How Fast Is Fast if You Can Get a Running Start?

Ever wonder about those fast 40-yard dash times run by aspiring NFL players? It’s not surprising, considering the method used to time them.

Last Wednesday, scouts representing 22 NFL teams hand-timed some USC seniors at Cromwell Field. No starting gun was used and the players essentially had a rolling start.

Fastest Trojan? Wide receiver Ed Hervey with a best 40 time of 4.25 seconds. By that standard, Carl Lewis would be in the sub-four second range.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA basketball tournament record for most points in a game?

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Fair trade: Nick Canepa in the San Diego Union-Tribune: “Now that the Gulls are leaving San Diego for Los Angeles, maybe L.A. can return the favor and send us its minor league hockey team. The Kings.”

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Bring on the clowns: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Replacement ball, that’s a concept loaded with integrity. P.T. Barnum had contempt for the paying customer, but he wouldn’t have sent out fat guys, paired off and wearing costumes, as replacement elephants.”

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Thanks, but. . . . Don Pierson of the Chicago Tribune reports that defensive back Shaun Gayle of the Chicago Bears recently got two phone calls from club officials.

“One informed him that he tied Jeff Graham for the Brian Piccolo Award for veterans, given to the player who exemplifies the courage, loyalty, teamwork, dedication and sense of humor of the late Piccolo.

“The other informed him he was no longer a Bear.”

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Diet tip: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Grapevine reports that Mike Tyson is down to 182 pounds, which must mean his prison has lousy food or an unimaginative pharmacy.”

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Rip-off? Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe commenting on Fleet Bank, which bought the building where the Celtics will play next season:

“Folks from the bank had better be careful. If the Celtics keep raising ticket prices, we’ll take matters into our own hands and call it the Fleece Center.”

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Portly Pedro: Larry Andersen, Philadelphia Phillie pitcher, on the excess poundage of Pedro Borbon, Cincinnati’s 48-year-old replacement pitcher: “He gives new meaning to that term ‘Big Red Machine.’ ”

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Prediction: ESPN analyst Jack Ramsay commenting in USA Today on the Lakers when injured players Cedric Ceballos and Eddie Jones return:

“They’ll be the scariest team in the playoffs. Teams will be jockeying to miss them.”

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Take your pick: Phil Jackman in the Baltimore Sun: “TNT is now pumping NBA games into a 3.2-million household Latin America market Thursdays, and the folks south of the border have four language choices: Spanish, Portuguese, English or Hubie Brown.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1964, UCLA defeated Seattle University, 95-90, in an NCAA first-round tournament game. The Bruins went on to win their first championship.

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Trivia answer: Austin Carr of Notre Dame, with 61 against Ohio in 1970.

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Quotebook: David Letterman on the opening of the exhibition season with replacement players: “Good news, though. Phil Rizzuto went three for four.”