Fans Might Be More Interested If Cardinals Would Try Plan W

When the Arizona Republic invited readers to tell the Phoenix Cardinals what players should be left unprotected in Plan B free agency, fewer than 200 people responded.

“Most people, it seems, don’t care what the Cardinals do,” Republic columnist David Casstevens wrote. “Plan A didn’t work. Why should Plan B?”

Noting that most of those who did respond expressed disgust with the team, which was 4-12 last season, Casstevens added: “Instead of asking whom the Cardinals should let go, perhaps the better question would have been to ask what players are worth keeping. Totaling the votes wouldn’t have taken long.”

Glory bound: The Ohio Glory of the World League of American Football used its first pick in the WLAF draft to select 32-year-old former NFL quarterback Babe Laufenberg, who spent last season doing television and radio work in Dallas. The pick prompted Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News to write that the Glory had adopted “a novel draft strategy of going after the best broadcaster available.”

Trivia time: Laufenberg, who spent time with the Cowboys, Chargers and Redskins, was selected by Washington in the sixth round of the 1983 NFL draft. Who was the Redskins’ sixth-round pick three years later?

He delivers: Bruce Morgan, a basketball player at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, is averaging 20 points and recently won two games with shots in the final 30 seconds, including a three-pointer at the buzzer. Not bad for a guy who is 29 and working a midnight-to-8 a.m. shift five nights a week for the U.S. Postal Service. The NCAA News reports that Morgan, who is married, also carries a 2.8 grade-point average.

Add JJCCJ: Yes, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice is an NCAA school, competing at the Division III level. The nickname of its teams? Bloodhounds, of course.

The way he was: In noting Howard Cosell’s retirement from broadcasting, Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post recalled the first time he was in Cosell’s presence, at a Washington Touchdown Club dinner in the early ‘70s.

“I was interviewing basketball Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor during a cocktail reception,” Shapiro wrote, “when behind me from across the room came a familiar, raspy voice. ‘There he is, tall and strong, Elgin Baylor, the greatest playground hero in Wash-ing-ton bask-et-ball history. . . . And now a mere shadow of his former self.’ ”

And at guard, Friar Tuck?The men’s basketball coach at Feather River College in Quincy, Calif., is named Robin Hood.

Desperately seeking Michael: Suspended by the NBA for bumping a referee, Michael Jordan wasn’t in Phoenix for the game between the Bulls and the Suns Wednesday night--a fact that one fan appeared to take quite personally, according to Sam Smith of the Chicago Tribune.

Wrote Smith: “An ample woman wearing tight purple stretch pants, a white blouse and crimson eye-liner was not smiling. She was glaring at the Chicago Bulls’ players as they walked onto the court . . . and waving a sign in their faces. It read: ‘We traveled over 500 miles and paid $150 each for our tickets. Where’s Michael?’ ”

Answer (provided by Smith): In Orlando playing golf.

A little young: Currently working on a book on Kentucky basketball Coach Rick Pitino, Dick Weiss of the Philadelphia Daily News has had a first-hand look at bluegrass basketball mania. According to Weiss, Pitino received an envelope from a proud father apparently hoping to show off a future Wildcat. Inside the envelope Pitino found a sonogram showing a sixth-month-old fetus.

Bilingual on the bench: At least one major league baseball manager views the off-season as an opportunity for self-improvement. Bobby Valentine of the Texas Rangers, hoping to better communicate with the Latin players on his team, is studying Spanish at a Berlitz school. And he isn’t just learning a few words and phrases. He’s taking the intensive course--100 hours in 10 days.

Trivia answer: Mark Rypien.

Quotebook: NBA Vice President Rod Thorn, who hands out the league’s fines and suspensions, on Charles Barkley: “It’s fair to say that when it comes to visits to my office, Charles is in a class by himself.”