Cheap Seats

An ugly situation

Billie Jean King has no complaints with the interest shown Anna Kournikova, even though the Russian beauty has not won a tournament.

However, she does have a complaint about the difference between men and women getting endorsements.

“It doesn’t bother me at all if some guys come out to watch … because they want to see a beautiful woman. Who could hold that against Anna?

“Still, it is unfortunate when others with a high skill factor don’t win endorsements.

“Sure, the good-looking guys get more endorsements, but the difference in men’s sports is that the ugly ones get their share, too.”

Editors of the AAU’s Sports Letter ask:

“Who could she be thinking of?”

Well, we know who she isn’t thinking of.

Not suitable for inclusion

When Kournikova appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated last month, it was only the fourth cover - out of the last 113 issues - to feature a female athlete. The others: Serena Williams, Brandi Chastain and the U.S. Women’s World Cup team.

This, of course, does not count SI swimsuit issues.

A Rocky start

Sly Stallone, who made boxing history with “Rocky,” is planning a picture about CART racing. Stallone’s character will be an aging driver. Burt Reynolds will play his cantankerous team owner.

Reynolds was asked why Stallone gave him the role of team owner.

“Burgess Meredith was dead,” he replied.

Meredith played Stallone’s crusty trainer-manager in three “Rocky” films.

Try this, smarty pants

A Pennsylvania company called Infonautics is offering $20 million to anyone who can correctly predict the exact standings for all 31 teams in the NFL this season, including conference winners and Super Bowl champs.

Infonautics admits the odds are long - very long. A company official quoted a mathematician who figured that coming up with the correct predictions is 100,000 times less likely than a commercial airliner being hit by a meteor.

Infonautics is paying $20,000 to Lloyds of London, which will pay the $20 million if someone correctly predicts the NFL standings; a 1 in 268 million chance.

Such contests have been done before in the sports space, as well. For instance, Sandbox.com offered $10 million to anyone predicting the winner of every game in the most recent NCAA basketball tournament. About 610,000 people joined the contest. Though no one won the money, the contest successfully drove traffic to the site. Sandbox reported a 1,000 percent increase in unique users for the 1999 tournament period compared to the previous period.

The last word …

“Wherever he goes, there’s a lot of pretty women. He really improves the scenery.”

- Mario Andretti, on the presence of Paul Newman, who is part owner of the CART car driven by Mario’s son, Michael.