He Wasn’t About to Beat a Dead Horse

The approaching demolition of Mile High Stadium left Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News seeking ways to say goodbye to the Denver landmark.

In doing so, Lincicome recalled another, less-than-emotional farewell.

“The old cowboy, Gene Autry, was asked what he wanted done with Champion, the Wonder Horse, after Champ had died,” Lincicome wrote. “Autry pondered the question. He was told Roy Rogers had Trigger stuffed.

“Autry considered how fitting would be such a gesture for the animal and companion that had helped make him rich enough to buy most of Orange County and his own baseball team. Autry inquired about the cost of such a tribute. He was told it would run into several thousands of dollars, if done right. Autry didn’t hesitate.

“ ‘Just bury the S.O.B.,’ Autry said.”

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Trivia question: Who is the only NHL player to average more than two points a game for a career?

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Dictionary definition: According to Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald, Miami is “a Spanish word that literally translated means ‘To give false hope every year, ensuring a low draft pick.’ ”

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No time for gifts: Hertha Berlin, a soccer team in the German Bundesliga, revived a club tradition by offering free admission to fans who dressed as Santa Claus.

Several hundred showed up in red robes and white beards. Hertha Berlin then lost the game.

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What $252 million?: It turns out, says Ron Rapoport of the Chicago Sun-Times, that Alex Rodriguez didn’t cost Texas Ranger owner Tom Hicks anywhere near as much as at first believed.

Apparently, Hicks recently sold two European champagne companies for $506 million, companies he had bought only 17 months earlier for $310 million.

“So there’s Rodriguez’s contract right there,” Rapoport said.

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Stroke-of-the-pen play: “Why is everyone all uptight about A-Rod and the $25 million a year?” asks Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. “Tiger Woods is scheduled to earn $54 million in 2001, and that’s before he hits a single golf ball. That’s strictly endorsement money.”

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Backhanded record: Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News commenting on the Bruins’ Sun Bowl game against Wisconsin: “UCLA is coming off a tough Pac-10 schedule in which it defeated all but five of eight opponents.”

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Lengthy sentence: Not one to let a dreadful season go unmourned, Nick Canepa of the San Diego Union-Tribune says an abysmal record has its pluses: “There is a danger in winning two games with the Chargers,” he wrote. “You’re likely to be named head coach for life.”

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Trivia answer: The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Mario Lemieux.

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And finally: With 2000 drawing to close, Dave Kindred of the Sporting News reminds us that this was the year “Americans elected as their 43rd president a man who in his time as a baseball executive approved the trade of Sammy Sosa for Harold Baines.”