There’s Only a Remote Chance That He’ll Lose

It isn’t called the Motor City for nothing. Detroit Piston Ben Wallace says he has been collecting radio-controlled cars since his rookie season of 1996-97. The 6-foot-9 center told SI.com that he has 120 of the cars, which he assembles himself.

“It helps me relax,” said Wallace, 31, who recently became the first player to win the defensive-player-of-the-year award four times in a five-year span. “You can’t have any distractions. It’s a nice way to unwind, especially during the playoffs.”

Wallace races his two-foot cars, which can cost up to $1,000 each, against other hobbyists at a track near his off-season home in Richmond, Va., but he said he also takes on his 3-year-old son and the neighborhood kids.

“We get in my driveway and go around a little bit,” Wallace said. “I always win.”

Trivia time: Who is the only member of the 500-home run club who never hit at least 40 homers in a single season?

Perfect punctuation: San Francisco Giant owner Peter Magowan said his team would celebrate “appropriately” if or when Barry Bonds (713) passes Babe Ruth (714) in home runs.

Wrote Greg Cote of the Miami Herald: “Cannot confirm that means the club, in an on-field ceremony, will present Bonds with a giant asterisk.”

Waiting in wings: Wrote Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: “When was the last time a goalie who made the cover of his team’s media guide, as the Mighty Ducks’ Jean-Sebastien Giguere did, sat on the bench, health intact, and watched somebody else between the pipes during the playoffs?”

Perhaps a better question: How brilliantly has record-setting rookie Ilya Bryzgalov performed in goal against Armstrong’s hometown Avalanche?

What are the odds? “I wouldn’t think this would be mathematically probable,” wrote David Thomas of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “but when NBA Commissioner David Stern said referees miss only about 5% of calls, I realized that I must have witnessed every one of them.”

New color: For Mother’s Day and to help raise money for breast cancer research, some major leaguers will be swinging pink baseball bats Sunday. “Some players initially resisted the idea because they feared the color wasn’t manly,” wrote Pete McEntegart of SI.com. “Then they realized that they’re already wearing culottes.”

Double-dip: Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel on why the Houston Texans didn’t draft Reggie Bush: “They found out they were not only going to have to pay Bush, they were going to have to pay his parents too.”

Looking back: On this date in 1970, Ernie Banks became the ninth member of the 500 home run club after hitting a homer against Pat Jarvis of the Atlanta Braves at Wrigley Field.

Trivia answer: Eddie Murray, who is the Dodgers’ new batting coach. However, Murray, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Rafael Palmeiro are the 500 club’s only members to collect 3,000 career hits.

And finally: NBC’s Jay Leno, on the impact of $3-a-gallon gasoline: “Just wait for the Indy 200 at the end of the month.”