Becker Has Quit at Love

As anyone who plays serious tennis knows, love is pointless.

West Germany’s Boris Becker, two-time Wimbledon champion, came to that realization recently. His longtime girlfriend, Benedicte Coutain, has been missing from his entourage in recent weeks. He explained that he split with the 24-year-old model so that he can devote more time to tennis.

“I want to be number one in the world, and to achieve that, a permanent relationship is out of the question,” he said.

Becker, 20, added that he will not even consider getting married for at least six more years.

Tiger Stadium in Detroit turns 76 Wednesday and will receive . . . a big hug.

On a mission to save the deteriorating ballpark, thousands of members of the Tiger Stadium Fan Club plan to join hands and embrace the stadium while singing “Happy Birthday” and “Take Me Out to the Ballpark.” They then will release 10,000 balloons. Before the Tigers’ game that day against the Boston Red Sox, the coordinators also plan to present a giant birthday card to the grounds crew.

Fan club members say they hope to persuade team and city officials to renovate Tiger Stadium instead of building a glitzy domed stadium for the team.

Only three other stadiums--Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston--pre-date World War I.

“They constantly have to tear things down and build new,” said Tiger fan Theresa Wilkerson, 30, who also told the Associated Press she began skipping school when she was 9 so that she could see the team play.

“I think they’re going to lose a lot of fans because of it. I love the Tigers and I’ll still go see them no matter what, but I may not go to as many games.”

The fan club used membership dues to print posters and bumper stickers that plead: “Don’t let them make the biggest error in baseball. Hold on to Tiger Stadium.”

Trivia Question: How many times has the United States competed in the World Cup soccer tournament? (Answer below.)

Karol Fageros Short, who died in South Miami, Fla. last week of cancer at age 53, was the world’s fifth-ranked woman tennis player in the late 1950s. But she was better known for the fashion statement she was not allowed to make at Wimbledon.

After she wore gold lame underpants in the 1958 French Open, Wimbledon officials banned her from their tournament that year. Her pants, Wimbledon spokesman Duncan MacAuley explained at the time, “might put her opponents off.”

Only when Short agreed to cover the pants with white lace was she allowed to compete.

“I remember being bored with the all-white look,” she recalled years later. “I didn’t think it would create such a sensation. From then on, every time I took a shot, flashbulbs went off.”

If Ohio State fullback George Cooper doesn’t make it in the National Football League, perhaps he can work for Joan Kroc--not as a player for her San Diego Padres but as a spokesman for her hamburgers.

Cooper went to Ohio State as a 225-pound tailback but finished his eligibility last season as a 265-pound fullback.

In an attempt to impress NFL scouts before next Sunday’s draft, he has slimmed down to a svelte 245.

“I’m one of those people who can look at food and gain weight,” he said. “I don’t eat stuff that’s bad for you any more. But I can’t stay away from those hamburgers. I can’t cook. so I go to McDonald’s to calm down my appetite.”

Trivia Answer: The United States played in the 1930, ’34 and ’50 World Cups but has not advanced out of its region since. In one of the World Cup’s biggest upsets, the United States beat England, 1-0, in 1950 at Belo Horizonte, Brazil, but could finish no higher than 10th in the final standings. If the United States wins its bid on July 4 to play host to the 1994 World Cup, it automatically qualifies to compete in the 24-team tournament.

Quotebook

New Jersey wing Aaron Broten, on why he doesn’t watch Stanley Cup games on television when the Devils aren’t involved, which has been every season until this one: “I don’t like to watch. Postmen don’t go for a walk on their day off.”