Not Quite Live From N.Y., It’s Saturday Night

Nancy Kerrigan’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live” didn’t impress critic Diane Werts of Newsday, but she says the problem might have been with the writers.

“Nancy Kerrigan’s ice princess image apparently froze the writers of ‘Saturday Night Live,’ who provided little for the Olympic silver medalist to do during her heralded hosting stint,” Werts wrote. “After her teary, self-pitying wallow on ‘Dateline NBC,’ the skater seemed poised to break her stiff stereotype. They quickly got Olympic rivals Oksana Baiul and Tonya Harding out of the way in the dull monologue. . . . One kernel of a glimmer of an idea would be repeated and re-presented and reiterated until you wanted to scream, ‘Why me? Why anybody?’ ”

Add Kerrigan: “If Kerrigan didn’t prove to be Ms. Personality, she was hardly the stiffest host ‘SNL’ has ever had,” Werts continued. “That honor still belongs to hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky.

“It’s gotta be the skates.”

Trivia time: What do Pasadena, Catalina Island, Havana, Mexico City, San Bernardino and the Canal Zone have in common?

Name game: Bill Koch’s proposed all-female America’s Cup team has already been dubbed the Kochettes.

Helping hand: Only ballgirl Stephanie Flaherty gave Andre Agassi any trouble in a third-round match at the Lipton Championships in Key Biscayne, Fla., this week.

Flaherty, captain of her high school team in Miami Lakes, won a bogus point against Agassi after a frustrated Boris Becker asked her to replace him during the match.

“I told her, ‘Play another point. Maybe you are going to get a game,’ ” Becker said. “But she was too embarrassed.”

So Becker returned, and Agassi completed his 6-2, 7-5 victory.

Add ballgirl: “She intimidated me out there,” Agassi said. “I don’t want any part of her.”

Flaherty’s reaction: “I called my mom. All of her friends had already called her at work and said, ‘Look--your daughter is on national TV!’ ”

Rewarding failure: After posting a 1-16 record last year, the Mets’ Anthony Young received a $25,000 raise to $230,000.

Dangerous game: Texas Ranger second baseman Doug Strange will miss up to three weeks of exhibition games because of a corneal abrasion in his right eye caused by suntan lotion seeping under a contact lens.

Trivia answer: All were once spring training sites for major league baseball teams.

Quotebook: Sailor Mike Elias of Long Beach, after going 2-16 against world-class competition in the Congressional Cup at Long Beach last week: “I’m getting ready for the America’s Cup, too. I’m going down to buy a big-screen TV tonight.”