Trevino Offers Advice to Daly: Forget Crowds

Tuning up to join Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Chi Chi Rodriguez in next weekend’s Senior Skins Game at Mauna Lani Resort in Hawaii, Lee Trevino seems to have his verbal shot-making in characteristic order:

--On long-driving sensation John Daly: “He’s got to learn to manage his golf game. The first club he hits on the practice tee is his driver. He’s playing to the audience. You got to play to the numbers. You got to manage the golf course. It’s going to cost him some tournaments.”

--On Chi Chi Rodriguez: “He has the greatest pair of hands since Roberto de Vicenzo. He only weighs 135 pounds, but he also has a great pair of legs and hits the ball so far because he has very fast body movement. Chi Chi would have been a great boxer, because he’s fast.”

--On his 1992 goal: “My goal is to be No. 1 (on the senior tour). I didn’t play well on Sundays last year because I was spending too much time at the tournament site and I became a little fatigued. This year I’m not going to go to the tournament site until Wednesday. I’ll take three days off each week and have my batteries charged.”

--On the sale of Pebble Beach golf course to Japanese interests: “I couldn’t believe Marvin Davis sold it. He didn’t need the money. If I had Marvin Davis’ money I’d have given Pebble Beach to the state of California so they’d have it forever.”

Trivia time: The Boston Red Sox have hired Jim Rice, known primarily as a power hitter, as a minor league batting instructor. How many times did Rice bat .300 or higher in his career?

Echoing praise: Merlin Olsen’s announcement that he is retiring from broadcasting prompted former partner Dick Enberg to recall the time a security guard at Busch Stadium in St. Louis spotted them before an NFL game.

With the guard’s voice reverberating around the almost empty stadium, Enberg said this is what he and Olsen heard:

“Hey, Merlin Olsen-Olsen-Olsen! You are the greatest all-pro-pro-pro! Number 74-74-74! Los Angeles Rams-Rams-Rams! Little House on the Prairie-Prairie-Prairie! Father Murphy-Murphy-Murphy! You are the best-best-best! And you with the red coat-coat-coat (Enberg)! I don’t know your name-name-name, but you’re famous, too-too-too!”

Hail to the Redskins?Washington won impressively in the NFC title game, but the Redskins “are more impossible to like than any team in the league” wrote pro football columnist Brian Hewitt of the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Their owner, Jack Kent Cooke, is an aging and insufferable dandy. He greedily wrested the championship trophy from Wellington Mara’s hands during an embarrassing televised presentation ceremony. Their field boss, Joe Gibbs, is reasonably amiable, but unremittingly humorless. And their constituency is pretentious.”

Hewitt also called the Washington Post “that righteous bastion of self-importance” and said that the Post “high-mindedly” reported that “If the (Detroit) Lions win in Washington, for the first time ever, it will be one of the biggest upsets in NFL history.”

Concluded Hewitt: “No wonder Dan Quayle is so well informed.”

Apropos: As the number of incidents involving Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers continues to increase and his comments stir controversy, the title of Chapter 1 in his new book comes to mind: “I Don’t Mind Being a Jerk.”

Hot shot: It took 5-foot-10 Michael Adams only 32 games to match the number of three-point baskets the entire Washington Bullet roster made last season. Adams needed only 182 shots to equal the 55 three-pointers the 1990-91 Bullets made in 284 shots. Teammate Charles Jones has taken 345 shots and blocked 359 in 176 games in 2 1/2 seasons.

Trivia answer: Seven times in 16 seasons for a career average of .298. He also hit 382 home runs and drove in 1,451 runs.

Quotebook: Dallas Maverick Coach Richie Adubato, after his team’s 10th consecutive defeat: “I tried everything. I tried a small lineup, a big lineup, a young lineup, an old lineup, a fat lineup and a skinny lineup and nothing worked.”