Notes on a Scorecard - March 15, 1994

This is the kind of season it has been for the Kings: The possibility exists that Wayne Gretzky will break or tie Gordie Howe’s record in the Southland, but not at the Forum. . . .

It could happen at the Anaheim Arena on Wednesday night. . . .

Gretzky--who needs three goals to tie Howe at 801, but has been held scoreless in his last four games--has a splendid opportunity to break his slump tonight at the Forum against the Ottawa Senators, the Washington Senators of hockey. . . .

Then comes the team Gretzky has grown to hate, the Mighty Ducks. . . .

The last time the Great One performed in Orange County, he made Mighty Duck president Tony Tavares and a couple of players pay for some ill-advised quacking by scoring two goals and getting three assists. . . .

However, the Kings, who have won all four games against Anaheim, can’t seem to get so aroused against the rest of the league. . . .

Coach Barry Melrose must accept some of the blame. . . .

It is mind-boggling that a team that has Gretzky, Jari Kurri, Luc Robitaille and Rob Blake probably will be one of only 10 not to make the playoffs in a watered-down NHL. . . .

Highly paid athletes should put out every night. . . .

But the reality is that they don’t, and it is the responsibility of the coach to make sure they do most of the time. . . .

I like Melrose. He has a terrific personality. He did a great job last year when the Kings reached the Stanley Cup finals. It isn’t his fault that management decided not to re-sign Marty McSorley and to re-sign Jimmy Carson. . . .

However, like most of his players, the coach is in a season-long slump. . . .

*

If you like the chances of Glenn Robinson and Purdue in the NCAA tournament, harken back to 1988 when Danny Manning and Kansas won. . . .

However, that version of a one-man team had the home-area advantage in the Final Four, which was played at Kansas City, Mo. This time that edge could go to North Carolina or Duke at Charlotte, N.C. . . .

We need some geography and math lessons around here. . . .

UCLA players Ed and Charles O’Bannon and Tyus Edney said they didn’t know that Tulsa was in the state of Oklahoma. . . .

USC Coach George Raveling, after his team accepted an NIT invitation, said that 95% of the schools are sitting home right now. Actually, 96 of the 301 schools that play Division I basketball reached the NCAA or NIT tournament. . . .

George Washington and Alabama Birmingham are matched in the first round of the East Regional of the NCAA men’s tournament Friday--and in the first round of the Mideast Regional of the women’s tournament Wednesday. . . .

In the alphabetical listing of Division I schools, Tulsa is No. 267 and UCLA No. 268. . . .

Jalen Rose of Michigan has scored the most points in NCAA tournament games among active players, 191. . . .

Thumbs up to former Dodger Alejandro Pena, who returned $500,000 of his guaranteed $1.35-million salary to the Pittsburgh Pirates after reporting to camp with a bad elbow and then undergoing surgery last March that kept him out of the entire season. All Pena asked for was another chance this season--at a base salary of $175,000. . . .

Equipment from Fox Video’s “Sandlot” will be included in the new motion picture wing at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., that opens in May. . . .

Making big impressions at the recent NFL scouting combine at Indianapolis were Alcorn State linebacker John Thierry, who might be picked in the top 10, and Sonoma State offensive tackle Larry Allen, a probable first-rounder. . . .

Referee Burton Gilliam, who worked the card Saturday at the Olympic, is an accomplished character actor who plays the part of the hotel clerk in “The Getaway.” . . .

Reader Sinclair Buckstaff acknowledges that Jersey Joe Walcott’s left hook that knocked out Ezzard Charles in 1951 was a pretty punch, but claims the best ever was Sugar Ray Robinson’s hook that flattened Gene Fullmer in 1957. Walcott was 37 when he won the heavyweight title from Charles in the seventh round at Pittsburgh, and Robinson was two days shy of his 37th birthday when he regained the middleweight title from Fullmer in the fifth round at Chicago. . . .

How come they are still called figure skaters, even though figures no longer are skated in major competition?