Notes on a Scorecard - June 29, 1995

The Clippers believe they played it safe Wednesday, but it seems to me that they took a huge gamble. . . .

By trading the No. 2 pick, they gambled that Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse and/or Rasheed Wallace won’t make immediate contributions in the NBA and become all-star caliber performers. . . .

It’s not exactly that they got a basket full of goodies from Denver in exchange for McDyess and two throw-aways, Randy Woods and Elmore Spencer. . . .

They got Rodney Rogers, a forward who has been spectacular at times and an underachiever at other times; Brian Williams, a backup center and power forward who might start if Stanley Roberts’ second annual comeback is unsuccessful, and a No. 15 draft pick, Brent Barry. . . .

The surprise might be Barry, the best of Rick Barry’s basketball-playing sons. He is quick and was a good shooter and defender and an outstanding passer at Oregon State. . . .

Clipper Coach Bill Fitch rated Barry and Kevin Garnett, the high school kid, as the two best passers in the draft. At 6 feet 6 and 185 pounds, Barry could develop into the point guard and floor leader the Clippers need. . . .

But I always thought the way to build a winner in the NBA was with lottery picks. . . .

When you’ve got the No. 2 pick and deal it, you’re asking for it. . . .

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Remember when catcher’s equipment was known as the tools of ignorance? Catching for the San Diego Padres against the Dodgers this week have been Brian Johnson from Stanford and Brad Ausmus from Dartmouth. . . .

Misjudged fly balls that fall untouched, Dodger specialties this season, ought to count as errors. . . .

Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson believes the New York Yankees are the team to beat for the AL East title. . . .

Denny Neagle had nine of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ first 23 victories. Impressive, but in 1972, Steve Carlton had 27 of the Philadelphia Phillies’ 59 victories. . . .

None of the seven National League games Tuesday lasted as long as three hours and one, Montreal’s 3-0 victory at Atlanta, took only an hour and 56 minutes. . . .

Eddie Murray not only will reach the 3,000-hit plateau this season, he might advance all the way from his current No. 20 to No. 14 on the all-time list. . . .

USC’s Fred Stroock is the new president of the National Assn. of Academic Advisers for Athletes. . . .

Volleyball star Lauri Yust has become the 44th Trojan athlete to be awarded an NCAA postgraduate scholarship. Only the Air Force has received more. . . .

Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel plans to run a personal-high eight horses Sunday at Hollywood Park, including Tinners Way in the $1-million Gold Cup. . . .

Four of the six NCAA championships on the diamond this year were won by Southern California schools--Cal State Fullerton (Division I) and La Verne (Division III) in baseball and UCLA (Division I) and Chapman (Division III) in softball. . . .

Among those who will be honored on ABC’s “Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Awards” July 8 will be 7-2 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and 5-3 Muggsy Bogues. . . .

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Former junior-lightweight champion James Leija, who fights Eduardo Perez on a pay-per-view card from San Antonio July 29 that features International Boxing Federation flyweight champion Danny Romero against Miguel Martinez, said, “There’s always blood in my fights. Too bad it’s my blood.” . . .

Floyd Patterson, who has been hired to head the New York State Athletic Commission, says he weighs 185 at age 60. According to the Ring Record Book, his fighting weight as heavyweight champion was 182. . . .

Pretty soon, the alphabet groups will have stripped most champions of their titles. Sounds like a death wish, which would be perfectly all right with me. . . .

The Kings better hope defenseman Philippe Boucher, who was injured, is able to produce. The others they got in the deal with Buffalo for Alexei Zhitnik, Robb Stauber and Charlie Huddy were defenseman Denis Tsygurov, who was a disappointment, and goaltender Grant Fuhr, who is a free agent and won’t be re-signed. . . .

Fox TV will continue to do its NFL pregame show from that pro football hotbed, Los Angeles.