A SIDEWAYS GLANCE : RUBBING ELBOWS WITH HERB, MARGE AND TRUDY.

America's pitchman has added another product. And this time, basketball star Michael Jordan has deviated far from such highbrow items as cologne, golf products and Nike sneakers priced in three digits - he's going to endorse bowling products.

That's right.AMF Bowling Worldwide announced Tuesday that it has acquired Michael Jordan Golf Company Inc., and that the Chicago Bulls star will become a spokesman for AMF bowling products and centers.

Jordan played along impressively - even to the point of saying that he, in fact, laces up those goofy shoes, dons the embroidered polyester shirt and bowls a game from time to time.

``Bowling,'' Jordan said, ``has been part of my family's recreational life.''

Viewers prefer `Simpsons' reruns

The TV honchos, longing for the glitz of a Baltimore-Atlanta World Series, winced when they instead got stuck with Cleveland-Florida. And with good reason. Game 1 of the World Series got the lowest television rating ever for a Series game, Nielsen Media Research said.

Florida's 7-4 victory over Cleveland Saturday night got an 11.3 rating and 22 share on NBC, a staggering 19 percent below the previous Series low, a 14.0 rating and 24 share for last year's Game 2 between Atlanta and the New York Yankees on Fox.

That Braves-Yankees game was opposite ``ABC's Monday Night Football'' for part of the night.