It Was a Joke, but Reporter Didn’t Get It

Proving there’s nothing quite like a good story, even if it isn’t true, we submit this one from the Philadelphia Daily News.

In his sports gossip column, Jeff Samuels wrote that Magic Johnson said he was talked out of making a comeback as a player in his last two games as Laker coach by Times sportswriter Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the Lakers.

“I called Scott and asked him,” Johnson said, according to Samuels. “He told me ‘No, no.’ ”

Wrote Samuels: “God bless you, Scott Howard-Cooper.” The story ran under the headline “Writer Had To Talk Magic Out Of Playing In Final Two.”

Howard-Cooper said Johnson actually had singled him out in a group of writers, but it was a joke, which is what Howard-Cooper considers the Daily News story to be.

“Sure, I advised Magic not to play,” he said. “I remember now. That was the day after Michael Jordan called to ask me if I thought he should try basketball again.”

Trivia time: Which two athletes who went on to dominate their sports did the Chicago Bulls draft in 1984?

Everything else was taken: John Skipper reports in his monthly baseball trivia newsletter called “Batter Up” that former Detroit Tiger outfielder Willie Horton named two of his sons Daryl, calling them Daryl I and Daryl II.

Conine the Bruin: It was interesting to see Jeff Conine of the Florida Marlins on the National League All-Star team as a first baseman/left fielder. The former UCLA player has come a long way--he never batted in a three-year Bruin career.

Conine was a 55th-round draft pick by Kansas City in 1987 after posting an 8-3 record and 5.34 earned-run average as a pitcher at UCLA.

History lesson: On this date in 1974, the Southern California Sun of the World Football League played its first home game at Anaheim Stadium and defeated the Hawaiians, 38-31.

Attendance was 32,088 and the quarterback for the Sun was Tony Adam.

Optimists: For what it’s worth, the New England Patriots have sold more than 46,000 season tickets, coming off a 5-11 season.

It’s a gas: This item comes from the Fly in the Sporting News for those who might want to go to the Goodwill Games in Russia later this month.

“Russian police have been assigned to ride the overnight train from Moscow to St. Petersburg because criminals gas passengers until they are unconscious, then rob them. They don’t even do that in the New York subways.”

Jordan update: Michael Jordan reached the halfway point of his first professional baseball season with a .194 batting average for the double-A Birmingham Barons, with no home runs.

Trivia answer: Michael Jordan in the first round and Carl Lewis in the 10th.

Quotebook: Former Kansas City Monarch pitcher Connie Johnson, on legendary Negro league superstar Buck Leonard: “You’d have to throw the ball 200 m.p.h. to get it by Buck. Ain’t no doubt about it, Buck was a dude. Bad as you can get.”