"Chateau Briand (for two) … $36.95"

Gary Blackney is the football coach at Bowling Green; and after losses to Temple and Buffalo in the same month, he had decided that he will resign at the end of the season. Not surprisingly, the university has not objected too strenuously. Blackney is the only coach in the history of Bowling Green to win a bowl game, but now the program seems headed into a different bowl and in a different direction.

Reflecting on the US win over Cuba in Olympic baseball, Tommy LaSorda actually said that this was more important than winning the World Series. He called it the biggest upset in sports - surprisingly he did not say it was an upset of Olympic proportion. With Tommy in that state of exuberance and with a reason to celebrate, no pasta within 200 miles of Sydney is safe tonight. Tommy had what amounts to a AAA All-Star team and they beat the Cubans who in turn beat the Orioles … Peter Asbestos ought to be wondering why his super-scouts did not get a bunch of these guys in their trading frenzy in July.

A University of Nebraska grad, Rulon Gardner, won the Greco-Roman Wrestling gold medal defeating a Russian who had not lost an international match in 13 years and had not had a point scored on him in an international match in seven years. I see Mr. Gardner showing up at a pro rasslin pay-per-view in the near future sporting his gold medal and then saving some young woman who is being menaced by a large brute from a fate at least equivalent to death. After that, who knows? Maybe he becomes the Masked Avenger and becomes embroiled in a blood feud with the Avenging Masked Man. Who cares?

After defeating two consecutive top 5 teams, UCLA got clocked at Oregon. Bruins' QB Ryan McCann said before the game that UCLA should be ranked #1 because, "I don't know who else we can beat or what we can do."

Memo to Ryan: First of all, you can beat Oregon. Secondly, you can win a road game since you have lost seven of those puppies in a row.

Rik Smits has retired citing leg and ankle and foot miseries. Left on the Pacers' roster are centers Zan Tabak (I might be able to pick him out of a publicity shot with the munchkins from the Wizard of Oz) and Sam Perkins who graduated from North Carolina in the late Jurassic Period. This may allow the Pacers to go with a "big/fast" lineup including the kiddie corps of Jermaine O'Neal, Jonathon Bender and Al Harrington along with Reggie Miller and Jalen Rose. Now I know that The Encyclopedia is ready to hit the reply button to remind me that the Pacers drafted a center this year and I forgot to mention him. OK, his name is Primoz Brezec and he is from Slovenia and if he is anything like typical European centers he should be from Slow-venia.

Two suspects have surrendered to Boston police in the Paul Pierce stabbing. One of the side issues that has gotten little attention was that Pierce was wearing a leather coat as he was attacked and one of the medical spokesthings said that the heavy leather diminished the severity of several of the blows that could have been fatal (like the one described as a deep gash to the sternum?). If that is true, I don't expect to see Paul Pierce at a PETA meeting any time soon.

The state of New York is investigating the possibility that organized crime used three racetracks in NY to launder "dirty money". I'm shocked, shocked!! - as Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe would say. What next? Do you think that bookies don't report all of their income on their 1040s every April? Say it ain't so.

Michael Westbrook is recovering from his reconstructive knee surgery and says that he is bored out of his mind. His day consists of "eat, read, movie, sleep." He says that he has "probably read eight books in the two weeks" since the surgery.

Memo to Michael: If you pick the right books, then the reading may not be boring. Look for ones that don't require you to have crayons at the ready.

In the "birds of a feather" category, a fan threw a beer bottle at John Rocker at Shea Stadium when Rocker came in to relieve on Tuesday night. The fan was arrested along with a companion. The companion is the same guy who was convicted - along with his main squeeze at the time - of killing their newborn baby by putting it in a dumpster at a motel in Delaware. These two are probably dumb enough to go out and steal Firestone tires off of Ford Explorers.

In Vancouver, Marty McSorley testified under oath that he was not trying to hurt Donald Brashear when he skated up behind him with about 3 seconds to play in a game and wound up and clocked him in the head with a hockey stick from behind. He must have practiced that testimony for a couple of weeks because there was no indication that he giggled when he said that. McSorley's attorney is named Bill Smart and so that makes them a team of Smart and …

You know that Olympic coverage is beginning to wear thin when the Washington Post devotes an entire page today to a picture of a dejected Gail Devers on the track with a pulled hamstring and the rest of the page devoted to an article about how these are ecologically sound games. In that article we learn that millions of worms are used to compost leftovers and that the "worm guano" is used for fertilizer. Toilets use recycled water; forks are made from starch which can be decomposed. This is in the sports section of the paper meaning that they have sent too many people Down Under and they have run out of stuff to write about.

But that does not mean that I cannot scan the agate type for you and let you realize that the US Equestrian team managed to pull out a bronze medal in the team dressage finishing 474 points behind the gold medal German team. Their margin over the 4th place Denmark team was a slim 17 points and so this competition probably had spectators on the their feet and screaming for the entire duration. Now I'm sure that some reader out there knows what "team dressage" is. Please don't tell me. I don't want to know.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...