* Marvin Miller, the man who ushered free agency into Major League Baseball, died last week at age 95. He helped form the MLB players’ union in 1966, and his hard-nosed tactics resulted in three work stoppages, including the first strike in pro sports history in 1972.
His legacy is reflected in numbers. Among them: The minimum MLB salary was $6,000 in 1967. Today it is $480,000. The president of the United States makes $400,000 annually.
* Notre Dame is the number-one-ranked football team in the country and will play Alabama for the national championship Jan. 7. ND is also far and away the top team in graduation rate, coming in at 97 percent. Go, Irish.
* There was a time when a bowl bid was a reward for a good season. No longer. There are 35 bowl games this holiday season, which is probably about 20 too many. Thirteen of the participating teams don’t even have winning records. In fact, one team–Georgia Tech–needs to win its (Hyundai Sun) bowl game just to break even.