They’ll Have Something to Fill Cup With

It has been announced that the maker of Stolichnaya Cristall, Russia’s rarest vodka, has become an official supplier to Dennis Conner’s bid to defend the America’s Cup next year.

Among other services, the company will provide a new spinnaker for Conner’s yacht, Stars & Stripes.

Conner said he was delighted to welcome such a prestigious brand of vodka aboard his defense team.

His crew will doubtless agree with him. You know, yo ho ho and a bottle of Stoli.

Trivia time: Name the least-recent winner of the NBA rookie-of-the-year award who is still playing in the league.

Profile: From the Lakers’ 1972-73 media guide: “A strong, all-around player, he has been a spark plug ever since joining the team. He matches up defensively with the small forwards and big guards in the league . . . a tough, hard-nosed competitor.”

This “hard-nosed’ guy is Pat Riley, a 6-foot-4 swingman when he played for the Lakers.

Guest privileges: About 20 gloves were stolen from the San Francisco Giants’ clubhouse at Shea Stadium Friday, including all three belonging to center fielder Willie McGee.

McGee didn’t have to play barehanded, though. Vince Coleman, the New York Mets’ center fielder who was once a teammate of McGee’s with the St. Louis Cardinals, shared his glove, leaving it in the outfield for McGee to pick up.

New York is known, of course, for its hospitality.

The blur: From Nolan Ryan’s Pitcher’s Bible: “Of his estimated 100,000 pitches the last decade, 65,000 or more have been clocked from 90 to 100 m.p.h.”

Where’s Paul Revere?: Larry Guest of the Orlando Sentinel, writing on the Masters golf tournament:

“For the fourth April in a row, one of Queen Elizabeth’s dutiful subjects has captured one of America’s prized sporting plums. Tiny Welshman Ian Woosnam became the latest of Her Majesty’s golfers to continue Great Britain’s death grip on the Masters, snatching a dramatic one-stroke victory to the vocal disappointment of certain partisan colonists.

“What Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown has been reclaimed by Lyle, Faldo and Woosnam on the manicured battleground at Augusta in what has become the Limey Invitational.”

Running it up: Cleveland’s two-game total of 35 runs, in 20-6 and 15-6 victories over the Oakland Athletics last weekend, was the highest of any American League team in 38 years.

The Boston Red Sox, with 17-1 and 23-3 victories over the Detroit Tigers on June 17-18, 1953, were the last American League team to score so many runs in two consecutive games.

Trivia answer: Adrian Dantley of the Milwaukee Bucks, the 1977 winner.

Quotebook: Pete Harnisch of the Houston Astros, who pitched on opening day against the Reds in Cincinnati: “(Commissioner) Fay Vincent was the guest. He threw out the first ball and sat in the third row. My pitches were landing in his beer.”