Outside Edge (01/11/09)

World Series fever has hit Philadelphia, where Phillies fan Susan Finkelstein has been charged with offering sex in exchange for tickets to the ball game against the New York Yankees. The married mother of two, 43, was picked up by an undercover cop who responded to her internet advert: "Gorgeous tall buxom blonde – in desperate need of two World Series tickets. Price negotiable – I'm the creative type." The officer said he and his brother had tickets, and she told him she wanted both, rather charmingly because she wanted to take her husband. "I could take care of both of you," she is alleged to have said. She has since received offers from a radio DJ and a car dealer – of tickets, that is.

$1,999,999

Cost on eBay of Scott Smith's complete back catalogue of 'Sports Illustrated' magazines, launched in 1954. He spent 27 years chasing up the cover stars to autograph them, and 94 per cent are signed. Stalking citations are not included.

Dodgy dealings of the week

Not all baseballing marriages are as understanding as the Finkelsteins'. Jamie McCourt has filed for divorce from her LA Dodgers-owning husband Frank after he fired her as the club's chief executive when the Dodgers were knocked out of the play-offs by the Phillies. She is claiming that she is a co-owner, and is demanding reinstatement as well as $321,000 (£195,000) a month in living costs. If she doesn't get her old job back, that figure will rise to $488,000. In addition she wants a private jet, five business lunches and dinners a week and access to the team doctor as well as use of Dodgers "legends" for social events. After 30 years of marriage, it's take me to the cleaners, not the ball game.

Good week for

Eddie Edwards, ex-British ski-jumper "The Eagle" to carry Olympic torch in Winnipeg before next year's Winter Games... Stephen Cook, Jimmy's son recorded highest first-class score in South Africa, 390, for Lions against Warriors... and Swedish convict, received 18,330 krone (£1,600) compensation for an injury to his little finger sustained while playing table tennis in prison in Gavle.

Bad week for

Jimmy Carr, comedian was vilified for a joke about British amputees from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts providing Britain with a good Paralympic team for 2012... Minnesota Vikings, NFL team announced on their website that their former safety Orlando Thomas had died – he hadn't... and Eintracht Frankfurt, Bundesliga side need a new away kit after being told the chemicals used on the sponsor's logo could cause impotence.

Pulling power of the week

Hot sweats at the Home Office's UK Border Agency, and not just because of errant immigrants. Ashley Robinson, their national arrest team organiser, was reprimanded for setting up a five-hour tug-of-war contest in office hours, with workers invited to take paid leave. But Japan has a far more widespread absenteeism problem after the world's biggest tug-of-war contest was held in Naha, with 15,000 contestants pulling on a 656ft long rope weighing 44 tons. The crackdown continues in the UK as police in Porthcawl were informed that six men were trying to remove a huge rock used to stop trespassers at a caravan site. They found it was a tug-of-war team in training. Red faces all round.

a.tong@independent.co.uk