They Couldn’t Run, So They Had Some Fun

The Los Angeles Marathon was organized on Sunday. But in Bangalore, India, the day before, things were much livelier.

Enraged joggers who entered a run-for-fun in the southern Indian city rioted and wrecked the main viewing stand because nobody showed up to start the race.

The runners arrived ready to compete--or at least to get a certificate that they completed the course. But they found that neither the starting line nor the finishing line was marked out, and there was not even a race starter with a pistol.

The would-be runners hurled chairs around and trashed the viewing stand intended for the region’s chief minister and his party.

No dignitaries were injured, however, and for good reason.

Like the starter, they didn’t show up.

Trivia Time: Which active player holds the record for the most home runs by a pitcher?

Fractionally incorrect: It’s easy to tell Bill Bradley is a U.S. Senator these days and not a New York Knick.

According to the New York Times, Bradley, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Hazzard and Wally Jones were recruited by comedian Bill Cosby to co-star in an episode of “The Cosby Show” that featured Cosby and some middle-aged friends playing a basketball game against younger women.

“We played eight four-minute quarters,” Bradley said, using that unfathomable math so familiar in Washington to the IRS.

Add Bradley: Among the women playing against Cosby and his old National Basketball Assn. cronies were two former U.S. Olympic stars--Old Dominion’s Nancy Lieberman-Cline and Georgia’s Teresa Edwards.

Said Bradley: “They were playing a full-court game and we had half-court bodies.”

No prize for guessing who whipped who.

Losing his head: While playing in a $400,000 golf tournament in Dubai last week, favorite Ian Woosnam shot 74 on the 7,100-yard, par-72 Emirates club course after breaking his putter at his 16th hole and finishing the round by using a pitching wedge on the greens.

Woosnam, 31, afterward insisted his broken putter was not caused by a display of anger but that the head simply fell off after he missed an 18-inch putt.

Uh, huh.

What’s in a name? Rob Murphy is a left-handed reliever for the Boston Red Sox and also a racehorse owner.

One of his horses won last Thursday at Tampa Bay Downs, the same day Murphy was pitching in an exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox.

The horse’s name? Rosin Bag, what else?

To be franc, it’s not bad: The Tour de France has done away with the custom of rewarding winners with houses, cars and jewelry, said a news story out of Paris.

So much for the bad news.

In their place, race organizers have increased cash prizes to the point that this year’s race is worth 8 million francs.

Translation: $1.3 million.

Further translation: Not bad for pedaling a bike across a couple of hills.

And the answer is: “It’s hard to say whether we are ready for the road or not,” Denver Nuggets Coach Doug Moe said last week.

No it’s not.

The Nuggets are 5-22 away from home.

Seems perfectly obvious, Doug. They’re not ready.

Trivia answer: Bob Forsch of the Houston Astros with 12.

Quotebook

ESPN football commentator Beano Cook gets the last word: “I hate to fly. The first word you see in every airport is terminal. “