If Manning Takes as Many Hits, Colts Will Crash

Peyton Manning-mania already is in full bloom, and victory-starved Indianapolis Colt fans will get their first look at the former Tennessee quarterback today when the team winds up its three-day mini-camp at the RCA Dome.

Meanwhile, the Colts’ Web site and the team’s ticket office have been swamped with more than 500,000 hits and calls since he was drafted April 18.

The Colts earned the No. 1 pick in the draft by finishing a league-worst 3-13 last season.

If they finish 3-13 next season, the Web site will go back to cobwebs.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NBA playoff record for free throws in a game without a miss?

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Alternatives: Vacationing columnist Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press, on trying to find a chiropractor in Spain for his aching back:

“In Spain, which is a lovely country, you have a better chance of being stabbed by a bullfighter than having your spine adjusted.”

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No bird of prey: The brown thrasher is a bird that forages in leaves and has been known to flee from a fight. That’s not the impression suggested from the logo unveiled Thursday by the Atlanta Thrashers, who will join the NHL in 1999.

The Thrashers’ logo is a fierce-looking bird with a scowl on its face, a tornado-like whirlwind for a body and a hockey stick brandished menacingly from its tail feathers.

Don’t think the logo or the team will scare some of the thugs in the NHL.

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Long memory: Joe DiMaggio, commenting on the recent temporary closure of 75-year-old Yankee Stadium after a 500-pound expansion joint fell while the park was empty:

“I feel sorry for the people in the Bronx and other baseball fans who are sentimental about the House That Ruth Built. But I’m not sentimental when I think of that outfield. Five hundred feet, that’s how far we had to hit them to get a home run.”

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We can hardly wait: Chicago Bull forward Dennis Rodman will play a soldier of fortune on the syndicated TV action series “S.O.F.: Special Ops Force” (formerly known as “Soldier of Fortune”) next season.

Said Rodman: “They plan to make me into a black Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Sun-Times suggested a new stage name for him: “Worminator.”

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Trivia answer: Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz, 18, against the Lakers on May 10, last year.

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And finally: Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe: “George Halas, Vince Lombardi, Paul Brown . . . and now Robert Kraft.

“Finally, we have a worthy successor to the other great football minds of the half-century. At last there is another face to carve onto the Mt. Rushmore of the modern game.

“Didn’t you love watching Kraft take charge of the Patriots’ [draft] ‘war room’ last weekend. . . . Kraft has taken jock-sniffing to a new level. Does anybody wonder why Bill Parcells couldn’t stand the guy?”