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• POOR KIDS WON’T SLOW LEBRON’S MANSION BUILDING: The AKRON BEACON-JOURNAL reports Lebron James last week canceled his King for Kids Bike-a-thon scheduled for June 30 “because of competing events that require [his] time.”

Tbe B-J reports the decision was made because James is expecting his second child (out of wedlock) in mid-June, the Cavs are in the playoffs and he is building a new home.

Who has time for underprivileged children when you have a 35,000 square foot eyesore mansion (with casino) to build?!

• The MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE reports KFAN-AM in Minneapolis and the Vikings have hired Pete Bercich as an analyst on team broadcasts next year. Bercich played for the team in the late ’90s.

Knowing the style of the Vikes radio broadcasts, I’m a little surprised Bercich beat out this group of candidates (photos above) for the job.

• The BECKLEY (WV) REGISTER-HERALD reports that West Virginia will sign highly-touted Florida high school football recruit Noel Devine after the tailback prospect finally qualified academically.

It took Devine three tries to reach a score on the ACT that would allow admission to the academic home of Pacman Jones - which has to have Devine feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

Last line of the story provides the obligatory irony: “How much Devine plays as a freshman likely will depend on how quickly he can learn the school’s spread offense.”

• Eternal Image Inc., which produces team-branded urns and caskets, has received permission from MLB to expand its licensing agreement into vault and monument lines.

Here’s your first MLB headstone.

TRADE BAIT ENDS UP JAIL BAIT: Placido Polanco is off to a red-hot start for the Detroit Tigers, and he added to those statistics with the game-winning hit in Detroit’s 6-5 win over the White Sox yesterday in 12 innings.

Polanco was acquired by the Tigers in a 2005 trade that sent relief pitcher Ugueth Urbina to the Philadelphia Phillies.

So while Polanco pounds balls all over the ballpark this season, Urbina, who is serving a 14-year jail sentence in Venezuela for attempted murder and some other confusing charges, is worried about a whole ‘nother type of ball-pounding.

• The SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS reports Saints Owner Tom Benson said recently that he will donate at least $3M to “initially fund a campus playing facility” for the Univ. of the Incarnate Word football team, which will make its NCAA Division II debut in 2009.

The Gayle & Tom Benson Fieldhouse will include offices, dressing areas and a weight-training room.

SbB has learned that Benson also only made the committment after he was informed by the school that he wouldn’t be required to pay for a trophy case - which he’s never had to worry about with the Saints.

• SPORTS BUSINESS DAILY throught the IEG Sponsorship Report notes that $3.2B will be spent by North American-based companies to sponsor motorsports teams, events, tracks and sanctioning bodies in 2007.

All that for the boiled peanuts-buying Daytona infielders demographic? I shudder to think what the figure would be if you accounted for the revenue generated by the Bojangles chicken gizzards sales on race day.