THE ELEVATOR

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

Who's going to the penthouse in local sports and beyond - and who's getting the shaft:

GOING UP

Ryan Ludwick

Elevated to cleanup in the St. Louis Cardinals' batting order, the former Durango High star hit a three-run homer in a 8-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday. Did you know that Ludwick hit home runs in his first two at-bats as a professional in a Class A game for the Modesto A's? Apparently, neither did Dodgers starter Mark Hendrickson.

TCU football

A lot of experts say that if you kiss last year's princely Boise State football team you might get a frog this season - namely, the Texas Christian University Horned Frogs. The Associated Press predicts the class of the Mountain West will crash the BCS on New Year's Day to play LSU.

GOING DOWN

'Pacman' Jones

So who purportedly "attacked" the suspended Tennessee Titans defensive back outside of camera range at his TNA Wrestling debut? Was it Hulk Hogan? Rowdy Roddy Piper? Dick the Bruiser? Dennis Rodman? All I know is it wasn't friends of former Las Vegas nightclub bouncer Tom Urbanski, a former wrestler himself. If that were true, there would be no "purported" about it.

The swelling on David Beckham's ankle

For one night anyway. The English soccer star made his Major League soccer debut with the Los Angeles Galaxy by coming off the bench to jog around the pitch for 21 minutes against D.C. United. But he was back on the bench at New England on Sunday, where he continued to earn his $32.5 million salary by signing really expensive autographs for free.

J.J. Yeley

The NASCAR driver is weighing his options - and I mean all of them - after being fired by Joe Gibbs Racing, where he will be replaced by Las Vegan Kyle Busch. "I was watching fishing yesterday on ESPN, and you'd be surprised what those guys make. So fishing is an option, too," Yeley said.

Yours (not so) truly

Despite having seen her repeatedly hoop it up at Centennial High the past four years, I called Team USA standout Italee Lucas a Cimarron-Memorial grad in this space last week. I thus take my seat next to Hank Finkel at the end of the bench.

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