He Knew He’d Be Good, but Not This Good

During the 1989-90 NHL season, Cliff Fletcher, then general manager of the Calgary Flames, said this regarding his team’s trade of right wing Brett Hull to St. Louis: “When we traded him, we figured he’d score 150 goals over the next three years. We knew what we were giving up, but we have no regrets. We have a Stanley Cup.”

A lot has changed. The Flames have lost in the first round of the playoffs each of the past two years. And Hull has scored 199 goals in the past three years, considerably more than Fletcher projected.

This week, Fletcher was named president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the worst team in hockey. Hull led St. Louis to the second-best record in the NHL this season and Wednesday was named the league’s MVP.

Trivia time: Who was Roland Garros, whose name is on the stadium where the French Open is being played?

Charity begins on road: The Chicago Bulls’ 61.7% shooting in Game 2 against the Lakers was a record for the NBA finals.

It was not, however, the best shooting ever against the Lakers in the playoffs. Los Angeles extended the same largess to another team on April 17, 1971. In the Western Conference finals, the Milwaukee Bucks shot 61.9% against the Lakers. The Bucks were led by Lew Alcindor, who had 31 points and 20 rebounds.

New kid on the block: Dave Gavitt, CEO of the Boston Celtics, told Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe that it had been an interesting first year on the job. He had no idea just how rabid Celtics fans really are.

“I was on the job perhaps a week,” he said. “I was at the checkout stand in a fruit market in Providence after making a quick purchase. All of a sudden, I felt a whack--a hard one--on my back. I mean, I felt it. I thought maybe I had cut in line. I turned around to apologize and I saw an elderly woman.

“ ‘Don’t you even think of trading Kevin McHale!’ she yelled.”

All aboard: The folks at the Union Pacific railroad want to buy part of the Omaha Royals so the triple-A team will stay in the city.

Omaha has been home to the railroad for 129 years and the railroad wants to help keep the Royals in town.

Union Pacific and a local real estate developer want to put up $5 million to buy the Royals.

Presumably, when the team travels, it will be run out of town on a rail.

Jobs we wish we had: Fans have been complaining about escalating salaries in baseball. But how about rising profits of the owners?

Baltimore Oriole owner Eli Jacobs is rumored to be interested in selling his team. The Orioles have been good to him, if not on the field then at least on the bottom line. Jacobs bought the Orioles for $70 million three years ago. Today, the team is said to be worth at least $100 million. Where else but in baseball would someone unload a business whose value has increased by $10 million a year?

Trivia answer: Garros was a French pilot who was shot down in World War I.

Quotebook: Bulls’ forward Horace Grant, asked if his twin brother, Harvey, who plays for the Washington Bullets, was lending him moral support during the NBA finals: “I don’t know where Harvey is. As far as I know, he’s in Saudi Arabia.”