sports columns

Imagine the fifth set of the U.S. Open tennis final at Arthur Ashe Stadium, controversial point, and after the Hawk-Eye replay conclusively shows that the ball was in, the umpire and lines people disappear into a hallway for 10 minutes to really make sure.

Dear Babe: My husband has a book, "The Rhubarb Patch'' that Jackie Robinson signed. There is no dust cover on the book but it is in perfect condition. -- Marcia Howland, Anderson, Calif.

Maybe the Atlantic Coast Conference is shaking free from its awkward, sudden-growth spurt after all.
Less than a month after North Carolina brought home the NCAA basketball championship from the Final Four in Detroit, league cohort Miami has been proclaimed as the nation's No. 1 party school by Playboy magazine.

Dear Babe: I have a card with a team picture of the Red Stockings B.B. Club of Cincinnati on one side and a cartoon on the other. It's signed by Andrew Peck. It's from 1869. I also have an 1868 Atlantic Nine card. They are from the collection of my grandfather, Charles W. Mears, known as Doc Statistics in the Cleveland, Ohio newspaper. He was a huge baseball fan and collector.

This week, the Tampa Bay Rays passed out some bling, giving their players rings for winning last season's American League pennant, while fans that attended Monday night's beatdown of the Yankees received replicas of the rings. The replicas look cool, but we're guessing the diamonds aren't real.

What with 10 Major League teams still set to open up on Tuesday, we had time to mull over the greatest opening day performances in baseball history. Here are our five favorites:

-- 1. Bob Feller: The Indians fireballer fired a no-hitter in 1940, the only opening day no-hitter in MLB history.

It's really not that uncommon for famous athletes to make position switches in their careers. Here are a few who come to mind.

Dale Murphy

With the construction of Ford Field, Detroit joins an exclusive club that has hosted a Super Bowl (in 2006) and a Final Four (this week).
There are (roughly) eight other cities capable of doing both, and though Detroit has a surprisingly entertaining downtown, it lacks a little in climate and ambience compared to its peers. But if Detroit isn't at the top, who is?

Dear Babe: I have an 18-x-29 inch poster of Pistol Pete Maravich that I laminated. It is autographed in the upper left hand corner and has the ticket stub attached also. On Dec. 5, 1973, the Atlanta Hawks played the Kansas City-Omaha Kings at Omaha Civic Auditorium. It was "Pistol'' Pete Maravich night.

The first thing you should know about new Pacific-10 Conference commissioner Larry Scott is probably the most important thing to know about Larry Scott.
He is about as West Coast as subway-station saxophone players, street-corner chestnut vendors and horse-drawn carriages.