No dogs allowed for dining

Visitors to the Summer Games in Beijing next month will be disappointed if they were looking forward to dining on fido foo young or chow chow mein.

Beijing has asked hotels and restaurants in the city to take dog meat off the menu for the duration of next month's Olympics, according to Reuters. The Beijing Food Safety Office issued a directive last month ordering Olympic contractor hotels not to provide any dishes made with dog meat.

Concerned that canine dishes might offend animal rights groups and Western visitors, Beijing officials said restaurants expected to be popular among foreign visitors must stop serving dog meat "to respect the dining customs of different countries."

No word, however, on the availability of feline culinary delights.

• FAST PHELPS -- Michael Phelps is fast in the water and will be even faster on land.

Phelps, the star of the American swimming team, will reach land speeds of 200 mph on Aug. 3. At least his likeness will when it adorns the hood of Jeff Burton's No. 31 Chevrolet during the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Pocono, Pa.

Phelps, 23, won six gold medals at the Athens Games four years ago and is aiming at the record of seven golds won by Mark Spitz in 1972.

• DODGERS GO WEST ... AGAIN -- First Brooklyn, now Vero Beach.

The Los Angeles Dodgers officially have departed from their Vero Beach, Fla., spring training facility of the past 61 years. In 1957, the team left Brooklyn after 74 years for Los Angeles.

The Dodgers will shift west from Dodgertown to a $100 million facility being built in Glendale, Ariz.

Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully, who has seen a lot of changes in his 59 years calling Dodgers games, is taking the move in stride.

"I guess there's no particular place in the world -- including my home -- that holds more memories for me than Dodgertown," Scully said. "So it really has always been cherished ground for me. But nothing is forever, and it was time.

"To me, there's no deep sentiment. I'm not touched by leaving there."

• CANSECO KO'D -- Former major league slugger Jose Canseco outweighs former NFL return specialist Vai Sikahema by 43 pounds and is 7 inches taller.

The only thing Canseco lacked was boxing skills in Saturday's celebrity bout in Atlantic City against Sikahema, a former Golden Gloves champion.

Sikahema dropped Canseco with a left hook in the first 30 seconds. Canseco got up for about a minute before he was felled again to end the fight.

Sikahema told the New York Daily News he was surprised the fight lasted more than 30 seconds.

• SHARK BIT -- Greg Norman's divorce from his wife of 26 years came with a hefty price tag -- $103 million, according to Golf.com, which cited court documents filed last week in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Norman's divorce last year from Laura Andrassy cost him $17.5 million from the sale of their beachfront home on Jupiter Island, a $4 million home in Palm Beach and $500,000 worth of jewelry.

COMPILED BY JEFF WOLF REVIEW-JOURNAL