They’re Still Stark Raven Mad in Cleveland

Cleveland doesn’t even have a professional football team yet, but the Browns have a president and a downtown billboard with a picture of a raven, proclaiming, “The Raven’s Natural Predator is the Cleveland Browns’ Fan.”

The former Cleveland Browns are now in Baltimore as the Ravens.

Bill Futterer, the Browns’ president, says what fans want is “to see 45 guys in brown and orange and white cracking heads with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 32-degree weather with a chill coming off the lake on natural grass under a gray sky in the fall. That’s what they want.

“They don’t care about salary cap. They don’t care about revenues generated from permanent seat licenses. They don’t care about anything other than getting their beloved Cleveland Browns in front of them again, and soon.”

Trivia time: Which NBA Hall of Famer was ejected from a major league baseball game, yet never appeared in one?

Reluctant hero: Quarterback Danny Wuerffel, Florida’s Heisman Trophy winner now with the New Orleans Saints, doesn’t enjoy being interviewed.

“Football is such a team sport that it doesn’t really seem right to single out one person as being more important than anyone else,” he said. “I feel I’m just a small part of why things happen on the field.”

Pecking order: When former Pittsburgh Steeler center Mike Webster was inducted into pro football’s Hall of Fame, he turned to fellow inductee Don Shula and called him “the second-best coach in NFL history.”

Shula was not pleased to be given second billing to Chuck Noll, but Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wonders “how many more Super Bowls Noll would have won with Dan Marino as his quarterback.”

Shula, of course, won none with Marino.

Cheap fun: Ozzie Guillen of the Chicago White Sox was so upset when friend Harold Baines was traded to the Baltimore Orioles he smashed a clubhouse TV. When asked if he was expecting to pay for the damage, he snapped:

“Do you know how much money I make? I can afford to smash up all the TVs in here.”

Guillen makes $4 million a year.

Trivia answer: Bill Sharman of the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers.

How he was ejected: “I was called up at the end of the season when the Dodgers had a 13-game lead,” the former Boston Celtic guard and Laker coach recalled. “In the last week, we were playing the Braves and Campy [catcher Roy Campanella] tagged a guy out at home in a close play. The umpire called him safe and [Manager] Charlie Dressen charged out of the dugout.

“A couple of players ran out and before it was over, everybody on the bench was on the field. I was just a little rookie who never said a word, but I was thrown out too. After that, the big lead was gone and the Dodgers were in a playoff with the Giants, so I never got in a game.”

And finally: Some Houston Astro players have challenged the Comets, Houston’s WNBA team, to a charity basketball game in the off-season. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez, who is not on the Astro basketball team, sees trouble ahead.

“I don’t think the Astros have a chance,” he said. “We are baseball players. When the game gets going, some of our guys will be begging for oxygen.”