He Can Really Put It Away, but Says Its No Piece of Cake

Shawn Bradley, the Philadelphia 76ers’ 7-foot-6 rookie center, has a problem a lot of people would like to have. He eats and eats, but can’t gain much weight.

Despite consuming 5,000 to 7,000 calories per day, he still weighs only 245 pounds.

“People think it might be fun to eat everything in sight, but it’s not that easy eating that much every day,” Bradley told Tim Povtak of the Sporting News. “It’s work.”

Not for William (Refrigerator) Perry of the Chicago Bears.

Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA Division I-A record for most passing yards in a game? Touchdown Tommy: San Francisco Giant infielder Todd Benzinger, a former Dodger, warned his teammates before the final series in Los Angeles that Tom Lasorda would try to motivate his team with Knute Rockne-type speeches.

“He loves to do it, and he’s effective at it,” Benzinger told the San Francisco Examiner. “But players have to be in the right mood. Last year, he gave some of the most memorable halftime speeches I’ve ever seen, a lot of yelling and screaming, and we went out and kept on losing.”

Come again? Bill Jones, in a letter to the Arizona Republic, on what the acquisition of A.C. Green means to the Phoenix Suns: “He is the missing piece of pie to the cake.”

No fond memories: Cleveland Indian Manager Mike Hargrove, on why he won’t miss Cleveland Stadium: “The clubhouse is so small we trip over each other. The color scheme is drab. You bring your kids here, and they go home filthy. . . . It will definitely be good to get into a new park.”

Add stadium: Former Indian pitcher Larry Sorensen, now an ESPN broadcaster, waxing nostalgic about Cleveland Stadium:

“I remember the wet, the cold and the stench when the sewers backed up.”

Lost in time: The University of Hawaii has difficulty getting exposure for its football team because of the time difference for its home night games--six hours ahead of the Eastern time zone.

David Alfonso of the Tampa (Fla.) Tribune, who votes on the Associated Press poll, said jokingly: “I’m still trying to get a Hawaii score from several years ago.”

Freudian slip? The last Kinerism of the season from Met broadcaster Ralph Kiner, as collected by Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer: “We’ll be back with the recrap after this message.”

Room at the top: From Tom Weir of USA Today: “Let’s see now. Larry Johnson signed for $84 million in Charlotte, and Anfernee Hardaway pulled in $65 million from Orlando. If the NBA truly is wearing a salary cap, it must be one of those Abe Lincoln stovepipe models.”

Put down: Stan Fischler of Inside Sports includes the Kings’ Tomas Sandstrom among the NHL’s most overrated and overpaid players:

“If Sandstrom had performed to his pay check (estimated $1.04 million), the Kings and not Montreal would own the Stanley Cup.”

Trivia answer: David Klingler of Houston with 716 yards against Arizona State on Dec. 2, 1990.

Quotebook: Toronto Sun columnist Steve Simmons, on the spat between White Sox player George Bell and Manager Gene Lamont: “It just goes to show, good bitching will beat good hitting anytime.”