Quoth the Former Raven Everitt, Evermore

Center Steve Everitt, the reluctant Baltimore Raven who was fined $5,000 for wearing a Cleveland Browns bandanna last season, has signed with the Philadelphia Eagles, but he can’t get Maryland in his rear-view mirror.

The Eagles scrimmage the Ravens, play them in an exhibition in Philadelphia and again during the season in Baltimore.

“That scrimmage is going to be brutal,” Everitt says. “I’m friends with everybody on the team. But I’m sure there are going to be some guys who are out to get me, so I’m going to have to throw the first punch.

“When I was leaving, there were these radio guys saying, ‘We’ll get him when he comes back to Baltimore. We’ll throw Philly cheese steak at him.’ ”

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Add reluctant: Everitt still misses Cleveland, and who wouldn’t?

“I still think about it daily,” he says. “There’s a big mall downtown with this huge electronic sign that was at 798 days [when he last saw it] until football returns to Cleveland.

“There’s no way [Art] Modell can justify moving that team. I don’t care about PSLs and luxury boxes and all that. If you can’t find a way to make money in that town with that team, that’s sick.”

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Last add reluctant: OK, maybe all the Ravens hated Baltimore but just couldn’t say it publicly.

Notes another former Raven, safety Eric Turner, now a Raider, on the move from Cleveland: “It was like going from the very best to--well, I’m not saying it wasn’t OK but there is no comparison when you feel you had the very best.

“They were fine in Baltimore. I couldn’t talk bad about them. But there were times when fans didn’t know when to cheer in Baltimore . . . or how much to cheer or how to cheer. They were there, but it just wasn’t the same intensity.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA men’s basketball single-game scoring record against a Division I opponent: A) Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas, B) Pete Maravich of Louisiana State, C) Frank Selvy of Furman or D) Kevin Bradshaw of U.S. International?

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Risky business: Despite attendance gains, the Cleveland Indians wonder about this interleague thing, what with one of their promising young pitchers, Jaret Wright, getting a hand bruised by a pitch while trying to bunt against the Houston Astros.

“I’ve been talking about this all along concerning interleague play,” General Manager John Hart said. “It puts our pitchers at risk. It asks them to do something they’re not familiar with.”

Said Wright: “The last way I expected to get hurt when I signed with the Indians was by swinging a bat. It’s hard enough for a major-league hitter to get into the batter’s box. I haven’t swung a bat in three years. That was in high school.”

Makes you wonder how those NL pitchers survive those treacherous at-bats every game, doesn’t it?

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Trivia answer: D) Bradshaw. He scored 72 points on Jan. 5, 1991, against Paul Westhead’s running-gunning Loyola Marymount team.

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And finally: Manager Terry Francona, whose Phillies went 1-12 in successive series against Atlanta, Baltimore and Florida: “I thought this span of games would be a good measuring stick. It was.”