Tuesday, March 7, 2006 | 11:27 a.m.
WAX ON, WAX OFF
The $200,000 wax figure of the late Dale Earnhardt that has been intimidating guests at Madame Tussauds Las Vegas will receive some company Wednesday when a similar statue of current NASCAR star Jeff Gordon will be unveiled. According to the press release, the figure of Gordon will be displayed in an authentic driving uniform (unlike Earnh ardt's, which is outfitted with one of those fan jackets you can buy at the track). But if they really wanted realism, they would place Gordon's statue on the other side of the hall from Earnhardt's. The two didn't see eye to eye on the track, prompting Earnhardt to nickname Gordon "Wonder Boy." So if one day Gordon's figure winds up in the back foyer next to Wolfgang Puck or Al Roker,
PERHAPS I SHOULD REPHRASE THE QUESTION
After a 91-72 loss to San Diego State last week that dropped Wyoming to 12-16, a reporter from the Casper Star-Tribune asked Steve McClain about job security. The animated coach went off like a Roman candle on the Fourth of July. He apparently used the "F" word three times - and I'm not referring to "free throw" - amid a stream of profanities that would have made Darrin McGavin's character in "Christmas Story" sound like Ward Cleaver. "I was emotional after a difficult game and I certainly shouldn't have said the things I said," McClain said in apologizing. He added that he planned to send the reporter a lamp that looks like a woman's leg in a fishnet stocking
RUSS NEVER SLEEPS
Russ Langer, the veteran voice of the Las Vegas 51s, has been called up to the big leagues for two Grapefruit League games in Florida. He'll wear No. 84 - like most nonroster invitees to spring training - on his polo shirt. With Charley Steiner, the team's veteran play-by-play announcer, off getting his whuppin' from Evander Holyfield (in reality, Steiner will be away calling the World Baseball Classic), Langer called Monday's Dodgers-Marlins game in Jupiter, Fla., and also will be at the mike Friday
GIMME A 'T' FOR TOUGH
The good thing about sports is that for every Andy Roddick and Nicolas Kiefer, the top two seeds at last week's Tennis Channel Open who withdrew because of fatigue and a sinus infection, respectively, there is a Kristi Yamaoka. Yamaoka is the Southern Illinois cheerleader who toppled from the top of a pyramid formation Sunday and landed with a sickening thud that hushed the crowd of 13,969 watching the Salukis battle Bradley in the Missouri Valley Conference championship game. Yamaoka was placed in a back and neck brace and strapped to a stretcher. But she amazed the crowd first by waving, and then by doing a cheer while flat on her back as she was taken from the arena. Next to that autistic kid making all those 3-pointers, it was the most remarkable thing I've seen on SportsCenter in quite a while.
HORNS GOT HOOKED
Bring on the White Sox. After beating defending national champion Texas twice in three one-run games at Wilson Stadium over the weekend, there isn't anybody on UNLV's schedule the Rebels shouldn't be able to handle. UNLV used dramatic late-inning comebacks to knock off the Longhorns on Friday and Saturday and almost did it again on Sunday, rallying from a 9-5 ninth-inning deficit to pull within 9-8 before Texas was able to escape with a victory. After the game, Rebels coach Buddy Gouldsmith told his players that the Rebels' ability to battle back was the reason that more than 1,500 fans stayed until the end. Well, that, and the fact that most were
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