Ito Should Try Watching Trial on Television

Among baseball’s critics, count Judge Lance A. Ito.

Prosecutor Christopher Darden was questioning witness Robert Heidstra during the O.J. Simpson murder trial and asked, “What are your favorite sports?”

“Soccer, what we call football in Europe,” answered Heidstra, who lives around the corner from where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were slain.

“Anything else?” Darden asked.

“Oh, yeah--ice hockey, basketball,” Heidstra replied.

“American football?” Darden asked.

“Boring,” Heidstra said, at which point Ito interrupted:

“Wait till you see baseball.”

Trivia time: Who is the World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion?

What a great game: Oscar-winning actress and hockey fan Marlee Matlin was once invited by Bruce McNall into the Kings’ locker room after a game. According to Inside Sports magazine, this was her reaction:

“The next thing I knew, there was Ron Duguay standing in front of me. He came right up to me with just a towel around his body--nothing else. I said to myself: ‘God bless hockey!’ ”

Then there’s basketball: Actress Heather Locklear, asked by Esquire magazine what smells great on a man: “Basketball. After a game, it’s great if they don’t shower. Sweat from head to toe is yummy.”

Happy birthday: Paul Zimmerman, sports editor of The Times for many years, celebrated his 92nd birthday Thursday with his family at Leisure World.

No change: Right-handed pitcher Bill Bene, the Dodgers’ No. 1 draft pick in 1988 who has struggled with control problems, tried a comeback the other night with the Palm Springs Suns.

He started off by walking five of the first seven batters, including four in a row. When Bene left, in the third inning, he had given up 10 runs--nine earned--on six hits, seven walks, two wild pitches, a hit batsman and an error on a wild pickoff throw.

No dropouts here: What is it about volleyball that attracts the cerebral?

Among the top five ranked players on the Miller Lite/AVP Tour are college graduates Karch Kiraly, biochemistry, UCLA; Ken Steffes, economics, UCLA; Mike Whitmarsh, political science, University of San Diego; and Adam Johnson, communications, USC.

And Canyon Ceman, one of the tour’s bright newcomers, graduated from Stanford in three years with an economics degree, then a year later earned a master’s in sociology.

Doubling up: Ward Burton, a four-time winner on the NASCAR Grand National stock car circuit, is also a National Rifle Assn. award-winning marksman.

Target practice: Modesto first baseman Steve Cox leads the California League in home runs with 19 and also in times hit by pitches. During one stretch, Cox was hit five times in 11 games. He has been hit 10 times in all.

A real miracle: Shea Stadium was rejected as a New York site for Pope John Paul II’s celebration of Mass during his October visit because of the “potential of a conflict with the baseball playoffs.”

Asked if he thinks the Mets--now in last place--might pull off a miracle and make the playoffs, diocesan spokesman Frank DeRosa said, “We could always pray.”

Figure it out: Chicago Cub announcer Harry Caray is getting almost as mixed up as Ralph Kiner. A recent Carayism:

“Scott Bullett, as he takes left field, is getting congratulations from everybody. He and his daughter are parents now of a new baby.”

Trivia answer: Bruce Seldon.

Quotebook: The Phoenix Suns’ Danny Schayes, after learning that all five of teammate Danny Ainge’s children were born in September or October: “I’ve long suspected that Ainge had sex only once a year, on New Year’s Eve.”