Five items you may have missed today that are worth a quick look:

• The (media) circus came to town as Jose Canseco joined the Worcester Tornadoes amid a maelstrom of questions about his Twitter account and the seriousness of this latest attempt to prolong his baseball career. He even took batting practice. (Story and video Worcester Telegram-Gazette)

• Nearly 40 percent of the students enrolled in courses at the University of North Carolina at the center of an academic fraud investigation are either football and basketball players. But university officials have no evidence that the classes were created especially for student-athletes. (Charlotte Observer)

• Fresh off his gig hosting “Saturday Night Live,” Eli Manning was back with his Giants teammates in the locker room Monday and took a few jabs about how good he looked in a dress during the “Miss Drag World” competition and had a few bananas tossed his way thanks to his role in the “Text Message Evidence” skit. (New York Daily News)

• Meanwhile, the Manning brothers are being used to help Reebok maintain a foothold of sorts in the NFL marketing world, as the footwear company has re-signed both Eli and Peyton to endorsement deals. Peyton has been a Reebok endorser since 2002 and Eli joined him in 2004. (Sports Business Journal)

• Your favorite NHL team just got wiped out in the playoffs, so surely your first thought turns to golf. Right? At least that’s what someone at shop.nhl.com apparently believes. Fans across the world wide web are getting ticked off, not teeing off, after being emailed sales pitches for team-themed golf apparel minutes following their favorite teams' elimination. Fore-get it! (Puck Drunk Love via Buzzfeed)


If you see any offbeat and fresh newsy links from your favorite sports site that might be of interest to others, pass them along to me at bsperos1@gmail.com.