Cosell Always Said to Tell It Like It Is

The death in April of Howard Cosell caused Miami Herald columnist Edwin Pope to recall a meeting he had with the sportscaster in a Manhattan bar.

“Why did you call me a pompous ass in last Sunday’s Miami Herald?” asked Cosell, flashing his trademark glare.

“Because,” replied Pope, “you are.”

Writes Pope: “For some reason, he liked that, and we became fairly close acquaintances, though it would be presumptuous to call us friends.”

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Trivia time: What was the nickname of Harvey Haddix, the Pittsburgh pitcher who threw 12 perfect innings in 1959?

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Baseball fever: “During the telecast of [an] NBA playoff game between the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs,” writes Ed Schuyler Jr. of the Associated Press, “there was a commercial for major league baseball. That’s right, the former national pastime was advertising itself on the telecast of a basketball game.

“Maybe the men who run major league baseball--or run it down--thought they better buy time during a game that is being watched by a lot of fans in order to plug their sport, which is being played before an alarming number of empty seats.”

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So this is (yawn) the NFL: It takes a lot to impress Ty Law.

The cornerback played to capacity crowds at Pennsylvania’s Aliquippa High, located in an area where Law’s cousin, Tony Dorsett; former coach Mike Ditka, and quarterbacks Joe Montana and Dan Marino lived at one time or another.

Law went on to play at Michigan before capacity crowds averaging more than 100,000.

Now, he’s a New England Patriot, having been drafted in the first round.

Attending a team mini-camp, Law looked around and commented: “This is the smallest program I’ve been through.”

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Hounding the champion: JJ Doc Richard, superstar of dog racing, has won a world-record 37 races in a row, giving a huge boost to the struggling greyhound industry.

Still, critics question how much the dog has benefited from what those critics claim is favorable treatment at the dog’s home track in Montgomery, Ala.

“Nobody knows how good a dog really is till he goes out to other tracks,” said Gary Guccione, executive director of the National Greyhound Assn. in Abilene, Kan. “And I don’t know if he even raced against the second- and third-best dogs at his track. That taints it a little bit. It would have been nice if they would have gone ahead and raced him against the best on the grounds.”

Until JJ Doc Richard does run against the best, he’ll never get over the charge that all his opponents were a bunch of dogs.

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Trivia answer: The Kitten.

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Quotebook: Lehigh psychology professor Adam Cox, speaking at a recent conference honoring the centennial of Babe Ruth’s birthday: “The Babe’s id appears to have been relatively unimpeded in its quest for satisfaction. Through sex and food, Ruth nurtured the unresolved aspects of his infantile self with abandon.”