Marlin Battery: Johnson, Pitcher to Be Recognized

Last season, Florida Marlin catcher Charles Johnson was working with such pitchers as Kevin Brown, Alex Fernandez, Al Leiter and Robb Nen.

Now, after a fire sale has gutted much of the roster of baseball’s defending World Series champions, Johnson doesn’t know his pitchers without a scorecard.

One prospect took the mound on the first day of spring training, and Johnson was impressed as he caught the youngster’s fastball, curve and changeup.

Johnson didn’t catch his name, though.

“Aw, what was it?” the catcher said later, looking across the clubhouse. “He’s standing over there, but I can’t remember his name.”

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Add Marlins: The team has only a few returning pitchers--starter Livan Hernandez and relievers Jay Powell, Felix Heredia and Antonio Alfonseca.

Manager Jim Leyland plans to keep 12 pitchers, and it’s possible rookies will fill all four available starting jobs.

“I’m not afraid to go with young people,” Leyland said. “I’ve got to pitch somebody.”

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Trivia time: The only man to win the NBA’s most-valuable-player award while a member of the Clipper franchise was involved in Thursday night’s Clipper-Miami Heat game. Name him.

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My giant: The coach stands on a folding chair in the low post, blocking his prize student from the basket. He raises his arms and the student is still taller.

“It was as close to 7-foot-5 as I could get,” said J.P. Ricciardi, the coach of Neal Fingelton, a 17-year-old high school sophomore in Worcester, Mass., who grew up in England.

“I used to watch the NBA in England,” Fingelton said, “and now, if everything goes well, in five or six years I could be playing.”

Here’s a scary thought. If, at 17, he’s still growing, imagine how tall Fingelton will be in six years.

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My way: Jason Collier transferred from Indiana to Georgia Tech this season because of his deteriorating relationship with Coach Bob Knight.

“It’s not necessarily all his fault that I left,” Collier said. “I think it was a little bit my fault too. There’s always two sides to the story.”

That may come as news to Knight, who usually maintains there is only one side to a story--his.

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Armed and dangerous: Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune has some advice for American skater Todd Eldredge, who lost his chance for a medal at the Winter Olympics by trying to turn a double axel into a triple axel.

Writes Lincicome: “Everyone knows you get thrown out trying to make a triple out of a double. Unless Keith Moreland is in right field, that is.”

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Trivia answer: Heat assistant coach Bob McAdoo, who was the most valuable player of the 1974-75 season as a member of the Buffalo Braves, which was the franchise’s name before it moved to San Diego and became the Clippers.

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And finally: Writes Jim Armstrong in the Denver Post: “It’s all a conspiracy. The Olympics actually ended two weeks ago, but CBS doesn’t want you to know.”