It Appears That This Plan Still Needs Some Work

While tennis seeks the rival to Pete Sampras to revitalize the game, Sampras’ former rival, Andre Agassi, old Mr. Image Is Everything, seeks a reason to keep playing.

“I’ve played this game for a lot of reasons, and none of them have never quite been my own,” Agassi told the New York Times before the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, “but this time my desire is to get out there and enjoy it.

“It’s not easy, but at least I have a plan and I think I’m making progress.”

He’d better. No. 1 in the world two years ago, he has tumbled to No. 31 since losing in the 1995 U.S. Open final to Sampras.

“I miss the rivalry we had as much as Pete does,” Agassi says. “but right now these are the facts I’ve got to face. Pete’s resting up after winning Wimbledon for the fourth time. I’m here in [Washington] D.C., getting ready to play Round 1 of the Legg Mason.”

One round was all he lasted, losing to 174th-ranked Doug Flach.

Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for interceptions in a season?

It was inevitable: The Hanson Brothers, the most feared line in hockey movie history, have gone into merchandising.

The scene-stealers from 1977’s “Slap Shot” wore horn-rimmed glasses with coke-bottle lenses and wrapped their knuckles in tin foil during their reign of terror for the fictitious Charlestown Chiefs.

The trio--actually two brothers named Carlson and a friend named Hanson--are now promoting their Bad Brothers Inc. line of caps, sweatshirts, posters and, of course, mini-hockey sticks the kids can hit each other over the head with.

“Newman was terrific,” Steve Carlson says of “Slap Shot” star Paul Newman. “Truth is, we carried him for three months. Remember, he never won an Academy Award until after he worked with the Hanson brothers.”

New kid in town: Billie Jean King says Anna Kournikova is “the real thing,” but others suspect an attitude. When Kournikova, now 16, said she was unhappy with the rule limiting her appearances, fellow 16-year-old Martina Hingis suggested she try winning more matches.

“I have my father’s intelligence and my mother’s looks,” the unapologetic Kournikova said. “. . . I’ve made sacrifices to get where I am. Coming from Russia, I appreciate everything I earn.”

Trivia answer: Dick “Night Train” Lane of the Los Angeles Rams, 14 in a 12-game season in 1952.

And finally: Mike DiMuro, the American baseball umpire who left Japan after being poked by a player, hopes he taught his hosts a lesson, even if he had to give up his body to do it.

Last week Seibu Manager Osamu Higashio was suspended three games for attacking umpire Koichi Tamba, a rare event in Japan, where umpires sometimes change calls when confronted by angry players or managers.

“We want to eliminate violence against umpires,” Pacific League President Kazuo Harano said. “Kicking an umpire is the same as kicking the league president.”

The prez is lucky he’s out of the line of fire. Higashio was ejected, then shoved Tamba and kicked him.

Higashio said he’d abide by the decision “like a sportsman.”