• Pete McEntegart: The 10 Spot -- Fri., Sept. 17 • Truth & Rumors: Phillies may pursue Beltran • Jon Wertheim: Serena controversy won't go away • Richard Deitsch: Don't dismiss poker's hot hand • Stephen Cannella: Vandy football -- hotel style • More Blogs: Elliott | Bechtel | Chen | Ballard Click here for Today's Sign of the Apocalypse, Game to Watch, Leading Off gallery and much more!

1. Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony was involved in a nightclub fracas on Monday night in New York City. Anthony's girlfriend, MTV host La La Vasquez, was spit on by her ex-fiancé during a party for rapper Swizz Beatz. Another rapper at the party said Anthony then started swinging, which the player's agent and the club's general manager deny. But sources tell the 10 Spot that the trouble began after Anthony had been sitting for nearly an hour at the club; we all know how much 'Melo hates sitting.

2. Nike began airing a 30-second commercial on Friday in Canada urging NHL owners and players to end the lockout. Titled "Bring it Back," the spot shows an idle, soundless hockey rink with its 19,000 seats vacant. The company felt it could wait no longer to unveil the ad since Canadians have been without NHL-level hockey for, oh, nearly 72 hours now.

3. Here's the latest example of just how long baseball has been dragging its feet on the Expos: The D.C. bid might be imperiled by influential politician Marion Barry. Yes, that Marion Barry. He's back. It seems like only yesterday that the then-mayor was caught smoking crack on videotape, about which he infamously complained, "Bitch set me up." (That was back in 1990.) Last week, the 68-year-old Barry made a comeback by winning the Democratic primary for the Ward 8 City Council seat, with 57 percent of the vote to 25 percent for the incumbent. In a heavily Democratic city, that means Barry's election to the 13-member council is all but a lock in November. And what is one of his primary campaign promises? No public financing for a D.C. ballpark. "Over my dead body," Barry said. "I don't believe we should spend one cent of taxpayer money on a stadium." Looks like you have a battle on your hands, Bud. Smoke it if you've got it.

4. The Broncos have been fined $950,000 and will lose their third-round pick in the 2005 draft for circumventing the salary cap between 1996-98. NHLPA executive director Bob Goodenow immediately called Mike Shanahan for tips on how to beat the cap.

5. We had some great feedback on the question of why some golf fans aren't excited about the Ryder Cup. The primary arguments are: a) golf is meant to be an individual, not a team, sport; b) the nationalistic U.S.-vs.-Europe vibe is contrived and, so soon after the Olympics, a little tired; c) many of the world's best players, such as Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Mike Weir, aren't even eligible; d) please, it's football season. We also heard from a number of people who said they hate watching golf, period, even though the phrasing of the question was specifically intended to exclude that as an answer. Don't you people listen to instructions? I'll stop this column right now and turn around if I have to. Among this "I hate golf" group was the irrepressible Amy Bean of Phoenixville, Pa., who, loyal 10 Spot readers will recall, went to high school with Mike Piazza. (She says he didn't look much like the Teen Wolf villain back then, but he already bore a strong resemblance to a DH. OK, I made that last part up.)

	MAILBAG Have a question or opinion for Pete? He might answer/address it in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

A few readers felt that the burden of explaining why anyone should care about the Ryder Cup was on me. Fair enough, especially since I'm almost certainly watching the coverage as you read this. First of all, I'm a sucker for virtually any nationalistic competition. If it's dressed in red, white and blue -- or even the whacked-out shirts they seem to pick at the Ryder Cup -- then I'm cheering. That's just how I roll. But the more important reason that I find the Ryder Cup such compelling viewing is that the players obviously care so much, with the possible exception of Tiger Woods. That's why I watch it just as I would the Masters or the U.S. Open. The majors are compelling not just because some tournament director decreed that a particular event was important, but because the players believe these events are important and act accordingly. At the Ryder Cup, you can see how badly the players want to win -- and how devastating it is for them to lose. That means tremendous pressure, and I find it fundamentally interesting to see how great players respond when the stakes are so high.

6. One enjoyable pastime for Curb Your Enthusiasm fans during the show's hiatus is to watch Seinfeld reruns with an eye toward hearing and/or seeing Larry David. His most prominent Seinfeld role, of course, was providing the voice for George Steinbrenner, though not the body. If you watch and listen closely, though, David also turns up in bit roles throughout the series, especially in the early years. The other day I saw the 1995 episode The Wink. It begins with Jerry dozing in front of the TV, which is playing a cheesy sci-fi movie. That night, Jerry awakens to write down a bit about the movie, but in the morning he can't read his writing. (A quackish holistic healer later translates the scribbling as, "Cleveland 117, San Antonio 109." Yet another sports connection!) Well, the "movie" stars David in what looks like a suit of tinfoil, wearing blue goggles, and uttering the following lines in a vaguely German accent: "Look, Sigmund! Look at the sky! The planets are on fire! It is just as you prophesized. The planets of our solar system incinerating. Like flaming globes! Like flaming globes! Sigmund!"

7. More specifics from the transcript of Kobe Bryant's interview with Eagle County sheriff's detectives -- first reported in SI  -- have emerged. The account makes riveting, if voyeuristic, reading. Perhaps the most damning exchange is that when the detectives first asked Kobe if he had had sex with the woman, he said no. The detectives promptly told him that the woman had alleged that they did have intercourse, that it had been non-consensual and that she had already submitted to a physical exam. The next words out of Kobe's mouth were: "Is there any way I can settle this?" Then again, in other parts of the transcript, Kobe sounds relatively convincing, if no paragon of virtue. Check it out.

8. Ichiro update: First Barry, now Ichiro. The Mariner was walked in his first three at-bats on Thursday, twice intentionally, to slow down his chase of the hits record. Ichiro finished 0-for-2, reaching on an error. That means he's still 25 hits away from breaking the record with just 16 games to go. It looks like he's going to cut it pretty close; his pace has now slowed to 259 hits, two more than George Sisler's mark. Here's another Ichiro nugget from rotoworld.com, passed along by Jason of Apple Valley, Minn.: Ichiro swung and missed just three times in his first 53 September at-bats.

9. Jeopardy update: Let's get the basics out of the way. Ken Jennings won, of course, though he avoided the Sports Stars category in the jeopardy round until it was the last one remaining (then he cleaned up on it anyway). Ken hit on final jeopardy (Category: American Authors; A: Ford Madox Ford, in the '20s, hadn't "read more than six words" by this man before vowing to "publish everything he sent me"; Q: Who is Ernest Hemingway?) to finish with an even $30,000. That gives him a 47-game total of $1,585,061. Earlier this week, Ken also set the alltime wins record for any game show.

Now to the Jeopardy mailbag. Richard of Woodland Hills, Calif., asks: "Regarding Ken Jennings, I have only watched him a few times, but I have noticed that he seems to have a fetish for ending up with round numbers, like wagering [Tuesday] night to 'rack up an even $40,000.' Why doesn't he work on his overall total and get rid of that pesky $461?" Excellent question, Richard, though by hitting on final jeopardy the past few nights, Ken has shook loose that spare $400, leaving him only with the odd $61. As any Ken-watcher knows, he does indeed prefer round numbers, and typically makes his daily double wagers with that in mind. (If he has $14,400, for example, he'll likely wager something like $5,600 to give him $20,000 if correct.) Yet that $61 has been hanging around for a while, and I can't recall how it got there. My pet theory is that 61 is a lucky number for Ken. Perhaps Ken or his child was born on June 1, or maybe he's a big Roger Maris fan.

Here's a question from Joe, all the way from Tokyo: "I think Ken Jennings is on steroids. Does Jeopardy have adequate doping control?" I don't think it does, but we can rest assured that Ken isn't using human growth hormone, which tends to make one's noggin extra-large. Maybe I've just been looking at this guy's face for too long, but lately it's struck me that Ken's head is atypically narrow. I don't mean that as a knock; lord knows I have plenty of physical imperfections of my own, even if my jaw isn't as grotesquely large as that of SI.com blogger Josh Elliott. But am I the only one to think that Ken's head is awfully skinny?

10. The 10 Spot Lock of the Week: We were mostly kidding when we made our pick last week, but since the Vikings did indeed cover, we're going to stick with this. At least until our picking ineptitude is exposed, which should happen quickly. Let's go against the Vikes this week, taking the Eagles and laying three on Monday night. And remember, folks, this pick is for recreational purposes only; the 10 Spot certainly doesn't encourage gambling. And if you had the Cavs giving nine to the Spurs, you lost.