There May Be New Spirit at Wrigley Field

It happens every spring, at least in Chicago.

A man apparently heeded his father’s last request, spreading his dad’s ashes at Wrigley Field.

The unidentified fan leaned over the wall in the left-field bleachers during the seventh-inning stretch of the Cubs’ game against the Houston Astros earlier this week and shook the ashes onto the warning track.

Houston’s Luis Gonzalez was in the outfield when it happened.

“I thought it was flour or white chalk or powder or something,” Gonzalez said. “Man, there were a lot of ashes.”

Gonzalez said he was not eager to play in that area the next day.

“If a ball went out there, I would have kicked it back in,” he said.

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Add ashes: Ballpark officials dealt with the fan as they deal with others who throw things onto the field.

“He was asked to leave the park, which he did because he had accomplished what he came to do,” said Mike Hill, manager of event operations.

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Trivia time: What do the Florida Marlins’ Andre Dawson and young catcher and teammate Charles Johnson have in common?

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Endorsement finals: A Chicago-Orlando matchup in the NBA’s Eastern Conference semifinals featuring Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal would be something more than merely the biggest and most hyped second-round matchup in league history.

It would be the corporate gladiator games, said Newsweek magazine’s Mark Starr in a recent profile of O’Neal. Jordan and O’Neal are probably pro sports’ biggest commercial endorsers.

It would be “Nike vs. Reebok, Gatorade vs. Pepsi, Today vs. Tomorrow,” Starr wrote.

O’Neal’s agent, Leonard Armato, put it another way: “It’s like Jordan was the best stereo ever, and then along comes Shaq and he’s digital.”

Whatever you say, Leonard.

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False No Mas ? Roberto Duran says there is no truth to reports that he is retiring in June and blamed them on a promoter who wanted to attract a bigger crowd for his fight next month with Buddy McGirt.

“I don’t feel worn out or old,” said Duran, 44. “While a lot of Panamanians want me to retire, a lot of Americans do not. Panamanians don’t support me, however. They can’t tell me to retire because they are not going to give me $10,000 a month to pay for my children’s schools and to support my family.”

And Americans are?

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Trivia answer: Dawson played baseball with Johnson’s father, Charles Sr., nearly 20 years ago at Florida A&M; University.

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Quotebook: Mitch Albom on ESPN’s “Sports Reporters”: “Compared to Dennis Conner, Carl Lewis was Mr. Popularity.”