Just Call It the U.S. Open Your Wallet

Golf fans planning to buy souvenirs during next week’s U.S. Open at Oakmont, Pa., are advised to bring plenty of cash or their credit cards.

The $50-a-day admission price is only a start. A sample of current prices in the Oakmont Country Club souvenir shop: posters are $10, a hip flask bearing the U.S. Open logo $50, a limited-edition stuffed bear $175, baby shoes $22 and a baby’s bathrobe $30.

T-shirt and sweat shirt prices start in the $30 range and reach $60. Even fans who bring a bankroll won’t get a break as souvenir money clips cost $25.

Trivia time: Which team holds the record for most points in an NBA finals game?

Not so fast, Ken: ESPN’s Joe Morgan, on Ken Griffey Jr.’s home run hitting: “If he hits 61 at 24, he’ll never live that down. People will expect him to hit that every year.

“I hope he hits 50-something and has a great season. I would hope he doesn’t challenge 61. Look what it did to Roger Maris.”

Ulcer time: Richard Justice of the Washington Post writes that Baltimore Manager Johnny Oates is under considerable pressure even though the Orioles are in third place in the American League East:

“Once one of the easiest places to manage, Baltimore has become a tough baseball town, and Oates has been blistered on the city’s three baseball talk shows and, at times, skewered in the newspapers.

“He also has a new activist owner, Peter G. Angelos, who expects immediate results and seems to have an itchy trigger finger.”

Easy for him to say: Even before he knew which team the Rockets would play in the NBA finals, Houston owner Les Alexander was extremely confident.

“Hopefully, we’ll play the Knicks,” Alexander said. “But we’ll beat anybody we play. We’re the best team in the NBA by far.”

Boo-hoo: Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, on the old Boston Garden’s being replaced by a new building:

“Sad, isn’t it? Doesn’t the thought of seeing the last rat in the rafters kind of put a lump in your throat?”

Eat at Joe’s: Jockeys in New York may soon resemble mounted billboards.

A bill has been passed that would allow the riders to be the first in the nation to wear ads on their clothing.

Assemblyman Bobby D’Andrea of Saratoga Springs, home of Saratoga Race Course, said allowing such ads would diminish some of the track’s charm that endears it to so many racing fans.

Looking back: On this day in 1919, Sir Barton, ridden by Johnny Loftus, became the first thoroughbred to win the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont Stakes.

Trivia answer: The Boston Celtics, with 148 points against the Lakers on May 27, 1985.

Quotebook: Detroit Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson, on Boston’s Fenway Park: “There is no mystique there. They should burn it down.”