Soccer Is the Downfall of Would-Be Mongoose

WBC junior-middleweight champion Gianfranco Rosa adopted a unique training approach for his scheduled fight with Donald Curry.

“Curry’s nickname is the Cobra,” he said. “I bought a video of a fight between a cobra and a mongoose. And I noticed the mongoose always wins. I also bought a book about the mongoose. I’m learning a lot.”

Wrote Ron Borges of the Boston Globe: “He should have bought a book on the basics of soccer, as well.

“The other day, he was playing in a pickup game that was also part of his training. He fell and broke his collarbone. The fight has been postponed from April 15 until July.”

Said Tom Penders, refusing to make any predictions after being named basketball coach at Texas: “A good friend of mine in coaching told me a long time ago the best way to save face is to keep the lower half of it shut.”

Welshman Ian Woosnam stands only 5 feet 4 inches and weighs 151 pounds, but Tom Watson says he hasn’t seen many who can hit a golf ball farther.

At the Masters, Watson told Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post: “I saw little Woosie hitting the ball over the back fence of the driving range yesterday, just bombing it over, and he was 10 yards in back of me and I was hitting maybe one in 10 over it. He’s very strong. That fence is 50 feet high, so it’s a 270-yard carry.

“Watching Woosie got some of us to talking about how long Ben Hogan was after he changed his swing. Hogan was a little guy, but he murdered it nine miles.”

Add Boswell: Of 5-8 Mark McCumber, another long hitter, he wrote: “Once, head to head, McCumber outdrove titanic Jim Dent so badly that Dent conceded defeat. ‘That man can flat hit the golf ball. He’s longer than me with every club in the bag,’ said Dent after watching McCumber hit drives of 350 and 365 yards through crosswinds in Florida. ‘I used to be the longest.’ ”

Trivia Time: When Roberto de Vicenzo signed an incorrect scorecard in the 1968 Masters, giving the win to Bob Goalby, who was his playing partner? (Answer below.)

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: Dennis Johnson of the Boston Celtics was watching on TV when little brother Craig, a 5-7 guard for Grand Canyon College, made a spectacular block during the team’s 88-86 win over Auburn Montgomery in the NAIA championship game.

Dick Vitale started screaming, “Dennis Johnson is home in his apartment jumping up right now.”

Said the Boston Globe: “Truth be told, D.J. lives in a house, not an apartment, but indeed he was jumping when he saw what Craig did. ‘That’s the most amazing thing,’ D.J. said. ‘I did exactly what Vitale said I was doing. That’s pretty good timing.’ ”

Magic Johnson says he will play a couple of years longer than Larry Bird, but he could still quit at a younger age.

Although they came into the league at the same time, Bird is 31, Johnson 28. When they met in the NCAA title game, Magic was a sophomore at Michigan State and Bird a fifth-year senior at Indiana State.

Trivia Answer: Tommy Aaron. On the par-four 17th hole in the final round, De Vicenzo made a birdie, but Aaron mistakenly marked down a 4 instead of a 3. De Vicenzo signed the card, giving him a 278. Goalby, who shot a 277, was declared the winner.

Quotebook

Seve Ballesteros, asked how long it took him to get over last year’s playoff loss in the Masters: “Let’s see, I won in France the next week, so I guess it took two or three days.”