Notes on a Scorecard - July 23, 1990

How typical of the NCAA to penalize Nevada Las Vegas basketball players because their coach, Jerry Tarkanian, broke some rules 13 years ago when they were in elementary school. . . .

Wouldn’t it make more sense for the NCAA to allow the team to participate in the tournament next season, but not pay the university? UNLV received more than $1,000,000 in receipts last season when it won the championship. . . .

The tournament ban is harsh punishment for Larry Johnson, who probably would have been the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft, and Stacy Augmon, a cinch first-rounder, who bypassed the draft to stay in school for their senior season. . . .

A few years ago, you would have given an American a lot better chance to win the British Open than the Tour de France. . . .

Too bad that the same network, ABC, had the rights to both events Sunday. We got the British Open live, but the Tour de France very much dead many hours later. . . .

Nick Faldo is every bit as exciting as Ivan Lendl. . . .

In bicycling, it must be the legs that go first. . . .

I guess you have to see it in person to appreciate it, but on TV, St. Andrews looks about as impressive as your neighborhood municipal golf course. . . .

Wonder if they have a diamond lane on the road hole? . . .

The difference between the consistent Nick Faldo of 1990 and the El Foldo of early in his career is his putting. . . .

Whatever happened to Seve Ballesteros? . . .

Faldo showed some emotion on the 18th hole, but nobody has more fun on a golf course or in an interview room than Chi Chi Rodriguez, who won the Senior Open in Michigan Sunday. . . .

Chi Chi called the British Open a “pitch and putt contest.” . . .

Now Mark Langston is proving that he can lose the laughers as well as the close ones. . . . Vin Scully, after Dodger runner Juan Samuel scored all the way from first base in Pittsburgh on what began as a pitchout: “What makes Sammy run?” . . .

The Atlanta Braves wouldn’t be where they are today if they hadn’t traded Brook Jacoby and Brett Butler to Cleveland for Len Barker in 1983. . . .

After his knee surgery Friday, a spokesman for Pete Rose said it would be “day to day” as to his availability to start serving his prison sentence before the Aug. 10 deadline. . . .

The San Diego Padres are giving the Kansas City Royals a run for their money as the most disappointing team in baseball. . . .

Leave it to Cub Manager Don Zimmer to intentionally walk Bill Bathe to get to Will Clark and get away with it. . . .

Look-alikes: Jose Canseco and Ozzie Canseco. . . .

Quickest way in sports to go broke is to become a boxing promoter. A card in the Seattle Kingdome Thursday featuring Tim Witherspoon drew only 2,125 paying customers and reportedly lost $450,000. . . .

Why should Andre Agassi care about Wimbledon when he can win the Sovran Bank Classic? . . . John Robinson, the former USC coach, is an equal opportunity employer with the Rams. On the preseason roster are eight ex-UCLA Bruins and only two ex-Trojans. . . .

“We’re going to do our best to play as many people as possible this year and get away from relying on the 11-man starting team,” Robinson recently said at Rams Park in Anaheim, where rookies and free agents were practicing. “There are lots of open jobs here. I love it. That’s what makes a team competitive.” . . .

Among those starting jobs open, says Robinson, is tailback, where Curt Warner, Cleveland Gary and Gaston Green are the leading candidates. . . .

GamePlan Magazine rates Colorado No. 1 in the nation and Tennessee No. 2. Those two teams will play in the first Disneyland Pigskin Classic Sunday, Aug. 26, at Anaheim Stadium. NBC has assigned the varsity--Dick Enberg, Bill Walsh and Ahmad Rashad--to broadcast the game. . . .

The USC-Notre Dame game Nov. 24 at the Coliseum is approaching a sellout. . . .

Amanda McKaughan, a promising exercise rider for the sizzling Bill Shoemaker stable, will leave for Moscow next week to compete in a series of races with the Amateur Riders Club of America against a Russian team. . . .

Ted Turner must be exaggerating again when he claims that 90% of the world’s best athletes are competing in the Goodwill Games. . . .

A proposed movie about the Tour de France entitled, “The Yellow Jersey,” has been kicking around Hollywood for years. Instead, how about a fairy tale about a Californian named Greg LeMond winning two consecutive Tours after suffering a gunshot wound that nearly costs him his life?