There’s No Business Like Snow Business

There were too many bowl games for Ray Ratto to maintain his interest level--except one: the Independence Bowl on Sunday in Shreveport, La., pairing Mississippi State and Texas A&M.;

“This was a great bowl game because it was played in shin-deep snow,” Ratto wrote for ESPN.com. “Snow that fell the entire night. Snow that piled two inches high on Mississippi Coach Jackie Sherrill’s cap, making him look more like a snapping turtle than he normally does.

“Snow that made every play a potential Three Stooges short. It was, in short, perfect.”

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Trivia time: Nick Van Exel made eight three-point baskets in a game three times when he was a Laker, a team record that was tied May 5, 1999. Who matched it?

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Suffocating: Dave Kindred of the Sporting News, commenting on the bowl championship series championship game:

“Oklahoma’s defensive unit was not only amazing, which most any decent defense can be, it was amazing not for a quarter or a half but all night long.

“If Chris Weinke plays 10 years in the NFL [and his game suggests he should be happy with three or four seasons as a backup], he’ll never see a defense that good again.”

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Training tip: Martin Strel, a 46-year-old Slovenian, intends to swim the Mississippi River, all 2,343 miles of it, from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico, in 70 days.

Strel drinks a liter of wine each day and says, “I would say the secret of my success is red wine.”

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Big bag money: In its February 2001 issue, Golf Digest has developed an unofficial Tour Caddie Money List. The magazine used the standard caddie pay rate--10% for first place, 8% for a top-10 finish and 6% for any other check, in addition to the standard $1,000 base salary for each tournament worked.

It’s not surprising that No. 1 was Steve Williams, who caddies for Tiger Woods. His estimated earnings were $880,000 in 2000. That would rank him 54th on the player money list.

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Relief at last: Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune suggests that the Chargers, who have the No. 1 position in the NFL draft, should make Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Vick their selection--if he decides to leave school early:

“There could be a quick cure for this city’s congested football chest. Rub Vick’s magic balm on it. That will open all the passages. [Ryan] Leaf’s has become a placebo with no medicinal value that basically just rubs people the wrong way.”

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Why not? A tongue-in-cheek prediction for 2001 by miler and Runner’s World Online writer Steve Holman:

“Bill Cosby announces an unprecedented $20-million sponsorship of USATF with the stipulation that all field events be renamed ‘Cosby,’ e.g., triple Cosby, high Cosby and pole Cosby.”

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Trivia answer: Glen Rice against Portland.

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And finally: Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times, on Kobe Bryant: “There won’t be another Michael Jordan.

“There can’t be, because Jordan the transcendent superstar was a product not only of his skill and will, but of a time that has vanished as surely as the days when only ex-soldiers and ex-cons wore tattoos.

“But the infant Bryant, who already is--amazingly--well into his fifth NBA season, could be the next whatever-it-is-that- grabs-us-now-that MJ-is-an- executive.”