Fast Break

Baseball

Forget No. 25, look out for No. 1

Catching Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball made Phil Ozersky a rich man. His advice to the lucky fan who snares Barry Bonds’ 756th: Take the money.

“Do what’s right for you,” Ozersky said while taking in Bonds’ chase for Hank Aaron’s home run record from the Busch Stadium press box in St. Louis. “But I definitely am happy with what I did.”

Ozersky cashed in on a lucky bounce that left the prize ball in his grasp on the final day of the 1998 season when he was 26 years old. Comic book auteur Todd McFarland, who played baseball at Eastern Washington in the early 1980s, paid $3 million for the ball.

Auto racing

NASCAR plays name game

NASCAR’s top series is changing its name for the second time in five years, switching from Nextel Cup to the Sprint Cup starting in 2008. The change had been expected since Nextel merged with Sprint in August 2005.

NASCAR’s top series was called Grand National at its inception, and was called the Winston Cup when tobacco company R.J. Reynolds sponsored it 1971-2003.

Sportslink

Follow tale of the links

When up-and-coming Australian golfer Ewan Porter qualified for the British Open, he decided to sell his caddy spot over the Internet for travel expenses. When Spokane financial analyst Randy Brawner heard about the opportunity, he opened his checkbook. And when Brawner’s good friend Mark Rypien learned Brawner had purchased the trip, he saw a chance to help his charity.

Now all three are getting their wishes granted. Porter is in the British Isles preparing for the Open, Brawner will soon join him in Scotland and the Spokane-based Rypien Foundation, of which Brawner is president, is using Porter’s trip as a fundraiser.

Follow this Internet-fueled tale each day on Sportslink (spokesmanreview.com/blogs /sportslink).