In another life I was offered the opportunity to cover Philadelphia sports. I went on to cover the porn industry. A real good decision on my part.

I chose other reasons not to be on the Philly sports beat, considering that as a 22 year-old kid I’d be competing against legends of journalism like Sandy Grady, George Kiseda, Hugh Brown, Larry Merchant and Stan Hochman.

No self-respecting sports scribe would ever state that Mickey Mantle hit 700 career home runs or that Warren Spahn was the greatest right hand pitcher in the came [Spahn was a lefty]. So when I read pieces like the Bloomberg article on Measure B I grimace with equal fervor.

The quote that really got me is Larry Flynt [who really has nothing to do with porn production] saying “You’re more likely to pick up someone in a bar in suburbia and catch HIV than you would in the adult-film industry. All the actors are tested. It’s the safest sex you can have.”

Ooops, Larry, I guess you missed performer Tessa Lane admitting that she picks up “civilian” guys at Porn Star Karaoke. I think her quote was “I go home with my share of people.” www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=58531

Larry, Mr. Flynt, have you ever been to an AEE convention? Read Penny Lane’s book about the random humping that goes on there. I think Scotty Schwartz covers similar territory in his book that will be coming out. I wonder how much unsafe sex went on the night of the XRCO awards show.

Then, again, Flynt just sold the Hustler building and is getting out of porn while the gettins’ good.

Also in the Bloomberg article, we have Julie Meadows [Lydia Lee] a former performer continuing her mantra about hazmat suits. “If you follow the bill to the letter, nothing short of a hazardous-material suit will do,” says Meadows. Of course, Meadows only poll parrots what Diane Duke is telling her and Duke has long been made out to be the fool.

But the quote I like comes from Matthew Peterson, an attorney for Vivid at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, ‘‘No law-abiding adult-film producer would allow a performer to participate in the production of an adult film without a current negative-test confirmation, and no performer would agree to film without confirming his or her co-performers’ negative test status.’’

Really? You’ll swear to that Mr. Peterson? Have you ever been on an actual porn set where often lax sets of rules allow a performer to work without an up to date test because he or she is buddies with the director?

Throw in the usual same-old, same-old about 200 porn companies shooting in the Valley and the industry being a $13 B a year business and you can see why a sports fan would cringe if you called Warren Spahn a right hander.