This Bostonian’s Perspective Isn’t Exactly Bullish on Lakers

Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan sized up the Lakers as they began the NBA championship series against the Chicago Bulls.

Some samples from Ryan’s scouting report:

Magic Johnson--”Don’t you love his Happy Hooker routine, not to mention his Chris Ford set shot?”

James Worthy--”Put on earth to finish Magic’s fast-break feeds.”

Sam Perkins--”Well, whaddya know? Even the Human Lamppost can develop a little imagination when teamed with Magic Johnson.”

Vlade Divac--”The Serbian ulcer-carrier.”

Mychal Thompson--”Jump shot even funnier than his one-liners, but it used to go in.”

Ryan picked the Bulls to beat the Lakers in seven games.

Trivia time: Of the 20 pitchers who have won 300 or more games in the major leagues, which have the highest and lowest winning percentages?

What’s in a name: The men’s and women’s divisions of the French Open feature top players such as Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf.

But the player with the best name for tennis comes from Israel and is competing in the girls’ division--Anna Smashnova.

Simple game: A crowd of 25,000 turned out at Beijing’s Workers Stadium on Friday to see Pacific Lutheran of Tacoma, Wash., beat Evangel College of Springfield, Mo., 20-7, in the first football game played in China.

Uniformed police sat between the field and the spectators and were heavily scattered throughout the crowd, where they lectured one man who was throwing paper airplanes and others who were doing the wave.

The fans cheered wildly and attempted to grasp the concept of the sport.

“It’s really chaotic,” said Ding Jinghua, a hotel worker. “Everybody grabs at each other and then they all fall down.”

Dem Bums: The Chicago Cubs are in fourth place, seven games out of the lead in the National League East, and fans are getting restless, especially veteran Bleacher Bums tired of a yuppie invasion in the hallowed outfield seats.

“To add insult to injury, they show up wearing ties, their Rolexes and some even bring their cellular phones,” said Jerry Pritikin, a long-time Cub fan who calls himself “the Bleacher Preacher.” “They discuss the Dow-Jones averages instead of the batting averages.”

No Midas touch, this: Rap star M.C. Hammer is zero for three at the track, at least when his family’s horses race.

Fans thronged around Hammer and his family when they showed up Saturday at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, Calif. But Hammer’s filly, Drouth Willow, finished fifth in the eighth race after winning five consecutive races and moving up in class.

“That’s OK. We’ll just have to take if from here,” said Lewis Burrell Sr., father of Stanley Burrell, Hammer’s real name, and co-owner of Oaktown Stable with his sons.

Oaktown is a rap sobriquet for Oakland.

The long run: On this day in 1987, Danny Harris defeated Edwin Moses with a time of 47.56 seconds in the 400 hurdles in a meet at Madrid, ending the longest winning streak in track and field history. Moses, who finished .13 of a second behind Harris, had won 122 consecutive races dating to Aug. 26, 1977.

Trivia answer: Lefty Grove, who compiled a record of 300-141, had a .680 winning percentage, highest of the 300-game winners. Nolan Ryan, who is 3-4 this season for the Texas Rangers and has a lifetime record of 305-276, has the lowest winning percentage at .525.

Quotebook: John Wathan, former manager of the Kansas City Royals, on being offered a consultant’s position by General Manager Herk Robinson immediately after he was fired: “I told him, ‘If you had made me a consultant five minutes ago, my first recommendation would have been that you not fire the manager.’ ”