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Rough Rider in the sky

Scouting Department of the Year? It has to be the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League, who recently selected a dead man in the recent dispersal draft of players from the defunct Las Vegas Posse.

Derrell Robertson was a defensive end who played at Mississippi State but died following a car accident last year. Still, his name was never removed from the draft list and the Riders made him their fourth pick.

“I don’t know how it happened,” Ottawa coach Jim Gilstrap said. “The league didn’t know until we told them. And we didn’t know until a week ago when we couldn’t find him.”

A truly grave error in judgment.

Love-40 means never having to say you’re sorry

Thomas Muster is still waiting for an apology from Boris Becker for suggesting the Austrian competed unfairly in the Monte Carlo Open.

Muster collapsed on the court in apparent exhaustion after winning a semifinal in Monte Carlo, then came back to beat Becker in five sets in the finals the next day. Becker said Muster was “either a very good actor or a miracle happened last night. And I don’t believe in miracles.”

Muster had taken the comment to mean he either had feigned exhaustion or had taken drugs for a match with the German. Muster said Becker had promised to make an apology, “But, he didn’t do it so I actually think he meant what he said.”

The Austrian voluntarily took a drug test, which he passed. And he joked that if he wanted to pursue an acting career, he would follow in the footsteps of fellow Austrian Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What does following in Arnold’s footsteps have to do with acting?

Remember that shot you hit on 827?

Australian financial adviser Gary Dawson has claimed the world record for marathon golfing, playing 1,180 holes over the course of seven days.

A competitive triathlete who plays to a 6 handicap, the 33-year-old Dawson broke the previous record by 52 holes. He averaged 78 strokes per round on the hilly, 4,850-yard, par-64 Northbridge course in Sydney. Despite a hole-in-one, he shot a 5,141 - 911 over par.

And on the eighth day, he went to the driving range.

Memorabilia update

Remember when we told you a collector in New Jersey was selling Sandy Koufax-autographed yarmulkes for $75 apiece? Well, Koufax says he’s so upset over the situation he can’t sleep.

The Hall of Fame pitcher said when he signed the 30 skullcaps, he was told they were to be given as awards to students at a Hebrew school.

“It makes me wonder whether trying to be nice to people is the same as asking for trouble,” Koufax said.

Asked about Koufax’s contention, a receptionist at B&J Collectibles said, “Did he tell you that or did you read it in the newspaper? Not everything in the papers is true.”

The last word …

“George Karl is going back to Seattle for another year of having insults shouted in his ear, getting ripped on the radio and seeing his name mocked and reviled in print. And that’s to say nothing of the fans and media. Nice team.”

- Sacramento Bee columnist Mark Kreidler