Cowboys retain their value over time

It has been more than a decade since they won the Super Bowl, but the Dallas Cowboys remain the most valuable team in the NFL, according to Forbes magazine.

Dallas topped the rankings for the third year in a row at $1.65 billion, the most of any U.S. sports team and second in the world to Manchester United ($1.87 billion).

The Cowboys are worth $100 million more than the runner-up Washington Redskins, with the New England Patriots ($1.361 billion), New York Giants ($1.183 billion) and New York Jets ($1.170 billion) rounding out the top five.

Least valuable team in the league? That would be the Oakland Raiders at $797 million, less than half the Cowboys’ worth. Sometimes the numbers do not lie.

Trivia time

Who was the first Oakland Raiders player to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Signed, swatted and not delivered

An umpire at a youth baseball tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., was excited to score the autograph of 350-game winner Greg Maddux, who was watching his son’s team play. The umpire took the signed baseball and put it in his ball bag.

“The ump was pretty happy until he mistakenly reached into his ball bag and threw it to the pitcher,” wrote Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News. “But he figured it was no big deal, that he’d just switch it out after the first pitch. Except that it never got to the catcher.

“Instead, the batter drilled it into the crowded left-field bleachers for a home run.”

Trivia answer

Jim Otto in 1980, his first year of eligibility.

And finally

Author and Pittsburgh Steelers fan Alan Simon, to USA Today, on basing his most recent business book on the team: “I don’t expect to sell an awful lot of copies in Oakland, Dallas, Philly and Cleveland.”

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mike.penner@latimes.com