Uecker: From the Front Row to Front Cover

Bob Uecker, Milwaukee Brewer announcer whose career batting average in the big leagues was .200, is on the cover of the team’s media guide, and he thinks that’s why players are on strike.

“Because I’m on the cover, nobody wants to play,” he said. “It’s symbolic of my whole career. They’re saying they won’t come back until they get my picture off the media guide.”

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Trivia time: Which current NBA franchises formerly competed in the American Basketball Assn. that folded after the 1975-76 season?

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He’s ready: Jack Ramsay, a former NBA coach, is a TV analyst for Miami Heat home games and, at 70, he might be in better shape than some of the players.

Ramsay either bikes, swims, runs or lifts weights every day and regularly competes in triathlons in the off-season.

“Last year I did a number of ocean swims,” Ramsay said. “This year, I want to do a marathon.”

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D as in K : Infielder Jeff Richardson is in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ camp on a minor league contract, and his media guide entry reads:

“Bats: D.” D? “Doesn’t,” explains Richardson, who has a career average of .176 in 153 major league at-bats.

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Trade-off: Bruce Keidan in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Let me see if I understand this: The players want us to honor their picket lines, but they don’t plan to man those lines themselves?

“Sorry, guys. If you’re going to have surrogates carry your picket signs, then I’m going to leave it to my surrogates to boycott games.”

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Naughty word: Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe: “Took a spectacular spill while jogging in Ft. Myers. Some would say I got a nasty scab on my knee, but I prefer to think of it as a replacement knee.”

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Record siesta: Pirate broadcaster Steve Blass on Pittsburgh replacement pitcher Jimmy Boudreau, who last played professionally in 1986:

“He should have been better, pitching on 3,195 days’ rest.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1968, Joe Frazier won the vacant New York world heavyweight title with an 11th-round technical knockout of Buster Mathis at Madison Square Garden.

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Trivia answer: New Jersey (formerly New York) Nets, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets. Larry Brown has coached them all.

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Quotebook: Brian McRae, Kansas City Royal center fielder: “If they play with replacement players, they might as well put a tent over stadiums. It’s going to be a circus.”