Cheap Seats

Gentlemen, start your portfolios

With NASCAR at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last weekend, it is as good a time as any to take note of a planned mutual fund offering for racing fans.

The StockCar Stocks Mutual Fund, expected to open to investors later this year, will invest in such companies as Ford Motor Co., General Motors and the parent companies of Charlotte Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway, according to Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal.

Who says racing fans always hope to see a crash?

Listen at your own peril

On the theory that “most athletes want to be entertainers and most entertainers want to be athletes,” En Visage Multimedia is producing a couple of albums on which NFL players sing duets with established stars.

No. 1 draft pick Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts sings country with Kenny Chesney, Ryan Leaf of the San Diego Chargers is paired with Kenny Sharp, and New York Giants defensive lineman Michael Strahan joins voices with Randy Travis.

So the hotshot rookie quarterbacks have gone country.

When do we get to see the singers get sacked?

Retirement planning, part two

Cleveland Indians stock put on the market two months ago is performing like a hitter in a slump.

Richard Jacobs, owner, chairman, chief executive officer and president of the Cleveland Indians Baseball Company Inc., raised $60 million June 4 through an initial public offering of 4 million shares at $15 per share. The Indians became the first publicly traded major league team.

At the close of trading Friday, the shares available through the NASDAQ stock market were worth $9, a drop of 38 percent from the initial public offering price.

Ken Stefanov, the team’s chief financial officer, said the Indians believe there is “a lot of room for growth.”

Didn’t someone once say that about Pinocchio’s nose?

Bang the southpaw slowly

When Richmond Braves general manager Bruce Baldwin found out his team’s game against the Columbus Clippers on Aug. 13 fell on International Left-Handers Day, he planned a shindig in honor of the folks of Left Hand, W.Va., population 500.

The town is named for its location on the left branch of a creek.

At the game, Left Hand postmaster Jermone Phifer is scheduled to throw out the first pitch - even though he is right-handed.

“But my wife’s left-handed,” Phifer said.

And probably a 38-year-old reliever.

Like father figure, like protege

On opposite coasts, Los Angeles Dodgers general manager Tommy Lasorda and New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine, Lasorda’s protege since their days with the Spokane Indians, all but guaranteed their teams will be in the playoffs as wildcard entries.

Let’s see Tommy talk his way out of this.

The last word …

“We’ve got to have the focus, one heartbeat, and it can’t be just one or two guys. It’s got to be the team as a whole.”

- Gary Sheffield, who learned it from Jim Leyland, about his supposedly complacent Dodgers teammates