Sticking With Rice, Red Sox Are Cinch

Want to know which team will win the World Series this year?

Don’t bet against the Boston Red Sox--and for one reason only: outfielder Jim Rice.

With Rice on their roster, the Red Sox are a cinch. The precedent is there, in triplicate. Consider:

--Notre Dame won the national championship when it defeated West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. Quarterback Tony Rice was voted the game’s outstanding player.

--The San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl by beating the Cincinnati Bengals. Wide receiver Jerry Rice was voted the game’s outstanding player.

--Michigan won the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. basketball championship by edging Seton Hall in overtime. Forward Glen Rice was voted the tournament’s outstanding player.

How can Rice and the Red Sox fail?

A grain of truth? David Aldridge of the Washington Post wonders what will happen to the Wolverines’ Rice, and speculates along these lines: “The Clippers sound more and more like a team that will deal its lottery pick, which, if things continue the way they are, will be no worse than fifth or sixth. Their first priority is finding a jump-shooting guard, though, and there probably aren’t any in the league available better than Michigan’s Glen Rice or Arizona’s Sean Elliott.”

He may have a point.

Trivia: Last year, Scotland’s Sandy Lyle became only the second player to win the Masters with a birdie on the final hole. Who was the first and when?

Decades ago: Twenty years ago today, the New York Yankees spoiled the managerial debut of Ted Williams by defeating the Washington Senators, 8-4, in the season opener at Washington’s RFK Stadium.

Bowled over: After interim Coach Steve Fisher had led the Wolverines to the NCAA championship, USA Today pointed out: “Fisher has already won more postseason basketball games than his boss, Michigan Athletic Director Bo Schembechler, has won Rose Bowls.”

Ouch.

Tuning him out: Jim Palmer made his debut as a play-by-play broadcaster for the Baltimore Orioles on opening day. According to the Washington Post’s Norman Chad, if he’d still been a pitcher, Palmer wouldn’t have lasted beyond the second inning.

Wrote Chad: “As it was, he went the distance in the booth . . . and his line read something like this: 11 innings, 67 errors, no men left at home listening.”

Losing their way: When the Clippers won their third game in a row earlier this week, it left the Sacramento Kings with an unenviable record. The Kings are the only team in the NBA without a three-game winning streak this season. In fact, Sacramento has not won three straight since April, 1987.

Reevaluations: The Detroit Pistons, who have the best record in the NBA this season, manhandled the Boston Celtics in last year’s playoffs and are 3-1 against them this season.

But if you think the Celtics would rather face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs, think again.

After Cleveland pounded Boston, 117-100, at the Richfield Coliseum last Sunday, the Hartford Courant noted that Cleveland has held Boston to its two worst shooting performances of the season and has beaten Boston seven straight times in the Coliseum by an average of 17.4 points, and that Boston is 0-20 against winning teams on the road.

Trivia answer: Arnold Palmer in 1960.

Quotebook: Michigan Athletic Director Bo Schembechler on the school’s first NCAA basketball title: “It’s almost better than beating Notre Dame.”