No Ordinary Father-Son Adventure

When Charlie Cordero, a tooling engineer at McDonnell-Douglas Aircraft Corp. in Long Beach, showed up for work Monday morning, he could be excused if his mind wasn’t 100% on the job.

In fact, he was excused.

His co-workers, aware that Cordero could not afford a trip to see his son, Kerrie, play in the Little League World Series at Williamsport, Pa., took up a collection. Cordero received an airline ticket, a car rental voucher and a week off.

He made it to Williamsport in time to see Kerrie strike out 12 batters and allow only two hits in Cypress’ 9-0 victory over Michigan Tuesday.

Trivia time: Which player led the NFL in scoring in the 1980s?

Harnessed hostage: The pacing mare Time for Toni is the early favorite in Friday’s $10,000 Inaugural Pace at Los Alamitos. But as of Wednesday morning, she was still at Yonkers Raceway in New York.

Said trainer-driver Donald Dancer: “She was all set to fly out here on Monday, but the cargo plane she was scheduled on was commandeered by the U.S. Army and flown to Saudi Arabia.

The pacing mare’s crisis situation moved Los Alamitos publicist Dick Feinberg to write: “Luckily, Time for Toni missed that flight or her next outing would have been the Cameltonian at Riyadh Downs.”

Breaking news: On Aug. 9, the opening day of the PGA Championship, the Atlanta Journal ran a photograph of Jim Thorpe, the only black golfer in the tournament, greeting two fans, one black and one white, at Shoal Creek Country Club in Birmingham, Ala. Above the photo was the headline:

“The Issue’s Dying Down.”

Where have you gone?: The makers of Mr. Coffee, who in 1985 ended Joe DiMaggio’s 11 years as a spokesman for the company, announced Wednesday that DiMaggio soon will return to television commercials advertising Mr. Coffee products nationwide.

Greek to them: The Orlando Sentinel recently published a remark by Norm Sloan, the former University of Florida basketball coach, now coaching the Ilisiakos professional team in Athens, Greece.

Said Sloan: “The only condition I had put in my contract in Greece is that (Florida Athletic Director) Bill Arnsparger can have nothing to do with the team. They asked me, ‘Who’s Bill Arnsparger?’ I said, ‘Keep it that way.’ ”

1-800-NOT TRUE: Raider owner Al Davis commented Wednesday on Fred Edelstein’s ESPN report that the team would play in Oakland this year.

Davis said he didn’t think too highly of Edelstein’s source or his story, adding: “It was destructive and took up a lot of everybody’s time. All it does, I guess, is help the telephone company.”

Trivia answer: Kicker Nick Lowery of the Kansas City Chiefs, with 1,006 points.

Quotebook: Commentator Pete Axthelm, on being forbidden to predict the outcome of NFL games against the point spread on ESPN telecasts: “Those absolute filth-bag rap groups that get censored--if they were playing in my living room, I’d move out--they have a right to talk dirty. I have a right to talk point spreads.”