It Might Be a Coveted Trophy, but Beauty Is in Eye of Beholder

Kevin Paul DuPont of the Boston Globe, describing hockey’s Stanley Cup, which is 100 years old this season:

“Depending on your point of view, the Stanley Cup can look like a beautiful wedding cake, its bands of inscribed names cascading the length (35 1/4 inches) of the column that supports the bowl.

“A looser interpretation might be that it more closely resembles the gizmo that a local garage pulls under a car’s crankcase for an oil change.”

Trivia time: Who is the oldest starting winning quarterback in the Super Bowl?

Extra, extra: No news is seemingly more important in San Francisco than the ongoing story of where quarterback Joe Montana will play next season.

As an example, a headline above the masthead Monday on the front page of the San Francisco Examiner said: “Joe Tells Niners No.”

Below this startling news was a headline: “Waco Standoff Ends in Fire.”

Ball bandit: Detroit Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson, who recently gained his 2,000th victory, was once a resourceful batboy at USC.

“Whenever a new box of balls was opened, I’d tug at a seam with my fingers and take it to (USC Coach) Rod Dedeaux,” Anderson told Tom Callahan of the Washington Post. “ ‘Mr. Dedeaux, this one’s defective,’ I’d say. He’d look the ball over carefully. ‘OK, you can have it, but I hope we won’t be finding any more defective ones for a while.’ ”

Nerd-western: Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune, on Northwestern’s commitment to academics rather than athletics:

“What was that chant to the opposition in the ‘70s, when Northwestern was losing every football game? ‘That’s all right, that’s OK. You will work for us some day.’

“It may be pompous but, 15 years later, it is undoubtedly true.”

What a relief: Indiana basketball Coach Bob Knight has told reporters they aren’t as bad as people who run high school rating services.

“As long as those . . . exist, you’re a step, at least, above them. You are not at rock bottom.”

Sandwiches, too?From “The Incomplete Book of Baseball Superstitions, Rituals, and Oddities,” by Mike Blake:

“Wade Boggs is a card-carrying chickentarian. Believing there are hits in chicken, he eats the bird seven days a week.

“He has hundreds of recipes to vary the fare: baked, broiled, barbecued, and sauteed; Italian style, Mexican, Oriental, and Middle Eastern.”

Journeymen: With Vinny Testaverde now in Cleveland, the Tampa Bay quarterback corps consists of 39-year-old Steve DeBerg, Craig Erickson and Mike Pawlawski. Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel isn’t impressed with that group: “Jeane Dixon couldn’t even see a future there.”

Trivia answer: Jim Plunkett, who was 36 when he led the Raiders to a 38-9 victory over the Washington Redskins on Jan. 22, 1984.

Quotebook: Announcer Skip Caray, complaining about the four-hour plus length of Sunday’s 11-inning game between the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves: “I’ve had marriages that didn’t last that long.”