sports columns

Dear Babe: We have a lot of 49rs memorabilia such as signed jerseys (Rice & Montana), signed footballs and framed newspaper articles ("The Catch"). How do we sell this stuff without putting it up piece by piece on e-Bay? -- Dave Becker, Redding, Calif.

Dear Babe: My sister and brother-in-law have a Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig signed baseball that has been authenticated by PSA/DNA. It was originally Dorothy Dougher, who received the ball, and her name is on it also. Gehrig has signed near the Spalding information on a side panel and Ruth apparently had a habit of signing in the "sweet spot'' as on this ball. It was signed around 1923.

Dear Babe: I was wondering if you might have any further information regarding the ''warehouse'' set of Homogenized Bond Bread cards from 1947. I came across a ''complete'' 24-card set with square corners in mint condition purchased in 1989 for $255. They were purchased from the "Baseball Card Society.'' It says that Yogi Berra, Bob Gibson and Whitey Ford were on the advisory board.

Something happened about 15 years ago, possibly because of global warming, nuclear pollution or the invention of Funyuns. Athletes suddenly got bigger, lengthwise and widthwise.

How it happened is a mystery. Steroids, sure, but that's only part of the picture.

Look around.

Rare is the sporting event that I refuse to watch.

Curling? Sure.

Lacrosse? Yep.

Rugby? Field hockey? Even -- gasp! -- soccer? There aren't that many things in the world of sports that make me want to turn the channel or run for the exit.

But I refuse to watch the Little League World Series.

The reason is simple -- it's a moral abomination.

If you're not careful as the owner of a sports franchise, you'll be defined by your arrogance and corporate-style greed. The Dallas Cowboys and New York Yankees are just plain reckless.

While you might not need a program to name all the card manufacturers, you probably will need a little help figuring out who can produce what. Or possibly need help keeping track of lawsuits that are almost sure to crop up.

It happened only last Sunday, so it's difficult to put into perspective so soon. But when you delve into the details, you could make an argument that Y.E. Yang staring down Tiger Woods and winning the PGA Championship is among the greatest individual upsets in sports history. A look at our choices for the top individual sports upsets:

-- Y.E. Yang beats Tiger Woods

Albert Pujols knows that, on every home run, his swing connects with suspicion. So many people want to believe in him, to imagine each homer sweeping baseball's doping scandals further into the past. Pujols can't definitively prove that he is different, that he is clean.

How was my weekend? Got a minute?

-- It must gall Tiger Woods to the heart of his gall bladder that he lost a major to a guy who didn't start playing golf until he was 19.

Of course, Tiger also took up golf at the age of 19. Nineteen hours.