Even for Soccer, This Is Extra Cheesy

Should it be called Pizzagate now?

Days of sleuthing in Britain, following the food fight after the Manchester United-Arsenal soccer game, resulted in new information coming to the surface.

Various newspapers reported that an Arsenal player tossed some soup -- pea or tomato? -- at United Coach Alex Ferguson after Sunday’s game in Manchester. Now comes another tabloid theory. The Sun said that Arsenal defender Ashley Cole threw pizza at Ferguson in the tunnel fracas.

An alleged witness told the newspaper: “Ashley loves pizza. He would normally eat it, not throw it.”

Whatever did happen, there was the amusing sight of the Sun’s front-page headline: “Old Fling Cole.”

Add pizza: One soccer website featured this T-shirt -- Pizza Throwing Champion 2004.

Trivia time: How many World Series home runs did Mickey Mantle hit?

Inside politics: There’s a fascinating connection between presidential elections and a certain football team in Washington.

When the Redskins win their final home game before the presidential election, the party in power wins. A Redskin loss means the incumbents are out.

‘It’s kind of amazing,” Redskin Coach Joe Gibbs told Associated Press. “You wouldn’t think something like that would line up that many times.”

Note: The Redskins play host to Green Bay on Sunday.

U-Sox: A Red Sox fan club in Uzbekistan?

You bet.

Wire reports had an item about the five-member Tashkent Red Sox Fan Club. There’s no doubt about the dedication of these folks. They had to wake up at 5 a.m. to catch a Boston-St. Louis game.

Barry.com: The online auction for Barry Bonds’ 700th home run ball had a winner Wednesday. And the best offer after the 10-day auction on Overstock.com was $804,129.

Less is more: Graphic overload is driving sports fans to distraction, and Phil Mushnick of the New York Post noted the continued silliness by Fox:

“Did you see it yesterday? Did you see what happened? For a few minutes in the second half of Lions-Giants, Fox lost the use of graphics. All we could see was the field, and the game being played on it. Wasn’t it glorious!

“It has come to this, sports fans: Saturday, after David Ortiz’ homer in the first inning of Game 1 of the World Series, Fox saw fit to post the following: ‘First career World Series home run.’

“Well, it’s about time! Especially given that it was his first at-bat in a World Series.”

Jay talk: NBC’s Jay Leno, on the NHL’s lockout: “If you want to see white guys with missing teeth, you’re going to have to watch Jerry Springer.”

Trivia answer: 18.

And finally: Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk spoke to Rolling Stone about his first car, a 1977 Honda Civic: “I got it around 1984, with what was pretty much all of my savings. I remember living in that thing during the summer -- it was always full of sand and wet towels.”