Truth Nearly Bowled Him Over

Are Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback Steve Young and singer Marie Osmond an item? Young says no, but he told the Orlando Sentinel how the rumor got started.

Osmond is divorced from Steve Craig, the former Brigham Young basketball player who shared the backcourt with Danny Ainge.

“This is what happened,” said Young, who also went to BYU. “Marie was feeling down after her divorce. I know her brothers and one of them asked me to take her out.”

Young said he was going to take her to a Utah Jazz game, but she said a basketball game would remind her of her ex-husband. She said she would like to go bowling, so they did.

A week later, Young said, he saw a National Enquirer commercial on TV, suggesting that he and Osmond might be headed for the altar.

Was Young outraged at the rumor?

“No,” he said. “I was terrified that they were going to tell everyone that all I could think of doing on a date with Marie Osmond was to go bowling. I thought about calling the National Enquirer and becoming the first person to beg them not to tell the truth.”

Trivia Time: When the Detroit Tigers traded Harvey Kuenn to the Cleveland Indians for Rocky Colavito before the 1960 season, why was it significant? (Answer below.)

Wait a Minute: Mike Pagliarulo of the New York Yankees, who wears No. 13, was assigned No. 34 in spring training but turned it down. “It’s a lousy number,” he said.

Here are some athletes who wear No. 34: Nolan Ryan, Fernando Valenzuela, Walter Payton, Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, Akeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley.

Now-it-can-be-told department: Said John Madden when asked what he told his Oakland Raiders before Super Bowl XI?: “I told them, ‘Don’t worry about the horse being blind, just load the wagon.’

“I never knew what it meant, but it seemed to work out.”

From Mac O’Grady, claiming that he’s too emotional on the golf course: “That’s OK for a football player, who must be very intense. But for a golfer, you must be only 20% intense. My problem is I play golf like Ray Nitschke.”

Said goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff of Belgium after making several great saves in the 4-3 win over the Soviet Union this week in the World Cup: “Now you can write that I am the best goalkeeper in the world. But don’t let them erect a memorial statue of me. Dogs will only urinate on it.”

Dan Luginbuhl, an aide to Roger Penske, on the car owner’s dedication and quest for perfection: “He’s the only guy I know with an in-and-out basket on his dashboard.”

From Jayson Stark’s baseball column in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“And then there was Blue Jays scout Wayne Morgan.

“Who lives on Morgan Avenue.

“In Morgan Hill, Calif.

“No truth to the rumor that he’s about to marry Morgan Fairchild, move to Morgantown, W. Va., and write a book on Joe Morgan.”

Trivia Answer: The previous year, Kuenn had won the batting title and Colavito the home run title in the American League.

Quotebook

Phil Elderkin, Christian Science Monitor: “Architects cover their mistakes with ivy, used-car salesmen with paint, young homemakers with mayonnaise, and baseball owners by firing the manager.”