In Oregon, They’re Grateful for All Extra Cash They Get

The University of Oregon athletic department, always on the lookout for ways to avoid sinking further into the red than the $1.3-million deficit it currently faces, last weekend did what any clear-headed group would do.

It staged a Grateful Dead concert.

“We made more than $200,000,” sports information director Steve Hellyer said. “We had turnouts of 36,000 Saturday and 24,000 Sunday.

“Autzen Stadium sits there empty from the first of June to the first of August,” Hellyer said. “Any time we can put a concert in there and make money, we’ll do it.”

This was the third time in four years the Dead has played an athletics benefit in Eugene. Despite concerns about drug use during the Deadfest, the Eugene Register-Guard said medical and security problems were minimal.

“I’d rather work nine Grateful Dead concerts than one Oregon football game,” Police Det. Rick Raynor said. “They don’t get belligerent like they do at the games.”

Trivia time: What was Walter Alston’s major league career batting average?

Crimestoppers’ notebook: Attention, all units. Be on the lookout for counterfeit Bo Jackson cards. Be advised that counterfeiters have issued fake 1990 Score baseball card No. 697 and supplemental football card No. 384-S.

The baseball card shows Jackson in shoulder pads with a baseball bat across his shoulders. The football card shows Jackson in a batting stance, wearing football pads. Both pictures are black and white, but the authentic baseball card has a green border, the football card a purple border.

Invaluable resource: Bill James’ “The Baseball Book 1990,” in its section on rotisserie leagues, includes this evaluation of Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitcher Neal Heaton: “Anyone who would draft Neal Heaton is probably too dumb to be helped by a book like this anyway.”

Heaton is 10-2 with an earned-run average of 2.89.

Franchise player: Offensive tackle Chris Hinton of the Atlanta Falcons has been to the Pro Bowl in six of his seven NFL seasons. However, he is more well-known for role in two of the NFL’s best-known trades.

In May of 1983, the Denver Broncos traded Hinton, whom they had just drafted, along with quarterback Mark Herrmann and their first-round draft choice in 1984, to the Baltimore Colts for quarterback John Elway. The Colts drafted Elway, but he refused to play in Baltimore.

This year, Hinton and receiver Andre Rison went from the Colts to Atlanta in exchange for two draft picks, one of which was the No. 1 overall. The Colts, now in Indianapolis, used it to take Illinois quarterback Jeff George.

What goes around: Last weekend, a reader called The Times with this reminder: “In 1973, during the Saturday Night Massacre, Nixon fired Cox. Now, (the Braves’) Cox has fired Nixon.” Trivia answer: In 1936, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, Alston struck out in his only at-bat.

Quotebook: Shortstop Ozzie Guillen of the Chicago White Sox, on his chances of making the All-Star game: “No one knows who I am, so I’d have to kill all the other shortstops. I’d have to take care of Cal Ripken, Alan Trammell, Tony Fernandez and Kurt Stillwell. Then I’d be in jail and I wouldn’t be able to play anyway.”