There Are Plenty of Reasons to Call the Big East the Big Ugly

Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Evening Sun, a longtime observer of Big East basketball, had these impressions of his favorite league:

“After a decade of watching Big East basketball, let’s call it by a more appropriate handle: the Big Ugly. Weak preseason schedules, John Thompson’s towel, six fouls, Rollie Massimino’s sideline histrionics, the investigation of wimpy Jim Boeheim’s program at Syracuse, Lou Carnesecca’s grotesque sweaters, all teams playing those ugly, hammer-away pressure defenses that lead to too much contact, too many fouls and fights and no tempo.”

He’s baaaack: Edward Kiersch writes in Inside Sports magazine that Kansas City Chief quarterback Steve DeBerg is the Freddy Krueger of the NFL. Krueger is the hard-to-kill villain of “Nightmare on Elm Street” fame.

Replied DeBerg: “I do keep coming back from the dead.”

Add DeBerg: The former Anaheim Savanna High and Fullerton College athlete has seen enough questionable front-office moves in a 15-year career to last a lifetime. “One thing I have learned during these years is never to try to figure how an organization makes coaching decisions,” he said. “These decisions just aren’t the stuff of rationality.”

Trivia time: Which three players have pitched a no-hitter, won the Cy Young Award and been named MVP of a World Series?

Happy camper: Is Gregg Jefferies overjoyed by his trade from the New York Mets to the Kansas City Royals, or what? “I took one look at the stadium and I told my fiancee I’m going to pitch a tent in the gaps and sleep there every night,” he said.

America’s team once more: Revenues from Dallas Cowboy merchandise is expected to exceed $64 million in the fiscal year ending in March, a 62% increase from the previous year, NFL officials announced.

Blind dates: Seen on the message board at the recently concluded NCAA convention in Anaheim: a request for football teams to play next season against University of Nebraska at Kearney; University of Central Oklahoma at Edmond; Western State College at Gunnison, Colo.; Angelo State University at Angelo, Tex.; Portland (Ore.) State, and the University of Montana.

Major schools need not inquire.

Trivia answer: Bret Saberhagen, Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax.

Quotebook: After two fans streaked down the first-base line at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium last July, Brave General Manager John Schuerholz said: “They ought to take those two guys just as they are and put them in an unoccupied cage at the zoo.”