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1. Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez are going ahead with Friday's "The Ultimate Signing Experience." Fans will pay $7,500 each for the right to meet and greet the superstars, but questions about performance-enhancing drugs will be off-limits. The organizers are now busy denying rumors that the punch will be spiked with the "clear" so guests will understand how easy it is to be slipped steroids.

2. MLB has placed its plans to market Bonds' pursuit of the career home run record on hold after allegations of steroid use. The league had intended to pitch a proposal to MasterCard this week but canceled the meeting. Fortunately, the Bonds camp kindly offered MasterCard five minutes of Barry's time and a tasteful door prize for a mere $7,500.

3. Page Six of the New York Post obtained a fax from the Nuggets to a New York hotel specifying the team's room specifications, which among other things revealed that Carmelo Anthony uses the alias Paul Frank and that veterans Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin receive individual suites. Fortunately, New York police have placed the snitch that leaked the information in protective custody.

4. A Red Sox fan named Joe Vitelli from Westborough, Mass., has won the "How Low Did You Go to Catch the Big Game Contest" and a five-day trip to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. Vitelli faked a broken leg to avoid his girlfriend's sorority formal last fall so he could watch Game 7 of the ALCS between the Red Sox and Yankees. Vitelli kept up the charade for six weeks -- wearing a fake cast, attending fake doctor's appointments and using a wheelchair -- before he was caught walking. Here's betting that Vitelli attended this year's Red Sox victory party stag.

5. Frustrated by the BCS mess? Then throw your support behind the Tom Bowl. 10 Spot reader Tom Cantrell of DeWitt, Mich., has been inviting the top two teams to play in his personal bowl game to decide the "real" national championship since 1989. This year, he's asking USC, Oklahoma and Auburn to participate in a three-team round-robin game on Dec. 26, with each squad playing the other for one half. The winner will be the team with the most combined points, with complex overtime rules to break any ties. Alas, this ingenious solution may not bear fruit since no school has accepted a Tom Bowl invite. One problem might be that the game is held at Frank A. Schafer Field in Beal City, Mich., population 345. It also doesn't help that the average temperature there in January is a brisk 20.5 degrees. Still, if the teams accept, the Tom Bowl is projected to smash its attendance record of 14, set when USC and LSU didn't show last season.

6. Former Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson isn't surprised by baseball's steroid scandal, saying that it's "the American way." The charge was especially compelling coming from Johnson, given his strong anti-drug stance and Ph.D. in American history.

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7. Evidently the Janet Jackson fiasco is not the last the sports world will hear about flashing. Michigan defensive lineman Larry Harrison Jr. was suspended from the team after being arraigned Tuesday on one count of indecent exposure. Police also say Harrison is a suspect in 14 other cases of indecent exposure. Meanwhile, last Monday near Toronto, an irate hockey mom allegedly lifted her blouse to reveal her bra and then shook her breasts to taunt fans of the opposing team -- at her 11-year-old son's hockey game. This is a sad development in a sports world in which fundamentally unsound NBA players no longer even flash to the post.

8. Spike TV is producing an episode of its "Untold" documentary series on former Dolphins running back Ricky Williams. Williams is considered the perfect "Untold" subject since so little has been written about him over the past year.

9. The 10 Spot doesn't have an MBA, which may be why we're puzzled by the comments of Warren Strul, the founder of popcorn company Dale & Thomas. Earlier this year, Strul sold a 20 percent stake in the firm to Knicks president Isiah Thomas. This week the company announced that Madison Square Garden will now sell the luxury popcorn at select concession stands and in luxury suites. MSG already sells its own popcorn, but Strul impolitely (if honestly) called it "crummy." He characterized Dale & Thomas, meanwhile, as "the Starbucks of popcorn." By that, we presume he means ridiculously overpriced.

10. The 10 Spot was deluged with e-mails concerning Wednesday's crack about Cal not winning the Pac-10 and thus being somewhat less justified in griping about the Bears' Rose Bowl snub. Most readers took offense to what they felt was the 10 Spot's argument that Texas was more deserving, pointing out that the Longhorns didn't even win the Big 12 South. Of course, the 10 Spot never actually made that argument, because we don't believe that either. In fact, Texas has even less claim to the Rose Bowl this season than Cal. We were merely stating our view that Cal's moral high ground would be at a much greater altitude if, in fact, the Bears had won the Pac-10. They didn't, and thus left themselves at the mercy of the BCS's infernal machinations. Now, just as Cal coach Jeff Tedford said Wednesday, we shall never again discuss this issue.