Well, Well, Well: So That’s Why They Kept Name

When the Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960, few could understand why the team retained the name Lakers when there weren’t any lakes around.

Now people are wondering why Tennessee’s NFL team still calls itself the Oilers after moving from oil-rich Houston. Owner Bud Adams has the answer.

The Oilers were named in honor of his grandfather, who drilled the first commercial oil well, and his father, a former president of Phillips Petroleum.

“A name is a team’s history, its tradition,” Adams said. “Nobody knows who the Ravens are, and I don’t know how long it will be until they do.”

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Trivia time: What is the record for consecutive World Series games won by a pitcher?

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East Coast view: Kevin Paul Dupont in the Boston Globe, on the Mighty Duck-Paul Kariya impasse: “The Big Cookie is about to crumble when Paul Kariya says he won’t return to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim for $7 million a year. Nice player, Kariya, but somehow the game will struggle on without him.”

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Cherry-picking: Danny Wuerffel, the Heisman Trophy winner and New Orleans Saint rookie quarterback, is proving to be an easy target.

From Boston Globe columnist Ron Borges: “Danny Wuerffel, who so many NFL scouts said didn’t have the arm to play in the NFL, will start at quarterback. Some people might argue he’s still not in the NFL, since he plays for the New Orleans Saints.”

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Truly vintage: Reader Doug Stokes found this classified advertisement for vintage racing parts in Autoweek rather startling:

“Hewland 300 Mark 2 transaxle, SN 275. Not run since rebuild 1894.”

Now that’s really vintage.

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TV priorities: Boxing publicist Bill Caplan says, “The people who run major league baseball are not so stupid after all. They scheduled the World Series off nights for Monday to miss ‘Monday Night Football,’ and Friday so as not to buck the IFBA women’s boxing championships on pay-per-view.

“Baseball knows better than to go against the power.”

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Skip it: Curling has been a demonstration sport at five Olympic Games--1924, 1932, 1964, 1988 and 1992--but has never made it as an official sport.

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Looking back: On this day in 1988, Dan Marino passed for 521 yards, three touchdowns and completed 35 passes--and lost. The New York Jets defeated Marino’s Miami Dolphins, 44-30.

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Trivia answer: Bob Gibson won seven games in a row in the World Series of 1964, ’67 and ’68.

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And finally: The Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson’s reaction to all of the negative stories written about him:

“I don’t pay any attention to it. Today’s newspaper is tomorrow’s toilet paper.”