This Time the Band Is Up a Tree at Stanford

Stanford has its home opener today against Navy, but the Cardinal’s irreverent marching band will miss the halftime show.

The band was placed on “indefinite provisional” suspension because of its members’ “intentional destruction” of a campus trailer that served as the band’s temporary home, the school said this week. The band members hit the trailer’s walls with a sledgehammer, broke windows and tore down much of the ceiling, and the walls “were spray-painted and covered with food,” Stanford said.

“This was a truly disturbing incident,” said Greg Boardman, the school’s vice provost for student affairs. The suspension includes banning the band from traveling for one year.

Stanford’s band, which eschews traditional uniforms and marching in formation, has a history of antics that have drawn a suspension or other discipline, and, in this case, band president Adam Cohen seems contrite.

“It was wrong. Most of them know it was wrong,” Cohen told the San Jose Mercury News. “And we’re willing to accept our punishment for the role we played.”

Trivia time: When was the last time the team with the best regular-season record in the major leagues won the World Series?

Goodbye Gonzo: The Arizona Diamondbacks’ decision not to ask Luis Gonzalez back for the 2007 season surprised few, but the news was still met with sadness in the Grand Canyon State.

Gonzalez, after all, produced perhaps the most memorable moment in the team’s nine-year history by hitting a single off New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning of Game 7 to win the 2001 World Series.

Entering Friday’s games, the left-handed batter led the National League in doubles with 50. But otherwise his performance has diminished, and the Diamondbacks have younger, less-expensive players ready to replace him.

Yet statistics aren’t everything with a popular player like Gonzo, argued Joseph A. Reaves of the Arizona Republic. Baseball, he wrote, is “better for having players like Luis Gonzalez, whose gifts the bean counters can never calculate with their computers.”

Backfield in motion: Peyton Manning is known for his elaborate pre-snap routine, and school-age quarterbacks have begun mimicking the Indianapolis Colts star.

“Imitation is obviously a great form of flattery,” Manning told USA Today, acknowledging that youngsters are walking up and down the line, pointing, shouting, gesturing and otherwise frustrating some by taking so long to get the ball.

Jake Delhomme, quarterback of the Carolina Panthers and a friend of Manning, was asked what Manning himself is doing behind the line with his theatrics. Delhomme said: “There’s no telling what. Peyton doesn’t give away anything.”

Trivia answer: 1998, when the Yankees went 114-48 and swept the San Diego Padres in the World Series.

And finally: Pittsburgh Steelers running back Duce Staley is co-owner of a drag-racing team, Catch 22 Motorsports, which will compete starting next year.

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james.peltz@latimes.com