The Cover Hints at Sonnets, but This Book Is All Business

Dick Weiss of the Philadelphia Daily News writes that New York Knick Coach Pat Riley has a Hollywood look with his slicked-back hair and Armani suits, but he acts as if he’s from Brooklyn.

“His suits are almost a camouflage,” Knick guard Doc Rivers told Weiss. “He dresses nicely in a dapper way, so you expect that kind of personality.

“But that’s not what you get. He should be dressed like Norman Schwarzkopf. He’s a commander, a general.”

Trivia time: Omaha has been the site of the College World Series since 1950. What were the original sites?

Avoiding the ‘S’ word: Will Clark of the San Francisco Giants has been in a batting slump, but when talking about his batting average, he doesn’t refer to it as a slump. “I mean if he wants to call his .218 average (.238 through Sunday) a pedigreed goat instead of a slump, what is the long-lasting harm?” writes Ray Ratto of the San Francisco Examiner. “They’re his numbers, after all, and nobody’s going to convince him otherwise.”

Hang on: Driver Willy T. Ribbs of San Jose, who finished 21st in the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, on the new rumble strips on the track: “It’s like you grabbed hold of an electric blender at 200 miles an hour.”

Hair forest: Ted Danson’s character on “Cheers” was Sam (Mayday) Malone, a former Boston Red Sox reliever. Toronto’s Paul Molitor was asked hypothetically by Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe whether he could have hit Malone. “It would depend on whether he went to his hair,” Molitor said. “He could hide a lot of stuff in his hair.”

Soccer style: Tom Weir of USA Today, bestowing “embarrassivity” awards, a word coined by Cincinnati pitcher Jose Rijo: “To Jose Canseco. Just when you thought the blooper hall of fame was full, he head-butts a fly ball over the fence for a home run. Presenting this award, Pele.”

Come again?When the Kings trailed the Toronto Maple Leafs, three games to two, Gary Shuchuk told KNBC’s Fred Roggin: “There’s no doubt that our backs are behind the eight-ball now.”

Ho hum: Baseball’s efforts to speed up games have reduced the average length of a game by five minutes. “It’s like cutting two pages from ‘War and Peace,’ ” writes Steven Rosenbloom of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Trivia answer: Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1947 and 1948, and Wichita in 1949.

Quotebook: Manager Sparky Anderson of the Detroit Tigers, on why he doesn’t carry a briefcase to the ballpark like some other managers: “Me carrying a briefcase is like a hog wearing earrings.”