Only Winning Is Music to Brooks’ Ears

New Jersey Devil Coach Herb Brooks, apparently frustrated that his NHL team is hovering around .500, lashed out at--of all things--the music in Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

“This is a dead building,” Brooks said recently. “It’s the worst I’ve seen in hockey. The organist should take two weeks off and then retire.”

Since the Meadowlands doesn’t have an organist, that would be difficult. The music is prerecorded.

Trivia time: Who holds the Ram record for the longest kickoff return?

Ground rules: New York Met Manager Jeff Torborg said Vince Coleman is learning taekwondo, hoping the movements and disciplines of the martial art will help the oft-injured outfielder avoid additional leg injuries.

“It’s for conditioning,” Torborg said. “Not for talking to the manager.”

Salute to Singletary: Columnist Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune, on the retirement of linebacker Mike Singletary after the current season:

“Singletary shared his era with Mike Ditka, and it is handier to identify the Bears’ (past) success with Ditka than Singletary, but that is because Ditka was louder and more obvious. Ditka was finger-painting, Singletary was art. I said he shared an era, not an ego.”

Mediocre media: Ditka seemingly has a low regard for the media, according to Pro Football Weekly.

“The media is plural for mediocre. Their influence in this country is a powerful thing,” Ditka said. “They just got done electing a president. It was the very liberal media who led the sheep into the booth. I’m sure they feel if they can elect a president, they can fire a coach.”

Overrated? Even though San Francisco 49er Coach George Seifert has a 54-13 record, including a Super Bowl victory in 1990, former 49er running back Roger Craig isn’t that impressed with Seifert’s accomplishments.

“Look at him with the talent he has,” Craig told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Anybody can step in and do a good job in that system. It’s not like he created this big era of what they’re (49ers) doing. Bill Walsh did that a long time ago.”

Odd couple: Frank Gifford, longtime announcer on “Monday Night Football,” recalled when he was in Los Angeles in the late 1970s for a Ram game and invited John Lennon to appear at halftime, forgetting that Ronald Reagan had also been been invited.

“I look over my shoulder before halftime and Reagan has his arm around Lennon’s shoulders explaining American football to him,” Gifford told the Miami Herald. “You could not imagine two people sitting together who were more politically apart.”

For the record: Vencie Glenn of the San Diego Chargers shares the NFL record for longest interception return with Louis Oliver of the Miami Dolphins, who returned an interception 103 yards this season.

Trivia answer: Jon Arnett and Travis Williams, 105 yards, in 1961 and 1971, respectively.

Quotebook: Dick Motta, former Sacramento King coach, on the many problems he had before he was fired: “I felt like a drowning man willing to grab anything they threw to me. It turned out they threw me razor blades.”