Notes on a Scorecard - Feb. 8, 1990

Lockout. . . . what lockout? The annual banquet of the Los Angeles-Anaheim chapter of the Baseball Writers Assn. Sunday at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach is a sellout; the Dodgers have stopped season-ticket sales at the traditional 27,000 mark, and the Angels soon will exceed last year’s sale of 18,000. . . .

Mike Tyson is fighting someone named James (Buster) Douglas Sunday in Tokyo, but I don’t hear anybody talking about it. When Tyson fights George Foreman, people will talk about it. They will ridicule it, but they will pay to watch it. . . .

The NBA All-Star game Sunday in Miami is the most entertaining of its kind. . . .

How can a nice, mild-mannered guy such as A.C. Green be the center of such a storm? . . .

The top four finishers in last year’s NCAA gymnastics meet--champion Illinois, UCLA, Nebraska and Minnesota--will compete Saturday at Pauley Pavilion. Among the participants will be six All-Americans. . . .

When I attended Los Angeles High in the late 1950s, gymnastics outdrew basketball by two to one. Most exciting event? The rope climb. . . .

In the case of the Kings, maybe two coaches are better than one. . . .

Put National Hockey League players in the Soviet Union and they probably wouldn’t fare any better than the Soviet players are doing here. It’s a matter of culture shock. . . .

How’s this for an All-Pacific 10 team? Oregon State’s Gary Payton and USC’s Harold Miner at guards, Stanford’s Adam Keefe at center, and the UCLA tandem of Don MacLean and Trevor Wilson at forwards. . . .

All-Americans: Payton and LSU’s Chris Jackson at guards, Georgetown’s Alonzo Mourning at center, Syracuse’s Derrick Coleman and Nevada Las Vegas’ Larry Johnson at forwards. . . .

Denny Crum reminds me of John Wooden the way he sits on the Louisville bench with a rolled-up program in his hand. . . .

The Atlantic Coast Conference is no longer being mentioned in the same breath with the Big Ten, Big East or even Big Eight and has only two teams ranked in the top 25. . . .

Seven-foot center Shaquille O’Neal would go in the top three of the NBA draft if he left LSU after his freshman season. . . .

For the sake of academics, the Pac-10 should play basketball on consecutive days, preferably Friday and Saturday. . . .

Friends of North Carolina State Coach Jim Valvano are campaigning to get him the Charlotte Hornets job. . . .

Miami is the only team in the NBA that has won as often--a whopping five times--on the road as at home. . . .

Bill Cartwright, who eventually was dealt to Chicago, used to be mentioned in a handful of New York Knicks trade speculation stories every week. Now it’s Rod Strickland. . . .

Dennis Rodman is registering the rarest of complaints--he would rather come off the bench than start for the Detroit Pistons. . . .

NBA players get away with traveling violations three out of every four times. . . .

Forget all the fancy names of sports arenas, and give me the plain old Aud in Buffalo. . . .

Charlie Whittingham is slumping at Santa Anita, but he hasn’t lost his touch for training quality horses, and watch out for him in the big races later in the meeting. . . .

It hasn’t taken Joe Montana long to cash in on the Super Bowl. Every time you look up, he’s selling something on TV. . . .

Wonder how the MISL playoff picture is shaping up. . . .

College football recruiting expert Max Emfinger says UCLA is second only to Texas A&M; right now, but Notre Dame probably will finish with the biggest haul. . . .

California used to be the most popular home base for pro golfers, but now it’s Florida. Pebble Beach winner Mark O’Meara is planning to move from San Diego to Orlando. . . .

Andre Agassi and Brad Gilbert reportedly are being guaranteed $100,000 apiece to appear in a tennis tournament in San Francisco this week. The prize money for first place is $35,000. . . .

Best thing about the Baltimore Orioles’ new stadium is that it’s being built downtown. . . .

Look-alikes: Ted Turner and Pittsburgh Pirate Manager Jim Leyland. . . .

Reliever John Franco will get $900,000 more over three years than New York Mets teammate Dwight Gooden, the difference being that Franco signed his contract this year and Gooden last year. . . .

Fastest 40-yard clocking at the Indianapolis combine for NFL prospects was the 4.35 seconds recorded by Florida wide receiver Stacy Simmons. Among others boosting their stock were wide receiver Fred Jones of Grambling and tight end Eric Green of Jerry Falwell’s school, Liberty. . . .

Asked why he quit the profession, a sportswriter replied: “February.”