No Use Denying It: Life Is Good

Woody Paige of the Denver Post is reveling in the fact that he’s covering the U.S. Open and has the dateline to prove it:

“You read PEBBLE BEACH, Calif., and you’re already way ahead of me. Ahhh, you’re sighing, especially if you’re a golfer. Aw, man, He’s at PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. He gets to go to PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. Who did he have to kill, and who does he have naked pictures of?

“[Remember, though, that I recently had to travel to Detroit--twice.]

“Did I mention that it’s 75 degrees, and there’s a cool breeze off the ocean, and I’m sitting on the veranda with an umbrella in my drink?”

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Trivia time: Who is the only player to finish second in the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and U.S Open at Pebble Beach in the same year?

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Emotional response: The possibility of the Chicago Cubs trading Sammy Sosa invoked echoes of “Camelot” when Gordon Edes wrote in the Boston Globe: “Pay any price. Bear any burden. Meet any hardship. Support any friend. Oppose any foe . . . to ensure [Sammy Sosa] is traded to the Red Sox and not the Yankees.”

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More on Sosa: And this from Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald: “The Cubs are stupid. Trading Sammy Sosa is stupid. Other than getting drunk and stealing opposing players’ hats, he’s the only reason to go to Wrigley Field.”

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Now we know: David Whitley in the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel: “It might surprise you to know our beloved baseball was largely patterned after cricket.

“Abner Doubleday saw a match, then envisioned four bases, peanut vendors, chewing tobacco, salary arbitration and voila! We had the national pastime.”

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Bulletin: Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News:

“* NFL News. One Ray cleared, another Rae to go.

“* Conducting an interview with Bobby Knight without having viewed ‘The Tape,’ as Roy Firestone did, is like going to work without your pants on.”

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Gold standard: Track star Marion Jones hopes to win five events in this year’s Summer Olympics.

“If she pulls it off,” writes Jim Caple of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Jones not only will accomplish something no previous sprinter has done, she also will wear nearly as much gold from her neck as Ricky Henderson.”

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Trivia answer: Jeff Sluman in 1992.

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And finally: Bob Smizik in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “What likely will happen is the Yankees will get Sosa. Not only do they have the money to pay him, but owner George Steinbrenner also revels in collecting superstars.

“With the Yankees being baseball’s most glamorous franchise, they are the team that would best fit Sosa, who is no shrinking violet.

“So just when it looks like Yankees’ four-year run at the top might be over, they can buy themselves another title.

“It stinks, and it’s why baseball is losing its grip in so many places.”