Some Can’t Get to First Base at Karros’ Online Site

Among the more popular sites in cyberspace is the Karros Kronicles, Dodger first-baseman Eric Karros’ contribution to America Online. It is set up like an electronic baseball card, offering a picture of Karros in his Dodger uniform, a biography and statistical information, bulletin boards for fans to sound off on a variety of topics, and a journal that Karros updates periodically.

“They talk about everything, that’s for sure,” Karros told Veronique De Turenney of the Ventura County Star. “During a home stand, I’ll check and see what the latest messages are, and a lot of them are pretty interesting. I’ve had every possible question, and there are some that AOL now monitors and won’t keep on the screen.”

Trivia time: What gymnast won four gold medals at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles? Hint: It wasn’t Mary Lou Retton.

Pressure proof: People keep asking Terry Labonte if the pressure has increased since he took the Winston Cup points lead from seven-time champion Dale Earnhardt.

“I’m not worried about pressure,” said Labonte, who holds a 22-point lead over Earnhardt and 80 over defending champion Jeff Gordon after 17 of 31 races. “If we’ve got fuel pressure and oil pressure, that’s the only pressure I’m worried about.”

Shades of Atlanta: The Arizona Diamondbacks will begin major league baseball in 1998 with summer temperatures expected well into the 100s. To keep fans cool and the grass growing, the Diamondbacks management plans to close their retractable dome at 3 p.m. to get the temperature down to 78 degrees by the 7 p.m. game time.

Sound track: From Milton Kent of the Baltimore Sun: “Is it just me or does it seem as though swimming analyst Summer Sanders’ voice is the equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard, particularly when she’s excited, which is about every time an American female swimmer is close to winning a race?”

Double vision: Tired of the Olympic Games on TV yet? If so, be glad you’re not in England, where the BBC is planning to show 300 hours of the Olympics. That is nearly twice what NBC is showing here.

“The BBC have made a monumental error,” George Folkes of the Labour Party told the Daily Mail. “The Olympics will be deeply boring, and viewers will switch off by the millions.

No postponements: When the Chicago White Sox schedule a player autograph session, they hold it rain or shine. Before last Sunday’s game at Comiskey Park, which was delayed nearly two hours by showers, the players signed while staff members stood by holding umbrellas.

Trivia answer: Ectarina Szabo of Romania.

For the record: Michael Spinks was left out of a Morning Briefing list of Olympic gold-medal winners who went on to become world heavyweight champion. He won the middleweight gold in 1976 at Montreal.

And finally: The South Pacific island of Nauru has a native population of only 8,000, yet it has six Olympic competitors. An impressive .075% of its population will be taking part in the Games. If China did the same, it would have a squad approaching 800,000 athletes.