Rotisserie Questions Put on Front Burner

Dean Vogelaar, the Kansas City Royals’ public relations vice president, told Steve Cameron of the Kansas City Star that he recently returned the call of a New York lawyer, but the man’s secretary said he was in an important meeting.

When Vogelaar identified himself, the secretary said, “Wait a minute, I’ll get him.” The lawyer got on the line and immediately began asking questions about an injured player on his rotisserie league team.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Vogelaar said. “What about your important meeting?”

Trivia time: Who was the last National League player to win the triple crown?

Oakland Richters won’t do: The National Hockey League needs to know the nickname of its new Bay Area franchise by July 21, so a name-the-club contest is under way. There are 300 prizes, including official pucks, Stanley Cup videos and the grand prize, a trip for two to the 1991 NHL All-Star game in Chicago.

Jim Bainbridge of the Oakland Tribune reported some of the new management’s contest tips: no earthquake references; no Blades (gang-related); no Sombreros (a possible hat trick tie-in, but team officials fear it conjures up images of “sleepiness, inactivity, siestas”); no cute computer nicknames, e.g. Circuits or Chips.

Subtle sell: From Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, on the no-hitter explosion: “Some say it’s World Cup envy. With worldwide fan interest high despite only occasional goals in soccer, no-hitters may be baseball’s bid to attract foreign fans. The next double no-hitter, think Group F.”

He looks maahvelous: From Wallace Matthews of Newsday on Marvelous Marvin Hagler’s movie “Indio”, now available in video stores: “. . .he gets top billing over Brian Dennehy and the real star of the film, Francesco Quinn--and in 94 minutes, he never even has to throw a punch. Heck, he never even makes a fist. As Sgt. Iron, he does get to strip his shirt off in two scenes, and looks fit enough to fight tomorrow.

“How’s his acting? Well, he is no Lou Gossett. He’s not even Jim Brown, not yet, anyway. But he’s not bad, and he’s a lot better than Bob Arum, his former promoter who made his acting debut 15 years ago playing a drug agent gone wrong in a low-budget stinker, ‘The Marijuana Affair.’ ”

The color of envy?Vandalism and demonstrations have become commonplace after World Cup matches but at least one kinder, gentler expression followed West Germany’s victory over England in Wednesday’s semifinal. In Glasgow, home of the Scottish soccer team, a statue of St. George, England’s patron saint, was painted in the West German team colors--green and white.

T-man: Last season, after drawing one of his several fines, Philadelphia 76ers’ forward Charles Barkley said, “I’ll write it off my income tax.”

It turns out that’s exactly what he’ll be able to do. After a six-week check, Wilson Fadely of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington said, “We couldn’t find anything that would deny a deduction . . .. It could be considered as an ordinary expense.”

During the 1989-90 season, Barkley, who earns more than $2 million a year, drew fines totaling $45,000.

Trivia answer: Joe (Ducky) Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937. He batted .374, with 31 home runs and 154 runs batted in.

Quotebook: Former Duke quarterback Ben Bennett, after playing in his first Arena Football game: “The game looks like your VCR is stuck on search.”