The Beat

A late-night ball: After a 21-game losing streak, the Ball State football team has won three in a row, including last week's 44-35 victory over Buffalo. That's made the school's most famous alum, David Letterman, a happy man. The late-night host has had the team mascot, Charlie Cardinal, on his show and now has a recurring bit in which he shows highlights of Ball State games. Meanwhile, with each win, buzz builds that Letterman will actually make an appearance at a Cardinals game. "Everywhere we play," says Ball State assistant athletic director Joe Hernandez, "there are rumors he's coming."...

TiVo, the company behind those snazzy digital TV recorders, has just hired Ronnie Lott and Joe Montana (right)—not as spokespeople but as marketing executives. The two former 49ers, who have already carved out successful postgridiron careers as venture capitalists, will develop a sports-marketing plan for TiVo....

Hollywood's striking actors aren't through with Tiger Woods just yet. As you'll recall, Woods took a lot of heat in July when he crossed the Screen Actors Guild picket line by going to Canada to film a Buick commercial. Now Nike has begun airing spots that feature clips of Woods from events played in the past year. SAG, however, says that even though Woods didn't shoot new footage for the ads, he's still responsible for appearing in them and must answer to the union....

We've had dreams like this: When the Senators' charter from Philadelphia arrived in Ottawa during the wee hours of the morning of Oct. 18, Alexei Yashin's girlfriend, model (and former wife of ex-Ranger Ron Greschner) Carol Alt, was waiting for him at the entrance to the private terminal with his Mercedes running and the heater on.