Trying to Make a Point

Defensive tackle Jerome Brown of the University of Miami, drafted on the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles, was asked what kind of salary he expected to get.

“How much is Vinny getting?” Brown asked, referring to former teammate Vinny Testaverde.

He was told that Testaverde signed with Tampa Bay for $1.4 million a year.

“One-point-four million?” Brown said. “I’ll be glad if I get to point-four.”

Poor Pittsburgh. The Pirates celebrated the 100th anniversary of their first National League game last Thursday, and one of the promotions was giving calendars to the first 10,000 fans.

The attendance was 7,114.

You-can’t-win dept.: Atlanta Hawk General Manager Stan Kasten told the Boston Globe: “I’ll never forget one game this year. It was mid-December, our record was 17-4 and we were up by 27 points. I was standing in my customary spot in the Omni and some guy yells out, ‘Hey, Kasten, you idiot, get a different mascot--that Harry the Hawk stinks!’

“There we are, 17-4, the best team in basketball, and I’m still an idiot.”

How-times-have-changed dept.: Paul Azinger made more money in winning the Las Vegas Invitational than Arnold Palmer ever won in a year. Azinger’s purse was $225,000. Palmer’s best year was 1971 when he earned $209,603.

25 Years Ago Today: On May 5, 1962, Bo Belinsky of the Angels pitched a no-hitter to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 2-0, at Dodger Stadium.

On the same date in 1904, Cy Young of the Boston Red Sox pitched the first perfect game in American League history to beat Rube Waddell and the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0.

Trivia Time: The name of what Chicago White Sox player spelled backward is the same as a former American League infielder? (Answer below.)

The benching of Steve Garvey at San Diego recalls this warning by Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News in 1983: “Steve Garvey will generate just enough extra income for the Padres this season to justify his $1.5 million salary. But by the end of 1985, Ballard Smith will think he is carrying 2 billion Big Macs on his back.”

If there were any doubts as to what sport is king in Columbus, Ohio, they were removed by a couple of events over the weekend.

A crowd of 7,898 turned out Sunday for the Jesse Owens Invitational, in which Edwin Moses won his 104th straight race in the 400-meter hurdles and Ohio State junior Butch Reynolds ran the third fastest 400 meters in history.

The day before, 38,000 turned out to watch Ohio State’s annual Scarlet-Gray spring football game.

Would-you-believe-it dept.: The Red Auerbach Trophy is awarded annually to the NBA Coach of the Year, but Auerbach won the award only once.

Meanwhile, Gene Shue and Don Nelson have won the award twice, although neither has coached a team to the NBA title.

Note: Nelson has yet to take a team to the NBA finals, but when he was ejected Sunday in the Milwaukee-Philadelphia game, he was replaced by a man who has. Del Harris, Buck assistant coach, coached Houston to the NBA finals in 1980-81.

Trivia Answer: Gary Redus and former Philadelphia Athletics’ infielder Pete Suder.

Quotebook

Houston Rocket General Manager Ray Patterson, on the rumor that the club would trade Ralph Sampson to the Denver Nuggets for Fat Lever and Blair Rasmussen: “That would be like trading William Randolph Hearst for Little Orphan Annie.”