Looks Can’t Kill, But Smith Likes What He Sees at USC

USC football Coach Larry Smith told the Sporting News that linebacker Scott Ross doesn’t have the physical attributes of a Ricky Hunley, whom Smith coached at Arizona, or a Brian Bosworth.

“But in terms of intensity and great, great instinct, Scott Ross is it,” said Smith of the 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior from El Toro. “When he came into our defense two years ago, it totally changed. We needed a pitchfork in there, and he was it. The players totally respect him. He has that wild look in his eye; his hair’s always scraggly.

“He’s one of the ugliest people I’ve ever seen at 6:30 a.m. in the morning, but you know what? When you line up, he’s ready to play, and it’s fun to coach a guy like that.”

Aristotelian: The Raiders lost a minor philosopher when they cut tight end Todd Christensen.

Christensen, never one to deal in stock answers, was asked after the Raiders’ 23-21 loss to the Houston Oilers at Oakland Coliseum Saturday what about the game reminded him of past games in Oakland.

“Absolutely nothing,” Christensen said. “As with snowflakes, each is unique.”

Tricky: When Oakland Manager Tony La Russa was spotted at a game between the Chicago Cubs and Montreal Expos, he was asked if he was scouting them for the World Series.

“Yeah, Doug Rader asked me to check them out for him,” La Russa said.

Add AL West: Of the Angels, Minnesota’s Kent Hrbek said: “They’re a good team. I like their chances better than Oakland’s. I think they have more fire than the other team. I think they want it more than Oakland.”

Trivia time: What player hit the most home runs in his final season in the major leagues?

For the record: A recent item on the 1969 Miracle Mets said that pitcher Jack DiLauro joined a commune in 1970 and hasn’t been heard from since.

Wrong. Tom Klimasz of Los Angeles sends along this excerpt from “A Magic Summer” by Stanley Cohen: “At the end of the 1972 season, DiLauro took a job with a sporting goods company for the off-season, and it turned out to be the start of a new career. Since then, he has managed three of the company’s stores and opened a new territory in his native Akron, Ohio.”

Add DiLauro: The Mets brought him up from Tidewater in 1969 to replace Nolan Ryan, who had been sidelined with a groin injury. DiLauro’s biggest moment was pitching the first nine innings of a 1-0 victory over the Dodgers in 15 innings.

Doubly dangerous: Making up his Worst Owner list, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Terry Boers placed Jerry Reinsdorf of the White Sox and Bulls ahead of the likes George Steinbrenner, Marge Schott and Bill Bidwill.

The firing of Bull coach Doug Collins was the deciding factor, Boers wrote, because: “He has the unique chance to screw up two teams instead of just one.”

Gridiron greats: Hall of Fame halfback Red Grange said the best runner of his day was Bronko Nagurski, his running mate with the Chicago Bears.

“Bronko was big and strong and fast and he had the right attitude,” Grange said. “But as an all-around player, there never was a player better than Ernie Nevers, not as far as I’m concerned.”

In 1929, playing for the Chicago Cardinals, Nevers set a National Football League record by scoring all 40 points in a victory over the Chicago Bears. The record still stands.

Trivia answer: Dave Kingman of the Oakland Athletics with 35 homers in 1986.

Quotebook: Pittsburgh Pirate Manager Jim Leyland, on Chicago Cub Manager Don Zimmer, who endorses Popeye’s Chicken and Nutri/System’s weight-loss plan: “He’s the only guy I know who gets paid to eat and diet.”