Personality Transplant Takes Time

Joe Goddard of the Chicago Sun-Times on White Sox Manager Terry Bevington, who was fired earlier in the week:

“[Bevington] acted as though he didn’t give a damn about the press. Not even charm lessons conducted by TV media mogul Andrea Kirby helped.

“ ‘I don’t know anybody who can change your life in an hour and a half--unless it’s a judge,’ Bevington said.”

Trivia time: Who holds the Pacific 10 Conference record for the longest field goal?

Expensive letter: Months ago, a Tampa businessman named Joe Rossetto paid $100 for web site rights to www.devilrays.com and then, according to the Devil Rays, tried to sell it to them for $50,000. The Devil Rays said no and made their own site, www.devilray.com.

“Basically,” vice president John Higgins said, “We weren’t going to pay 50 grand for an ‘s.’ ”

Quick hit: NBC commentator Randy Cross, a former San Francisco 49er and UCLA lineman, hasn’t lost his quickness, according to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.

New York radio host Mike Francesa saw Cross recently at Giants Stadium and said: “R.C., you lost a lot of weight.” Said Cross: “Yeah, and you found it.”

The good life: Washington Capital defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who is unsigned and wasn’t with his team for the start of the NHL season, didn’t sound too broken up over missing the opener. He’s considering playing in Europe instead of Washington.

“If I play in Germany, the money is tax free, and I get an apartment and a car and I don’t have to drive a speed limit,” he told the Washington Post. “That sounds OK to me.”

Opinion Department: Bryan Burwell in the Sporting News, on why he prefers football over baseball: “Baseball’s flow of action is simply too restrictive and far too sporadic for my tastes.

“With the never-ending pitcher-vs.-hitter duels, baseball is a sedate two-man dance to me. Football, however, is a kinetic, nonstop free-for-all, an all-inclusive rumble of power, speed and aggressive energy.”

Good thinking: Bob Davie, coach of 1-3 Notre Dame, on having his 43rd birthday last Tuesday: “The good news is, I have a lot of presents over there from Notre Dame fans. The bad news is, I’m a little afraid to open those boxes right now.”

Looking back: On this day in 1955, the Brooklyn Dodgers won the World Series on their eighth try, as Johnny Podres shut out the New York Yankees, 2-0.

Trivia answer: Jason Hanson of Washington State, 62 yards against Nevada Las Vegas in 1991.

And finally: Tom Mack, former Ram all-pro guard, credits instant replay for the spiraling salaries of offensive linemen.

“Before instant replay, the only players anybody ever saw were quarterbacks, running backs and receivers. . . . Suddenly, with instant replay, everybody could see that there really were 11 players, that guards are just as essential as quarterbacks.”