Cassels on cloud nine

If the Cassel family from the San Fernando Valley sends out one of those how-our-year-went letters for the holidays, this one’s going to be a keeper.

Jack Cassel, a 27-year-old rookie for the San Diego Padres, earned his first major league victory Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

One night earlier, Matt Cassel, 25, the former backup quarterback from USC, was on the bench as Tom Brady’s backup for the New England Patriots’ runaway victory over the San Diego Chargers.

Another brother, Justin Cassel, 22, is a former UC Irvine pitcher who plays in the Chicago White Sox minor league system.

And on Sept. 8, their mother, Barbara Cassel, shared a creative arts Emmy for art direction for her work on NBC’s “Tony Bennett: An American Classic.”

“It’s been a good ‘07,” Jack Cassel told reporters.

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Trivia time

How many of the 119 teams that play major-college football have given up more points than Notre Dame this season?

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S.O.S. for H2O

Central Florida unveiled a new 45,000-seat football stadium Saturday, but fans discovered on a hot day there were no public water fountains in the facility.

Concession stands at the $54-million Bright House Networks Stadium also ran out of $3 bottled water, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

On Tuesday, Central Florida officials announced the installation of 50 water fountains would begin immediately, with 10 fountains expected to be ready for a game against Memphis on Saturday.

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‘Cat business

It’s a good thing for the Charlotte Bobcats that Barbara Roe of Bitterroot Bobcat and Lynx in Montana isn’t an NBA player agent.

She held out when the Bobcats offered her “a couple of thousand dollars” for the domain name bobcats.com in 2004.

The Bobcats, tired of using the less obvious bobcatsbasketball.com for the last three years, finally met her price this year -- about $50,000, Roe told the Charlotte Observer.

“It’s called business,” said Roe, who sells bobcats and lynx as pets in Stevensville, Mont., and now uses the address bobcatsmt.com. “If you have a business somebody wants, you capitalize on it.”

Time will tell if the new address will help Charlotte, 27th out of 30 NBA teams in attendance last season, sell more tickets.

They could also try winning more games.

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Still kicking

The Atlanta Falcons have signed 47-year-old kicker Morten Andersen to try to solve their kicking woes.

Among the NFL institutions that Andersen is older than?

The Super Bowl.

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Weather report

With the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins scheduled to play an NHL game outdoors in Buffalo on New Year’s Day, a quick check of National Weather Service records shows the coldest high temperature on record for the date is 11 degrees in 1918.

The record high? A balmy 63 in 1985.

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Trivia answer

Nineteen.

After giving up 102 points in three games, the Irish are tied with Fresno State for 99th in scoring defense at 34 points a game. (Then, of course, there’s the offense -- which hasn’t accounted for a touchdown.)

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And finally

Looking ahead to that New Year’s Day hockey game, someone asked Sabres left wing Andrew Peters, a Canadian, when he last played hockey outside.

“Oh, it was this summer,” Peters said.

“My brother and I had a PlayStation out on my patio.”

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