We’re Not Too Different From Seattle

Seattle columnists, in Los Angeles for the Raider-Seahawk game Sunday, could barely contain their glee as they surveyed the current Southland sports scene.

Under the headline, “Tinseltown’s glitter tarnished under pall of sports mediocrity,” Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times wrote:

“Remember Los Angeles? City of champions? Mecca for the stars?

“Maybe Randy Newman loved L.A., but Seattle hated it.

“Los Angeles was a constant reminder to Seattle sports fans of their second-class status. Los Angeles was championships, superstars, outdoor stadiums and perpetual sunshine. . . .

“L.A. was home to the World Series in October and NBA Finals in June. . . .

“Coming to a game, any game, in Los Angeles always seemed more important than it truly was. You never knew which celebrity you might see in the stands, in the locker room, in the parking lot. . . . Stars were everywhere.

“Now the sports landscape looks like an old Hollywood starlet over-lacquered with makeup. . . .

“In 1993, all of the big sports stories are happening somewhere else. . . .

“There no longer is anything special about a game in L.A. It is just another line in the schedule. Another Denver, Detroit or Minneapolis.

“Just another game, very few stars and, on this weekend, a lot of rain and mud.”

*

Add Seattle: In Monday’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Art Thiel observed:

“Sports-wise, things are a little slow in these parts. The two local NHL franchises are below .500. So, too, are the two NBA franchises. The NFL Rams are so bad that a threatened move to Baltimore stirs hardly a murmur.

“Sure, the UCLA Bruins are in the Rose Bowl, but they’re playing Wisconsin. Fans here say, ‘Badgers? We don’t need no stinking Badgers.’

“Fortunately, L.A. has the Raiders, who still can spot the playoff race with strong binoculars. And (Sunday) the Raiders were playing their favorite patsies, the Seahawks. Nothing like a little mauling of smug Northwesterners to lift the spirits of Angelenos.

“Well, maybe not. Only 38,161 were moved to show up, buzzing faintly around the giant Coliseum like flies in a warehouse.

“Perhaps the local mudslides are a more intriguing spectator sport.”

*

Trivia time: What was the largest crowd to attend a college basketball game?

*

Wisconsin trivia: Darrell Bevell, quarterback of the Rose Bowl-bound Badgers, is 24, the same age as Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre.

*

Calling Larry Smith: According to Jonathan Rand of the Kansas City Star, only a retread would agree to sign on as football coach at the University of Missouri.

Writes Rand: “No coach in his right mind is going to walk away from prosperity into the graveyard of coaches.”

*

Simply ignore him: UCLA basketball Coach Jim Harrick doesn’t mind the variety of entertainment--cheerleaders, dance squads, etc.--during pauses in games.

“I want the focus off of me and my players at halftime and during timeouts,” he told the NCAA News. “I don’t think it has any effect on the players whatsoever. If they come to play ball and expect to move on to the NBA, they are going to have to get used to that.”

*

Trivia answer: The 68,112 who saw Louisiana State beat Notre Dame, 87-64, in the New Orleans Superdome on Jan. 20, 1990.

*

Quotebook: Dan Henning, on his recent dismissal as offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions: “When I die, the Lord is going to have a lot of questions--but so am I.”