Notes from the penalty box. …
Great news for Latrell Sprewell. There’s a place in Colorado Springs where even he could feed his family.
Welcome to Security Service Field, home of the Sky Sox, the Rockies’ Triple-
A affiliate. If you’re looking for a taste of minor-league baseball, best to go to the Springs on a Sunday.
Why? Because every Sunday is 25-cent hot dog day.
Quarter hot dogs? Needless to say, the promotion comes with strings attached. Seems you’re limited to a mere eight dogs per trip to the concession stand.
Not that the promotion has been a gastronomic phenomenon, but the Sky Sox drew a sellout crowd of 8,033 on Sunday. The obvious question: Just how many quarter dogs can 8,033 people eat? Try upward of 15,000.
Sky Sox spokesman Mike Hobson says the final number of downed dogs will be in the 10,000-15,000 range, breaking the team’s record of 9,000-plus.
“I saw one guy walking around with four soda trays, and each one had at least eight hot dogs,” Hobson said. “Kobayashi? I don’t know if he’s ever been here. He could probably eat us out of hot dogs.” …
Just wondering: When was the last time a goalie who made the cover of his team’s media guide, as the Mighty Ducks’ Jean-Sebastien Giguere did, sat on the bench, health intact, and watched somebody else between the pipes during the playoffs? …
It isn’t just the numbers he’s putting up. The eye-opening part is how Matt Holliday is doing it. He hit a sinker for a home run to center field Monday night. The only logical conclusion after seeing it? The kid has arrived as a legitimate middle-of-the-order banger. …
Holliday, by the way, now has 43 career home runs. That ties him with Neifi Perez for the second-most in Rockies history by a player who came up through their system. …
Kind of speaks volumes, doesn’t it? Thirteen-plus years into things, the immortal Neifi Perez is the second-best power hitter the Rockies have developed. Thankfully, we can soon say was the second-best. …
Just as no one suspected, the National League West is the toughest division in baseball. No, really, I’m not making this up. The West through Monday was a collective nine games over .500. The NL East and AL East were next at five over. …
The verbal abuse of his coach and teammates came at halftime of Game 2 vs. the Clippers. The slap in the face to the Nuggets came Monday night when Kenyon Martin was spotted sitting near the Nets’ bench in Miami. If he wasn’t outta here before then, he most certainly is now. …
From the e-mail bag: “As a Nuggets season-ticket holder, all I ask is that they don’t trade Martin to an Eastern Conference team. We want to be able to boo him more than once.” …
Whoever gets the Nuggets’ GM job – don’t be surprised to see player-personnel director Mark Warkentien get the gig on an interim basis – his job will be to facilitate George Karl‘s personnel calls. “I’m not a personnel guy,” Karl said the other day. “I’m getting too old to rebuild these things.” But that doesn’t mean he won’t be the de facto GM. Make no doubt, this is Karl’s team now. …
Kudos to Denver’s Own David Duval, who won 63 grand at the Wachovia Championship. Question is, which swing will he show up with the next time around? …
Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, in The Cleveland Plain Dealer, punking teammate Damon Jones for his leopard-skin coat: “I had sheets like that once, when I was single. But they’ve been burned.” …
Hey, cheer up, Nuggets fans, it could be worse. The Memphis Grizz are 0-12 in the playoffs in franchise history.
Catch Jim Armstrong from 6-9 a.m. during “The Press Box” on ESPN 560 AM. He can be reached at 303-820-5452 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
