Turns Out, It Was All Just a Big Mix-Up

There were tall tales being spun in Detroit last week, after the WNBA’s Detroit Shock announced it had signed Rifla Oslopgohtac, a 7-foot-3, 18-year-old native of Iceland who had never played organized basketball, yet averaged 41 points and 25 rebounds in recreation leagues.

Sounds too good to be true? It was.

Rifla Oslopgohtac was an anagram for “April Fools’ Gotcha.”

Three Detroit radio stations bought it hook, line and jumper, after the Shock’s marketing department sent out a news release announcing the signing. The release even included the proper pronunciation: RIF-la Oh-SLOP-go-tahck. The airwaves were alive with chatter about her effect on the league.

The release even provided a detailed story about how the Shock found her. It said that after the Shock won the WNBA championship in 2003, Iceland’s minister of foreign affairs called the Palace of Auburn Hills and, speaking through an interpreter, tipped off the team about his country’s basketball phenom.

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Trivia time: Who is the oldest major league pitcher to start an opening-day game?

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Give him an assist: Danny Gathings, a junior forward for the High Point (N.C.) basketball team, has no problem handing out awards, even his own.

In what seemed like another April Fools’ joke, Gathings, the Big South Conference tournament’s most valuable player, said last week that he would give it to Larry Blair, who made seven three-point baskets to lead his Liberty team to an 89-44 victory over High Point.

This turned out to be no joke, as Gathings will drive to Liberty’s campus in Lynchburg, Va., to hand over the trophy to Blair.

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Attention, metaphor police: Ray Hudson, former coach of D.C. United, describing the abilities of 14-year-old Freddy Adu:

“A blind man on a galloping horse can see his talent. He’s a little Faberge egg, and everyone’s just trying to protect him.”

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More horsing around: Jose Valdivia Jr., the jockey who rode 30-1 shot Castledale to victory in the Santa Anita Derby, had to survive a stewards’ inquiry before being declared the winner.

Valdivia stopped to plead his case on the track, then told reporters: “This is what the people want to see. They love to see a 30-1 shot knock off the big boys. I tell you one thing, what people have to know is the size of this horse. He looks like a little pony, but he acts like a big shot.”

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Food for thought: Final results from last week’s Nasdaq-100 tennis tournament in Key Biscayne, Fla.:

Hot dogs outsold hamburgers, 20,000 to 15,000, French fries edged chop-chop salad, 6 tons to 5 tons, and crepes had a good showing, at 18,000.

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Trivia answer: Nolan Ryan, who was 46 when he took the mound for the Texas Rangers in 1993.

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And finally: San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler, noting the concerns about security at the Athens Olympics this summer: “There’s no ice skating at the Summer Olympics, but I think I speak for all American journalists when I say I’ll feel a lot better if Tonya Harding is a member of the U.S. security detail.”