Coach Makes Nice With Players, Gets Mean Treatment Anyway

Players criticize coaches for all sorts of things, but forward Ken Norman of the Milwaukee Bucks had an unusual evaluation of Mike Dunleavy: He’s too nice.

“Mike is a beautiful person, but he needs to jump down players’ throats more,” Norman told the Racine (Wis.) Journal Times. “If they say something to him, he should just tell them to shut up.”

Which Dunleavy probably will tell Norman to do.

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Trivia time: Who holds the Dodger record for most stolen bases in a game?

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New journalism: Baseball reporters for the Star Tribune of Minneapolis have stopped using team nicknames they consider offensive to ethnic minorities.

The Braves are referred to as “the Atlanta baseball team” and the Indians as “the Cleveland baseball team.”

Sounds dull.

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Foul mouth: From the book “Tall Tales,” by Terry Pluto, quoting Charley Eckman, a former NBA official, on Red Auerbach:

“(Hiss) and moan, scream and yell, then (hiss) and moan some more--that was all an official heard from Auerbach. He’d get in your face with that awful garlic breath of his. It was just awful.”

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Help! Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune writes that the Cubs don’t have pitchers--”they have donors.”

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Red eye: Second baseman Bret Barberie of the Florida Marlins had an original reason for skipping a game against the Philadelphia Phillies on May 5. He was blinded by hot peppers.

Barberie apparently did not wash his hands thoroughly after eating some chilies and accidentally got juice on his contact lenses.

“Those were very hot peppers,” especially in my eye,” Barberie said. “It’s the same stuff they make Mace with, you know.”

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Warning: Barry Bonds is still bothered by a sore right arm after being hit by a pitch from Eric Hillman of the New York Mets on May 4. Bonds vows revenge if Hillman ever hits him again.

“I’ll chase him around the clubhouse. I’ll take my bat out to the mound,” the San Francisco Giants’ outfielder said. “They’re going to have to restrain me because I’m going to come after him all day.”

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Wrong number: Martina Navratilova was bothered by cellular telephones ringing in the crowd at the Italian Open.

“I can’t believe people bring their telephones to a match,” she said. “If they are so indispensable, they should stay in the office.”

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Cultural crisis: Outfielder Andy Van Slyke of the Pittsburgh Pirates once described the difference between the two teams that have employed him:

“With the Cardinals I’d come in and find everyone reading the stock market report. With the Pirates I come in and find everyone reading the papers to see if Hulk Hogan won.”

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Trivia answer: Davey Lopes, with five against St. Louis on Aug. 24, 1974.

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Quotebook: Kent Hrbek, Minnesota Twin first baseman, when asked if the ball was juiced: “Why are you asking me? Do my grounders to second look a little harder?”