They’re Trying to Keep Streets Clean and Dry

Olympic organizers probably thought they had a tough time getting Los Angeles ready for the 1984 Games. Their counterparts in Beijing have it much worse.

Authorities in the Chinese capital are eager to put the best possible face on a society beset by AIDS, cholera, mosquitoes, rats, flies and cockroaches as the city prepares to play host to the Asian Games, which open Aug. 20.

One measure was announced this week: Beijing residents caught spitting in public places will (a) have to clean up their mess and (b) pay a fine of five yuan ($1.06), roughly equivalent to a day’s pay.

The Beijing Evening News noted that the new fine is 10 times higher than the previous one. Also, the newspaper said, if an offender refuses to pay, the penalty will be doubled or tripled, depending on his or her attitude.

Trivia time: Which Heisman Trophy winner played for four NFL teams?

Employment barrier: From Tom Whitfield of the Atlanta Journal: In 1960, Coach Hank Stram faced his first cut with the Dallas Texans of the American Football League.

At practice, Stram noticed team owner Lamar Hunt about to begin his personal workout with a 40-yard dash.

Hunt ran it in 5.1 seconds. Stram yelled: “Hey, you receivers and backs. We’re cutting everybody that can’t run faster than the owner.”

Check his cap: Left-handed knuckleball pitcher Daniel Boone, 36, whosegreat-great-great-great-great-great-great uncle was the Daniel Boone, recently threw a seven-inning no-hitter in a doubleheader for the Rochester Red Wings, Baltimore’s triple-A farmclub.

Their Yankees: On Monday, the German mass-circulation newspaper Bild ran the headline: “Bayern, ha ha ha.”

A headline in the Cologne Express said: “The whole of Germany is laughing at Bayern.”

That’s what powerful Bayern Munich, which won the Super Cup soccer tournament eight times, got for losing to an amateur team in the opening round of this year’s competition.

Digging himself a deeper hole, Uli Hoeness, coach of the professional club, blamed the heat wave sweeping Europe. Hoeness told Agence France-Presse: “This never would have happened in normal weather conditions.”

Unkindest cut: When pro golfers on the Ben Hogan Tour played the Woodlands Country Club in Falmouth, Me., this year, 53 players survived the cut. All it took was a nine-over-par 153.

Very narrow fairways, slick greens and windy conditions produced only one subpar finish. Brandel Chamblee won the tournament at one under par, and Jeff Maggert finished second at even par.

Try a Detroit Tiger: Bob Sargent, the national sales manager for Homers Cookies--”the official cookie of major league baseball”--looks down his nose at comparisons between his company’s little shortbread figures, cut in six different baseball positions, and a more familiar shortbread product, animal crackers.

Said Sargent: “One thing that always got me about animal crackers was that you couldn’t tell one animal from another.”

What?

Up in the air: The New York Jets’ starting quarterback job is a tossup between Tony Eason and Ken O’Brien. Literally.

When the Jets held their first scrimmage, Eason noticed he was ahead of O’Brien on the depth chart. He asked Coach Bruce Coslet: “Is that by alphabetical order?”

Said Coslet: “Alphabetical? It’s much more scientific. We flipped a coin . . . twice.”

Trivia answer: John Huarte, with the Patriots in 1966-67, the Eagles in ‘68, the Chiefs in ‘70-’71 and the Bears in ’72.

Quotebook: Phil Rodgers, talking about his fellow golfers on the PGA Senior Tour: “The older we get, the farther we say we used to hit it and the more we hit it out of sight.”