True, but Then L.A. Isn’t a One-Team Berg

The Pittsburgh Pirates might have failed to make the World Series, but their successful season pumped some much-needed revenue into the community, according to a Carnegie Mellon University estimate reported in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette.

According to Carnegie Mellon, the Pirates helped the area by:

--Generating $50 million in spending by fans, the team, the media, visiting teams, baseball officials and others.

--Generating $73 million in spending in the metropolitan area of Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties for a four-county spending total of $130 million.

All this prompted Richard Cyert, retired president of Carnegie Mellon, to exclaim: “The Pirates are much more important to Pittsburgh than the Dodgers are to Los Angeles.”

Perhaps, but that didn’t keep the Pirates from firing General Manager Larry Doughty on Monday.

Add impact: According to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, professional and collegiate sports inject an estimated $1.3 billion into the local economy.

Trivia time: Four of the eight starting quarterbacks in the NFL wild-card games hailed from Southern California. Name them.

What, no suites? In 1941, the Chicago Bears won their second consecutive NFL championship, defeating the New York Giants, 37-9, before about 13,000 in Chicago. The admission price was blamed for the sparse crowd--$4.40 for grandstand seats, $2.20 for the bleachers.

Ah, the perks: Boston College graduate assistant Dave DeGuglielmo, on the plight of trying to make it in the basketball coaching ranks, recalled having to stay overnight in the office once.

He told the Boston Globe’s Michael Vega: “I was lying on the floor, freezing from the air conditioner and staring up at the ceiling thinking to myself, ‘Here I am with a master’s degree from Boston University, and I am sleeping on the floor. Why am I doing this?’ ”

Rough rider: Jim Washam, a defensive lineman for the University of San Diego, spends the summer breaking horses at his family’s ranch.

“Hey, I would rather go against a horse than half the guys I face out there (in football),” he told the NCAA News.

Trivia answer: Steve Beuerlein of Dallas and Anaheim Servite High School, Steve DeBerg of Kansas City and Anaheim Savanna, Todd Marinovich of the Raiders and Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley, and Warren Moon of Houston and L.A. Hamilton.

Add Trivia: Two more Southland quarterbacks started in a first-round games. Who?

Trivia answer: John Elway of Denver and Granada Hills High, and Erik Kramer of Detroit and Burbank Burroughs High.

Quotebook: Coach George Kingston of the San Jose Sharks, who runs ultra-marathons of up to 100 miles: “I’m sure the players think I’m crazy, but that’s their problem.”