Sideline Chatter
He gets what he didn't wish for

	Chuck Wepner
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

A lucky mistake? You bet.

An unidentified man who stood to win $250,000 for placing 20 correct trifecta bets on Tuesday's Melbourne Cup Handicap horse race in Australia — six $1 wagers in a box — instead won $2.6 million.

That's because the clerk who took the man's information over the phone entered the bet not 20 times — but 203. Because the bettor did not want his wager read back to him when he placed it, the mistake went unnoticed until the whopping amount showed up in his electronic account.

"He thought there was a mistake with the account," TAB Limited spokesman Peter Fletcher told the Sydney Daily Telegraph. "But he is the beneficiary of the winning bet, even though it wasn't the bet he wanted."

A side of beef to pick

Former heavyweight fighter Chuck Wepner, 27 years after the release of the first "Rocky," is demanding compensation from the movies' megaprofits because, he says, his career inspired the series of films.

Sylvester Stallone, we assume, suddenly has a whole new definition for "The Bayonne Bleeder."

Gentlemen, start your mowers

Major League Baseball announced it will conduct mandatory drug testing next season after it was revealed that 5 to 7 percent of players tested positive for steroids this year.

For owners, drug-testing could provide an unexpected revenue stream: If positive samples, for example, were disposed of on the outfield grass, imagine the savings on Miracle-Gro alone.

The Dunkfather

Shawn Kemp decided to add to his prolific portfolio and become a part-owner of the USBL's Oklahoma Storm because, he told the Business Wire, "I have always been interested in being involved in the development of young basketball talent."

Replied Gavin McDougald of couchmaster.ca: "We know, Shawn. We know."

Thinking ahead

• Jeff Gordon, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "George Steinbrenner is steamed at the two writers who left Hideki Matsui off their rookie-of-the-year ballots, but is he mad enough to buy those newspapers and fire them?"

• Elliott Harris, Chicago Sun-Times: "The United States fails to qualify for the Olympics in baseball, demonstrating it's about time to make skateboarding an Olympic sport."

Changing the rules

Athletes who undergo sex-change operations will now be eligible to compete in the Olympic Games under new rules soon to be finalized, the IOC's medical director told The Associated Press.

Basketball purists, for one, shudder to think what this could mean for the crossover dribble.

— Dwight Perry, Seattle Times

Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company