His Questions Were a Lot More Difficult to Ask Than to Answer

NBC-TV reporter Roger Maltbie told Dan Hrubyof the San Jose Mercury News that he was amazed at the red tape involved in trying to interview President Clinton and former Presidents Bush and Ford at the recent Bob Hope golf tournament.

Maltbie asked a Secret Service agent if he could talk to Clinton. The agent said he would check on it and, when he came back, he said, “What will you ask him?”

Replied Maltbie: “Well, how about ‘Are you having a good time?’ ”

The agent said, “I’ll go ask him,” and then returned in a few minutes to say it was OK.

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Trivia time: Which is the only Pacific 10 school that hasn’t played in the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four?

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Food for thought: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Can’t wait for today’s big spring game between the San Francisco Riff and the Oakland Raff. I’ll be parked in front of my TV with a hot dog and frosty beer.

“Well, actually it will be a replacement snack: a Vienna sausage and a glass of warm dishwater.”

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Helter skelter: Stan Morrison, former USC basketball coach now coaching at San Jose State, on the pressure of the job:

“You have to be an optimist to have 18- and 19-year-olds running around in their underwear passing around your paycheck.”

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Some fantasy: Wayne Edwards, a Dodger pitching hopeful, who grew up as a Dodger fan in the San Fernando Valley, on his spring training experience:

“I’m walking around with Rick Monday, Reggie Smith, I’m out there with Burt Hooton. All these guys I grew up watching are out there making me run till I (throw up). It’s a fantasy camp, almost.”

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The light side: This year’s one-sided Super Bowl game between the San Francisco 49ers and San Diego Chargers wasn’t a complete “waste” of time.

More than 300 tons of waste produced at Super Bowl XXIX and related events was recycled or turned into electricity, the NFL reported.

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Zero accomplishment: Cincinnati Manager Davey Johnson, on a trade in which the Reds received five replacement players from the Indians in exchange for future considerations:

“Cleveland got the better of the deals. They didn’t get anybody.”

Add Cincinnati: Pedro Borbon, 48, of the Reds after he fell down during workout drills: “What do they do with old horses, shoot them?”

Said Johnson: “We wouldn’t waste the bullet.”

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Trivia answer: Arizona State.

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Quotebook: Ultramarathoner Valmir Nunes after winning the 100-kilometer--that’s 62.5 miles--national championship: “I used this race as a training run.”