Bird Considered Them a Quick Way to Ruin Good Meal

Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe recalls that Larry Bird had little time for the media when he was a rookie with the Celtics.

“I’ll talk to reporters after games,” he said, “but I will not waste any other time doing it.”

Bird later relented and invited Ryan to his table at a restaurant when the writer was stuck in a long line.

“Man,” Bird said. “I never thought I’d ever be having dinner with a writer .”

Trivia time: The NFL Playoff Bowl game was discontinued after the Rams beat the Dallas Cowboys, 31-0, in 1970. What was the significance of the game?

Relish this: The 19th-place finisher of the Trittico Veneto cycling race in Marostica, Italy, was Bo Hamburger of Denmark. Does this Bo know hamburgers?

Clip this: Blue & Gold Illustrated, a magazine that covers Notre Dame football, predicted the Irish would have a 10-1 record this season.

The only loss? A 24-23 setback to USC, which has lost nine consecutive games to Notre Dame.

Raider rip: Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle acknowledges that the 49ers have a problem determining the No. 1 quarterback because of the injury status of Joe Montana.

“This is a problem,” Ostler writes. “But would you rather have this one, or, for example, the Raiders’ quarterback situation--having to choose between a proven non-winner and a kid best known for loud parties and surfing naked?”

Ruth’s legacy: Cal Ripken Jr. of the Orioles told Mike Littwin of the Baltimore Sun that he is more alarmed about his faltering home run production this season than any other phase of his game.

“The home run is sort of like a dunk in basketball,” Ripken said. “When you do it, everyone notices. And when you don’t, everyone notices. It’s a hard thing to put out of your mind.”

Work ethic: English cricket player Graham Gooch, after his team beat Pakistan in London to win the Texaco Trophy: “Our blend of youth and experience worked well. The experienced players stood around watching the youngsters do all the work.”

Ice follies? Joe Lapointe of the New York Times on the recently concluded NHL owners meeting in Florida:

“Helmets are now optional and so is common sense . . . ice barons survive brainstorms in tropical hurricane zone . . . it’s not the heat, it’s the stupidity. They could have done so much more.”

The real games: Michael Jordan on playing with the Dream Team in the Summer Olympic Games at Barcelona:

“The way it turned out, the games were secondary and the practices were the real thing. Sometimes the level of competition was unbelievable. Just that made it all worthwhile.”

Trivia answer: It matched the second-place teams in the NFL’s Western and Eastern conferences.

Quotebook: Carney Lansford of the Oakland Athletics, on former teammate Jose Canseco’s problems with umpires: “I don’t think it’s my job to tell Jose to zip up. We try to calm him down because we need him on the field, but you can only hold him back for so long.”