The Only Roar at U.S. Open Will Come From the Crowd

At major tennis tournaments, players’ whining is one form of noise pollution. And there are times when the chair umpire has to quiet the crowd.

But to New York Mayor David Dinkins and Queens Borough President Claire Shulman, the worst noise of all is the roar of jetliners over the U.S. Open.

The Associated Press reported that the two have persuaded the Federal Aviation Administration to reroute planes taking off from La Guardia Airport during tournament play Aug. 27-Sept. 9. Certain residents of Flushing won’t like it, but Dinkins and Shulman will take that chance.

The U.S. Tennis Assn. has said it will consider the noise problem when it decides whether to keep the Open at the U.S. Tennis Center after its lease runs out in 1994. In their request to the FAA, Dinkins and Claire emphasized “the unique status of this event and its economic benefit to the city.” They estimated the latter at more than $100 million annually.

Trivia time: Who was the first pitcher to win an All-Star game and a World Series game in the same season?

25-cent solution: From Wilfrid Sheed, in a Gentleman’s Quarterly article arguing for the admission of Shoeless Joe Jackson to baseball’s Hall of Fame: “Perhaps the best solution would be for the whole mishmash known as baseball to declare a separation of powers, in which the commissioner punishes your sins while the Hall of Fame acknowledges your achievements, the way having your face on a stamp does.”

Big Red machine: On the Santa Monica Freeway, Times staff writer Jerry Crowe spotted a car decked out with University of Nebraska paraphernalia. Its bumper sticker read: “If I owned Oklahoma and Hell, I’d live in Hell and rent out Oklahoma.”

Just be patient, baby: Recent headline in the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch: “Al Davis makes eighth trip to Hall of Fame.”

Root for the brain: Mario Johnson, Missouri’s 6-foot-5, 314-pound defensive tackle, told Doug Tucker of the AP that he’d been bullied as a kid.

Said Johnson: “My body matured before my brain did. That got me in trouble.

“Then, when I was in the fourth grade, high school kids would jump on me. I never see those people anymore. I wish I did. It would be pay-back time.”

Wild times seemed to follow him, even during his recruitment period.

At a party when he was visiting Pittsburgh, a man got shot, and police rushed in. At a party at Colorado, a brawl broke out. “I really threw some punches,” Johnson said.

Add Johnson: He finally narrowed his choices to Michigan and Colorado. But 10 minutes before he was to announce his decision at a news conference, a call came from his older brother Lee, who was playing at Missouri.

Although the two had a difficult relationship at times, Mario recalled: “I said, ‘I’m going to miss the chance to play with you.’ He said he really wanted to play with me. . . . Then the emotion just burst out in me. I said, ‘I love you, and you come before any school. Where my brother is, I am going to be.’ I went out there and said Missouri is where I’m going.”

Trivia answer: Lefty Gomez of the Yankees in 1937.

Quotebook: Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent, on George Steinbrenner’s lawyers: “The (Pete) Rose lawyers were better. They knew when to shut up.”