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By TIMES WIRES
Published October 9, 2006

NBA's derided new ball is under review

NBA commissioner David Stern said for the first time that if testing validates complaints about a synthetic ball introduced this season, the league might revert to the old leather ball. "We have sent out the most stringent testing crew to see what there is to the issue," Stern said, according to ESPN.com. "Right now our plans are to stay the course, but we will monitor it and if we find there is something to it and it is a serious issue, we will take the appropriate steps because the most important thing to us is the game." Spalding's microfiber composite balls have been met with derision, with many players complaining that the balls become slippery when wet, get a "sticky" texture when dry and tend to wear out more quickly than the old-style ball.

OUT OF BOUNDS

BUTT OF THE JOKE: Marco Materazzi has put together a book in which he takes a tongue-in-cheek look at what he might have said to prompt Zinedine Zidane to head butt him in the World Cup final. Zidane, who was playing the final game of his career, rammed his head into the Italy defender's chest during Italy's victory after Materazzi said something to him. After weeks of speculation, Materazzi acknowledged he had insulted the France captain's sister. In a book titled What I Actually Told Zidane, Materazzi lists 249 possible phrases he could have uttered, including "Zidane, what are you doing? You haven't lost yet and already you've ripped your hair out," to "Since Foucault died, French philosophy has (stunk)."

BEAST OF BURDEN: John Farra, a former Olympic cross-country skier, won the seventh annual North American Wife Carrying Championship on Saturday in Newry, Maine. He hoisted his 110-pound wife, Tess, along a 278-yard course that featured a water trough and log hurdles in 1 minute, 4 seconds. They won her weight in beer plus $550, five times her weight in cash.

QUOTABLE

Mets general manager Omar minaya, on his team sweeping the Dodgers in the NLDS hours after the crosstown Yankees were knocked out of the playoffs by the Tigers:

"All I know is that the only thing they'll be talking about in the city of New York for the remainder of this season is National League baseball."

[Last modified October 9, 2006, 02:09:35]