He Never Knew All This Job Would Entail

Gerry Sandusky, the weeknight sports anchor at a Baltimore television station, is one of 62 Associated Press poll voters, and the only one to have cast a first-place vote this week for No. 3 Auburn.

Sandusky assumed that the poll panel was substantially larger, or at least large enough to give him a measure of anonymity. No chance.

He has been fielding phone calls and giving interviews to radio talk shows and newspapers all season about his votes.

Said Sandusky: “When I came across the (acknowledgment) letter and I saw the number of voters, I said, ‘Gulp.’ Then I came across the next big lie, namely that they won’t release your name. Yeah, right. I should have a bumper sticker that says, ‘Honk if you don’t know how I voted.’ ”

*

Trivia time: Which schools were the original members of the Pacific Coast Conference in 1916?

*

Axed again: Quarterback John Elway is regarded as a villain in Cleveland after beating the Browns in three AFC championship games. And he did it again Sunday in leading the Denver Broncos to a 26-14 victory.

“I have a tough time realizing how much people dislike me in Cleveland,” Elway said. “It bothers me, because it’s almost like they consider me an ax murderer there.”

*

Disaster: STATE COLLEGE, Pa.--”It came both without warning and without mercy and brought a devastation that betrayed the autumn splendor from which it arose.”

Tornado? Flood? Earthquake? No, merely the lead paragraph by Bruce Hooley in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on Penn State’s 63-14 rout of Ohio State on Saturday.

*

P.R. problem: Dwight Jaynes of the Portland Oregonian is apparently upset with new Trail Blazer Coach P.J. Carlesimo’s policy of keeping practices closed.

“Just don’t complain if we happen to get something wrong,” Jaynes writes.

Replied Carlesimo: “Look, we can do this two ways: We can do what’s best for me, or what’s best for you. What do you think I’m going to do? You think I’m going to make you happy?”

*

No big deal: Coach Dick Motta of the Dallas Mavericks when asked whom the new NBA three-point line will affect the most:

“The people it will affect the most are the maintenance men who have to paint a new stripe.”

*

Free passage: Indiana Pacer Coach Larry Brown on the new NBA hand-checking rule that he opposes:

“If Michael Jordan were to play in this situation, you’d have four guys standing above the top of the circle, and he’d score 180 points. And he’d probably get tired shooting free throws.”

*

Trivia answer: Washington, Oregon, Oregon State and California.

*

Quotebook: Isaiah Rider of the Minnesota Timberwolves on defending his slam-dunk title at this season’s NBA All-Star game in Phoenix: “I’m a little dunked out because I can’t think of any new steps.”