Text messages from press row . . .

Is Marc Ecko “stupid,” as Barry Bonds says of the man who paid more than $750,000 for home run ball No. 756 and is asking Internet users to decide its fate -- one of the options being to launch it into outer space?. . . .

Is he “an idiot,” as Bonds also says of the clothes designer? . . .

Far from it, says Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon, who says that if Ecko’s intention was to “create awareness and build buzz for his brand,” mission accomplished. . . .

Estimating the publicity value at about 10 times what Ecko paid for the ball, Swangard adds, “To respond to Barry’s point, he would be an idiot that would get a passing grade in most business schools for his creativity.” . . .

The Colorado Rockies, born as an expansion team in 1993, have never finished a season ahead of the Dodgers in the standings, but that might soon change. . . .

Matt Holliday & Co. are two up after this week’s sweep. . . .

If Andrei Kirilenko is on the block, Mitch Kupchak should be on the phone. . . .

Exactly what Floyd Landis and cycling didn’t need: Another black eye. . . .

Based on his 144-yard effort against Nebraska, Dorsey grad Stafon Johnson could be USC’s first star running back from an inner-city high school since Ricky Bell, a Fremont alum who was the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1976. . . .

Headaches?. . .

UCLA fans hope they’re not nauseous again this Saturday. . . .

Jimmy Clausen, sacked 15 times for 111 yards in losses during his first three games at Notre Dame, was sacked only three times in 15 games at Westlake Village Oaks Christian High last season. . . .

The L.A. sports scene won’t be the same after Thursday, when concessionaire and kibitzer extraordinaire Richard (“Nuts!”) Aller hawks his last bag of peanuts at Dodger Stadium and retires after 49 seasons on the job. . . .

Aller, a former Compton High social studies teacher who wades through the crowd while maintaining a dialogue that touches on everything from politics to horse racing to the splendor that was watching Sandy Koufax in his prime, started working for the Dodgers when he was 15 years old. . . .

Notes the “illiterate peanut vendor,” as the man who has worked some 8,000 Southland events jokingly calls himself, “I kind of semi-copied Don Rickles’ insult routine, people really caught on to it and I acted like an absolute nut.” . . .

About 1.25 million fans are expected to attend the 10 races in NASCAR’s Chase for the Nextel Cup this fall, or about 80,000 more than sat through the Florida Marlins’ entire 2006 home schedule. . . .

For hockey fans, what’s the attraction of an NHL game played outdoors in Buffalo on Jan. 1 in a 74,000-seat football stadium? . . .

Speaking of hockey, while the sport most assuredly is Canada’s national obsession, it is not the country’s only national sport. . . .

According to legislation approved in 1994, lacrosse is Canada’s national summer sport; hockey is Canada’s national winter sport. . . .

Of course, many Canadians actually prefer curling. . . .

Jeanette Bolden, UCLA and U.S. Olympic women’s track coach and owner of the 27th Street Bakery in South Los Angeles, lists her favorite pies: pecan (“I like the sweetness of it”); sweet potato (“like a pumpkin pie with attitude”); and, for those times when it’s just too difficult to choose, sweet potato pecan (“combines the creaminess of the sweet potato pie and the kick of the pecan pie”). . . .

Says Bolden, a five-time All-American at UCLA and an Olympic sprint-relay gold medalist in the 1984 Games: “I grew up eating sweet potato pie. When I wasn’t at track practice, I was down here at the family business.” . . .

Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley are among the 23 men and women scheduled to be inducted into the California Boxing Hall of Fame during a sold-out luncheon Saturday at the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. . . .

Among the Southland athletes traveling to Hawaii next month to compete in the Ford Ironman World Championship -- 2.4-mile ocean swim, 112-mile bicycle race, 26.2-mile foot race -- is psychologist Mickie Shapiro of Costa Mesa, a 71-year-old grandmother who will attempt to finish for the sixth time. . . .

As the song says, “Go Granny, Go Granny, Go Granny Go!”

--

jerome.crowe@latimes.com