If only the Marlins-Giants game in San Francisco were today instead of tonight. That'd be a relief to Marlins catcher Matt Treanor.

While Treanor and the Marlins are playing at AT&T Park in the China Basin area, his wife, Misty-May Treanor, and her partner, Kerri Walsh, will be playing for the Olympic gold medal in beach volleyball in Beijing.

“As much as I want to see it, I have a responsibility to my team and the guys on the field,” Treanor told Clark Spencer of The Miami Herald.

So far, Spencer writes, Treanor has managed to work around the scheduling conflicts, getting updates on his wife's matches from teammates or stadium security.

Treanor said he's more nervous watching his wife play than he ever gets when he's playing baseball.

The two were engaged when May and Walsh won gold in Athens in 2004.

Writes Spencer:

“It was during the Greece Olympics that May-Treanor began a tradition of sprinkling some of her mother's ashes on the sand before her matches, a tradition she has continued in Beijing. She keeps the ashes in a small plastic vial that she takes to big matches.

“During a recent rain delay in South Florida, though, Matt Treanor got on the Internet and bought an urn, which he intends to present to his wife when she returns home from China.

“ 'She's been kept in a box for the last six years, since she passed away,' Treanor said of Misty's mother. 'I thought it was about time we got her mom a permanent resting place.' ”

TRIVIA TIME

Twenty-three years ago today, this Met struck out 16 Giants to become the first National League pitcher to strike out 200 or more in each of his first two major league seasons. Name him.

PROMOTION OF THE WEEK

Friday, minor league ball's State College (Pa.) Spikes will hold Stone Broke Student Night, to help Penn State's cash-strapped kids.

MILB.com's Ben Hill says the first 250 students in attendance will receive a box of macaroni and cheese, food and drink specials will be in effect the whole game, and prizes will include bookstore gift certificates and quarters for the Laundromat.

ANOTHER WIN FOR CHINA

Guinness World Records has returned the title of world's tallest man to China's Bao Xishun after Ukrainian Leonid Stadnyk refused to be measured under new guidelines, Reuters reports.

Bao, who stands 7 feet, 8.95 inches, held the title for a year before losing it in 2006 to Stadnyk, who is 8-5½.

Bao agreed to be measured by Guinness – six times in one day, standing and lying down – but Stadnyk refused, saying he didn't want to be bothered. Previously, a doctor's statement was enough to give the nod to Stadnyk.

Guinness added the measuring stipulation this year to tighten its requirements.

PARTING SHOT

David Whitley of The Orlando Sentinel, as NASCAR Nation awaits the announcement today of the punishment Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide Series program will get for trying to fudge a horsepower reading on a post-race test last week:

“John Edwards always wanted to be president. Well, I have the perfect job for him. President of NASCAR.

“Edwards is currently America's most famous cheater. Why not put him in charge of America's most crooked sport?

“I'd like to say I'm joking, but I've given up on NASCAR after what happened over the weekend. . . .

“If Gibbs' team can't tell right from wrong, there is no hope for the rest of NASCAR. And there's even less reason for nonracing fans to think NASCAR isn't just a bunch of latter-day moonshiners.”

TRIVIA ANSWER

Dwight Gooden.

– COMPILED BY BILL SUDA FROM NEWS SERVICES, ONLINE REPORTS