The Internet is an exciting place. Ordinary folks can make extraordinary things happen – like rigging public votes.

Canadian hockey fans have proven especially adept at exploiting the Net. Rory Fitzpatrick, a spare defenseman who once sipped coffee as a Blue, gained a whimsical groundswell of support for the 2007 NHL All-Star game.

Now CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge is being manipulated by fans having a bit too much fun. One blogger described it as an “endearingly insane cacophony of screaming babies, screeching animals and gunshot blasts submitted by one Logan Aube.”

“Hockey Scores” remains in the running to become the next Hockey Night theme song and earn Aube the $100,000 first prize.

Yahoo! Sports hockey blogger Greg Wyshynski offered an update:

“ ‘Hockey Scores’ has been picked up by blogs, by Torontoist and has an official Facebook page with 297 members. There are now even YouTube remixes of the theme . . . If the CBC secretly hoped that this is a passing fad, think again: They said the same thing about ‘Vote for Rory’ until he finished about 36,000 votes behind Nicklas Lidstrom in the all-star voting.”

What it for yourself:

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while Greg Norman turns back the clock:

• Seriously, now, are the Blue Jays having second thoughts about moving Troy Glaus for Scott Rolen?
• Will swapping out Randy Flores for Chris Perez really fix the Card’ bullpen?
• Will the Oakland A’s ever get through a season without selling off their best players?
• Who could have possibly guessed that Mike Hampton would get hurt while rehabilitating an unrelated injury?

THE HIGH COST OF LIVING

During a chat with the Denver Post, drag racer John Force lamented soaring fuel costs.

“You know what my wake-up call was about the price of gas?” Force rold the newspaper. “We were driving down the interstate to Lake Tahoe to have a few days off. I open up a newspaper and it says the brothels in Nevada were giving gas-discount coupons to truckers.

“So I said to my wife, ‘I know how we can save some money. Drop me off.’ Now, was that nutty? Maybe the idea was a little extreme. But you get the point.”

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN.com: “Ever play golf in a car wash? Wish you could hit 4-irons in a wind tunnel? Enjoy watching your fingers turn Dodger blue? Well, we’d love to have you here at the cold and flu season known as the 137th British Open. It’s the Kimbo Slice of majors.”

Mark Kriegel, FoxSports.com: “You heard about the guy who kept faking heart attacks to avoid paying his restaurant tab? My first thought: must be a sportswriter. Then there’s Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez, who saved a California man by performing the Heimlich maneuver. Question is, will he be able to do the same for Herm Edwards?”

Steve Rosenbloom, ChicagoSports.com: “Of the three teams in the NL Central race, the Cardinals have the toughest schedule, facing opponents whose winning percentage is .507 right now. You’re thinking, this should finally do them in, but as legendary Hole-In-The-Wall manager Butch Cassidy said, ‘Who are those guys?’”

Mike Lupica, New York Daily News: “Joe Torre must like managing in a place where if you just hang around .500 and first place, they treat you like your number ought to be retired.”

Rick Reilly, ESPN.com, on Charles Barkley’s golf swing: “Technically, it’s not even a swing. It’s a lunge. Scientists study it. He gets to the top, starts down and then—two feet from impact—just stops! Totally freezes! He looks like a man waiting for a rattlesnake to pop up so he can kill it. It’s the only swing in the world with an intermission. Me, I’d quit and take up the tuba. But not Barkley. He plays golf all the time.”

MEGAPHONE

“I don’t think it’s golf at all, to be honest with you. I don’t see it as golf. It’s blowing 40 [mph]. My hands are so cold and everything is soaked. You can’t hold on to the club. I don’t see that as golf. They do here, but I don’t.”

Golfer Pat Perez, on the blustery and wet weather at the British Open.