Hey, Georgia: We Don’t See St. Louis Here

Remember when Los Angeles used to claim the “Sports Capital of America” title--back when Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers were filling Dodger Stadium, the Rams were a hot ticket at the Coliseum, when even track meets were drawing 60,000?

Miami Herald columnist Greg Cote recently employed a complicated formula to arrive at a ranking of the country’s top sports cities. And the winner is . . .

Detroit?

Right. L.A. came in eighth.

The formula had six elements, including average ticket prices for all sports teams, victories per composite ticket price average, won-lost records and team performances.

Cote’s rankings: Detroit, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Boston, San Francisco Bay Area, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington-Baltimore, Miami.

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Trivia time: What is notable about the 1979 Los Angeles City Section high school baseball championship game?

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Every last drop: The NHL champion New Jersey Devils, who don’t deny they’re negotiating a move to Nashville, Tenn., are marketing their video highlight tape: “The New Jersey Devils’ First Championship Season.”

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All arm, no bat: In a recent check, baseball’s best catcher at throwing out baserunners was the Florida Marlins’ Charles Johnson, who had thrown out 47.7% of runners trying to steal. The bad news: He was hitting .143.

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Don’t mess with Eddie, Earl: Ken Singleton, talking about Earl Weaver’s relationship with his old Oriole teammate, Eddie Murray:

“Eddie was the one player Earl never yelled at. I remember Eddie once getting thrown out stealing third with two out in the ninth inning of a game we were losing. We all thought: ‘This is the night he yells at Eddie.’

“But he didn’t.”

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Junior Felix? Jayson Stark in the Philadelphia Inquirer: “Attention George Steinbrenner: The list of people with more homers than Darryl Strawberry since ’92 includes Mark Lemke, Juan Samuel, Craig Paquette, Damon Berryhill, Junior Felix, Rob Deer, Wes Chamberlain and Kevin McReynolds.”

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Save Fenway: Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe, on the new ballparks and Fenway Park:

“Fenway has poles, gross bathrooms, no parking, cramped seating and a dearth of luxury boxes. It has antiquated facilities for fans, players and media.

“But it’s still the most beautiful ballpark in the world and it’ll always be the place where our fathers and grandfathers watched games. It’ll always be home. Save Fenway.”

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You ready, Rodney? New Philadelphia Eagle Coach Ray Rhodes has put quarterback Randall Cunningham on notice that Rodney Peete is close to beating him out.

“Randall has a lot of talent, but he knows he’s got to get the job done or Rodney Peete will be playing QB,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Trivia answer: The winning pitcher was Granada Hills’ John Elway and the losing pitcher was Crenshaw’s Darryl Strawberry.

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Quotebook: Kevin Jackson, 1992 Olympic wrestling gold medalist, on efforts to promote his sport: “If you can show bowling on ESPN and people find that exciting . . . I’m sure wrestling can fit in there somewhere.”