Red Barber/Mel Allen Styles: Crepes Suzette vs. Hot Dogs

Curt Smith compares the announcing styles of the late Red Barber and Mel Allen in his book, “Voices of the Game:”

“Barber was white wine, crepes suzette, and bluegrass music. Allen was beer, hot dogs and the United States Marine Band.

“Barber’s voice was cultured, silken; Allen’s voice was extraordinary. Barber etched; like Astaire, Sinatra, he was a balladeer.”

Trivia time: Name the only Pacific 10 team that hasn’t played in the Rose Bowl game?

Celebrity pup: The World Cup pup finally has a name--Striker. A six-week nationwide search to name the 7-foot-tall mascot ended with paw prints on the concrete outside Hollywood’s Mann Chinese Theater on Thursday.

Alan Rothenberg, chairman and CEO of 1994 World Cup USA, calls it the world’s biggest sporting event.

Even in the United States?

Ho hum: “Arrogance, thy name is NFL,” Ira Miller writes in the San Francisco Chronicle.

“With the NFL mired in a long courtroom losing streak, did you catch Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s comment early this week?

“At a press briefing during a league meeting, Tagliabue said: ‘I don’t worry too much about district court decisions. They get reversed a lot.’ ”

Silver lining: Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe writes that the New England Patriots’ ineptitude--they have a 0-6 record--has reduced expectations.

“They are like a blind date,” Shaughnessy says. “At the end of the night, you sigh and say, ‘At least she didn’t weigh more than me, or (from the distaff side), ‘At least he isn’t an ax murderer.’ ”

Back to school: Nebraska football Coach Tom Osborne told USA Today that Big Eight officials should be required to attend training school before they are hired.

Osborne said he believes a quote he attributed to Eddie Crowder, former coach at Colorado: “On Saturdays, the only amateurs on the field are the officials.”

Saliva problem: Question to the Good Doctor column in Inside Sports: “Charles Barkley must be making adjustments to his new life in Arizona. In what ways has he found Phoenix different from Philadelphia?”

Answer: “It’s so dry he can’t get up any spit.”

Another Ferry?Christian Laettner recently signed a six-year, $21.6-million contract, making him the highest-paid player in Minnesota sports history.

“But in spite of his picture-perfect college career and a respectable showing as the only collegian on the Dream Team, doubts persist about Laettner,” writes Jackie MacMullan of the Boston Globe.

“Until he plays a real game, he is doomed to be linked with Danny Ferry, the last Duke superstar, who has been an NBA bust.”

Turnabout: From Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News: “Hot-selling T-shirt around Ole Miss pictures an upright steer brandishing shears, addressing a trussed Jackie Sherrill: ‘It’s OK, coach, it’ll be educational and motivational.’ ”

Trivia answer: Arizona.

Quotebook: Chi Chi Rodriguez, watching one of John Daly’s drives disappear during an exhibition in Florida: “When I was a kid, I didn’t go that far on vacation.”