A Shame Timberwolves Aren’t as Strong as Coach’s Language

Dan Barreiro of the Star Tribune of Minneapolis on Bill Blair, salty talking coach of the NBA Timberwolves:

“On the third day of Timberwolves training camp, (assistant general manager) Kevin McHale’s 8-year-old son, Joey, asked whether he could go listen to Blair chatting with the players before practice.

“McHale said fine. ‘So a few minutes later, Joey comes back to me and says that he used a bad word 14 times,’ McHale said.

“ ‘This was in a four-minute, good-morning-how-we-doing type thing. This was not like he was chewing their butts or anything. This was Bill saying good morning.’ ”

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Trivia time: Who were the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936?

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Dennis the menace: It’s not surprising that Dennis Rodman of the San Antonio Spurs was left off coaches’ ballots for Sunday’s NBA All-Star game given his tattoos, hair color and weird antics.

Rodman doesn’t seem to care, saying: “But I would make the game interesting. People would be sitting on the edge of their seats wondering what I was going to do.”

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New experience: Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns commenting on the NBA West All-Stars’ starting backcourt of Dan Majerle and Latrell Sprewell:

“Hey, I’ve never been on a team where I can dribble better than both the guards.”

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Not even top five? Ted Williams, the famous slugger, is modest about his place in baseball history:

“I really in my heart never, never, never thought that I was the best hitter that ever played baseball. I feel that any time I’m compared with any of the top 20 hitters, that’s good enough for me.

“Whenever I go to a banquet or something and they want to announce me as ‘the greatest hitter that ever lived’--geez, I want to get down in my chair and hide. That’s honestly how I feel.”

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Are you sure? Rob Galvin, writing for Reuters from the Australia-England cricket test match in Perth:

“Australia sent in Jo Angel as nightwatchman. But the tactic failed when the giant pace bowler was run out for a duck, bringing Boon to the crease for the final four overs.”

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Trivia answer: Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson.

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Quotebook: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “And then there was the prison baseballer who tripled and was finally run down between third base and the Mexican border.”