A friendly reminder - the Patriots’ victory parade (same day as Super Tuesday) is less than a week away!

• A putrid parent faked his kid’s cancer just so they’d get a visit from Steve Yzerman.

• Disgraced TV anchor Alycia Lane may be back on the airwaves - with the WWE?

• Argue with Sonics owner Clay Bennett, and he’ll toss your butt out of the arena.

• UCLA’s Kevin doesn’t get any Love from the Oregon crowd.

• Jeremy Shockey will go to Terrell Owens’ in-town Super Bowl party, but might not attend the Big Game with his Giants teammates.

• A high school wrestling coach bit off more than he can chew when he munched on one of his players.

• Japan’s postal service delivers up new stamps featuring baseball hero Dice-K.

• Remembering the time a NASCAR fan stole the pace car at the Winston 500.

Daisuke Matsuzaka can’t be licked - or can he? The star pitcher has just been given the stamp(s) of approval from Japan’s postal service.

SbBer Mark mails in word from MAINICHI DAILY NEWS that the Red Sox hurler will be featured in a set of collectible stamps. The special Dice-K postage will be available throughout post offices in Japan until February 22.

The commemorative sheets are expected to have “10 80-yen stamps showing some of Matsuzaka’s finest moments, including his first victory in his first game as a starting pitcher, and when he held up the trophy celebrating victory in the World Series.”

Looks like the Cubs finally found the right stamps to mail out their own promotional material (that they ripped off of other sports blogs).

On a side note, some Sox fans are selling historically-insensitive shirts of their own. Just don’t send any to China.

RED SOX PITCHER’S PLANS FOR JAPAN MIGHT BE NO DICE: As Red Sox Nation knows, Boston’s season will start next year in Tokyo. But now there’s a chance the club’s biggest Japanese star won’t even play:

The ASSOCIATED PRESS delivers news that pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka may be off the mound and in the maternity ward, as his wife Tomoyo is scheduled to be giving birth to their second child around the same time.Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said the team and the MLB front office were already aware of Dice-K’s impending re-fatherhood when they scheduled the games between the Sox & A’s for March 25 & 26.

Lucchino hopes the kid “will be born at such a time to allow (Dice) to participate,” but also added that Dice “has an important obligation with respect to the birth of that child.”If the baby does pop out at that time, Boston won’t be short-handed when it comes to bringing along Japanese pitchers. Hideki Okajima will have a chance to return to the field where he spent 12 years of his career.

And another Sox hurler is already looking forward to the trip. Curt Schilling proclaims, “I’m not going to pitch over there, so I’m going to have fun.”

Seems like he’s already having fun, with his Red Sox squad beating SbB’s Royals in SPORTING NEWS Strat-O-Matic action.Damn him! (for this week, anyway)

KONNICHIWA, BITCHES! RED SOX TO START 2008 IN TOKYO: Dice-K will be heading home next March. And his Boston baseball teammates are coming along:

The ASSOCIATED PRESS reports that the Red Sox will start their season next year in Japan, where the World Series champs will face off against the Oakland Athletics in Tokyo.The Sawx and A’s will face off in two games on March 25 & 26. In the days beforehand, both teams will play Japanese squads in exhibition games.

Hope their exhibitions go better than Michigan State’s and Ohio State’s.And MLB hopes this isn’t their only foray to the Far East in 2008. The league is hoping to have the Dodgers and Padres play in Beijing, at the ballpark being built for the Olympics. Those games would likely take place in mid-March.

With air pollution constantly covering the Chinese capital, the L.A. club should feel right at home.

YANKS “A-BOMB” RADIO CALL ROLLS DICE WITH PC POLICE: In case you haven’t heard John Sterling’s “An A-Bomb from A-Rod!” call of Alex Rodriguez’s game-winning home run against the Indians yesterday, here’s the audio.

Dave Smith of Sporting News Radio asked today what many will be thinking as the Yankees embark on their Red Sox rivalry beginning tonight, “If John Sterling had said ‘A-Bomb’ and Alex Rodriguez had hit it (the home run) off of Dice-K (Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka), would he get in trouble for that?”Do you think the Yankee organization needs to send a memo to Sterling that says ‘We love that call but not when there’s a Japanese pitcher on the mound. After the Imus thing we don’t need that kind of trouble in our corporate lives here in New York.’”

Smith then concluded, “I wouldn’t do it if I were Sterling.”

Maybe it’s just me, but knowing Sterling, I’m guessing he just thought the call was clever and didn’t attach a potential ulterior meaning to it. And if Dice-K had been pitching, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d let it slip out. The fact that he used it now (and people are now bringing up the Japanese connection) probably will save him from making the mistake in the future.

Otherwise, Sterling might’ve ended up on the Iron Chef trying to explain himself.

The BOSTON HERALD reports that Japanese tabloids refer to Daisuke Matsuzaka’s wife as “Rockets,” which is “Japanese for Pamela Anderson. Or for what passes as Pamela in Japan.”

If this is what passes for Pamela Anderson in Japan, it’s time for me to grab my passport and hop on a plane.I’ve found a place to shine!