Is It All a Celtic Ploy to Land Air Jordan?

News that the Celtics are interested in purchasing the Red Sox fascinates Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy.

“The Green Monster will be the ultimate symbol of the Celtic empire,” he writes. “The Celtics can put ads on Fenway’s left-field wall. Maybe they can make the ads rotate, the way they do at courtside at the Garden.”

And, Shaughnessy muses, the venture could produce an ideal cross-pollination plan for the Celtic general manager.

“M.L. Carr is going to love this,” Shaughnessy adds. “Now he can go to Chicago Bulls executive Jerry Krause and make a deal for the rights to talk to Michael Jordan. And when M.L. talks to Mike, he can offer him the Celtic backcourt and right field in Fenway.”

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Trivia time: Before this season with the Rams, Chuck Knox had been known for turning a team around in at least three years.

Excluding this year, what was the lowest number of victories for a Chuck Knox-coached team in his third season?

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One Heisman, one vote: One of the 920 Heisman ballots mailed recently went, as the rules stipulate, to O.J. Simpson. All previous Heisman Trophy winners receive ballots.

And, writes Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News, Simpson’s ballot was filled out, signed and returned to the Downtown Athletic Club, which runs the award.

“Not all of the ballots were returned,” Sean Ingram, coordinator of the award committee, told Bondy. “But his was. I know that.”

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Add Heisman: Six quarterbacks won the Heisman Trophy from 1984-93, but only one has won a full-time NFL starting job, Sport magazine’s Sport Index points out.

The non-starters are Doug Flutie, Andre Ware, Ty Detmer, Gino Torretta and Charlie Ward.

The only one to win a starting job? Vinny Testaverde.

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Did he drop the hot dog? After the Philadelphia Phillies signed Gregg Jefferies, General Manager Lee Thomas said Jefferies, formerly a second baseman, third baseman and first baseman, could “get by” in left field.

Jefferies sounds willing to give his fourth position in four years a try. “The only time I ever played left was one inning in a Little League all-star game,” Jefferies said. “I probably had a hot dog in one hand and a glove in the other.”

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Not-so-stirring streak: According to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jack Ham, the Steelers’ Hall of Fame linebacker, isn’t overly impressed with Art Monk’s record-setting streak of catching a pass in 179 consecutive games.

Ham agrees that Monk is a standout receiver, but chuckles at the record-keeping.

“I made at least one tackle in every game that I played,” Ham said.

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Trivia answer: Eight, in 1985, his third season with the Seattle Seahawks.

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Quotebook: David Letterman, reflecting on Darryl Strawberry’s tax-evasion indictment: “I understand Ben & Jerry’s stock has taken a plunge. I believe it’s because of the failure of a new flavor. It was ‘Tax-cheating Strawberry.’ ”