News that Don Larsen will be auctioning off the jersey and pants he wore during his World Series perfect game in 1956 comes as a surprise. By now you'd think the uniform would already be in the hands of a collector.

Breadth-taking: Just when you thought it might be safe to embrace Old Dominion's move to Conference USA, you learn that the league's 2014 men's basketball tournament could be played in El Paso, Texas. Now that's convenient for Monarch fans. And to think, some people complained about driving to Richmond for the CAA tournament.

Note: An earlier version of this column stated incorrectly, due to an editing error, that there were 32 NFL stadiums. Maybe you have to be a certain age to appreciate the irony of Roger Goodell's announced intention to turn all 31 NFL stadiums into Wi-Fi palaces capable of connecting the modern fan and his or her hand-held devices to social media, fantasy stats and video highlights.

Tony Mercurio says he won't lose any sleep when his sports-talk show, a fixture in Hampton Roads for the past 26 years, goes off the air Thursday, but then he has never been a big sleeper. Three or four hours a night is all Mercurio has ever needed. It leaves him a lot of time to ponder what he'll do now that he won't be on ESPN 94.1 each weekday afternoon.

A collection of schools with no traditional ties or geographic symmetry, Conference USA is the perfect league for the second decade of the 21st century. It's perfect because it demonstrates how badly college athletics in general have been over-served with a powerful cocktail of self-interest and high anxiety.

Current crisis: The NFL's predicted demise is greatly exaggerated, and much of the hand-wringing over player safety and post-career trauma is the media's way of filling a vacuum until training camps open in August. Sorry if that sounds cynical. The dialogue over concussions is important. It should continue.

Taking into account what our big universities value most - cha-ching - it's no surprise the Atlantic Coast Conference's lucrative contract extension with ESPN is considered a big story.

There's no reason to wonder anymore whether Old Dominion University is joining Conference USA. The silence from the Hampton Boulevard campus speaks volumes. The silence is a prelude to imminent change.

Tiger misses the cut. Albert Pujols finally hits a home run, only his first. The defending NBA champion Mavericks go out in four. LeBron's Heat fails to sweep the Knicks. On a generally ordinary weekend for sports, perhaps the most noteworthy performance by an American athlete was turned in by Eli Manning. On "Saturday Night Live."

Another go: The United Football League works - and doesn't work - in mysterious ways. The Pilot's Tom Robinson writes the Virginia Destroyers are anticipating the return of coach Marty Schottenheimer and an eight-game season starting in mid-September. But as everyone who has followed the Destroyers knows, this is subject to change.