And He Thought His Days as Second-Stringer Were Over

It was a big day for kindergartners at Ponderosa Elementary School in Post Falls, Ida., when quarterback Mark Rypien of the Washington Redskins came to visit.

Rypien entered the classroom with police officer Pete Marion, the school’s Drug Awareness, Resistance and Education (DARE) officer.

Teacher Mary Rohlman asked, “Children, do you know who this is?”

The class shouted back in unison, “It’s Officer Pete!”

Trivia time: Who won the first GTE Classic on the senior golf tour and where was it played?

It’s that time: You know baseball is in full swing, Phil Jackman of the Baltimore Sun notes, when “players’ association honcho Don Fehr is beginning a tour of the camps to discuss antitrust hearings, revenue sharing, the new TV contract, the possibility of a late-season strike and all the other things that make this game great.”

Name alike: The Mighty Ducks of the NHL are firmly established in Anaheim, but Joseph J. Lesko, a heating and plumbing contractor in Newport Beach, is sometimes confused with them.

Lesko’s firm is called the Mighty Ducts.

The difference: Future Hall of Fame baseball star George Brett, in analyzing the chances of Michael Jordan playing major league baseball, had this to say:

“It’s going to be a lot harder than he thinks it’s going to be. If you get three hits out of every 10 times up, you fail seven times. If you hit .300 you are a superstar. If you are a basketball player and you shoot 30% you don’t have a job.”

Cash-and-carry: Dave O’Brien, director of sports, athletics and recreation at Long Beach State, has issued an ultimatum to his coaches and staff:

“Effective immediately, you are not to order pizzas from Ave. No. 3 Pizza unless you have the cash on hand to pay,” he wrote.

It seems that somehow they ran up a $1,200 tab of unpaid pizza bills.

Twice as much: Most golfers have trouble hitting one ball straight with an iron, but now Head Sports has come up with a new club, the Big Head Iron, that can allegedly hit two balls at once.

Why anyone would want to hit two balls at once is puzzling, but Bob Puccini, president of Head, introduced the new club at the PGA Show.

“On the golf course, the two balls fly side by side and land together,” the company press notice stated.

What it didn’t state was whether the two shots landed inbounds.

Long way off: If you want tickets to the 1995 Final Four in Seattle, it’s time to make a move. Applications must be submitted by April 22, 1994.

The tickets--$70, $50 or $35 depending on location--are for the NCAA semifinal and final basketball games April 1 and April 3, 1995, at the Kingdome. There will be a random computerized drawing, and applicants will be notified of the results about June 30.

Trivia answer: Bob Charles, in 1987, at the Wood Ranch Golf Club in Simi Valley.

Quotebook: Ed Schuyler, the Associated Press’ boxing reporter, on the Nancy Kerrigan-Tonya Harding debate: “I prefer Tonya. At least, if the team bus breaks down, she can repair it.”