Nothing Fishy About This Pregame Plan

Wisconsin football Coach Barry Alvarez is taking no chances with his players eating the wrong food during their trip to Japan for the game against Michigan State on Sunday (Saturday night in the United States). He has a nutritionist along to help plan meals.

“I’d like our players to try their food, particularly after the game,” Alvarez said.

Players plan to dine at restaurants throughout Tokyo with alumni living in the area.

The Badgers took a crash course in Japanese culture this fall and are hoping it will help them as they tour the city. They were given flash cards to help them with some common words.

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Language problems: Tim Ireland, a manager in the Milwaukee Brewers’ farm system, has a team in the Hawaii Winter League made up of players from the United States, Korea and Japan.

“You use a lot of sign language and smile a lot in trying to blend the Occidental and Oriental players,” he said. “It can get confusing.

“Like the time I went to the mound to talk about a runners-on-base situation. I had three Japanese players and two Americans around me. I give them the ‘If the ball’s hit here, we do this, and if the ball’s hit there, we do that.’ I was feeling pretty good about getting my message across as I turned to walk back to the dugout.

“Then the American players called me back and asked, ‘Hey, what about us?’ I had forgotten I had talked only to the Japanese players in Japanese and left out the other two guys.”

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Trivia time: Which was the last No. 1 college football team to lose a game in November and still win the national championship?

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Different strokes: Nick Faldo is the world’s No. 1 golfer at 36, but he says he has no plans on playing the senior tour when he becomes eligible in 14 years.

“I want to be on the senior trout fisherman’s tour,” he told the San Francisco Examiner’s Mark Soltau.

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Big talk: For a rookie, the Denver Nuggets’ Rodney Rogers shows no lack of confidence.

“I have Charles Barkley’s attitude, and my inside game is as powerful as his and Karl Malone’s,” said the former Wake Forest star. “I’ve got an outside shot better than both those guys. I fear no one. and if someone doesn’t fear me now, they will.”

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Good question: Rocky Mountain News columnist Norm Clarke asks, “If it takes 3,000 cows to produce the leather for 22,000 NFL footballs, how much bull does it take to be an NFL TV analyst?”

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Where are they now? Jody Scheckter, the South African who in 1979 was the last Ferrari driver to win a Formula One world championship, is president of Firearms Training Systems, Inc., the world’s leader in small-arms simulation systems, in Suwanee, Ga.

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Trivia answer: USC in 1967 after losing, 3-0, to Oregon State on Nov. 11.

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Not surprising: When the California Coastal Commission sponsored its fall cleanup, what were the most prevalent items found on the beaches?

Cigarette butts.

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Quotebook: Virginia guard Cornel Parker on the Cavaliers’ 77-36 loss to Connecticut: “We were in it until they threw the ball up.”