STRIKE ONE

University of Washington Husky fans seem to take a particular sadistic joy in seeing the failures of anyone associated with the University of Oregon.

And OH BOY has there been plenty of fodder lately.

Readers of Cup Check no doubt remember back in June when Oregon cornerback Cliff Harris was pulled over at 4:30 a.m. for driving 118 mph ... with a suspended license. The car, a 2011 Nissan Altima, was rented by an employee of Oregon according to reports, which also indicated two other unnamed Oregon football players were in the car during the less-than-routine traffic stop. The two players in the car besides Harris were not named publicly because they hadn't been cited and police hadn't identified them in reports.

Harris was cited for driving with a suspended license and exceeding the speed limit in excess of 100 mph. Ducks coach Chip Kelly, a dandy halftime interview and a stickler for the rules (note: sarcasm), subsequently suspended the cornerback for at least the first game of the upcoming season - and possibly longer.

That's all well and good ... but this week, at least for Oregon haters, it got even better!

Bill Roberson and Dan Tilkin of KATU News in Eugene recently obtained unedited dashboard camera footage taken from the patrol car during the stop. Aside from the pure length and indecision of the traffic stop two things immediately stick out.

Most pressing: Though he wouldn't be cited, the patrol officer identifies another member of the Oregon football team in the car ... starting quarterback Darron Thomas. 

Most humorous: The copper also candidly asks Harris during the stop, "Who's got the marijuana in the car?"

"We smoked it all," Harris tells the copper, at the very least earning some honesty points.

No one in the car was cited for marijuana.

STRIKE TWO

There's no good reason why last week's "Shattuck vs. The World" charity hockey game in Faribault, Minn. should have made the Cup Check column. It defies rationale. It's fluke. It's a one-in-a-million shot.

Actually, that's the perfect way to describe it.

As you may have heard by now on Good Morning America or the Oprah Winfrey Network, 11-year-old twin brothers Nick and Nate Smith attended the charity hockey game and it may have changed their lives forever. After purchasing a $10 raffle ticket, with the winner to be drawn during intermission and awarded the chance to shoot a puck through a tiny target from half a rink away for $50,000, Nick wandered outside the arena as time came for the drawing. Though his name was the one printed on the entered ticket, he figured there was no way it would actually be drawn.

Except it was.

That's where brother Nate stepped in, sauntering onto the ice and attempting the shot for his twin brother.

You know what happened next. Even though, according to reports by ESPN News Service citing the Faribault Daily News, the target was "only half an inch wider than the puck itself," Nate drove the puck home from 89 feet away. Reports say the NHL players on hand stood in awe of the feat. Pandemonium ensued. A stunned Nate reportedly told reporters from the Faribault Daily News and Owatonna People's Press, "It feels like a dream."

It may have been.

Too damn upstanding for their own good, Nate and Nick's parents were compelled to come clean to the event's insurer, Odds on Promotions, the next day. According to media reports the parents informed the company that it was Nate who made the shot, even though Nick's name was officially on the ticket that was drawn.

It is now up to the insurance company to decide whether or not to award the prize money to the Smiths. As the Brendan Burnett-Kurie of the Faribault Daily News points out, while there's been no indication the prize money won't be awarded, the decision from Odds on Promotions could take roughly three weeks. 

STRIKE THREE

Kobe Bryant was allegedly involved in an incident San Diego police have deemed "something," but details of this "something" remain hazy as of press time.

Here's what we know:

Kobe can be kind of a prick. This has been established from Boulder, Colo. to the homophobic slur-laced hardwood of the NBA.

Unrelated to Bryant's prickness, ESPN News Service and the Los Angeles Times (among others) report that police in San Diego believe Bryant got the impression a man was taking his picture with a cell phone during a church service at St. Therese of Carmel Church last Sunday, and it apparently rubbed the Lakers' star the wrong way. Bryant reportedly became so angered that he took the phone from the man, only to return it after finding no pictures of himself.

After this "something," Bryant reportedly left the church.

As with any run-in with a multimillionaire athlete, though, the story isn't quite over. According to ESPN the man involved with the "something" tells authorities he had to go to a hospital for treatment after his wrist was injured in the incident. A lawsuit seems all but inevitable.

Just another day in America.

DUMB JOCK OF THE WEEK

This week's nod goes to the idiot security guards at the federal courthouse in Washington D.C., accused of accepting gifts from a criminal defendant. That's a big no-no in the world of security guards at federal courthouses. It's kind of obvious if you think about it. The Washington Post first reported the story.

The criminal defendant: Roger Clemens. The alleged gifts: up to six signed baseballs.  The amount of stupidity involved here: almost unfathomable.