Once He Mastered Two-Wheel Turns, Indy Was a Snap

Kristy Barrett, who works for “Entertainment Tonight” in Los Angeles, was watching the sports report on TV last weekend. The news came on that Buddy Lazier had won the Indianapolis 500 and she couldn’t believe her eyes.

Buddy Lazier? The Buddy Lazier who used to live in Vail, Colo.? The kid she went to high school with? The kid who used to give her rides on the handlebars of his bicycle? That Buddy Lazier?

Barrett said she should have known Lazier would win the Indy 500 after that first bike ride.

“He was really good at left turns,” she said.

*

Trivia time: Who is baseball’s winningest pitcher whose first and last names start with the same letter?

*

Good mileage: Strange fact of the week--the number of miles between Quebec City and Denver is 1,996.

*

Good point: Bob Golic on Sports Illustrated: “They tell us for months that their swimsuit issue is coming, but then they put Marge Schott on the cover and they give us no warning at all.”

*

Moo: Dave Cowens, the new coach of the Charlotte Hornets, can’t wait to get started.

Said Cowens: “I’m as ready as an unmilked cow at high noon.”

*

Inflation: ABC paid $20 million in rights fees for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid and NBC paid $456 million for this summer’s Olympics at Atlanta.

*

Attention pack rats: Oh, those Olympics! There’s a lot more to them than medals, according to Atlanta auctioneer Ingrid O’Neil, who has kept track (no pun intended) of what some Olympic memorabilia sold for recently.

--Opening ceremony ticket, ’60 Summer Olympics: $40.

--Autographed black and white photo of Mark Spitz: $108.

--Official poster of the ’48 Summer Olympics: $2,100.

--Set of Secret Service, Interpol and CIA pins, ’84 Summer Olympics: $220.

*

Add Olympics: There will be 171 1/2 hours of prime-time programming on NBC and about nine minutes of commercials an hour. The second week in Seoul, NBC averaged 15 minutes of commercials an hour and 10 minutes an hour in Barcelona.

*

Just hit something: Ken Rosenthal of the Baltimore Sun said trade rumors about the Orioles’ Bobby Bonilla actually depend on Bonilla himself.

Said Rosenthal: “Either he hits soon, or hits the road.”

*

Uh, a new shark stamp? Golfer Greg Norman has received more than 7,500 letters after his shocking collapse at the Masters. What if he had won?

*

Trivia answer: Robin Roberts, 286.

*

And finally: Nancy Lopez hasn’t won the the U.S. Open, but she has finished second three times.

Lopez says she could have beaten Hollis Stacy in 1977 if her zipper hadn’t broken on the first hole.

Said Lopez: “I spent the whole day worrying about whether someone would see my underwear.”