Sports Statistics

Careful examination of an old photograph and a street map determined this had to be the spot -- or at least near the spot. It's all tract homes now, the memories buried beneath cul-de-sacs just downslope from the intersection of Brea Boulevard and Lambert Road, but something special happened here a long time ago. Did anyone know? A man, on a Saturday, was washing his car on St. Crispen Avenue when a reporter approached and posed the question, half expecting a "what-the-?" response.

Die-hard baseball fan Terry Haney got his wish Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rebuffed Major League Baseball's argument that fantasy sports leagues be required to pay a license for the right to use player names and plug runs, hits and errors into their popular online games. As a youngster growing up in San Diego during the early 1960s, Haney freely incorporated baseball statistics gleaned from newspaper box scores into a rudimentary board game.

The quest to hit .400 is not a private journey. The Atlanta Braves' Chipper Jones is learning that each day. The Braves begin a three-game series with the Angels tonight, with Jones dragging a gaudy .414 batting average with him. He has not spent a day under .400 since April 12, and the media weight, with those can-he-do-it questions, gets a little heavier every day. "It's still so early," Jones said. "We get into August and September and somebody's hitting .

Matt Young was vacationing on a boat in Catalina on Saturday night when his cellphone and the phones of his two kids started lighting up and vibrating with calls and text messages. The Dodgers had become the fifth team in baseball's modern era to win a game without a hit, defeating the Angels, 1-0, despite the efforts of right-handers Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo, who combined for eight no-hit innings.

In New York, this would be heresy: The playoffs without the Yankees. "I think the logo doesn't allow that," Larry Bowa said. Bowa coached for the Yankees last season, then followed Manager Joe Torre to the Dodgers. Torre led the Yankees into October every year he managed there -- 12 in all -- and he has a pretty good idea of how New York would react if the Yankees missed the playoffs. "It's going to be horrible if the Red Sox make it," Torre said.

NEW YORK -- Curlin became the first horse in North America to top $10 million in career earnings, winning the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup on Saturday at sloppy Belmont Park by three-quarters of a length over Wanderin Boy. The $450,000 winner's purse pushed Curlin's career bankroll to $10,246,800. Cigar held the old mark of $9,999,815, which stood for 12 years. "I'm sure this record will be broken someday, but it will take a hell of a horse to do it," jockey Robby Albarado said.

New Kobe quickly becomes Classic Kobe Here's the really amazing thing about Kobe Bryant's 50-point streak. It's no biggie. If he were the monument to selfishness some people think he is, even in a lower-scoring era (scoring has dropped 19 points a game since 1961-62), he could have passed Wilt Chamberlain's seven 50-point games in a row long ago. You may have noticed, as he once said matter-of-factly, "I can score the ball."

If you're a serious baseball fan, you know Ernie Broglio. If the trivia category is "All-Time Worst Trades" and the challenge is to name the player the Chicago Cubs got when they traded Lou Brock, the answer is Broglio. Brock got into the Hall of Fame on his first try, as the outfielder atop the St. Louis Cardinals' lineup during their glory years of the 1960s. The Cardinals counted on Brock to hit .300, score 100 runs and steal 50 bases every year. Juan Pierre can do all that.

Here's what I thought I remembered about the first big league baseball game I attended: The year was 1966, at shiny-new Anaheim Stadium, which would have put me at 8 years old in a game definitely involving the then-California Angels. My sister won tickets in a local library raffle, but she was way more into books than baseball, so her little brother got the seats. I can't recall who took me to the game.