If It Isn’t Dad’s Day, Try a Mute Button

With Father’s Day only a week away, a hot book these days is “Heroes, Legends ... Dads,” an Andrews McMeel publication by author Joe Garner.

Among the fathers and sons profiled are Bill and Luke Walton. The younger Walton talks about Game 2 of the NBA Finals last year, when he played well for the Lakers against the Detroit Pistons and his father was shown beaming while sitting in the crowd.

“Everybody kept telling me how proud my dad looked,” Luke Walton says in the book. “I finally went back and watched the game, and, seeing how proud I made him, that was a very special moment.”

Walton, who says, “If you see him on TV, he’s always ripping people,” adds: “He was just watching from the crowd. Now, if he had been announcing the game, I would have turned the volume down.”

Trivia time: What is Darin Erstad’s connection to the New York Mets?

Weighty issue: During a conference call promoting Saturday’s Indy car race at Texas Motor Speedway, Danica Patrick was asked about Robby Gordon’s comments that she had an advantage because of her weight.

“All I know is that the NBA doesn’t lower the hoop for the short guys,” she said.

A question of gas mileage: Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury News, on Gordon’s comments: “So am I to understand that if I weren’t so fat, my ’97 Camry would be going farther on a tank of fuel?”

Good suggestion: “The NHL, always striving to improve, is undergoing three days of tests in search of changes that would make it more appealing to TV and advertisers,” says Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel. “They might try, oh, I don’t know, playing.”

Trouble on the home front: Ron Gardenhire, manager of the Minnesota Twins, has to pay a $750 fine every time he gets tossed from a game, and it has already happened three times this season. So who pays the fine, Gardenhire or the team?

“I write the checks,” he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “My wife just loves me for it.”

Financial advice: Agent Scott Boras, a guest on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period,” said that he tells his clients this about investing their money: “Just associate yourself with somebody I can sue.”

Looking back: On this day in 1991, the Chicago Bulls won their first NBA championship with a 108-101 victory over the Lakers in Game 5 at the Forum. Scottie Pippen scored 32 points, Michael Jordan 30 and John Paxson 20.

Trivia answer: Erstad was drafted by the Mets out of high school in Jamestown, N.D., in the 13th round in 1992 but chose to attend the University of Nebraska, where he was a punter and kicker on the football team.

And finally: Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on Deion Sanders’ new contract with the Baltimore Ravens including $4 million in incentives: “What is he getting, $500,000 for every tackle he makes?”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart @latimes.com.