Notes on a Scorecard - April 10, 1995

Sometimes it takes an old master to win the Masters. . . .

The nice thing was that Ben Crenshaw won the tournament, nobody lost it. . . .

Even without Gary McCord, CBS’ coverage was exceptional. . . .

For more than 2 1/2 hours, it was golf shot after golf shot, the drama building virtually non-stop. The pictures were sharp and the captions economical. No fluffy features. Only four minutes of commercials per hour. . . .

It was another example of why golf is a better sport to watch on television than in person. . . .

*

Billed as the most competitive Santa Anita Derby in years, it lived up to the hype Saturday. . . .

But the blanket finish did nothing to clear up the Kentucky Derby picture. . . .

Of the top three betting choices, Larry The Legend beat runner-up Afternoon Deelites by a head and fourth-place finisher Timber Country by little more than a length. . . .

And now Jumron, the third-place finisher who was a neck behind Afternoon Deelites, also must be considered a legitimate contender at Louisville. . . .

The probable favorite will be the Wayne Lukas entry of Thunder Gulch, Timber Country and perhaps Serena’s Song. . . .

Asked why a University of California graduate gave jockey Gary Stevens red silks to wear, Larry The Legend owner-trainer Craig Lewis said, “Good question.” . . .

Larry The Legend won the popularity contest in the walking ring, where onlookers shouted, “Larry! Larry!” . . .

A few minutes later, they were doing the same thing outside the winner’s circle. . . .

Another Larry, Holmes, will be remembered as a very good, but not quite great heavyweight champion who took on all comers during a 7 1/2-year reign when few of the comers had much talent. . . .

Holmes fought as well as he could at 45, but the cards favoring less-than-

overpowering World Boxing Council champion Oliver McCall by one, one and three points seemed about right Saturday night at Caesars Palace. . . .

The most impressive heavyweight on the card was Bruce Seldon, who stopped Tony Tucker at the end of the seventh round for the World Boxing Assn. title. . . .

The surest sign that Luis Santana has beaten Terry Norris is when Santana gets carried out of the ring on a stretcher. . . .

Julio Cesar Chavez demonstrated that he still has something left by dominating Giovanni Parisi across 12 rounds. . . .

Peter Broudy’s second program at the Grand Olympic last Thursday drew another solid turnout of about 4,000 for Yory Boy Campas’ unanimous decision victory over Young Dick Tiger. . . .

*

Al Unser Jr. recommends downtown Long Beach for a Sunday drive. . . .

Asked if USC has the potential to win the 1995 national football championship, Coach John Robinson said, “Yes, but ‘potential’ is a very big word.” . . .

The Trojans ended spring practice Saturday with Brad Otton and Kyle Wachholtz listed as sharing the starting quarterback job. . . .

“I’m in no hurry to decide on a starter,” Robinson said. “If they stay even, they will play about the same amount of time.” . . .

He pointed out that Pete Beathard and Bill Nelsen alternated at quarterback on John McKay’s first national championship team in 1962. . . .

Robinson said the Trojans will be deeper than the first two years of his second tenure, even though a lot of the key backups will be sophomores or freshmen. . . .

“We must improve on defense,” Robinson said. “We were very average there last year. We want to be a lot more physical. Our alignments will be simpler. Our tackling should be better.” . . .

“On offense, we want to continue the direction we’ve been going and run the football with more success,” Robinson said. . . .

“It’s important to make the quarterback position less important. Teams tend to get into trouble when quarterback is the dominant position. Championship teams here some years have had great quarterbacks like Mike Rae, Paul McDonald and Vince Evans, but people didn’t talk about them that much.” . . .

The talent shortage in baseball is bad enough, but what about the nickname shortage? In 1998, the 29th and 30th major league teams will be the Diamondbacks of Arizona and the Devil Rays of Tampa Bay.