• When everything...
The world works in mysterious ways.
And no, I'm not referring to the sudden obsession with the Brendon-McCullum-giving-up-the-gloves issue when the man himself has made it clear his future in the short-short form of cricket is as a specialist batsman.
(Side note: If it's just in hit-and-giggle cricket that McCullum wants to cast the gloves aside, who cares? McCullum's a rare talent. Better to be flexible with a player than force him to do something against his wishes. Even if he starts pushing for a new role in one-day and test cricket, there's a fair argument he is good enough.)
A few days ago, a colleague sent a link to a story from an American news agency about a young guy from Alabama who had won $US1 million ($1.4 million) in a video game competition.
The game was MLB 2K10 - the MLB stands for Major League Baseball, and the 2K10 is a fancy way of saying 2010 as well as representing the 2K Sports company - and Wade McGilberry (great name) pitched a perfect game on the day it was released.
And what's a perfect game? Glad you asked.
• ... is just perfect
A perfect game in baseball is when a pitcher retires 27 consecutive batters on the other team to win a game (assuming the pitcher's team scores at least one run).
No batters get a safe hit, no batters get walked, nothing.
Even factoring in the "three strikes, you're out" rule, a perfect game is an extraordinary achievement.
I've been trying to come up with an equivalent in cricket, which has vaguely similar principles to baseball. That's tricky, given cricket has two bowlers operating in tandem (baseball has one pitcher at a time) and cricket's batsmen don't have strikes or tip-and-run to deal with.
But I think 10 wickets in a test innings is a fair comparison.
That's only happened twice (Jim Laker in 1956 and Anil Kumble in 1999) in 1957 tests. So a perfect 10-wicket haul happens once every 978 tests.
More than 391,000 games have been played in Major League Baseball History. And there have only been 19 perfect games - or one every 20,578 games.
A cricket test often takes five full days, during which time three or four baseball games may be played. But bear in mind the pitchers only start every fourth or fifth game.
Back to my "mysterious ways" theme. Within days of my reading the story about the video gamer pitching a perfect game, a real-life pitcher tasted the glory of perfection.
Oakland Athletics hurler Dallas Braden, a left-hander, pitched a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays, joining one of sport's exclusive clubs.
• A simulating experience
Speaking of video games, this ageing gamer thought it might be interesting to make a virtual prediction of how the All Whites might perform in South Africa next month.
I loaded up their three pool games on the 2010 Fifa World Cup game on Xbox 360, sat back and watched.
The results? Not too bad: draws with Slovakia (0-0) and Paraguay (1-1) and a 3-0 loss to Italy.
Against Slovakia, the All Whites looked nervy on the ball but held firm at the back thanks to the imperious Ryan Nelsen and the industrious Ivan Vicelich.
They made a great start against the Italians but could not find a goal. The Italians led 2-0 at the break, after an Andrea Pirlo free kick and a cracking Alberto Gilardino drive, and Gilardino headed his second with 20 minutes to play.
It was 0-0 at halftime in the Paraguay game, before the All Whites took a stunning 1-0 lead. Leo Bertos floated in a cross and Rory Fallon, just like he did against Bahrain, got up high to head a goal.
Michael McGlinchey grazed the crossbar with a free kick before Paraguay got an equaliser, also off the head.
Two draws from three games - wouldn't we be quite happy with that?
• Flooding the market
Speaking of the World Cup, three books related to that very tournament have landed in the space of 10 days.
Ryan Nelsen's Road to the World Cup (Hodder Moa) is in the words of the great All Whites captain, and features some insight into the personalities in the team, the emotion of the win against Bahrain and a look at the team's rivals in Africa.
It's written with former Otago Daily Times reporter Tony Smith.
All White Fever (Harper Collins), by John Matheson, looks back on how Ricki Herbert rebuilt the team and runs through the entire qualifying campaign.
Finally, the 2010 Complete World Cup Guide (Hardie Grant) has arrived courtesy of Sky Sport. It's crammed with details of all 32 teams, the star players and the previous tournaments.
• Pressing for a result
No-one likes to see 100-point winning margins in First XV rugby, and one hopes the Otago Boys' High School coaches gave their bench players a good run in last week's 104-3 shellacking of St Kevin's College.
But lest there be angst about the gap between schools in a Highlanders competition that should have been established years ago, take a look at two results recorded on the same day in the Crusaders equivalent last weekend:
97-0, Christ's College v Burnside High School
97-0, Christchurch Boys' High School v Ashburton College.
Last weekend was a big one for the Arthur family and Dunedin's North End Rowing Club as they celebrated 50 years since the club's four won the New Zealand title.
The crew of Bart Scott (stroke), Les Arthur (three), Noel Montgomery (two) and John Barton (bow), with cox Keith Arthur, were coached by Fred Strachan and won both the Hallyburton-Johnstone Cup and the prestigious Boss Rooster at the Picton regatta in March 1960.
Les Arthur went on to be part of the New Zealand eight that won silver at the Commonwealth Games in 1962. Another Arthur boy, Ian, also rowed for North End and later became a successful club rugby coach and head of the Otago Rugby Academy.
The Arthurs' mother, Margaret, was club patron for many years, and their late father, Bill, was a president and life member.
At the gathering, Les Arthur presented his red coat (awarded to national champions) and his 1962 Games blazer to the club.
• Age is just a number
Police have arrested a 22-year-old man in West Texas for posing (successfully) as a 16-year-old high school basketball player.
Guerdwich Montimere, originally from Haiti, posed as Jerry Joseph when he led Permian High School, in Odessa, to the state play-offs.
Joseph/Montimere enrolled at Permian, famous for its football team and the Friday Night Lights book, movie and television series, and claimed to be homeless. He was welcomed to the home of the school's basketball coach.
But the ruse was foiled when coaches from Florida, where Montimere graduated three years ago, recognised the player.
