A check linked to the "Curse of the Bambino" goes on sale here Tuesday. Signed by Jacob Ruppert in 1922, the check for $50,000 helped secure the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox in 1919. That sale is said to have begun the "Curse of the Bambino. "

Baseball is a game of glorious records and streaks, like those by Cal Ripken, Joe DiMaggio and the New York Yankees. Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard has his own remarkable streak of 121 straight playoff games behind the microphone. Sheppard's streak will unfortunately end when the American League Division Series returns to New York, however, as the 97-year-old is having a bout with bronchial infection.

Devoted baseball fans will have the ability to have their cremated ashes placed in urns that sport the logo of their favorite franchise as soon as next season, sources report. Major League Baseball and a leading maker of funeral products are to begin working together to promote a new line of MLB urns, promising to take the seventh-inning stretch into eternity for those interested in the product. Next season, fans of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs, and Los Angeles Dodgers, will be able to purchase urns bearing their teams colors and insignia.

According to a Global Sex Survey, comedian Gilbert Gottfried, the voice of the Aflac Inc. duck, was crowned "unsexiest man in the world. " The Boston Phoenix reports that next to Gottfried, was New York Yankees' pitcher Randy Johnson who came in second place, followed by film critic Roger Ebert, television psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw and Fox television co-host Alan Colmes. Even actor Brad Pitt made the list, as the newspaper's 100th-least sexy man.

For a brief time, the hallowed 'house that Babe built' was a wedding chapel for a blind radio baseball reporter and his bride. It was the first time a wedding had been celebrated on the ball diamond itself. In unseasonably warm sunshine, 67-year-old Ed Lucas married his 51-year-old sweetheart, Allison Pheifle, at home plate.