Notes on a Scorecard - Feb. 5, 1992

You fell into a deep sleep last summer. You wake up Tuesday morning and pick up the newspaper. You read that Wayne Gretzky is talking about retirement and Magic Johnson is talking about coming out of retirement. You think you must be dreaming. . . .

Charles Barkley might be upset about the “media circus” that Magic’s appearance in the All-Star game will create, but NBC is not complaining. . . .

Circle Feb. 17 on your calender. The Clippers, probably coached by Larry Brown, play the San Antonio Spurs that night at the Sports Arena. . . .

Granted, no contract is too short for Brown. . . .

But he would create interest in the Clippers at a time when they have a chance to cut into the Lakers’ popularity, would probably lead them to the playoffs this season and eventually would leave them in better shape than they were when he arrived. . . .

Either that or he would prove that this team is uncoachable. . . .

Jeffrey Coprich, a childhood friend of Earnest Killum’s, is seeking letters of support to rename the 109th Street Park in South-Central Los Angeles in memory of the late Oregon State basketball player. . . .

The letters can be sent to Coprich at 906 E. Lancit Ave., Los Angeles 90059. He will present them to the L.A. Dept. of Parks and Recreation at an upcoming meeting. . . .

Twenty-one-year-old Dodger farmhand Billy Ashley--a 6-foot-7, 220-pound outfielder--has been hitting balls high into the left-field pavilion during winter workouts at Dodger Stadium. . . .

Another Dodger minor leaguer, 22-year-old right-hander Pedro Astacio, led the Dominican Winter League in earned-run average. . . .

Thumbs up to New York Met slugger Bobby Bonilla, who will donate $500 for every run batted in he gets next season to the four schools he and his wife attended in the Bronx. . . .

The San Diego Padres will open the season with a 13-game trip. . . .

Buzzie Bavasi’s son, Chris, is the mayor of Flagstaff, Ariz. . . . Baseball trading cards of former Bruins Jackie Robinson and Bobby Brown are among those pictured on the cover of the UCLA media guide. . . .

It has been seven years since trainer Roger Stein switched from harness horses to thoroughbreds. He won 17 consecutive titles at California tracks from 1980-83 . . .

“The thoroughbred business is tougher by far,” he says. “The horses are so much more fragile. Standardbreds take a licking and keep sticking. You can train most of them the same way, too. With the thoroughbreds, you have to take into account the distances they run and the different surfaces. Also, the competition is much stiffer.” . . .

He has yet to win a trainer’s title on the Southern California circuit, the best in the nation, but Stein’s Forty Niner Days was voted horse of the year in Northern California in 1991, and he has won stakes races with four horses he claimed for $16,000 or less. . . .

Stein doubles as a racing commentator who is not afraid to tweak the Establishment. His hourlong “Trackside” show will be broadcast weekends on XTRA radio beginning Saturday at 7 a.m. . . .

If jockey Laffit Pincay were to continue on his pace of the last five years through the next five, he would break Bill Shoemaker’s victory record of 8,833 shortly before his 50th birthday Dec. 29, 1997. . . .

The Winter Olympics are limited to sports involving snow or ice. A change in policy and a move from the Summer Olympics of, say, boxing and gymnastics would increase interest. . . .

Fred (Mister) Rogers is the celebrity captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. . . .

The NHL trading deadline is March 10, only 26 days before the end of the season. . . .

No wonder Iowa gave Hayden Fry a three-year contract extension. Michigan is the only Big Ten football team that has won more games than the Hawkeyes since 1981. . . .

I hope Karl Malone got a good rest Tuesday after playing 57 minutes during the Utah Jazz’s triple-overtime victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday. . . .

The Big Eight is 97-13 against nonconference opposition. . . .

This time, Jim Boeheim has Syracuse overachieving. . . .

Weekly college basketball TV update: Only one of the four local Pacific 10 Conference games, UCLA-Washington State on Saturday afternoon, will be televised live. The UCLA-Washington game, which will be played Thursday night, will be televised on a 21 1/2-hour delay basis Friday. Just don’t let anybody tell you the score beforehand. . . .

USC Coach George Raveling on the Trojans’ victory over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion last Wednesday: “The sad part is that the season couldn’t have ended then.”