He’s on Different Stage, Reviews Are the Same

Seattle Times columnist Steve Kelley worked himself into a rage while commenting on former Seahawk Brian Bosworth’s movie debut:

“To call ‘Stone Cold’ garbage is to give garbage a bad name. . . . Do yourself a favor. Don’t buy Boz’s baloney. Don’t go to this movie. Don’t fall for the Bosworth pitch. He is as much a fraud on the big screen as he was on the gridiron.

“It’s so bad, Roseanne Barr should sing the national anthem before each show.”

Trivia time: Who holds the record for most points in a regulation NBA playoff game?

Cobb’s legacy: Author Al Stump notes that July 17 will be the 30th anniversary of Ty Cobb’s death, and the legendary baseball figure still dominates the record book.

Cobb’s career records include most runs (2,245), highest batting average (.367) and most steals of home (35).

“He was worth $12.1 million from investments and baseball when he died, according to documents I saw in 1961,” Stump said. “Today’s millionaire players, what with modern taxes, perhaps have another mark to shoot at.”

Fire when ready: The Wilkes University (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) baseball team defeated King’s College, 28-26, April 30 in a game played--appropriately enough--at Artillery Park.

Come again? Chuck Benedict of the Glendale News-Press recalls some Yogi Berra-isms: --”My little son can’t wait to shave, so he can grow a beard.”

--”Eighty percent of baseball is half mental.”

--At a store selling fishing equipment, a sign advertised, “All the worms you want for a dollar.” Yogi asked for $2 worth.

It’s official now: Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan has almost committed heresy by declaring that Detroit’s Dennis Rodman, not Bill Russell, is the greatest defensive player who ever lived.

“Bill Russell remains the standard by which all defensive centers are judged,” Ryan says. “But Dennis Rodman is uncategorizable. He can guard anybody .”

Even Manute Bol?

Invisible man: John Eisenberg of the Baltimore Sun has an unflattering opinion of Johnny Oates, the Orioles’ new manager:

“He’s a background guy . . . a bit player. A guy you neither cheer, nor boo. A backup catcher. A first base coach. A minor league manager. A vague presence somewhere in the picture. A face you see, but never notice. A voice you hear, but never file.

“Just another guy with a Virginia twang and a mustache and light brown hair going gray at the temples, watching and listening. He comes and he goes and no one notices. He’d make a perfect spy.”

Something’s fishy: During the final round of the Ben Hogan South Texas Open in Portland, Tex., last March, Roger Salazar hit a shot that came to rest on the top of a dead jellyfish.

Officials ruled that since the slimy creature was dead it was a loose impediment and not an outside agency, or a dangerous situation. Salazar, playing it from where it lay, went on to make a bogey on the hole and win the tournament.

Truly Dizzy: In the fourth game of the 1934 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers, Dizzy Dean, the Cardinals’ famed pitcher, was hit in the head by a relay throw while trying to break up a double play.

Dean was rushed to a hospital and examined, prompting a famous newspaper headline: “X-Ray Dean’s Head; Find Nothing.”

Trivia answer: Elgin Baylor of the Lakers, with 61 points against Boston in 1962.

Quotebook: Pole vaulter Billy Olson, who was hampered last year by a broken leg: “I’m like a bucket of bolts; the pieces don’t fit together anymore. I’m between the twilight and no-light of my career.”