It Was Surely Quite a Career for Post’s Povich

The career of Shirley Povich, the famous sportswriter, editor and war correspondent of the Washington Post who died Thursday at 92, was put in perspective by colleague Leonard Shapiro:

“When Mr. Povich’s first byline appeared in the Post in 1924, Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States, Walter Johnson was the ‘Big Train’ of the Washington Senators pitching staff and the Washington Redskins had not yet been born.”

*

Trivia time: Which NBA finals record did Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks tie in a 1994 game against the Houston Rockets?

*

Ugh! A Salt Lake City radio station gave away tickets to fans who would pull the most outrageous stunts. One of the winners ate a “Rodman Sandwich”: more than a dozen live worms between two slices of white bread.

A young woman got a permanent tattoo with the Jazz logo and the radio station’s name--and she didn’t even win.

*

Pot is OK? Athletes competing at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, will not be stripped of their medals if they test positive for marijuana.

“We are not interested in marijuana because it isn’t a restricted drug in any of the Commonwealth sports, so we don’t take any notice of it,” a medical advisor said.

*

Bad News Brewers: The Milwaukee Brewers had Marquis Grissom on second and Fernando Vina on first in a game in New York, but the Mets’ Dennis Cook picked each of them off before a ball could be put in play.

“We’re a disgrace,” Brewer Manager Phil Garner said. “We just run until somebody tags us out.”

*

What’s his ERA? Asked to put a numerical rating on Jonathan Steitz, a right-handed pitcher from a New England prep school whose parents are Yale professors, a Met scout said: “1,480.” That’s his SAT score.

*

Looking back: On this day in 1936, Granville won the Belmont Stakes by a neck over Mr. Bones. Bold Venture, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, did not run.

*

Trivia answer: He blocked eight shots, tying a record held by Bill Walton and Hakeem Olajuwon.

*

And finally: The legend has always been that the first heavyweight boxing champion of the world was John L. Sullivan. No less of a boxing historian than Mike Tyson, in town recently for a Jim Brown fund-raiser, thought so too. When Tyson, fascinated by trivia questions, was asked who was the first world heavyweight boxing champion, with gloves and three-minute rounds, under Marquess of Queensberry rules, he answered John L. Sullivan.

But another boxing historian, former boxer and Hollywood entertainer Jody Berry, knew better. He pointed out, in the Guinness Book of World Records, that the correct answer was Gentleman James Corbett, who beat Sullivan in 21 rounds in New Orleans on Sept. 7, 1892.