You’re on Outside Looking In If You Took Inside Information

Inside Sports, in its November issue, predicted the outcome of the NCAA basketball playoff, complete from the identity of the 64 teams to the Final Four results. Reader Burt Prelutsky, who clipped it out of curiosity, notes that “They did about as well as Saddam Hussein’s military advisers.”

Only one of its Final Four favorites--North Carolina--made it to Indianapolis, but Inside Sports had the Tar Heels losing to Georgetown. Arizona was to beat Arkansas in the other semifinal, and then defeat Georgetown for the championship.

Trivia question: Which team had the easiest path to Final Four?

Financial perspective: “Last year Barry Bonds made (a salary) 11 times what Gen. Schwarzkopf did,” points out Dan Moffet of the Palm Beach (Fla.) Post. “He wanted to make 43 times what Gen. Schwarzkopf makes, but the Pirates took him to arbitration and now he has to settle for only 31 times what Gen. Schwarzkopf makes, or about $2.3 million.”

More on Bonds: Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan says: “What Barry Bonds needs is a good spanking. I’ve always said the trouble with baseball is too many Californians (Bonds is from Riverside) and too many Spock babies. I also felt that there were too few people willing to tell these spoiled narcissists exactly where to go, which is why (Pirate manager) Jim Leyland is my new hero.”

Late call: When Paul Azinger was disqualified from the Doral Open after a TV viewer called to inform tour officials that he broke a rule by moving a pebble with his foot while in a hazard--a day after the incident occurred--it didn’t sit well with fellow pro John Mahaffey.

“It would be like calling up after the Super Bowl and saying look, there was holding on that touchdown in the fourth quarter, so we’ll have to take it away from you and you’re going to lose the game,” Mahaffey said.

Not so good: Since 1980, Pacific 10 basketball teams have won 20 games and lost 31 in the NCAA tournament. Arizona has won 11 of the 20.

Different strokes: Orlando Sentinel columnist Larry Guest on the two views of iconoclast golfer Mac O’Grady: “One camp thinks he’s a genius who can really play golf; the other equally certain he’s a crackpot who can really play.”

Mixed signals: As the story goes from Golf magazine, a young woman in an expensive car pulled into a parking spot in a shopping mall in Seattle and stepped inside. Her vanity license plate read: HOLE IN ONE.

When she returned to her car, a motorist shouted to her, “What’s your handicap?” She instinctively replied, “About a 13,” but wondered why he asked.

Then, as she drove away, she noted the sign: “Handicapped only.”

Mind-boggling: Among the new rules passed by NFL owners at their annual meeting was one that includes a provision forbidding a dropkick beyond the line of scrimmage.

Can anyone remember seeing a dropkick--from anywhere--in the NFL in the past 50 years?

Trivia answer: North Carolina, which did not play a team ranked in the top 25 postseason polls.

Quotebook: Brad Daugherty, Cleveland Cavalier center, on guarding Michael Jordan: “When he takes it to the basket, three things can happen. You’re either going to foul him, or he’s going to score, or you foul him while he’s scoring.”