Sports

The Rumble: Former Giant Strahan wants to replace Regis

All the Reege

Strahan wants to team with Kelly

Michael Strahan is ready to sack a new gig: Live With Kelly & Mike.

“Regis [Philbin] is irreplaceable,” Strahan tells The Rumble, “but I feel that his easy nature and natural ability to make people comfortable is something that I would be able to bring to the show. I also know that I have the ability to laugh at myself and not take myself too seriously. I think that’s important in what is done on the show.”

Strahan co-hosted a show last October with Kelly Ripa. Philbin is scheduled to remain on “Live with Regis and Kelly” until November, and no replacement has been named.

“I naturally appreciate and respect Kelly and how she has taken over that role and made it seem effortless,” Strahan said. “I think our chemistry is great and natural. Its a fun show that doesn’t feel like work but feels more like a conversation. The opportunity to co-host was one of the great experiences of my career so far.

“I do think I could succeed at daytime television. It is definitely an adjustment but one that I think I can slide into without a lot of adjustment. What I do more is opinion-based and spontaneous and personality-driven, which is exactly what Regis and Kelly is about.”

What about his NFL Sunday duties on Fox?

“The schedules don’t conflict, and if you love something and really want to do it you will make it happen,” Strahan said.

Pearl of the ‘People’

The People’s Games is a new, year-round sports tournament launching next weekend that gives aspiring athletes from both coasts a chance to represent their hometowns in a battle for bragging rights in basketball, soccer, baseball, football and other sports.

Team New York’s basketball squad will be coached by Knicks Hall of Famer Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, his first coaching gig, and former Laker and UCLA great Lucius Allen will lead the Los Angeles opposition.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Monroe said. “This will bring us back to the old days when it was all about bragging rights and representing your city with pride.”

Tryouts begin next Sunday at gyms across the city, while the New York vs. L.A. finals tip off in early May. Sign up at PeoplesGames.com

Bill White writes

Bill White’s autobiography, entitled “Uppity: My Untold Story of the Games People Play,” is set to be published on April 1 by Hatchette Books. With co-author Gordon Dillow, White gives a candid account of his life and times as a sports pioneer, from his days growing up in eastern Ohio to his five-year stint as National League president, when he was our national pastime’s first African-American sports executive.

In between there will be stories about playing baseball in the Jim Crow South, his days as a rookie with the New York Giants, his All-Star career as a first baseman for the Cardinals and Phillies and, of course, his 18-year stint as a Yankees broadcaster. And it will be interesting to read what White, now 77, has to say about George Steinbrenner, Bart Giamatti, Fay Vincent, Reggie Jackson and Bob Gibson, among others.

Willie, Mickey & the Edwin

Knicks press-box attendant Al Marchfeld, a former part-time batboy for the Brooklyn Dodgers, recalled his most memorable encounter with Duke Snider. Snider had been demoted to the minors in his second year to Montreal after the first game of a doubleheader at Ebbets Field in 1948.

Marchfeld was asked to escort Snider to a cab outside the ballpark and helped him carry his golf clubs. Marchfeld remembers Snider with tears rolling down his face as he got into the cab. “I felt bad and I said, ‘Edwin’— because that’s what everybody called him then — ‘you’ll be back.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Thanks.’ Boy was he ever back.”

Irish Good Guys

Stanley Cup-winning Rangers coach Mike Keenan and Pulitzer Prize-winning Times sports columnist Dave Anderson will be honored March 22 at the second annual Halligan-McGuire Irish American Good Guy Awards Luncheon on March 22 at Gallagher’s Steak House.

Tickets ($83.50) benefit the John Halligan Memorial Scholarship Fund at Fordham University. For tickets and information, e-mail johnnycigarpr@aol.com or call (914) 260-7436.

Have a cigar, Phil

Phil Simms stopped by The Carnegie Club cigar lounge with a few buddies to take in the lounge’s long-running “Sounds of Sinatra” show, while enjoying a few cocktails and cigars. . . . Former NBA center, Rony Seikaly took his DJ skils to Pacha NYC last weekend. Seikaly has made his transition from international basketball star to international DJ. He brought down the house spinning his renowned trance and tribal-infused sound.

The ringside voice you hear calling the blow-by-blow action on the critically acclaimed dramatic series “Lights Out” is boxing maven Steve Albert, whose next real call will be Saturday night on Showtime’s pay-per-view WBA Super Welterweight championship featuring Miguel Cotto against Ricardo Mayorga.

Coach talk

Giants coach Tom Coughlin will host a talkback Thursday night following “Lombardi” at the Circle in the Square Theater. The hit play also will be donating $2 from every ticket sold through March 31 to the American Cancer Society to help fight colon cancer, which took Vince Lombardi’s life 40 years ago. . . . Dick Vitale hopes to raise $1 million for pediatric cancer research for his V Foundation with his new book, “Dickie V’s ABC’s and 1-2-3’s.”

Katz swimming into Jewish Hall

Jane Katz, who at age 67 continues to win swimming championships around the world, will be among eight inductees into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum on March 27. Also to be honored are Harris Barton (football), Tal Brody (basketball), Steve Mesler (Olympic bobsled), Abe Pollin (NBA and NHL executive), Hal Richman (media), Alan Seiden (basketball) and Dick Steinberg (football executive).