School Has a Rough Landing at LaxPower

Ranked last among the nation’s high school boys’ lacrosse teams, the Rams of Wilmington (Del.) Dickinson High were the 2,290th-best team in 2005, according to LaxPower.com, a website devoted to tracking and reporting all things lacrosse.

“LaxPower cannot possibly have the organization and manpower to accurately rate and rank 2,290 high school boys’ teams, not to mention all 1,767 high school girls’ teams and three divisions’ worth of college men’s and women’s teams,” wrote John Weaver of SportsMediaWatch.com.

“It makes me wonder if maybe the Dickinson Rams aren’t getting a raw deal.”

Lacrosse makes its debut this month as a Southern Section-sanctioned sport, and LaxPower.com says the Southland’s top team is from Santa Ana Foothill.

Though Foothill is ranked only 255th nationally, one would presume the Knights could really stick it to those Rams.

Trivia time: Has any Super Bowl ever been tied at halftime?

Big boomer: The Arizona Republic reported that a trailer containing $50,000 of merchandise belonging to golfer John Daly was stolen last weekend from outside a Hooters restaurant in north Phoenix -- just days after federal agents arrested Daly’s wife to serve a six-month term on charges related to money laundering, drugs and gambling.

There’s a joke, or two, in there somewhere.

Let it roll: Jerome Bettis says he grew up doing what people in Detroit, and for that matter Pittsburgh, do.

“I didn’t play football until high school,” the Steeler running back told Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post. “I was a bowler. ... Football was a second thought. Bowling was my first love.”

Looking back: On this day in 1989, former major leaguer Bill White was named president of the National League, the first black to hold such a position in any major league sport.

Another first: After 13 seasons playing for San Francisco, St. Louis and Philadelphia, White became major league baseball’s first black announcer, spending 18 years as the Yankees’ play-by-play man.

Teamed with Phil “Holy Cow!” Rizzuto, it’s been written that White stepped out of the booth for a break. Upon returning, he glanced at his broadcasting partner’s scorecard and saw the cryptic notations, “WW” and “DSI.”

White asked what they meant, and Rizzuto replied, “Wasn’t watching and didn’t see it.”

Trivia answer: It has happened twice. Last year, Philadelphia and New England played to a 7-7 halftime score before the Patriots pulled out a 24-21 victory. In 1989, Cincinnati and San Francisco were tied, 3-3, before the 49ers won, 20-16.

And finally: A tip courtesy of Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, who reported that blogger Matt Sussman of futonreport.net has predicted a 21-20 Seattle victory in Super Bowl XL “by virtue of the Scrabble values for the last names of rival quarterbacks Matt Hasselbeck and Ben Roethlisberger.” It seems that quarterbacks with the higher Scrabble value are 6-1 in this year’s NFL playoffs.