Playful West Better Take Note: Sampras Might Club Him Next

Pete Sampras was on a teleconference call with national tennis writers when a voice came on, identified as “Jerry from L.A.”

After an introductory question, the dialogue went like this:

Jerry: “Pete, I heard on the golf course that a lot of times you’d break clubs and other people’s clubs also.”

Sampras: “Not on purpose.”

Jerry: “Not on purpose?”

Sampras: “You are talking about the Jerry West story? Tell Jerry West he should get a club that is a little bit younger than 30 years old.”

Jerry: “But you shouldn’t beat it against a tree before you hit it.”

Sampras: “No, no. What happened--you know the story--I mean, he is a great golfer and he had this old driver and I took a pretty good swipe at it like I always do and the clubhead came off. But I didn’t do it out of frustration. He was a little upset.”

Moderator Kevin O’Keefe: “Pete, I think we should let you know that the executive vice president of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jerry West, is on the line and that is indeed him.”

Sampras: “You bastard you, I thought maybe it was Jerry Crowe [former L.A. Times tennis writer] or something.”

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Trivia time: The NBA and NHL championship finals were both 4-0 sweeps. Has this ever happened before?

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Practice makes. . .: Country & western singer Rudy Gatlin played 12 hours of golf in the Izusu celebrity pro-am on one day, filling in for several celebrities who failed to show up. The next day, showing the results of his 36-plus holes, he used a 5-iron to make a hole-in-one on the 155-yard No. 5 hole at Lake Tahoe’s Edgewood CC course.

After playing the hole three times in 27 hours, Gatlin said, “I still haven’t parred that dad gum hole.”

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In focus: Among the strange questions Hideo Nomo was asked at the All-Star game was, “What do you think of the O.J. trial?”

“I have no idea,” he said.

Bravo, Hideo.

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Obstacle course: Robby Gordon is used to seeing wildlife during offroad races in the Baja desert, but not on an Indy car track.

Gordon was cruising along at about 190 m.p.h. at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., last week when he was suddenly confronted by a deer standing in the track.

“I was wide open on the backstretch and I saw the deer,” Gordon said. “It was huge. It scared me to death. I’m not sure whose eyes were bigger, mine or the deer’s. Luckily, I got by him.”

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Grudge match: Gary McCord of CBS has issued a challenge to Johnny Miller of NBC to determine which network has the best-playing announcer. Miller, who looks on it as a no-win proposition, said, “Corvettes don’t race with Yugos.”

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Trivia answer: Once. In 1983, the New York Islanders swept the Stanley Cup finals and the Philadelphia 76ers swept the NBA finals.

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Quotebook: The Angels’ Tony Phillips on teammate Rex Hudler: “He’s missing something upstairs, but that’s what makes him a player.”