Following Riley on Broadway Might Not Be Such a Tough Act

Jackie MacMullan of the Boston Globe on New York Knick Coach Don Nelson’s most endearing quality:

“He’s not Pat Riley.

“The mood grows ugly in Gotham whenever the former skipper [Svengali?] is mentioned. Suddenly, Riley is blamed for everything from New York’s traffic woes to Joey Buttafuoco’s philandering.”

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Trivia time: Which school has USC played the most in football?

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Keeping Score: Terry Pluto in his book “The Curse of Rocky Colavito” recalled some of the on-the-air gaffes by Cleveland Indian broadcaster Herb Score. A sampling:

--”There’s a two-hopper to [Duane] Kuiper, who fields it on the first bounce.”

--”Swing and a miss--called strike three.”

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Add Score: And then there was this exchange between Score and his broadcast partner, Nev Chandler:

Chandler: “The base hit makes Cecil Cooper 19 for 42 against the Tribe this year.”

Score: “I’m not good at math, but even I know that is over. 500.”

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Why? Oakland Raider Coach Mike White before his team played the New York Jets: “We have to be respectful of the potential of this team.”

So much for potential. The Raiders won, 47-10.

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Hurry up: From Jay Leno: “The Mets say they want to get out of Shea Stadium by the year 2000, and New Yorkers are outraged. They want them out now.”

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New math: This nomination from Jayson Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer for one of the dumbest questions of the year, courtesy of Atlanta Brave owner Ted Turner:

“He tried to credit the Phillies for helping his team get back in the race and asked: ‘Haven’t they lost nine of their last eight?’ ”

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Communication gap: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Dick Williams once bemoaned the role of the current baseball manager.

“ ‘I always had an open-door policy. Any player could talk to me at any time. But that’s not the way it works anymore. The player talks to his agent and his agent talks to you.’ ”

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Crowded at the top: The SportsLetter of the Amateur Athletic Foundation noted that over the last year, 276 people from 20 countries have tried to climb Mt. Everest.

Moreover, during the past 40 years, 5,000 have tried to climb Everest; 547 have made it.

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Looking back: On this day in 1985, Eddie Robinson became college football’s all-time winningest coach, with 324 career victories, as Grambling defeated Prairie View A&M;, 27-7.

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Trivia answer: California--82 meetings in a series that began in 1915.

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Quotebook: Tom Weir in USA Today: “And if life were fair, the marathon medals in Atlanta would be handed out by the O.J. jury.”