To know list: 5 bites of brain food

[1] OCTOBER 2005

All times Eastern

SAT 1

Yankees at Red Sox

(1:20 p.m., FOX). Root, root, mot for the A.L. East (and other divisions) to be won on the next-to-last day of the regular season--there's no network TV coverage for baseball on an NFL Sunday!

* Perhaps the best chance for the Trojans to go down in the regular season (see page 47): USC at Arizona State (3:30 p.m., ABC).

SUN 2

The UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega (1:30 p.m., NBC) is the only plate race in the final 10, unless you count Mike Helton vs. Benny Parsons at the buffet table in the hospitality tent.

TUE 4

It's 12:01 a.m. on the first day of baseball's postseason: Do you know where your steroids are?

* NBA training camps open with the Lakers back in Honolulu, where Kobe Bryant's teammates will get plenty of R&R between practices because no one will recognize them.

WED 5

All 30 NHL teams are back in action on opening night, and just to keep you posted, that does not include the legal team of Wilcox, Hammersfield & Rabinowitz.

FRI 7

Two for the Money--the feel-good movie of the year for hopelessly addicted sports gamblers--opens in theaters nationwide, starting Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino.

SAT 8

Ten bucks says Oh-no-klahoma finds a way to give Texas hell in the Red River Shootout (1 p.m., ABC).

SUN 9

Ex-Bronco Clinton Portis and the Redskins are in Denver (4:15 p.m., FOX) on the early part of the season's best Sunday, which also features Pats-Falcons, Seahawks-Rams and Eagles-Cowboys.

TUE 11

League Championship Series begin. I'll tell you which teams still will be alive just as soon as I put the final touches on this cure for influenza.

SAT 15

More glamorous games in college football today than you can shake your lipstick at, none topping USC at Notre Dame (2:30 p.m., NBC). Alas, the lowdown on their latest three beatings, er, meetings: 44-13, 45-14, 41-10.

* Watching cars wreck in the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte (7 p.m., NBC) is the perfect tuneup for the train wreck that is Saturday Night Live.

SUN 16

Giants at Cowboys

(1 p.m., FOX). Do the Bill Parcells story lines ever get old? Why, yes. Yes, they do.

MON 17

Rams at Colts (9 p.m., ABC). If the wicked Indy defense still isn't lugging Peyton Manning's dead weight around, the score just might reach double digits.

THU 20

Virginia Tech at Maryland (7:30 p.m., ESPN). The experts are fond of saying Hokies junior quarterback Marcus Vick is better at this point than his big brother was. Shouldn't you judge that for yourself?

SAT 22

One man's prediction for Game I of the World Series: Astros 17, Angels 14 on a Brad Lidge field goal in overtime.

* Tennessee at Alabama, Michigan at Iowa, Auburn at LSU, Texas Tech at Texas ... what more could you ask for out of life?

SUN 23

Steelers at Bengals

(1 p.m., CBS).The best team in the AFC North? Well, it sure as heck ain't the Ravens, pal.

MON 24

Jets at Falcons (9 p.m., ABC). The "other" Vick probably is worth a peek, too.

SAT 29

Georgia vs. Florida in Jacksonville (3:30 p.m., CBS). Man, I love a good Cocktail Party. Speaking of, a little booze might go a long way should you attempt to stomach the hideous displays of offense when Oklahoma plays at Nebraska (check local listings if you dare) in the Somebody Has to Win Bowl.

--Steve Greenberg

[2] BIG IDEAS

Those wacky Spartans are at it again

Michigan State has still another idea: setting up two basketball courts on Ford Field and staging as many as six college games in one day with two games being played simultaneously-like at a summer basketball camp. It could happen in 2006-07.

This isn't the first out-of-the-box event Michigan State has cooked up, with associate athletic director Mark Hollis usually somewhere behind the scenes. There was the 2001 "Cold War" outdoor hockey game between MSU and Michigan that attracted 74,500 to Spartan Stadium. There was the 2003 MSU-Kentucky "BasketBowl" at Ford Field, which set a world basketball attendance mark of 78,129.

Some of Hollis' other dreams/plans:

* MSU contacted Disney World in Orlando about a basketball game against the Florida Gators in the middle of the park's Main Street USA thoroughfare.

* MSU tried to arrange a basketball doubleheader on an aircraft carrier involving Air Force, North Carolina, Navy and MSU. War has delayed this, but Hollis still wants to make it happen.

* The Spartans would like to play another school in four sports--hockey, men's and women's basketball and volleyball--in one day at one venue.--Mike DeCourcy

[3] GLORY AT 40

Catching up with a guy living his dream

On page 11 of this issue, we tell the story of fourth-string tight end Jim Harper of Division III Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. Why in the world do we do that? Harper is 48 years old.

That might remind some readers of a story in our June 7, 2004, issue about South Carolina walk-on wide receiver Tim Frisby, a Gulf War veteran and father of six. Frisby is 40 years old. And last Saturday in a win over Troy, he caught the first pass (left) of his belated career, a 9-yarder in the fourth quarter of a blowout win.

That gives Frisby one more catch than Harper, although something tells us neither player is overly concerned with his numbers.

--Steve Greenberg

[4] TSN STAFF POLL

Pick your seat:

At the final table
of the world
Series of
Poker                 16%
In the
coach's
box for
the Super
Bowl                  28%
On the
bench for
Game 7 of
the World
Series                56%

Note: Table made from pie chart.

[5] YOU HEARD IT HERE

'The fact of the matter is, in terms of parity, no one can complain.'

--MLB commissioner Bud Selig, and he said it with a straight face

COPYRIGHT 2005 Sporting News Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning