If This Were the World Series, They’d Have the Brooms Out

Pacific Rim alert: Japanese baseball all-stars win first four games against touring American all-star team.

They’re beating the likes of Cecil Fielder, Dave Stewart, Bobby Thigpen and Rob Dibble.

Said Chicago Cub Manager Don Zimmer, who is managing the American team: “I’m trying everything to win. We want to win. We all want to win. But they’ve outplayed us.”

Japanese commentators have begun to strike a note of parity.

Said Yoshikazu Matsubayashi, a writer for Baseball magazine: “(Japanese) pitching is now almost at the American level.”

And an announcer on Nippon Television’s national newscast remarked: “The major leaguers have received a lesson since coming to Japan.”

Add Japanese baseball: Time for a reality check.

Robert Whiting, whose book “You Gotta Have Wa” detailed the differences between the Japanese and American approaches to the game, told Dan Biers of the Associated Press: “Japanese baseball is better than most Americans think. But it’s not as good as some of these Japanese commentators are starting to say now.”

The author said that he asked the manager of the Seibu Lions, winners of this year’s Japan Series championship, how his team would do against the World Series champion Cincinnati Reds.

Said Whiting: “He threw up his hands and said, ‘There’s no way we’d win.’ ”

Trivia time: Sunday’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Dallas Cowboys will be 49er quarterback Joe Montana’s debut at Texas Stadium. What is the only other NFL stadium where Montana has never played?

Is nothing sacred?: College football purists complain of corporate identities being slapped on time-honored postseason games, such as the “USF&G; Sugar Bowl” and the “Mobil Cotton Bowl.”

They can’t say that about the Sunshine Classic, which will stage its inaugural game Dec. 28 at Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium. Officials recently announced that they had signed a sponsorship agreement with a chain of video stores.

Somehow, though, it just won’t seem the same, calling the Sunshine Classic the Blockbuster Bowl.

Hedging his bets: Bill Cohen of West Covina is having trouble deciding whose predicted order of finish to go with in Big Ten basketball--Street and Smith’s annual preview or Dick Vitale’s.

Street and Smith’s likes Ohio State to win, with Michigan State second. Dick Vitale’s switches them. Both like Indiana, Minnesota and Purdue for Nos. 3, 4 and 5, and Iowa and Northwestern for 9 and 10.

But in the Nos. 6, 7 and 8 spots, Street and Smith’s has Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin respectively, whereas Dick Vitale’s says Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois.

Why is Cohen confused? Two magazines have the right to differ, don’t they?

Sure, but both predictions were written by Jack Ebling of the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal.

Who goofed?: The answer to Tuesday’s trivia question should have said that the captain of the 1938-39 USC basketball team was Bob Goodrich, not Gail. Gail Goodrich, Bob’s son, was a co-captain of UCLA’s 1964-65 team, as reported.

So make the correction on page 68 of your 1990-91 USC Basketball Media Guide, made from 100% recycled (and recyclable) paper.

Trivia time: Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe.

Quotebook: Cincinnati Red center fielder Eric Davis, on being the first major leaguer to wear high-top spikes, now also worn by Kevin Mitchell, Barry Bonds and Darryl Strawberry: “I’m no trend-setter. I have bone chips in my ankles. They wear them because they look good.”