Dream Team Provides Cuban a Dream-Like Escape Chance

Augusto Duquesme, a Cuban basketball player at the recent World Championships in Toronto, was supposedly being carefully watched by Cuban security officials to make sure he didn’t defect.

But that didn’t stop the 6-foot-6 forward from strolling out of his hotel and into a waiting van provided by Alfredo Jordan, a Toronto businessman who has helped many Cubans escape, according to the Arizona Republic.

How did Duquesme, who was the second Cuban to defect during the tournament, get past the security?

He caught them Dreaming.

“They were watching the Dream Team play on TV,” Duquesme said. “When the Dream Team is playing, everyone is concentrating on that.”

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Trivia time: What NFL team has the longest current run of consecutive playoff appearances?

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Add trivia: What is the NFL record for consecutive playoff appearances?

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Fashion plate: Phil Jackman, writing in the Baltimore Sun, says he misses the regular television appearances of Fred Edelstein, who was recently dropped by ESPN. Not, of course, for the bold things Edelstein said, but for the bold things he wore.

“I don’t care what you say, esteemed pro football rumor monger Fred Edelstein will be missed dearly at ESPN,” Jackman wrote. “Freddie let all males in on what fashions would be making splashes soon, especially when he wore those triple-breasted suits.”

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Letter bomb: The death of Jack Sharkey stirred the New York Times’ Robert McG.Thomas Jr. to write about a 1927 fight between Sharkey and an aging Jack Dempsey, who had lost the heavyweight title to Gene Tunney the previous year. The bout provided a moment reminiscent of the recent Riddick Bowe-Buster Mathis Jr. late-hit fracas.

” . . . (I)n the seventh, Dempsey, swinging furiously, landed a low right and Sharkey, clutching his midriff, turned to the referee to complain. While he was looking away, Dempsey landed a haymaker that knocked Sharkey into the middle of the previous morning. After he revived, Sharkey reminded his manager that he was to fight Dempsey that night. . . .

“For Dempsey, who retired after losing the rematch with Tunney two months later, the knockout was the last victory of his career, and he did not apologize for it.

“When asked why he had hit a man who wasn’t looking, Dempsey replied, ‘What was I supposed to do, mail him a letter?’ ”

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Trivia answer: The Houston Oilers, who have been to the playoffs seven consecutive years.

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Add trivia answer: The Dallas Cowboys, who made the playoffs nine consecutive years, from 1975-83.

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Quotebook: CBS golf analyst Gary McCord during Sunday’s telecast of the International, speaking about a shot out of a thick patch of grass: “It’s like hitting off an old St. Bernard--it’s all swirly in there.”