Astaphan Hoping to Sell, Not Tell, His Part in Johnson Story

Tommy Chaikin sold his story about taking steroids as a University of South Carolina football player to Sports Illustrated.

Margo Adams recounted her affair with Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox in Penthouse.

Now, Jamie Astaphan is out to market himself in the thriving sport of kiss-and-tell publishing.

Astaphan, one-time physician of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who tested positive for anabolic steroids at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, reportedly is negotiating to sell his story instead of testifying before a Canadian federal inquiry into drug abuse in sport, according to the French news agency, Agence France Presse.

Astaphan, a key figure in the Johnson scandal, has already been offered $250,000 by an unspecified West German magazine.

Kimberly Jones, a close friend and associate of Astaphan, told the Toronto Star: “We are holding out for at least 500,000 Canadian dollars ($400,000). The idea is to make as much as I can for Jamie.

“Jamie realizes there is no sense in him coming up to testify because it appears the commission, which was to have investigated drug use, has now turned into an inquisition and all they want to do is nail Jamie and Charlie Francis (Johnson’s former coach).”

Wait a minute: After Bob Milacki of the Baltimore Orioles dominated one of the game’s best hitting teams, the Minnesota Twins, facing the nine-inning minimum of 27 hitters, allowing no one to reach second base and allowing only four balls out of the infield in a 3-0 victory, Manager Frank Robinson was not duly impressed.

“He could have been better, sharper,” Robinson told the Baltimore Sun’s Tim Kurkjian.

Robinson seems to have forgotten the 1988 season when the Deadbirds opened with 21 consecutive losses.

Trivia time: Only two USC quarterbacks have even been chosen in the first round of the National Football League draft. They are?

Knicks’ knacks: On the night Akeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets convincingly out-rebounded Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks, Ewing was asked: “Had you ever been out-rebounded by that many before in your career?”

According to Ira Berkow of the New York Times, the exchange went like this:

Ewing: “How many was it?”

Reporter: “Twenty-five to three.”

Ewing’s eyebrows jumped: “He did that?”

Trivia answer: Pete Beathard in 1964 and Jim Hardy in 1945. Quarterbacks Doyle Nave and Grenny Lansdell were first-round choices in 1940, but in that era they were single wing tailbacks.

First class or coach? In rating the National Football League coaches, Inside Sports picked the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Ray Perkins last among the 24 candidates.

Why? Let us count the ways . . .

“He’s a stubborn, humorless man whose inflexibility shows up on the scoreboard, and he has insulated himself from new ideas with a substandard coaching staff, primarily composed of young yes men. If the Bucs aren’t winners within two years, Perkins might never again be asked to jump teams.”

Ouch!

Quotebook: “If I had my choice, I’d start the playoffs against Miami, and then maybe take the Clippers in the second round,” Philadelphia 76er forward Charles Barkley said before opening the National Basketball Assn. playoffs against the New York Knicks.