Knight Has an Option: Golf Coach

Ray Knight turned down a one-year offer of $450,000 from the Baltimore Orioles after previously rejecting an offer of $800,000 from the New York Mets, so what happens now?

“At this point, we have gone about as far as we can go,” agent George Kalafatis said. “If baseball continues to push him around, he’ll just say, ‘Thanks for the ride fellas,’ and go watch his wife play golf.”

That’s what Knight did Friday, and he liked what he saw. His wife, Nancy Lopez, shot a 66 to tie for the 36-hole lead in the $200,000 LPGA tournament at Sarasota, Fla.

Afterward, she said that Knight had spotted a flaw in her swing after her opening-round 73 and had helped her by suggesting a change in her alignment.

“I had to adjust to what he was seeing,” she said. “What I’ll do is step up to the ball, put the club down and kind of let Ray step into my stance. Then I’ll get behind him and I can observe myself by watching him.”

Former San Francisco Giant announcer Hank Greenwald and former major leaguer Tommy Hutton have joined the announcing team of the New York Yankees, and, naturally, the first question was, “How will they get along with George Steinbrenner.”

Said WABC General Manager Jim Haviland: “They’ll sit down with Steinbrenner, and he’ll lay out parameters. I don’t think there will be any problems.”

Oy vay.

Add Yankees: When Gary Ward, formerly of Texas and Minnesota, signed with the club, he said: “Yankee Stadium is one of my favorite parks. I have opposite-field power, so I can’t wait to take my shots at the right field porch.”

Writes Tim Kurkjian of the Baltimore Sun: “In his last three years at Yankee Stadium, Ward is 8 for 58 (.138) with only two doubles, no homers and one RBI.”

Trivia Time: Who is the only college basketball player to win an NCAA scoring title and play on an NCAA championship team in the same season? (Answer below.)

When Dennis Conner won the America’s Cup in four straight, he didn’t do Tommy Prothro any favors.

Prothro, former UCLA and Ram coach, was on the Royal Viking cruise ship that arrived in Fremantle the night after the last race.

“I was on the boat that missed the boat,” he said.

If 7-foot Brad Lohaus of Iowa leads the Hawkeyes to a win over Arizona today, Wildcat Coach Lute Olson has only himself to blame.

When Olson was the coach at Iowa, he recruited Lohaus out of Glendale, Ariz.

Says Lohaus: ‘It’ll be the first time I’ve been home. It’s going to be fun, and hopefully we can come away with a victory.”

Win-some-lose-some dept.: On the day that Bob Houbregs was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, his University of Washington career scoring record, which had lasted 34 years, was broken by Chris Welp in Washington’s 79-65 win over Washington State.

From Buffalo Bill owner Ralph Wilson, asked if the club would consider drafting Brian Bosworth, the linebacker with the multicolored hair: “If he can tackle and stop somebody, he can wear his hair any way he wants. He can wear a wig if he wants to. I’m looking for mean, tough players.”

Trivia Answer: Clyde Lovellette of Kansas in 1951-52. He averaged 28.4 points a game and led Kansas to an 80-63 win over St. John’s for the NCAA title.

Quotebook

Manute Bol of the Washington Bullets, who went 662 minutes before getting his first assist of the season: “What do you expect? I’m not Magic Johnson.”