Costas Gets This Vote for Next Commissioner

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Given a vote, my pick for the next baseball commissioner would be broadcaster Bob Costas. Intelligent, fair and with integrity, Costas is attuned to all facets of the business and sport.

Go figure: While a vast majority of football coaches are reticent to let their quarterbacks call the plays, the coach at Portland State, Pokey Allen, went so far as to let the fans call them. The committee dictated a touchdown during Portland’s 35-21 victory over Cameron.

Considering Pete Rose’s recent activities in the marketplace, how long can it be before he dismantles his house and starts auctioning off the bricks one by one?

Mike Tyson was walking along a New York street the other day when he thought to himself, what the heck, why not ride? Especially with a snappy red Ferrari 328 staring out at him from a showroom. The heavyweight champ wrote a check for $150,000 and was on his way.

Speaking of Tyson, imagine a Canadian promoter coming up with $2.5 million site money for his yawner against inexperienced Razor Ruddock in November. To make ends meet, he’s hoping to drag $1,500 out of the good people in Edmonton for a ringside seat.

When the Washington Capitals took off for a nearly three-week swing through Sweden and the Soviet Union as part of training camp Tuesday, they were hauling along 522 sticks, or 18 per player. They couldn’t pick up sticks over there?

A letter to a Gotham sports page states, “While looking at the list of players drafted by the over-35 league in Florida, it occurs to me that two teams (Port St. Lucie and Winter Haven) could probably run away with this year’s American League East.” Darned if the guy probably isn’t right.

It turns out that after all the commotion surrounding ex-Navy star Napoleon McCallum and his desire for football career, the guy’s an also-ran when it comes to hacking it as a back in the National Football League.

Money is obviously no object at the Mazda Champions golf tourney in Puerto Rico in December. The winning Professional Golfers’ Association senior and Ladies Professional Golfers’ Association player duo will split $500,000.

George Steinbrenner says, “Fans love winning. If we were winning, we could get away with playing Adolph Hitler in right field.” With no Fuhrer to play right field, obviously Georgie figures he’ll play the part.

It’s easy to see why some athletes don’t bother scrutinizing the papers while in the midst of a competition. While wading through David Pate, Derrick Rostagno, Miloslav Mecir and Mikael Pernfors so far, Boris Becker keeps being reminded by the scribes that he has been just mildly successful at the U.S. Open and that he’s not overpowering anyone, a la Wimbledon.

Beleaguered Detroit Tigers manager Sparky Anderson says: “Since I’ve been here, Kirk Gibson was the only quality player that came through our minor-league system.”

The false claim -- what about Howard Johnson, Sparky? -- reminds of Mayo Smith’s complaint when Detroit fell on tough times after fielding a good team in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s: “The only guy who has made it onto the club from the system the last four years is Ike “Bleeping” Brown.

Victor Remington-Kiam, owner of the New England Patriots, wants the NFL to get into the restaurant business, opening league-underwritten bistros in a bunch of cities.

While on the marketing kick, the National Basketball Association has finally figured the head start baseball has in the trading card business is big enough, so it will be coming out with a 300-card set come November. Remember, it’s the rookie cards that shoot up in value rapidly.