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1. Lindsay Davenport gutted out a tough 7-5, 6-4 win over Venus Williams on Monday at the U.S. Open. Out of respect for Venus, sister Serena pledges to wear all black for her quarterfinal match on Tuesday night. Still, that doesn't really explain the rhinestones.

2. The commissioner's office denied a request by the Yankees that they receive a forfeit victory on Monday after the Devil Rays arrived too late for a scheduled doubleheader due to travel complications from Hurricane Frances. As of press time, the Yanks still hadn't determined how to safely break the bad news to Kevin Brown.

3. Ravens defensive back Deion Sanders will wear No. 37 this season to mark his age. Sanders had worn No. 21 throughout his 12-year career, but in Baltimore that number belongs to Pro Bowl cornerback Chris McAlister. Sanders ignored the more fitting choice of No. 11 to represent 11 p.m., which marks the end of Prime Time.

4. Let's be honest: Any sports fan who isn't an active Yankees supporter has experienced some vicarious pleasure from watching the Evil Empire's recent struggles. Perhaps that's mean-spirited, but it's reality. What a story it would be if the Red Sox could reverse decades of anguish by catching the Yanks down the stretch and, god forbid, actually beating them in the postseason on the way to their first championship since 1918. Still, it was pretty shocking to read the quote in Tuesday's USA Today from Red Sox fan Craig Lynn of Framingham, Mass. "We've got Pedro and Schilling now, and the Yanks don't scare us anymore," Lynn says. "I know we've said this before, but this is definitely our year. There's no question we're going to reverse the curse." That's the kind of trash talk one might expect from a teenager, but Lynn is 33. Frankly, he's old enough to know better. If any sports fan ought to be superstitious and do all he can not to offend the baseball gods, it's a Red Sox fan. Feeling confident is one thing; spitting in the eye of fate is another.

5. Evidently some fans of the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team took the bronze awfully hard. According to the New York Post's Page Six (which means it must be true), Nets forward Richard Jefferson was approached by a pretty girl last week at a New York nightspot. That wouldn't be news, but the woman reportedly told Jefferson, "You didn't represent our country," and tried to douse him with her glass of wine. A friend of Jefferson's stepped in for the block, which meant an innocent partygoer was splashed instead. Jefferson must have been wondering why the U.S. hockey team doesn't seem to catch any flak for its desultory performance so far at the World Cup.

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6. Many readers were up in arms about item No. 1 in Friday's 10 Spot, in which those "throwbacks" who follow the NFL to actually root for a favorite team rather than because of fantasy or gambling considerations were jokingly called "saps." Here's one of the letters we can print, from Scott in Denver: "So, NFL fans who are not gamblers or fantasy geeks are saps? Who the heck are you? The magazine you write for owes its existence to what you call 'saps.' Don't crap where you eat, Pete. I wish SI would screen its new hires, or at least give them IQ tests to see if they understand some basic business principles, like 'Try not to offend the customers who pay your salary.'" It's funny you should mention it, but SI does require its new hires to take one of those Internet pop-up "Tickle" IQ tests. Fortunately, and obviously, I was hired before such a policy was instituted. Still, Scott, you and others have a very valid point. I was not actually trying to endorse the thought that real NFL fans are saps, but to mock that position by demonstrating just how silly it is. But as David St. Hubbins put it in Spinal Tap, it's such a fine line between stupid and clever. Unfortunately, this one was more the former than the latter. I'm trying to console myself by remembering that Bill Mazeroski hit .260, and they put him in the Hall of Fame.

7. NASCAR has solicited bids from Atlanta, Charlotte and Daytona Beach to build an official Hall of Fame and museum. The potential attraction would likely draw millions of fans, especially if NASCAR drops plans to put a restrictor plate on the entrance.

8. Labor Day may have marked the traditional end of summer, but the weekend went out on a high note with dueling marathons of two of the alltime greatest shows, Seinfeld and Law & Order. I had the pleasure of seeing a Ben Stone-era L&O for the first time, which I had thought was no longer possible. (Ah, the simple pleasures of TV. In the words of Homer Simpson, what else asks for so little and gives so much?) The episode featured Zeljko Ivanek, who later played state's attorney Ed Danvers on Homicide, as a slickster murderer who successfully represents himself in his own appeal before getting nailed for another murder in the final 15 minutes. I hadn't known until this morning that Ivanek was born in Slovenia, or, indeed, that his name was anything like Zeljko Ivanek. That means that the Serbian accent Ivanek sported in 24 as Andre Drazen, the son of first-season baddie, Dennis Hopper, wasn't much of an act.

9. Does anyone get the sense that Orlando Pace doesn't much care for training camp? The five-time All-Pro Rams tackle signed late Sunday night, just a week before the season opener. Pace also missed nearly all of last year's preseason in another holdout, and sat out most of training camp in his rookie year. Rather than hold a grudge, though, the Rams are only too eager to plug Pace right into the starting lineup. Maybe offensive linemen really are smarter than other players.

10. Jeopardy update: Ken Jennings picked up right where he left off in the spring, kicking off the fall season with his 39th straight win on Monday. Jennings finished with just $10,001, but that's because he wagered (and lost) $21,599 in final jeopardy, whiffing on a comic books question. (The 10 Spot didn't know it either.) He entered the final round with $31,600, more than six times better than the second-place contestant at that point, a fidgety editor/writer from Washington, D.C. named J.D. Smith. Total winnings to date: $1,331,661.