About a week ago, I told you that Francois Botha would head up a boxing card here in DC to raise money for various children's charities. Now we learn that his opponent will be Tony LaRosa (maybe Julius LaRosa's kid?) in a "10 round non-title fight". You can go to the head of the class if you know what title either of these practitioners of the sweet science may possess. My money is that Botha holds some obscure championship since LaRosa's announced record (and by definition his inflated record) is 32-19. Translation: LaRosa need not don a costume on Halloween to go trick or treating as a punching bag.

The Dodgers threw the baseball world and the baseball writers a curve when they did not name Rick "Up And" Down as their new manager. Rather they turned to Spencer Tracy's less famous brother Jim. Let me see if I understand this. Jim Tracy was the "bench coach" for Davey Johnson for the last two years meaning that he was part of all the decision making processes. Davey was tossed because his record of accomplishment was insufficient to put up with his "personality challenges". So you go and hire the guy who was his #1 advisor and alter ego. Makes sense to me…

The Phillies signed Larry Bowa to manage the team next year. Unless Bowa has had a frontal lobotomy and some really excellent plastic surgery to hide the scar, he will bring some fire and some toughness to the team that has not been in evidence recently. But if the Phillies do not get some pitching help, they will not finish at break-even without Divine intervention.

The University of Alabama put up with Mike DuBose when he had an affair with a woman in the athletic department and then lied about it and the school had to pony up over a quarter of a million bucks to settle her harassment suit. They put up with some early season losses last year when the team rallied to win the SEC and he was given a contract extension. Alabama was ranked #3 in the country in the pre-season prognostications but lost to UCLA in the opening game. Their record now stands at 3-5 but their last loss was to Central Florida at homecoming. Mike DuBose is now officially fired as of the end of this season. So Alabama and BYU are both major schools looking for new coaches - and the season is not over yet. And with a record of 3-5, the Crimson Tide can now be called the Ebb Tide.

Michael Heisley is the billionaire who bought the Vancouver Grizzlies last year for $160M. Press reports estimate that the Grizzlies lost $25M last year and according to Heisley they may lose twice that amount this year. Heisley is quoted as saying, "We couldn't break even if we sold out every seat in the house." There is little worry of that since average attendance is about 13,000 and season ticket sales are about 5000 and the place seats over 19,000. But it does make you wonder just how carefully he looked at the finances of that purchase. Most billionaires don't get to be that way by finding ways to invest in guaranteed losing propositions, but it seems like Heisley has found just such a beast. He says that the success of the franchise rests on "…whether or not we can galvanize the business community and the fans…" I still don't get it. If all these people are galvanized, what they will do is come to the games faithfully; but even if you sell all the seats, you are going to lose money. So what the Grizzlies really need is a way for them to print their own money…

The already beleaguered Atlanta Falcons' defense took another body shot when LB Keith Brooking had to be put on IR for the year. Brooking was leading the team in tackles up to the last game. And the Patriots had to put LB Andy Katzenmoyer on IR meaning their defense is weakened. New England has more defensive players on the squad to try to work around this problem than Atlanta does, but both teams are having less than successful seasons and neither are looking like they are about to awaken any time soon.

Mike Martz says he has watched the film and has concluded that Reggie White is not the player he was and that he is "very inconsistent" and that he should have stayed in retirement. I wonder who asked him.

The Eagles are still doing the "running back by committee" routine but they had a visitor in Philly earlier this week. Natrone Means brought his gimpy legs and his reconstructed knee to the Eagles for a look-see after he was released by the Panthers. On a team that plays on Astroturf, I figure Means is good for about 10-15 carries before he is back on IR.

The Boston Globe reports that since Bill Parcells left the Patriots to go to the Jets, the Patriots have had 5 first round draft picks and 27 draft picks overall. Of those picks, only Damon Woody is a starter for the Patriots. There is something to be said for a coach with an eye for ability to play the game.

The NFL has awarded the Super Bowls in 2004 - 2006 to Houston, Jax and Detroit. Yes, Detroit. And in February. Go to "www.detroitfreepress.com/sports" and read Mitch Albom's column today regarding that decision. If you are not one of the hoi polloi who can score tickets to Super Bowls with ease, you may not mind missing that one.

Handicapping continues for the Breeders' Cup on Saturday and I like one entrant a whole lot and was happy to see that the morning line on that noble steed was 30-1. In the Fillies and Mares Turf race, I like Catella (a horse that has raced only in Europe and mainly in Germany). And because I am spending time looking at the racing pages and racing information sources, I happened to notice that there is a horse entered in a race at Laurel today. The horse is named Watch My Dust. Problem is that he is entered in a claiming race where the price varies from $4000 to 5000. Horses who run at that bottom rung of the racing ladder do not stir up much dust when they run; if they did, they would be running in higher class races!

There is an adage that says that any publicity is good publicity. So by extension, any time your name is in the papers and is not associated with your own demise, that is a good thing. Well, Hofstra University just named Larissa Smith as their women's basketball administrative assistant. If enough people see that and are curious, Larissa may be inundated with calls asking the musical question:

What the hell does a basketball administrative assistant do?