Feel-Good Story Has Taken Over Airwaves

It’s a story that won’t go away, and keeps gaining steam.

On Feb. 15, in a high school basketball game near Rochester, N.Y., team manager Jason McElwain was allowed to suit up and actually got into the game with four minutes to play.

McElwain, who has autism, threw up an airball on his first try -- then made six consecutive three-point shots and finished with 20 points.

A Rochester television station, WROC, obtained footage that included McElwain’s being carried off the court in a wild celebration.

Jim Johnson, McElwain’s coach, was on Jim Rome’s radio show Wednesday, and after that, nothing else seemed to matter to Rome’s listeners.

“I’ve been here 11 years,” said show producer Travis Rodgers, “and I’ve never seen a reaction bigger than this one. Maybe as big, but never bigger.”

Said Rome: “If this doesn’t make you tear up, you need to go to a doctor. There’s something wrong with you.”

Trivia time: Trainer Bobby Frankel’s High Limit is seen as a slight favorite over last year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Giacomo, in Saturday’s $1-million Santa Anita Handicap. Where did High Limit finish in the Kentucky Derby?

Unsettling trend: Three of the horses in the Big ‘Cap have fallen on hard times since winning $1-million races.

Giacomo is winless in three races since winning the Derby; Wilko is winless in eight races since winning the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile; and Texcess is winless in nine races since winning the 2004 Delta Downs Jackpot.

Doug O’Neill, trainer of Lava Man, whose last start was a victory in the $1-million Sunshine Classic, said: “I’m glad my horse can’t read.”

Colorful coincidence: Brother Derek, the early Kentucky Derby favorite, will run in Saturday’s Santa Catalina Stakes, one of four stakes races at Santa Anita that day. Brother Derek’s racing silks resemble NBC’s logo, but that’s not a ploy to get more airtime when NBC televises the Derby on May 6. The horse’s owner is Cecil Peacock.

God was on his side: Willie Davis, the Hall of Fame defensive end for the Green Bay Packers who was honored at last weekend’s Paralysis Project of America dinner, said Grambling coach Eddie Robinson had to do a real sales job on his mother when he was recruiting him.

“What finally did it,” Davis said, “was when the coach told my mom: ‘If he comes to Grambling, he has to go to church every Sunday.’ ”

Looking back: On this day in 1962, Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points in a 169-147 victory over the New York Knicks at Hershey, Pa.

Trivia answer: Dead last in the field of 20, and 44 1/2 lengths behind Giacomo.

And finally: Romanian soccer player Marius Cioara, who was traded for 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of meat, said he chose to quit rather than endure all the jokes. Or, as Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times called it, “the prime ribbing.”

Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].