Morning Briefing : Bottom Is Falling Out on Brock, Arizona St.

Perennial baseball power Arizona State is 8-19 overall and 0-5 in the Pacific 10 Southern Division, and Coach Jim Brock is open to suggestions.

“I’ve been too easy, I’ve been too tough,” said Brock, who used to make the players run six miles after losses but now jogs with them. “They have no idea where I’m coming from, and I don’t either.”

The lowest point came last weekend at Stanford.

“We had 45 hits including nine home runs and still lost all three games,” Brock said.

After the second game, Brock decided to walk the four miles back to the hotel. On the way, a man who had been heckling him all during the game tried to run him down in his car.

“It was pretty scary,” Brock said. “He clipped my leg once, but I wasn’t hurt.”

Brock concluded: “This is the most difficult time I’ve been through in coaching. If you asked me if the bottle was half empty or half full, I’d tell you there was a slow leak.”

Just call him Trader Tom. Yes, believe it or not, Tom Landry is ready to move into the marketplace to rebuild the Dallas Cowboys.

He told Jim Dent of the Dallas Times that only Tony Dorsett and Randy White are safe from possible deals.

Said Dallas personnel director Gil Brandt: “I think that teams like San Francisco have made trades that are very successful to their team. They pick up guys like Big Hands Johnson and so forth. We have found out from San Francisco that you can trade for players and expect them to do well in your system.

“Maybe we can find some players who will complement our team, whether they are from Green Bay or San Diego or wherever they may be.”

Golf-is-a-humbling-game dept.: Said Paul Azinger after shooting a 65 Friday to take the halfway lead in the Bay Hill tournament on Arnold Palmer’s course: “I used to work at the Arnold Palmer Golf Academy in 1980, so I know this course quite well.”

On Saturday, Azinger shot a 74 to slip into a tie for seventh.

Baltimore Orioles Coach Frank Robinson, former manager at Cleveland and San Francisco, said he will take a long look before accepting another offer to manage.

“I’m not in a hurry,” he said. “The first two jobs I was offered, I just felt like I couldn’t take a pass. There were no black managers, and the door was open a crack, and I felt like I had to take it, not just for myself. But now I’ve paid my dues. Next time, maybe I can be more selective and get in a situation where there’s half a chance to win.”

Dick Young of the New York Daily News, on Dodger pitcher Jerry Reuss, 35: “When he was 29 and pitching for Pittsburgh, he kept his age that way for an extra year because becoming 30 was traumatic to him.”

From retired tennis great Bjorn Borg, calling Jimmy Connors his favorite opponent: “Jimmy’s only fault is that he never could give credit to his opponent when he had lost. It bothered me a few times, especially after I outclassed him in our second Wimbledon final, in 1978.”

Borg won, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.

Quotebook

Jim Dutcher, University of Minnesota basketball coach, on what penalty he would have gotten if he had thrown a chair like Bob Knight did: “Probably life.”