Player Decree: Please Keep the President Out

In American sports, a phone call from the president is a sign of achievement, as big a championship tradition as popping open champagne bottles.

In Argentina, it’s a signal to run for cover.

According to Total Sport magazine, Argentine President Carlos Menem is considered such a bad-luck charm in his country that he has been banned from watching the national soccer team in person. The team called for the ban after going into a tailspin immediately after meeting Menem.

Gabriela Sabatini was No. 4 in the world when she played a friendly match of tennis against Menem. Shortly afterward, Sabatini abruptly announced her retirement.

Worse still, Menem invited six-time world champion power boat racer Daniel Sciola to co-pilot his boat, and soon after accepting the invitation, Sciola lost an arm.

Pre-Chris Chandler: Atlanta is the winningest big-league sports city in the United States, according to a statistical study in the August issue of Sport magazine.

Using team records from the 1996 NFL and major league baseball seasons and the 1996-97 NBA and NHL seasons, Sport came up with the following top five:

1. Atlanta 155-104-0 .598.

2. Cleveland 141-102-0 .580.

3. Seattle 149-110-0 .575.

4. Miami 184-139-19 .566.

5. Houston 147-113-0 .565.

Los Angeles-Anaheim was 11th at .504 (316-311-24), seven slots ahead of the 18th-place Bay Area (.435, 222-290-8).

Bringing up the rear, at No. 20, was the Boston-New England area, with a meager .414 winning percentage (137-196-9).

Maybe Travis Knight will help change that.

Trivia time: What Dodger pitcher went 11-0 at Dodger Stadium one season?

He’s No. 2: In its August college football preview issue, Inside Sports magazine ranks USC’s John Robinson as the second-most overrated coach in the country, just behind John Mackovic of Texas.

Concluding that the names on this list “must have dirty pictures of their bosses--how else do they keep their jobs?”, the magazine writes of Robinson:

“In his second run at USC, Robinson may be proving that the game has passed him by. Since returning to the college ranks from the NFL, Robinson is 31-16-2 and has lost to cross-town rival UCLA all four years. The Trojans were 6-6 last season; only a 27-20 season-ending overtime victory over Notre Dame prevented a losing mark. Even Robinson acknowledges this is a ‘prove it’ year.”

Trivia answer: Orel Hershiser, in 1985.

And finally: Rookie pitcher Brett Tomko of the Cincinnati Reds, discussing his repertoire:

“I have a curveball that sometimes acts like a slider, sometimes acts like a curve and sometimes acts like a batting-practice fastball.”