Good morning, Don Baylor.
Here’s the deal: When it’s time for Sammy Sosa to obey your rules, Cubs management will let you know.
– The Las Vegas Sports Consultants lists the Cubs at 40-1 to win the World Series.The White Sox, meanwhile, are 75-1 to win the Series, but you watch, they’ll finish higher in their division than the Cubs will in theirs.
– In case you wondered, the Reds went from 20-1 to win the Series before the Ken Griffey Jr. trade to 10-1 now.
– The Las Vegas Sports Consultants also has posted odds on the major-league home run champion.
Mark McGwire is the 2-1 favorite, followed by Sosa at 3-1 (also 5-2 to make Baylor eat crow again). Griffey is 5-1, while Albert Belle is 6-1 (but 1-6 to act like a moron).
– Twenty years ago Tuesday, the U.S. Olympic hockey team, which included Chicago’s Jack O’Callahan, pulled off the “Miracle on Ice” over the Soviet Union that changed hockey in this country.
Cool thing is, coach Herb Brooks’ pregame speech consisted of three sentences: “You were born to be players. You were meant to be here. This moment is yours.”
– By the way, the Americans drove the Russians’ starting goalie from the nets. His name? Vladislav Tretiak. He now is the Blackhawks’ goalie consultant.
Two days after beating the Soviets, the ragtag bunch of American college players came back on Finland for a 4-2 win that clinched the most unlikely gold medal. Was that team better than anyone wants to admit, or was it a miracle? Said U.S. captain Mike Eruzione: “If the Red Sox ever win a World Series, that would be a miracle.”
– Brooks has had a tougher time coaching the Penguins this season than those college kids 20 years ago. Recently, Brooks brought the penalty-killers into a videotape session and started yelling, saying their play was a joke. Turns out the joke was on Brooks. The videotape was of five-on-five play. Said one Penguin of Brooks’ coaching: “It really was a miracle on ice.”
– Mike Ramsey, a defenseman on the U.S. team, keeps his gold medal in a sock in a safe deposit box. True thing: Eruzione’s is captured in a glass table.
– Here’s Raptors swingman Tracy McGrady, recalling Michael Jordan’s new coach, Darrell Walker, during his ugly stint in Toronto that ended in February 1998: “We didn’t care, man. The low point was that nobody gave a damn.” Lovely. And the Bulls supposedly want this McGrady character.
– The Mavericks’ plane was late getting into Toronto on Saturday? Dennis Rodman’s fault? Nope. Steve Nash’s. He forgot his passport. Thing is, Nash is Canadian.
– How big is Vince Carter? He got the NBA’s Slam Dunk competition better ratings than the Calgary-Phoenix hockey game in Canada. That’s big, mister.
– Jim Brown and Marcus Allen ripped the Dolphins for seemingly trying to force Dan Marino out of football. Probably just a coincidence that Brown and Allen said it while playing in the Toyota Dan Marino Celebrity Invitational Golf Tournament.
– ESPN icon Chris Berman was excused from jury duty in New Haven, Conn., after fellow jurors and courthouse workers surrounded him to talk sports and get autographs.
– Padres President Larry Lucchino was a Princeton roommate and teammate of Bill Bradley, owner John Moores is a huge Bradley supporter, but player development chief Ted Simmons is Al Gore’s cousin. It was so much easier for the Padres when the issue was Garth Brooks.
– Hold on. I think the Cubs just compromised Baylor again.
– The end: Purdue guard Carson Cunningham, in response to a question about his wardrobe: “If someone wants to understand my style and my dress, I would say just watch `Sanford and Son.'”
