The Freeway Has Become a Flyway

Mighty Duck fans are going quacky, showing their allegiance in the form of vanity license plates.

Of the 1.8 million personalized plates in California, 2,111 mention DUX, DUK or DUCK, according to DMV records.

Not all pay homage to the hockey team, though. Sharing the streets with hockey fans are a hunter (DUKSHTR), a doctor (DUCKVET) and a bather (RUBRDUK).

Actor-comedian Harvey Korman was a Duck fan long before the franchise existed. In the movie “Blazing Saddles,” his prized possession was a rubber ducky he played with in the bathtub.

Trivia time: Which were the original NHL teams when the league was formed in 1917?

Nice to know: New York Jet Coach Bill Parcells dismissing the notion that he treats his players the way his friend, Bob Knight, does:

“They are expecting what you guys created, which is not reality. I raised three daughters. There is some compassion.”

Drowning their sorrow: Longtime Cub announcer Harry Caray last week dropped the price of beer at his Chicago restaurant to 45 cents a glass until the Cubs won a game. That price was chosen to commemorate the year, 1945, when the Cubs last played in a World Series.

The Cubs still have not won in 12 tries and the patrons are lapping up Caray’s profits, but it could have been worse.

Writes Edward Walsh of the Washington Post: “The Cubs last won a World Series in 1908, but eight-cent beer apparently was considered too steep a discount.”

Where am I? From the Boston Globe: “[Cincinnati Manager] Ray Knight recently suffered a concussion in a skiing accident. When the ski-patrol ranger got to him, he asked Knight to name his center fielder. He could not, thus making him the only man in America not to know Deion Sanders.”

Green fever: In his later playing years, Ben Hogan was still nearly flawless from tee to green. But he suffered from that old malady, the yips, while putting.

Golfweek magazine recalled Hogan’s problem: “I know I take a long time over putts. I can hear people saying, ‘Hit it, you idiot!’ and I say the same thing to myself, but I can’t just walk up and hit it.”

Trivia answer: Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators and Toronto Arenas.

And finally: Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan keep in touch by phone and the young golfer often seeks advice on how to handle stardom from the Chicago Bull superstar.

But Jordan said Tiger’s situation is different from his.

“He’s in an individual sport. I have teammates that, to some degree, I can rely upon when I have bad days. He doesn’t have that. So it’s that much tougher for him.”