It Doesn’t Get Any Worse Than This

While watching television, John Henderson of the Denver Post noted that “hundreds of empty seats were seen above the dugouts of Dodger Stadium” in a game between the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies last week.

“About 5,000 fans left after the seventh inning,” Henderson wrote. “Combining that [with] the loss of two NFL teams produces one inescapable conclusion: Los Angeles is the worst sports town in the United States.”

For the three-game, weekday series with the Rockies, the Dodgers had a crowd average of 46,752 with a 53,865 sellout on Wednesday.

Not too shabby for the “worst sports town” in the United States.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for being sacked the most times?

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Premature: Rick Gosselin in the Dallas Morning News: “The 49ers are the second-best team in the NFL, and [Deion] Sanders hasn’t even arrived in Dallas yet. When he does, the gap will widen. That’s the NFL’s fear--that the Cowboys will run away from everyone, including the 49ers.”

With quarterback Troy Aikman injured, the Cowboys couldn’t even run away from the mediocre-at-best Washington Redskins, losing Sunday, 27-23.

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Something in common: David Casstevens in the Arizona Republic after USC had defeated Arizona State last Saturday, 31-0: “[ASU Coach Bruce] Snyder liked the line Arizona Coach Dick Tomey used last week after the Trojans beat the Wildcats, 31-10. So he used it himself. ‘They’re better than us, and they didn’t screw it up.’ ”

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Party time: Joe Falls in the Detroit News: “Question: How do the students of Northwestern celebrate a football victory? Answer: They read two books instead of one.”

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Wishful thinking: New York Giant Coach Dan Reeves on what it meant to his team after the Detroit Lions had upset the San Francisco 49ers, 27-24: “When Detroit beats them, it gives everybody hope.”

It was false hope for Reeves as the 49ers beat the Giants on Sunday, 20-6.

FYI: Miami Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino is among a group of investors prepared to buy the financially troubled Pittsburgh Pirates.

Marino, a native of Pittsburgh, has a baseball background and was a fourth-round draft choice of the Kansas City Royals in 1979.

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Starr for a day: Richard Starr, 31, a sales manager from Roseville, Calif., and a 16-handicapper, beat Fuzzy Zoeller, Craig Stadler and D.A. Weinberg among others Monday at a golf event in Genoa, Nev.

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Looking back: On this day in 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers won their first World Series as Johnny Podres shut out the New York Yankees, 2-0, in Game 7.

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Trivia answer: Quarterback Fran Tarkenton, 483, in a career split between the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants.

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Quotebook: Quarterback Boomer Esiason of the New York Jets on his struggling team: “It’s very difficult to sleep. You can’t even imagine the level of stress and frustration that’s part of our households.”