Reprise of ’88 Playoff Could Be Illuminating

If the Edmonton Oilers play the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals, it will be a rematch of the 1988 finals, which were swept by the Oilers.

The teams actually played five games, but the fourth game was canceled because of a power failure at Boston Garden with the score 3-3 at 16:37 of the second period.

NHL President John Ziegler announced afterward that the game would be replayed two nights later at Edmonton.

That prompted Wayne Gretzky to say of the rescheduled game: “The Americans will call it 4-A. We’ll call it ‘4, eh?’ ”

Add hockey: The original Game 4 in 1988 also was unusual in that it was played in a fog that resulted from high temperatures in the Garden. Several times, play was delayed as the players skated in circles in an attempt to dissipate the moisture.

Said Jari Kurri of the Oilers, a native of Helsinki: “There’s a rink in Finland that’s comparable to this one. They don’t play there anymore.”

Trivia time: What two major league pitchers won at least eight games in every season during the 1980s?

Wait a minute: Said former West Virginia quarterback Major Harris, drafted in the 12th round by the Raiders: “Others drafted higher came out of the woodwork and they didn’t prove themselves.”

Among the quarterbacks drafted ahead of Harris was Andre Ware of Houston, who passed for 4,699 yards last season, set 25 other NCAA records and won the Heisman Trophy.

Speed the plow: Harris, who is leaning toward playing for the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League, was asked if he felt as if he were being farmed out. “They play on a field,” he said, “so I guess it’s kind of like a farm.”

Bottom line: General Manager Dick Steinberg of the New York Jets, asked by Sports Illustrated about Harris and former Notre Dame quarterback Tony Rice, who was not drafted: “What you had was 28 scouts who all saw the same thing--that these are two quarterbacks who do not have NFL passing ability or the skills to develop into NFL quarterbacks.”

Twenty years ago: On May 12, 1970, Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs hit his 500th home run.

Home sweet home: Stuart Gray, traded this season by the Charlotte Hornets to the New York Knicks, said of Los Angeles in the Hornets’ in-house magazine, Tipoff: “The whole attitude about life out there is really cold and callous.

“It’s an I-got-mine and you-get-yours attitude. The general perception out there is not to help your fellow man.”

Gray, who undoubtedly will find friendlier folk in New York, played at Kennedy High in Granada Hills and at UCLA.

For the record: Willie Mays will be 60 next May 6.

Trivia answer: Nolan Ryan and Danny Darwin.

Quotebook: Billie Jean King, on 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati: “Jennifer’s got the best ground strokes I’ve ever seen.”