• A Missouri lawmaker wants to expand the state's athlete and entertainer tax to make umpires pay for what he sees as bad calls made during the playoff series in which the St. Louis Cardinals lost to the Houston Astros.
No word yet if he wants to come up with a similar penalty for the Cardinals' Larry Walker, Jim Edmonds and Reggie Sanders, who went a combined 10-for-56 in the series and might have had a little more impact on its outcome.
• The MSU men's basketball team opens up tonight with an exhibition game against Lake Superior State. If you look at the Lakers' roster, you'll realize the word "Superior" is being used as loosely as possible here. They probably aren't superior to most MSU intramural teams.
In a related story over the weekend, the Pistons laid a 33-point beatdown on the Toronto Raptors, a team that might not even be superior to Lake Superior State.
• Remember that thing we said last week about the MSU football team still being able to win the NFC North? Forget it. Even to beat the Bears, you've got to score more than two offensive touchdowns.
• If you're an MSU football fan, don't give up hope yet. You've still got a few things to root for:
Hope the Lions find a decent quarterback somewhere so they don't end up drafting Drew Stanton and torpedoing his career.
Hope some weird daylight savings thing kicks in that takes us back to when MSU was 4-0.
Hope the NCAA decides to make the Motor City Bowl part of the BCS.
