Bob's hair, Beltran's card, Billy's announcement and the rest of the Friday Five

Check this out! I heard a rumor that there are sports being played at the Olympics other than swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball.

I’ve been sucked into the Olympics like everybody else. It’s easy to go all otter on NBC and lob grenades at the coverage. But I have just one complaint, and it leads off our Deezo Friday Five.

1) That would be Bob Costas’ hair.

You need to know that I like Bob. He’s an outstanding announcer. And all the little historical facts he rolled out during the parade of nations were really cool.

But then I saw his hair. I don’t know if that’s an ill-fitting rug or just a bad dye job. But it’s not working.

With all the millions of dollars dropped on that production, there was no one assigned to making sure the main anchor’s mop looked decent?

2) Topps is on a roll. Just got my hands on the special Mets boxed team set. There are 55 cards, most of them glorious.

This is as complete a set as you are going to find. Willie Collazo, Angel Pagan, Brian Stokes Marlon Anderson and Ramon Castro are all in the set. Even the coaches, Mr. Met and Shea Stadium get cards.

Team leaders are presented three players to a card like in the good old days. There are a number of "Classic Combos," which in some cases appear to be an excuse to get another Carlos Beltran card in the set. But it’s all justified by one card that has Endy Chavez, Beltran and Jose Reyes in their 1986 retro uniforms. Beautiful.

Speaking of the 1986 team, each box contains one card signed by a member of the champions. There’s nothing bad about that, until I remembered that Doug Sisk was on that team. I figured that he and Randy Neimann were doing the bulk of the signing. But my box had Kevin Mitchell, so I shall continue to bestow only praise. Nice job, Topps!

3) I was stunned what I saw while walking away from my seat at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati after the Streak of Shame was snapped. Somebody tossed their Reds ice cream sundae helmet right there under the seat! What’s wrong with these people?

Instinctively I picked it up and washed it off, a souvenir of seeing the Mets win for the first time since 1991.

I don’t know why these things are cool. They just are.

Apparently the folks at the brilliant Fleer Sticker Project think so, too because they had a whole post about fellow obsessives who not only collect the cup-caps, but also customize to add the proper details. Amazing. Check out www.elichtenberg.com and http://www.mlbsouvenirhelmets.com/ for more information.

4) Speaking of Ohio. Fresh off my visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland I learned that the folks running the place have decided to open an annex in New York.

I’m sure this will ruffle some feathers in Cleveland, where folks seem a little defensive about hosting the hall in the first place, and noses are out of joint about induction ceremonies being in New York.

Apparently this is to be the first of several annexes, with others planned for known hot beds of rock history like Las Vegas and somewhere in the Middle East.

Now that Billy Joel is done kicking all kinds of butt at Shea, he was able to help with the announcement.

Sounds to me like the hall is trying to franchise itself out, kind of becoming a Hard Rock Cafe without the music — but with the T-shirts and pins.

But the most shocking revelation was the admission price to the New York mini-hall: $26 a head. That’s $4 more than the price to see the entire museum in Cleveland.

5) Taking a break from ER for treadmill viewing to get back to Dead Zone for its final season.

There are issues.

The first episode killed off Walt, killed off Malcom Janus, banished Bruce and replaced the actor playing JJ with a kid who kind of looks like a munchkin. We haven’t seen the Rev. Purdy since the first episode.

And now we’re supposed to think Stillson is a good guy? Also, Stillson is vice president, yet still seems to wander around Cleaves Mills running into folks without an oppressive Secret Service contingent? Plus, Stillson’s hair makes it seem like Bob Costas’ "barber" was involved somehow.

I’m about two-thirds through the season so far, and I’m curious whether the producers will tie up all the loose ends in the finale. But I’m not optimistic.