In Couched Terms, Dibble Simply Goes All Out to Win

Rob Dibble, the Cincinnati Reds’ volatile pitcher, told Inside Sports that he can be “off the wall” when he is angry.

“That’s my makeup,” he said. “Sometimes I have a 100-m.p.h. fastball and a 100-m.p.h. temper. That’s intensity, not insanity.”

Vowing to harness his intensity, Dibble visited a psychologist last winter.

“I saw the guy twice,” he said. “I thought he was crazier than me.”

Trivia time: What is the NBA record for most overtime periods?

Mud slide: Floyd Peters, Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator, is still simmering after the Buccaneers blew a 27-3 halftime lead to the Rams on Dec. 6 in losing, 31-27.

“I like what I’m doing, and I’ll be doing it until they kick dirt on me,” Peters said. “But if we have any more games like that one, they’ll be kicking dirt on me on the sidelines.”

Perhaps Peters should get ready. Tampa Bay trailed Atlanta at halftime on Sunday, 14-7, then was routed, 35-7.

Epitaph: George Willis of Newsday, commenting on the New York Giants’ 19-0 loss to Phoenix on Saturday:

“The Giants were not only beaten by one of the worst teams in the NFL, but shut out in a miserable performance that is likely to end any questions about whether Coach Ray Handley should keep his job.”

Don’t bet on it: From Blackie Sherrod of the Dallas Morning News: “Finally found something with longer odds than the Texas lottery: Butch Reynolds’ chances of collecting $27 million damages from the IAAF, after exile for steroids.”

Educating Alonzo: Charlotte Hornet forward Larry Johnson, last season’s NBA rookie of the year, is trying to smooth some of the rough edges off of rookie Alonzo Mourning.

Johnson told Mourning he was wrong when the former Georgetown center recently tried to throw a female reporter out of the Hornets’ locker room.

“A lot of things are going to happen to him that haven’t happened and he doesn’t know about it, like women in the locker room,” Johnson said. “Of course, we didn’t have it at college, but you have it here.”

Butt of jokes: The NHL’s Ottawa Senators, probably the worst team in pro sports--they are 3-23-3--are already the subject of jokes, according to Tom FitzGerald of the San Francisco Chronicle. “Like: What is the difference between the Senators and a cigarette machine? Answer: The machine has Players.”

Fame is fleeting: Steve Owens, who won the Heisman Trophy as an Oklahoma running back in 1969, told USA Today that he recalled a day a dozen years ago when his son Michael, then 6, was playing with a friend who looked at the large trophy and said, “Mikey, what’s that?”

Mikey’s answer: “Just some old trophy my dad won.”

FYI: In 1950, the Rams became the first NFL team to have both its home and away games televised.

Trivia answer: Six. The Indianapolis Olympians beat the Rochester Royals, 75-73, on Jan. 6, 1951.

Quotebook: Raymond Floyd, after winning the season-ending Senior Tour Championships at the Dorado Beach Resort in Puerto Rico by five strokes: “I was so far in front, I felt that I was bullet-proof.”