Publish date:: Jul 24, 2006

The Beat

Author:: Adam Duerson

The rich aredifferent from you and me: We get stuck in traffic slowdowns, they compete inthe GM All-Car Showdown. Last week Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade won the thirdannual Showdown in L.A., with his white Hummer H2, outflashing boxer BernardHopkins (maroon Hummer H2) and USC teammates Matt Leinart (Chevy Tahoe) andReggie Bush (black Hummer H2), among other sports stars. Impressed with Wade's30-inch wheels, the judges--who included Serena Williams, Nick Cannon andsportscaster James Brown--awarded him the title King of Bling and sent a$10,000 donation to the Dwyane Wade Foundation. Afterward the winner (above)told SI, "In this entertainment world that we live in, you have to havesome kind of flash and style. I won, so I'm going to take that and run withit."

• In thisentertainment world we live in, would Roberto Clemente have worn a $210cashmere baseball hat? "I think it might have been too flashy for him,"says son Roberto Clemente Jr. Nonetheless, the younger Clemente and his brotherLuis helped design the pricey lids featuring images of their late father. (Theycan be purchased at MLB.com and other outlets beginning Aug. 31.) "He wouldhave loved to see it on maybe me or one of his grandkids--any of the youth--tokeep his legacy going," says Clemente Jr. One of the caps, which featuresthe Hall of Famer with his hand over his heart (right), was unveiled last weekin Pittsburgh during All-Star festivities.

• Throughout theWorld Cup, Italy fans serenaded midfielder Francesco Totti with a wordless,dum-da-dum-dum-dum version of the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, hisunofficial theme song. After the Azzurri won the final, Totti celebrated bysinging the song on the pitch with some new lyrics: "Siamo I campioni delmondo," which means "We are the champions of the world." Last weekTotti's teammates Marco Materazzi and Alessandro Del Piero performed it onstagein Milan with the Rolling Stones, in front of 70,000 fans.

• Baseball fansBen Affleck and Matt Damon are producing the Internet show Fan Club: RealityBaseball, in which viewers help run a minor league baseball team. Clips of theindependent Northern League's Schaumburg Flyers (on and off the field) can beseen at fanclub.msn.com, and viewers can vote on batting lineups, pitchingrotations and player acquisitions. The Flyers won three of their first fivegames with the fans in charge.

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It was sunny and summery in Warsaw on Sunday--aperfect day to kick up one's heels in the streets. So 100 stylish women toedthe line for this high-heel race, a 100-meter dash through the Polish capitalin which the runners had to wear stilettos. The winner took home a shoppingsafari for the well-heeled: vouchers worth 10,000 zlotys, or about $3,300, atlocal stores. It's likely that some of that prize went toward Band-Aids andblister pads.