Old School Tie Doesn’t Pose Question of Have or Have Knot

John Paxson of the Chicago Bulls and Bill Laimbeer of the Detroit Pistons both went to Notre Dame but were never teammates. Laimbeer played his last season with the Irish in 1978-79, and Paxson came in the next year.

Says Paxson: “I’m glad we didn’t play together. I’d hate to have any reason to like him.”

Burned again: At a roast of Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Coach Don Shula said Marino requested No. 13 when he reported as a rookie. The only other Dolphin to wear that number was defensive back Jake Scott.

Shula: “They do have one thing in common--interceptions.”

Trivia time: What NBA player has played the most seasons with one team?

Forever branded: From senior golfer Ralph Terry, the man who served up the ball that the Pirates’ Bill Mazeroski hit out of the park in Pittsburgh to beat the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series: “It’s like I told John Brodie. You could win 50 tournaments, and I could win 50 tournaments, but you’ll always be the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, and I’ll always be the guy who hung the slider to Maz.”

Add Maz: His homer went over the head of Yogi Berra, who was playing left field for the Yankees. Asked why the Yankees lost the Series, Berra said, “We made too many wrong mistakes.”

The Lions’ share: Four years ago, the attendance at Loyola Marymount’s basketball banquet was 35. Thursday night’s banquet attracted 730.

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: Vito Stellino wrote in the Sporting News that Eric Dickerson, when he arrived on the Southern Methodist campus in 1979, was driving a new gold Pontiac Trans Am with a black firebird on the hood.

Stellino: “In his book, ‘A Payroll to Meet,’ which discusses the under-the-table payments to SMU football players that eventually led to the death penalty for the school, David Whitford writes, ‘Eric drove his brand-new Trans Am to Dallas and kept it most of the four years he was there. Somewhere, an Aggie was grinding his teeth.’

“Whitford stated that a Texas A&M; booster bought Dickerson the car. Dickerson accepted it, but still went to SMU.”

Wait a minute: Wrote Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, on Jim Rice: “He toiled 15 seasons, all for the Boston Red Sox, and among Sox players, only Ted Williams was feared more than Jim Ed Rice.”

How about James Emory Foxx? In seven full seasons with the Red Sox, he averaged 36 home runs and 127 runs batted in a season. In 1938, he batted .349 with 50 home runs and 175 RBIs.

Was he feared? Well, they called him “the Beast.”

Trivia answer: Michael Cooper. He is in his 12th season with the Lakers.

Quotebook: Texas Ranger pitcher Nolan Ryan, asked during the lockout what he would do without baseball: “I could go live with Charlie Hough, smoke cigarettes, play golf and learn to throw the knuckleball.”