His treat is very sweet in Boston
When 10-year-old Christopher Roberts dressed up for Halloween on Wednesday in Newton, Mass., he put on baseball pants and a No. 33 Red Sox jersey.
Before the night was over, he had met the guy he was pretending to be, Boston catcher Jason Varitek, who sat in a lawn chair at the top of his driveway and handed out autographs to trick-or-treaters.
“He signed my shirt, right on the first 3,” Roberts told the Boston Globe.
Two police cars came to control the crowd of about 50 youngsters and parents that gathered around the Red Sox captain still celebrating a World Series title.
Varitek’s impromptu autograph session was the idea of his oldest daughter, Aly, 7, who helped by handing out Butterfinger bars.
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Trivia time
Where did Varitek play baseball in college?
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Deal or no deal
Chicago Bulls General Manager John Paxson said Thursday there would be no deal for Kobe Bryant, but columnist Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune couldn’t get over the idea anyone in town wouldn’t want the disgruntled Laker.
“Kobe Bryant, the greatest basketball player on Earth, is unwanted by a certain segment of Chicago’s population for the following reasons, as far as I can tell:
* “He shoots too much.
* “He isn’t a good guy.
* “He isn’t a team guy.
* “They shouldn’t ‘gut’ the whole Bulls team to get him.
“Wow,” Downey wrote. “What a bunch of bull. I have heard a lot of nonsense in my days, but this ranks among the most nonsensical. Yeah, how could you possibly want a 29-year-old nine-time NBA All-Star, three-time NBA champion, two-time NBA scoring champion and seven-time NBA All-Defensive Team member on your basketball team?”
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Fading favorite
The Lakers are the favorite team of more people than any other NBA team, according to an ESPN poll.
The Bulls were second, and the Miami Heat came in third.
Worth noting: Almost 60% of respondents had no favorite team. And the Lakers, the favorite of 9.1% in 2005, were named by 7.7% last year and only 6.9% this year.
Last in the fans’ hearts? The Toronto Raptors registered 0.0%.
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Last laugh
Jerry Tarkanian pinned the nickname “Midnight Lute” on Arizona Coach Lute Olson over the recruitment of Tom Tolbert back in the 1980s, and it’s back in the headlines.
That’s because of the racehorse Midnight Lute, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint last week.
Olson can chuckle over it. The horse is owned in part by Paul Weitman, a Tucson car dealer Olson called his best friend. “I pull for the horse because my friends own the horse,” said Olson, though he still counters Tarkanian’s criticism that Olson swooped in late and signed Tolbert after he was committed to Nevada Las Vegas.
“It’s always been something that was so untrue, it never bothered me,” said Olson, claiming Arizona was the first school to visit Tolbert’s home.
By the way, Weitman named the 4-year-old horse “without asking for permission or anything,” Olson said. But after Midnight Lute’s victory in the $2-million Sprint, he teased, Weitman might get a call from Olson’s lawyer.
Midnight Lute isn’t the only racehorse named after an Arizona coach, Olson noted. Weitman also helped name the now-retired Da Stoops after football Coach Mike Stoops.
Bonvicini, anybody?
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Trivia answer
Varitek played at Georgia Tech, where his teammates included the Dodgers’ Nomar Garciaparra.
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And finally
From the New York Post story on Joe Torre taking the Dodgers’ job after turning down the Yankees:
“Los Angeles has swiped a Brooklyn treasure for the second time in half a century. Fifty years after Walter O’Malley shifted the beloved Dodgers from Flatbush to Hollywood, Brooklyn son Joe Torre is moving from New York to L.A. and brings star power the underachieving Dodgers desperately need.”
OK, anyone else out there nursing a 50-year-old grudge?
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Go beyond the scoreboard
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