Baseball Beware: Miami Heat Isn’t Just an NBA Team’s Name

Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette questions the wisdom of putting a major league baseball franchise in Miami.

“People don’t visit South Florida in the summer; they evacuate it,” Smizik writes. “Three things stand out about South Florida summers. In no particular order they are the heat, the humidity and the thundershowers.”

Smizik calls the heat and humidity in South Florida comparable to Houston’s. However, the Astros play in a domed stadium. The Miami team will be exposed to the elements in Joe Robbie Stadium.

The average temperature and humidity in Miami for July and August are 89 and 77, respectively, according to Smizik.

Trivia time: Name the four former UCLA golfers who have earned $100,000 or more on the PGA Tour this year?

Is that all?: Dwight Chapin of the San Francisco Examiner, on University of San Francisco athlete Kari McCallum: “One of these days, she is going to meet herself coming and going.”

And for good reason.

In the past year, McCallum was the top runner on the women’s cross-country team; played in 18 of the school’s 20 women’s soccer games; finished with winning records in both singles and doubles for the women’s tennis team; volunteered in campus ministry and at a convalescent home, and tutored underprivileged children.

Moreover, she maintained a 3.66 grade-point average--on a 4.0 scale--with a double major of psychology and religion.

Crazy? Not me: Rob Dibble, the Cincinnati Red pitcher who threw a ball into the stands at Riverfront Stadium, injuring a spectator, disputes the public perception that he’s mentally unstable.

“I’m tired of being psychoanalyzed,” he said. “The Sporting News had some guy who never met me saying that I was crazy, that I had stepped over the line. I can’t have some idiot saying I’m crazy in public.”

Is it OK to do it in private?

Add No. 32: It’s a famous number, and Jim Tunney has worn it longer than any athlete.

You see, Jim Tunney is the well-known NFL referee who has had 32 on the back of his shirt for 31 years.

Dreaded line: Ever hear of the Mendoza Line? Major league baseball players know all about it and gauge their skills accordingly.

It’s named after shortstop Mario Mendoza, who had a career batting average of .215 while playing with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers from 1974 to ‘82, according to the Dickson Baseball Dictionary.

“The first thing I look for in the Sunday paper is who is below the line,” said George Brett of the Kansas City Royals.

Trivia answer: Corey Pavin, Steve Pate, Jay Delsing and Duffy Waldorf.

Quotebook: Laker backup center Mychal Thompson, when asked about the less-than-ideal conditions of old Chicago Stadium: “This is nothing. There aren’t enough rats here to match Boston Garden. They’ve got to improve their livestock to match up with the Garden.”