacramento Kings recently was voted the “sixth man of the year.”

“Coincidentally,” noted comedy writer Jerry Perisho, “that’s the same title Jennifer Lopez just gave Ben Affleck.”

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Moving tribute: Texas’ T.J. Ford, college basketball’s player of the year, announced he was making himself available for the NBA draft, a move the Austin American-Statesman said clearly disappointed one fan.

The newspaper reported that the words “Please stay, T.J.” were seen “scrawled in dust on the back of a truck traveling through Austin.”

It was a moving van.

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Lost in space: Noting ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.’s penchant for saying of so many drafted linemen, “[He] plays well in space,” columnist Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post lamented that a former No. 1 pick of the Broncos -- a bust -- fit the same description.

The problem, Armstrong said, was that he “was OK in space, but couldn’t play a lick on Earth.”

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Just cruisin’: This from the Sporting News on “Randy Moss Hood Ornament Night” -- a promotion by the St. Paul Saints minor league baseball club:

“Fans who affix li’l Randy to their cars will gain the unique perspective of seeing Moss at full speed for an entire drive.”

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Trivia answer: Babe Ruth, who, as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, had three hits, including his first homer, off Jack Warhop of the New York Yankees.

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And finally: Fed up with the low-scoring, defense-first style that permeates hockey’s postseason? You’re not alone.

“There are now three great mysteries in our world,” wrote Ed Willes in the Vancouver Province, “Stonehenge, the Bermuda Triangle and how the NHL can charge $150 a ticket to watch what it’s putting on the ice in these playoffs.”