LEFTOVERS Stewart follows idol’s lead

The night before he announced that his car number in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series next year would be 14 to salute his racing idol, A.J. Foyt, Tony Stewart flashed the kind of the temper that Foyt was known for.

Stewart was watching his USAC team race Thursday night at a short track near Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the Cup series is competing this weekend, when he reportedly knocked a radio headset off a race official as they argued over a call made against Stewart driver Tracy Hines.

"I talked to him early (Friday) and said, 'Just because you've got No. 14 don't mean you had to act like me at (O'Reilly Raceway Park) last night and jerk the headphones off of the steward,' " Foyt said Friday from Edmonton, Alberta, where his IndyCar team is racing this weekend. "I said, 'Tony, that ain't helping the reputation of 14. That's just living up to it.' "

Similar to Foyt in temperament, style and size, Stewart often has been described as a younger version of the racing great.

"A.J. and I, we always like to stir everybody up," Stewart said Friday when he announced his new Stewart-Haas Racing team would run car Nos. 4 and 14. "We like to do things that people say can't be done, and we're definitely not going to be (a) spokesman for Jenny Craig anytime soon."

• ALL BUT SANFORD -- Former UNLV softball coach Lonni Alameda, who left the post this week to become Florida State's coach, is one of four people hired by UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick who have won Mountain West Conference coach of the year honors.

"When you have good coaches, sometimes it's hard to keep them," Hamrick said.

Since coming to UNLV five years ago, Hamrick has hired Alameda, men's basketball coach Lon Kruger, men's soccer coach Mario Sanchez and volleyball coach Allison Keeley. Each has won or shared the coaching award.

"The only one who hasn't made coach of the year is Mike Sanford," Hamrick said.

The football coach is 6-29 in three years at UNLV.

• WILD AND HIGH -- Baseball teams get angry when one of their players is hit by a pitch.

When it happens twice in an inning and a third player is brushed back, it's usually safe to assume they were intentional targets.

That scenario led to a full-scale fight between the Peoria Chiefs and host Dayton Dragons on Thursday night in the Midwest League. Fifteen players and both managers were ejected after a first-inning bench-clearing brawl.

Peoria pitcher Julio Castillo was the alleged assassin.

Leftovers, however, is ruling the pitches simply were wild throws.

That judgment comes upon learning that right before the all-out battle began, Castillo fired one toward players in the Dayton dugout. But his throw sailed into the stands, where it tagged a spectator, who was taken to a hospital for treatment and later released.

A Dayton, Ohio, municipal judge on Friday set a $50,000 cash bond for Castillo after the 20-year-old Dominican right-hander was arrested on a felony assault charge.

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF REVIEW-JOURNAL