Notes on a Scorecard - March 6, 1991

No wonder Barry Bonds is mad at the world. The Pittsburgh Pirates are paying him only $2.3 million this year. He has to work seven or eight months. He has to spend the spring in Florida. He gets only $57.50-a-day meal money on the road. Poor guy. . . .

At the Tuesday news conference for their March 18 fight at the Mirage in Las Vegas, Razor Ruddock towered over Mike Tyson. Ruddock is listed as 6 feet 3 and looks every inch of it. Tyson is listed at 5-11 1/2 and looks two inches shorter than that. . . .

Promoter Don King’s introduction of Tyson lasted eight minutes longer than the former heavyweight champion’s past two fights combined. . . .

Actually, King is selling a lot of tickets for the Evander Holyfield-George Foreman fight by predicting that Foreman will “annihilate Holyfield like he did Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica.” . . .

Hate to make you feel old, but Friday will be the 20th anniversary of the first Frazier-Muhammad Ali fight. . . .

The two West Coast representatives on the NCAA basketball tournament committee are Dave Maggard, finishing up his stint as athletic director at California before leaving for Miami, and Gary Cunningham of Fresno State. . . .

Commentator’s cliche: “This is one team you don’t want to play in the first round of the tournament.” . . .

Everyone talks about how the Pacific 10 Conference doesn’t have a tournament now that it needs one, but would it draw? Before cancellation, this year’s tournament was scheduled for Tacoma, Wash. That’s next door to Seattle, where the University of Washington can’t draw flies. . . .

Bob Knight has mellowed. . . .

The Santa Anita Handicap will be run on Saturday instead of Sunday and as the fifth race on the card because of the ABC telecast. . . .

Three-year-old prospects often benefit from having some dirt kicked in their face, but last-place finisher Excavate overdid it in the San Rafael Stakes Sunday. . . .

Under new management, Hollywood Park will open its gates and parking lot free to the public after the sixth race every weekday afternoon. That is an upgrade of two races from the old policy. . . .

North Carolina has 10 former players in the NBA. Next are UCLA, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan with eight apiece. . . .

Sure enough, spectators along the route of the L.A. Marathon Sunday were doing the wave. . . .

I remember Tom McVie, who has replaced John Conniff as coach of the New Jersey Devils, from his playing days with the Portland Buckaroos and Los Angeles Blades in the old Western Hockey League. . . .

Just imagine if hockey had a turnover statistic. . . .

The United States will send its best team ever into the Canada Cup before the 1991-92 NHL season. Among the members will be Brett Hull, Pat LaFontaine, Jeremy Roenick and Jimmy Carson. Hull has dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship. . . .

Give the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins slight edges over the Vancouver Canucks and Hartford Whalers, respectively, in the two biggest trades. . . .

Forward Tie Domi of the New York Rangers is another guy with statistics you just love--no points and 164 penalty minutes in 23 games. . . .

UCLA sophomore softball pitcher Lisa Fernandez is working on a string of a perfect game and two no-hitters. She hasn’t given up a run in 97 consecutive innings. In her spare time, she’s batting .319. . . .

M.C. Hammer got his last name from some Oakland Athletics when he used to hang out in the parking lot at the ballpark. They thought he resembled Hammerin’ Hank Aaron. . . .

A recent survey showed nine American League teams in favor of keeping the designated hitter rule, none against it, three undecided and two abstaining. . . .

The DH rule went into effect on April 6, 1973, when Ron Blomberg stepped to the plate for the New York Yankees. . . .

If there were interleague play, one of the more interesting rivalries might be the Dodgers vs. the Angels. All that left-handed Dodger power against left-handed Angel starters Chuck Finley, Mark Langston and Jim Abbott. . . .

Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf might make a terrific football coach, but his playing days on the gridiron at West Point were limited to the plebe team in 1952. His varsity sports were wrestling and soccer. . . .

A manager to watch in the Dodger farm system is Jerry Royster, who has been elevated from Yakima, Wash., to Vero Beach, Fla. . . .

USC Coach George Raveling said, “We just want to go to the party (NCAA tournament). I don’t care if we’re seated next to the kitchen.”