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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

They can’t go on and on

From wire reports The Spokesman-Review

No more Yellow Pages-sized college football media guides. Sports information directors throughout the country are scrambling to decide what to eliminate. An NCAA ruling passed a few weeks ago says that media guides in all sports must be limited to 208 pages – beginning this season, reports Dave Dye of the Detroit News.

This is a big adjustment for many of the tradition-rich football programs that use the guides not only to serve the media, but also as recruiting tools. Michigan, for example, must cut 160 pages from last season’s 368-page guide.

Erik Christianson, a director of media relations for the NCAA, said the rule was passed to cut costs and also “level the playing field” in recruiting.

Media guides have gotten increasingly larger since the NCAA decided in the mid-1980s that schools couldn’t produce a separate recruiting guide.

“That one rule started the arms race of media guides,” said Bruce Madej, director of media relations at Michigan.

Washington State’s 2004 guide has 232 pages, Idaho’s 134. Then there is Missouri – weighing in a 614.

Stroke of bad luck

There probably have been better getaways, but perhaps none as creative as what Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies encountered when they responded to an early-morning burglary at a store in North Pownal, Maine. The deputies passed two suspicious-looking teenagers heading in the opposite direction, The Associated Press reported.

Wrote Dwight Perry of The Seattle Times: “No word on which was the bigger tipoff for the cops: the two cases of beer in plain sight or the vehicle they were driving down state Route 231 at 4 in the morning.

“A stolen golf cart.”

Makes the grade

A new video game from EA Sports, “NCAA Football ‘06,” features authentic teams and stadiums and even a race for the Heisman Trophy.

“In fact,” wrote Randy Turner of the Winnipeg Free Press, “the game is so realistic that you can play it nonstop for four straight years and still not graduate.”

Hungry for a wisecrack?

Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, on eating contests:

•”The International Federation of Competitive Eating is gaining notoriety, so it’s only a matter of time before its draft is televised on ESPN.”

•”The most famous and successful eater is Takeru Kobayashi, who recently won his fifth consecutive hot-dog eating contest, scarfing 49 dogs in 12 minutes. For the other competitors, Kobayashi showing up for a contest is a wurst-case scenario.”

•”There are some promising young hot-dog eaters who might challenge Kobayashi, but they didn’t use enough ketchup and mustard, so they were sent down for more seasoning.”

Good news for Billy Bob

Billy Bob Thornton, who stars in a remake of “Bad News Bears,” said that he once had a tryout with the Kansas City Royals that ended prematurely when a stray ball struck and broke his collarbone. He was devastated, but now feels it’s for the best.

“Baseball is a tough business,” he said. “The difference between high school and the pros is pretty drastic. Say by some miracle I had gotten there. I’d have been retired a decade already. I’d be selling cars.”