Wranglers cash in on doomsday prediction

Distraught over his failed doomsday prediction, California preacher Harold Camping reportedly has revised the date of the apocalypse to coincide with the Wranglers' Oct. 21 home opener at Orleans Arena.

To help commemorate the occasion, Las Vegas' ECHL franchise will host "Rapture Night" for what is being billed as the last professional hockey game ever played on earth.

"This is a low-risk proposition," Wranglers president Billy Johnson said. "If it doesn't go as planned, it's not the end of the world."

Johnson, who has spearheaded such Wranglers promotions as "Dick Cheney Hunting Vest Night" and "Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Prison Uniform Night," said "Rapture Night" is a natural fit for the hockey team from "Sin City."

"We are in the business of saves and penalties, so we know a little about the subject," he said.

Camping on Tuesday said he now realizes the apocalypse will take place five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. He had said Oct. 21 would be the day a fireball would consume the planet.

The Christian radio host also predicted the End of Days would occur in 1994 but said it didn't happen because of a mathematical error he made.

If the world doesn't end Oct. 21, the Wranglers should give each fan an abacus or slide rule to help Camping calculate the next doomsday date.

■ BIRDBRAIN -- A Larry Bird tribute in hand cost criminal Eric Torpy an extra three years in prison. In October 2005, Torpy asked an Oklahoma County judge to add three years to his 30-year prison sentence for armed robbery and two counts of shooting with intent to kill.

"He said if he was going down, he was going to go down in Larry Bird's jersey," Oklahoma District Judge Ray Elliott told the Associated Press. "He was just as happy as he could be."

But after being caged at a correctional facility for the past six years, Torpy now regrets his request for a 33-year sentence to match Bird's uniform number.

"Now that I have to do that time, yes I do," Torpy said. "I kind of wished that I had 30 instead of 33. Recently I've wisened up. That three is a big deal, you know? Three years matters."

Because of the publicity his case has generated, Torpy, who will turn 33 this year and won't be eligible for parole until 2033, thinks Bird knows about him.

"I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm an idiot," he said. "My own family does, so I'm pretty sure he does, too."

But Torpy might be as sly as a, well, Rick Fox. He should just be thankful his favorite player wasn't Wayne Gretzky.

■ NO THUMBS NEEDED -- Hines Ward will have surgery Tuesday to repair ligament damage in his left thumb. But the injury didn't stop the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver from winning ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" competition this week with partner Kym Johnson.

Ward obviously wasn't required to reprise the dance made infamous by "Seinfeld" character Elaine Benes.

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL