Updated Forecast for Baltimore: Cold and Nasty

Skip Bayless writing in the Chicago Tribune on controversial Albert Belle, the former White Sox player:

“No wonder Chicago has been so warm and sunny the last few days. A cold, dark cloud is lifting from Comiskey Park, and settling over what used to be one of the classiest franchises in sports, the Orioles.

” . . . Belle has become the snarling symbol for baseball in the ‘90s--the filthy-rich mercenary, the soldier of outrageous fortune. Have bat, will travel.

“You hire Belle to fight the enemy and hope he doesn’t turn on you.”

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Trivia time: Who are the only players from the Naval Academy to have won the Heisman Trophy?

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Odd stat: John McClain in the Houston Chronicle: “Minnesota’s Randy Moss became the first receiver to have two 100-yard games against the Packers since the Rams’ Bob Boyd in 1954.”

Like Moss, Boyd was exceptionally fast, having won the NCAA 100-yard title in 1950 while competing for Loyola.

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Sure you are: After losing to Syracuse, 66-13, Saturday, Miami cornerback Nate Brooks said, “We’re going to beat UCLA [next Saturday].”

Comment from Dan Le Batard of the Miami Herald: “Um, Nate, please be quiet. When you lose by 53 and and allow more points than any UM team has since 1940, you should not be making any predictions.”

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Selected victims: Bob Kravitz in the Rocky Mountain News: “I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest K-State might be a part of the bowl championship series picture if the Wildcats didn’t play Marty’s Barber College and St. Aloysius of the Holy Three-Deep Zone in their nonconference season.”

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Sloppy delivery: Syndicated columnist Norman Chad on Philadelphia Eagle quarterback Bobby Hoying:

“When a Hoying pass is in the air, it is reminiscent of a piece of meatloaf being thrown across the school cafeteria during a food fight.”

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Name department: Autumn Fogg of Georgetown finished 23rd in the recent NCAA Division I women’s cross-country meet.

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Confidence department: Chicago Bear defensive tackle Mike Wells: “It seems like for us, if we have a lead we’re in no man’s land, like we’re naked or something.”

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FYI: Track & Field News predicts that the USC men will win the 1999 NCAA outdoor title by one point over Stanford.

The Trojans have won 26 titles, but none since 1976. USC finished first in 1978, but later forfeited the title for using an ineligible athlete.

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Looking back: On this day in 1936, end Larry Kelley of Yale won the Heisman Trophy.

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Trivia answer: Joe Bellino in 1960 and Roger Staubach in 1963.

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And finally: Golf World reports that Florida billionaire Wayne Huizenga has built an 18-hole golf course on his South Florida estate and limits access to his family and about 100 “honorary” members.”

Said Huizenga, “We don’t ever have to worry about playing with someone we don’t like.”