Trading Cards Have Somewhere to Go, but Can’t Get Dressed Up

“Dream Team” might be the catchiest sports nickname since the Four Horsemen, but you won’t be seeing it on trading cards this year--at least not associated with the players one would expect.

Norm Cohen of Newsday explains: “One company owns a registered trademark on the phrase ‘Dream Team’ but can’t produce basketball cards. Another holds an exclusive license with the U.S. Olympic basketball team but can’t cash in on the nickname. It’s a Catch-22 of Olympic proportions.” So Skybox, which has the license with the real Dream Team, had to use “USA Basketball Collection” as the not-so-snappy name for its 110-card “We Can’t Call Them the Dream Team” set spotlighting Magic, Michael and Co.

Enterprising: The Raiders’ Tim Brown was set to negotiate a lucrative shoe contract when a knee injury slowed his career and caused the shoe company agents to disappear. Brown’s response was to call his brother, Donald Kelly, who had experience in merchandising, and go into business for himself.

“I thought maybe I should start my own shoe company,” he said when he introduced Pro Moves, a low-priced alternative for football, baseball and basketball shoes.

Trivia time: The yellow jersey goes to the Tour de France leader, but what is the lanterne rouge ?

Slow learner: Toby Harrah, the Texas Rangers’ manager, refused to say that Glenn Davis deliberately tried to spike Ranger catcher Ivan Rodriguez on a play at home plate, but perhaps he made a worse indictment of the Baltimore Orioles’ first baseman when he said: “You don’t see many slides like that often. Most of us learned how to slide in Little League.”

Way to go, mate: There were 13 Australian-born players in organized baseball when the 1992 season began.

New partner: When Pete Sampras couldn’t find a warm-up partner before a match in Kitzbuhel, Austria, he asked ATP Tour chair umpire Rudi Berger to warm up with him. Berger agreed but asked: “Do you really think it’s a good idea for me to warm you up when I am umpiring your match a little later?” Sampras agreed and found someone else to hit with.

Getting close: Are the Dodgers done? Kenneth Miller of the L.A. Sentinel puts it this way: “I’m not going to stick a fork in them just yet, but let me start washing the dishes just in case.”

Making it easier: The original free-throw line in basketball was 20 feet from the basket. Today it is 15 feet.

Godspeed, racer: Ron Cosner was a drag racer. After he died of cancer at 50, Cosner was cremated and his ashes placed in the parachute pack of his race car. They were released at the Cecil County Dragway finish line in Rising Sun, Md., by another driver.

Trivia answer: It is the title given the last-place finisher in the Tour de France, derived from the red lantern that used to hang on cabooses.

Short memory: Lee Trevino, after shooting a low round at Muirfield during the British Open, was asked if it inspired memories of his 1972 victory on the same course.

“I can’t remember what I did two days ago, let alone what happened in ‘72,” he said. “Heck, that was two wives ago.”

Quotebook: Thistledown track announcer John Dooley, when Rare Discovery began to lose ground rapidly during a recent race: “He’s dropping out of it as quickly as Ross Perot.”