The Easy Part for Harrah Comes After the First Pitch

A letter-writer in the Dallas Morning News listed the top 10 duties Toby Harrah will perform as manager of the Texas Rangers for the rest of the season. Among them:

--Wash Ruben Sierra’s car during pregame warm-ups.

--Call Bobby Valentine every hour on the hour and ask if a Mr. Un M. Ployed lives there.

--Baby-sit the Bush kids on trash disco night.

--Save paychecks so the Rangers can get the Olympics TripleCast in the clubhouse.

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Trivia time: How many times has Indianapolis quarterback Jeff George been sacked in his two-year career?

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Rawhide: Three years after the Dallas Cowboys changed owners and let him go after 29 years as coach, Tom Landry’s only association with football is as a minority owner of the San Antonio Riders of the World League.

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Cover guy:: Mitchell Butler (career average 7.3 points a game) is on the cover of the UCLA basketball summer prospectus.

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Cutting it: Former Pittsburgh Steeler and Hall of Fame member Mel Blount competes on the National Cutting Horse Assn. summer circuit.

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More horses: Philadelphia Phillie reliever Mitch Williams spent the All-Star break riding horses on his 450-acre ranch in Texas, complete with a 38,000-square-foot barn. “I’m going to try the rodeo when I’m through (with baseball),” Williams said.

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Backstop theory: In a story in the Sporting News, Ken Gurnick quoted Angel Manager Buck Rodgers on the skills a catcher needs. Rodgers praised Mike Scioscia of the Dodgers.

“If you’ve got a fastball pitcher whose fastball isn’t worth spit and you get him through five innings, you’ve done a hell of a job,” Rodgers said. “Scioscia is about as good as there is at that.”

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Ticket business: The Atlanta Falcons have joined the Kansas City Chiefs, Chicago Bears, Denver Broncos, New York Giants, New York Jets, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks in selling at least 60,000 season tickets.

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Magic number: San Francisco 49er quarterback Joe Montana, who missed all of last season because of a torn tendon in his right elbow, is only two yards short of 35,000 yards passing in his career.

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Media update: Olympic organizers issued more than 170 press credentials to cover the practices of the U.S. basketball team in Monte Carlo.

One of those covering the team in Monaco was Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post, who loved everything about Monte Carlo . . . almost. Said Wilbon: “A 10-ounce can of Coca Cola cost $4.50. . . . A preferred nightspot called Jimmy Z offers beer for $20 a pop. At nearby Paradise, a rum and coke will hit you up for $36.”

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Slow start: Carlton Fisk’s double Tuesday night against the Baltimore Orioles was the first extra-base hit this season for the 44-year-old Chicago White Sox catcher.

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Trivia answer: 93.

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Quotebook: From Boston Red Sox first baseman Mo Vaughn, who was charged with one error but made two other bad plays in two innings to help Kansas City score five runs in an 8-0 Boston defeat: “Balls were flying around everywhere. I’ve got no excuses. . . . I was terrible.”