Phillies sure to be first in this race

The Philadelphia Phillies are on the verge of becoming the first professional sports franchise to lose 10,000 games -- and the final countdown to the ignominious mark is being, well, celebrated, in Philadelphia.

“Magical Misery Tour,” the Philadelphia Daily News called its retrospective of a 124-year history that includes only one World Series championship, in 1980.

“Phabulous Phutility,” the Inquirer called it.

The Phillies played their first game in 1883. And lost, naturally.

They lost 23 in a row in 1961, a major league record.

Fourteen times, they have lost at least 100 games in a season, finishing an astonishing 62 1/2 games out of first place in 1942.

And perhaps worst of all, in 1964, they had a 6 1/2 -game lead in the National League standings with 12 games to play, then lost the pennant by losing 10 in a row. But don’t ever say they don’t love their sports in Philly.

Folks are selling T-shirts to commemorate the historic milestone.

Trivia time

Who was the Phillies’ manager during the 1964 collapse?

Beckham beckons

The folks at ESPN who are bringing us “scuba cam” from McCovey Cove during next week’s baseball All-Star game festivities at AT&T; Park are getting ready for David Beckham’s expected debut July 21 with the Galaxy against Chelsea.

ESPN plans to use 19 cameras, including a skycam, super slo-mo cameras and robotic goal cams.

There also will be a Beckham cam, focusing on Beckham’s every move throughout the match, and a celebrity cam ... you get the idea.

By the way

The Times of London recently ranked the world’s top 50 soccer players -- that’s footballers to them, of course.

Beckham checked in at No. 34.

Kaka, the Brazilian star who plays for AC Milan, was No. 1.

Strawberries and

... what?

Rafael Nadal has been blogging and taking questions on the website for the Times of London during Wimbledon. (He certainly has had the time.)

Other than rain, a recurring subject seems to be ... Nutella.

“I normally eat it with toasted bread or on cookies,” he wrote when a fan suggested he try the chocolaty hazelnut spread with banana. “I have to try it, but I think I’ll wait till the end of the tournament.”

Told that one picture showed a jar of the stuff underneath the couch, Nadal confessed he already had helped consume two jars since arriving in London.

Fact of the month from Nutella: “The total number of jars sold worldwide annually lined up would wrap four times around the moon.”

In a theater

near you

Now showing at the California Science Center’s IMAX Theater, “Wired to Win: Surviving the Tour de France,” a movie about the world’s most grueling sporting event, and the “ultimate test of the human brain.”

That’s not what we were thinking.

TV news

The three top-rated sports telecasts for the second quarter of 2007, courtesy of SportsBusiness Daily, were the NCAA basketball championship game between Florida and Ohio State, the final round of the Masters, and the Kentucky Derby.

The four games of the NBA Finals, a ratings dud, were nonetheless in the top 10 -- although Game 2 of the San Antonio-Cleveland series tied for 10th with NASCAR’s Samsung 500.

Trivia answer

Gene Mauch.

And finally

It’s going to be a while before Philadelphia gets another chance to celebrate 10,0000 losses, the Daily News figures.

The projected year for loss No. 10,000 for the 76ers is 2215.

For the Flyers, 2323.

And the Eagles? 3160.

robyn.norwood@latimes.com