Congratulations to Kenny Harrison and the Memorial Titans for authoring the most meaningful victory in school history Friday night against No. 6 ranked Galena Park North Shore. Yes, the sloppy conditions may have worked in Memorial’s favor, but when you beat a highly ranked team with eight Division 1 prospects and the tradition of North Shore it’s a quality victory and a well-earned victory. And this won’t be the last one of those under Harrison. Memorial is a program that’s clearly on the way up. PAISD trustees deserve a pat on the back for getting a very important decision right . . . Harrison and each member of his coaching staff, by the way, will be receiving a complimentary DVD of the Friday Night Experience Internet videostream on the North shore game from FNE founder Jim Barton. Barton, who has stayed on the cutting edge of technology, and is responsible for kids and parents being able to preserve a lot of special memories from schoolboy football over the past 15 years, wanted to give a DVD to every player but can’t because of UIL rules. Meantime, what’s really impressive is that Port Arthurans anywhere in the United States or beyond can watch the game on their computers simply by accessing the Port Arthur News website . . . Before moving on from Memorial-North Shore, I’ve got to pass along props to a Port Arthuran who called the shot. Roy Calcote phoned Thursday with the following quote. “Write it down, Memorial is going to win.” Naturally, he called Saturday morning to remind me.

Troy Aikman blew some credibility as an NFL analyst last Sunday when he refused to state the obvious, namely that Cowboy QB Tony Romo was having a terrible day and hurting his team. Even though his FOX play-by-play partner Joe Buck repeatedly trashed Romo, Aikman could not bring himself to state the obvious and expand on how his play is killing the Cowboys. About the harshest he got on Romo was to say “He’s been a little off today. He’s not throwing with confidence.” . . . Parity appears to be a thing of the past in the NFL. After four weeks, there are five unbeatens, five winless teams and five more at 1-3. Of 13 games played last Sunday, eight were decided by 11 points or more and five — San Francisco by 35 over St. Louis, Miami by 28 over Buffalo, Chicago by 24 over Detroit, Houston by 23 over Oakland and Jacksonville by 20 over Tennessee — had point spreads that resembled Texas devouring its latest cupcake . Missouri is the headquarters of awful, with both the Chiefs and Rams 0-4 . . . Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was doing his weekly radio show on 105.3 FM in Dallas last Tuesday, when host Chris Jagger blindsided him by asking a most relevant question. Would you ever relinquish general manager duties? Jones, who clearly didn’t appreciate where Jagger was going, snapped back with a clearly agitated, “NO.” He followed up by saying, “We’re not going to argue about that. I don’t have anything that I don’t manage.” I wonder where Jagger’s next job will be.

Apparently Lance Berkman, who is coming off another disappointing year, is not the favorite within the Astros organization that you might think. In Houston Chronicle beat writer Jose De Jesus Ortiz’ season wrap up on the Astros, he quoted an unnamed team official as saying about Berkman: “If he had been playing in any other city, you guys would have ripped his behind.” Could that mean Fat Elvis is on the trading block ? ? ? The Astros home attendance of 2,521,729 was their lowest since 2003 and the third lowest in 10 years at Minute Maid Park. That’s what happens when you finish fifth in one of baseball’s weakest division and have a record worse that 22 of 30 teams in MLB. What I’d really like to know was actual attendance, not tickets sold, which is what the 2,521,729 represents . . . Never thought I’d get caught up in a game between the Twins and Tigers, but Tuesday’s playoff to decide who was going to be served up to the Yankees was compelling baseball. It did not, however, come close to matching the most riveting game I’ve ever seen. That would be the Mets 7-6, 16 inning victory over the Astros in Game 6 of the NLCS in 1986. Houston led 3-0 entering the ninth before the Mets rallied to tie, fell behind 4-3 in the 14th but pulled even on Billy Hatcher’s dramatic homer, trailed 7-4 entering the bottom of the 16th and closed to 7-6 before finally going down.

The NFL can’t be too thrilled about blowhard bigot Rush Limbaugh pursuing a share of ownership in the St. Louis Rams. This, after all, is the guy who once said about the NFL: “Look, let me put it to you this way. The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.” Limbaugh, of course, also got bounced from an ESPN gig over racial comments about Eagles QB Donovan McNabb. Maybe by buying a share of an NFL team, Rush thinks he can get one of the trainers to keep him supplied with OxyContin. . . . Several participants in a Sports Illustrated poll about the most overrated quarterback in the NFL, taken before week two, may want to rethink their vote. At that time, 13 percent of 239 players, gave Brett Favre the top spot on the overrated list. Based on the last two weeks, Favre doesn’t belong anywhere near No. 1 Those, however, who tabbed Tony Romo No. 2 with 10 percent of the vote are probably feeling pretty smug . . . While the Cowboys struggle, Jerry Jones continues to bask in the rave reviews of his new stadium. Jethro recently received certification from Guiness World Records officials that the video board in JerryWorld is the world’s largest high definition video display. Who needs playoff wins and Super Bowl rings, when you own the world’s largest video board ? ? ? Has there even been a more ineffective starting QB in the NFL than the Raiders’ Jamarcus Russell? In his third season, the LSU ex has produced QB ratings of 47.6, 46.0, 33.6 and 48.5 through four games, while throwing one touchdown pass. If the league’s resident fossil, Al Davis, wasn’t the owner, Russell would long ago have been replaced.

The Sporting News ‘ annual Best Sports Cities rankings are out and the winner, with a large boost from the Super Bowl champion Steelers and Stanley Cup kingpin Penguins, is Pittsburgh. The ranking of some 400 cites and towns takes into account number of teams, won-loss records, championships, attendance and intangibles like fan fervor. Among Texas cities, Dallas was the highest ranked at No. 9, with Houston close behind at No. 11. Beaumont was well down at No. 193, behind Austin (38), Lubbock (63), Waco (85), College Station (86), El Paso (98), Denton (132), Nacogdoches (147) and Huntsville (162) . . . Nederland ex Brian Sanches finished up by far his best season in Major League baseball with a 4-2 record and a 2.56 ERA out of the Florida Marlins bullpen. Sanchez, in 56.1 innings, allowed 50 hits and compiled 51 strikeouts against 26 walks. Those numbers are good enough that he should have some contract leverage for next season . . . Fox Sports Houston (FSH, Cable 26) will be going all out this week to get the juices flowing for Texas-Oklahoma. There are profiles on former Sooner coach Barry Switzer (Monday, 11:30 p.m.), and former UT quarterback James Street (Tuesday, 10 p.m.), a replay of the original telecast of Texas’ 28-28 upset in 1989 (Tuesday, 7 p.m.), the replay of last year’s Texas victory (Wednesday, 11 p.m., Thursday, 11 a.m.), a Red River Rivalry Special (Tuesday, 11 p.m., Thursday, 2 p.m.) and a Red River Rivalry Preview (Friday, 8:30 p.m). Sound like a lot of Longhorns will be doing a lot of taping.

Sports editor Bob West can be e-mailed at rdwest@usa.net