In Vegas, Rays’ rally never happened

It’s a different world in Las Vegas, and in Las Vegas on Monday night, World Series Game 5 had a winner.

According to the city’s sports books, the final score was Philadelphia 2, Tampa Bay 1. Never mind the half-inning that was played before the game was suspended because of rain -- the top of the sixth, which saw the Rays tie the score on Carlos Pena’s two-out RBI single.

According to Nevada gaming rules, the final score of an official game is determined by reverting back to the last completed inning. Monday night, that would have been the fifth inning -- the Phillies led, 2-1, after five innings. Las Vegas sports books are paying off Game 5 side bets on Philadelphia, with some adding proposition bets for the conclusion of Game 5.

Trivia time

How long did it take to complete the 1962 World Series between the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants, a series that had two games rained out?

Talking the talk

According to reports, Diego Maradona is about to be named coach of Argentina’s national soccer team. Maradona told Radio La Red, “My first job will be watching the players. I’ll try to talk to them one by one and then work at the training camp in Ezeiza with them.”

And what should Maradona’s first words to his players be?

Something along the lines of “Do what I say, not what I do.”

Ugly and Mean

On paper, the University of North Texas is muddling through as bad a season as a football team can possibly have.

The Mean Green is 0-8 overall -- 0-4 at home, 0-4 on the road, 0-4 in conference. Scores have been ugly: 45-6, 56-26, 41-3, 77-20, 69-30, 45-17.

Just when it appeared things could not get worse, the Mean Green received results of a team-wide drug test Coach Todd Dodge requested earlier this fall. Out of 86 players that took the test, 15 failed.

Trivia answer

Thirteen days. The Yankees won the series, four games to three.

What’s his beef?

From Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “The Cleveland Browns, not amused when Kellen Winslow complained he was being treated like ‘a piece of meat,’ benched their star tight end for [last] Sunday’s game.

“Considering he gets paid $4 million this season, the going price of beef just shot up to $16,000 a pound.”

Mike Penner from the Fabulous Forum