It Might Be a Great Story, but NHL Chapter Is Unwritten

Someone is going to have to explain the facts of life to Eric Lindros.

Even though the teen-age Philadelphia Flyer rookie has not played a minute of official NHL hockey and his salary is higher than Wayne Gretzky’s, he told Les Bowen of the Philadelphia Daily News: “I don’t expect any glamour. I’m not Superman. I don’t wear a big ‘S’ on my shirt, I wear a Flyer emblem. I don’t know what the buildup is all about at all.”

Doesn’t know? Then how come at 19 he already has his autobiography, “Eric Lindros/Fire on Ice,” on the bookshelves?

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Add Lindros: In his book, he puts it this way: “Sometimes I feel like a bird on a wire with two strings around my neck--or three strings, or four strings, or a million strings. And people are pulling me everywhere. . . . But they don’t understand that I’m not a bird on a wire. I’m there for life. And it doesn’t matter how hard they pull, because I’m the strongest bird, and I’m not budging.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for most tournament victories in the Professional Bowlers Assn.?

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Reverse jinx: New Mexico State, the team named “the worst in America” in Sports Illustrated’s preseason issue, is 3-0 and could be 4-0 after playing Utah State (0-3) today in Logan, Utah.

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Sounds logical: When the Longacres horse track near Seattle closed the other day, it reminded bettor Sol Saporta of advice he once received from an old horseplayer.

“You know, one day you win, one day you lose,” Saporta said of his trips to the track. To which his friend replied: “In that case, why don’t you go out every other day.”

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Stomachache: Texas Manager Toby Harrah wasn’t pleased when he saw his highly paid players gorging themselves on a postgame meal after a 13-0 loss.

“I hope that food tastes good,” he said. “I’d think it would be a little tough eating right now. They should eat all that food and then puke. That would be the appropriate thing to do.”

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Add Rangers: Catcher Ivan Rodriguez, after making one of three errors in one inning in the 13-0 game, said it felt like “Fifty-thousand people (were) laughing at us.”

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Winning choice: Bruce Lietzke’s excuse for not playing in the U.S. Open was that he wanted to stay home in Plano, Tex., and help coach his son’s Little League team. It was worth it. The team went 12-0, then won four straight for the city championship.

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Trivia answer: Earl Anthony, with 41.

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Quotebook: The late Winston Churchill, on golf: “It is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for that purpose.”