SHE WON’T BE ALIVE TO CASH IN

Elaine Fulps is thrilled about the prize she won at a minor league baseball game. But she's hoping she doesn't have to collect on it anytime soon.

Fulps, 60, won a $10,000 paid funeral at Tuesday night's Grand Prairie (Texas) AirHogs game.

The prize won't expire until after Fulps does, said Ron Alexander, the sales manager at Oak Grove Memorial Gardens, which partnered with the team and Irving's Chapel of Roses Funeral Home to sponsor the event.

"I almost croaked many times," said Fulps, who was wearing a neck brace -- the most recent effect of about 20 surgeries she has undergone for various medical problems. "God still has me around for a reason. To win a funeral."

Fulps said she'll choose a casket and plot as soon as she recovers.

"I'm going to pick a spot under a tree out of the Texas heat," she told The Dallas Morning News. "And let's hope it's a pet-free cemetery. I don't want to get watered on."

• Ticket sales for Saturday's world middleweight title fight in Atlantic City between champion Kelly Pavlik and Gary Lockett aren't brisk, and Top Rank president Bob Arum, who promotes Pavlik, knows why.

It's the economy.

"With the price of gas over $4, who can afford to make the (seven-hour) drive from Youngstown (Ohio, Pavlik's hometown) to New Jersey?" Arum asked. "It's ridiculous."

Arum, a staunch Democrat, knows where to pin the blame.

"Two words -- George Bush," he said.

• With the Detroit Red Wings having captured the Stanley Cup and the NHL season officially over, it means Don Cherry and his garish-looking suits go into hibernation until October.

The Hockey Night In Canada commentator is known for his blunt critiques and colorful outfits. Last year, NBC brought him in between periods during the Anaheim-Ottawa Finals. This year, ESPN had him join forces with Barry Melrose, the Worldwide Leader's resident hockey guru, to trade jibes.

AOL.com's "Fanhouse" weighed in on ESPN's decision to use Cherry:

"Maybe the suits at ESPN were so impressed by Cherry's attire ... that they absolutely had to bring the guy on board. Ehhh ... Maybe not. Either way, America is going to have a 450 percent increase in men wearing ridiculous suits come later this week. Consequently, there should also be a 157 percent increase in sudden blindness."

• Before anyone in Las Vegas gets the harebrained notion of trying to bring the Summer Olympics to Southern Nevada, they would be wise to talk to Hassan Ali Bin Ali.

Bin Ali, who was overseeing the bid by Doha, Qatar, to host the 2016 Olympics, is hot under the collar after the International Olympic Committee rejected Doha's bid.

Why did Doha lose out? The average temperature there in July is 106.7 degrees. Doha's bid planned to have the Games in October, but that would have required an exception to the Olympic charter that calls for the games to be staged between July 15 and Aug. 30.

"If the games are only going to be held in Europe, Asia and America, then I do not know why the IOC wants us in the Olympic movement," said Bin Ali, Qatar's bid leader.

COMPILED BY STEVE CARP REVIEW-JOURNAL