He Was Always Daring Sports to Cross Line

The late Shirley Povich was an early champion of integration in sports. When Jackie Robinson broke the color line in major league baseball, Povich wrote in the Washington Post: “Four hundred and fifty-five years after Columbus eagerly discovered America, major league baseball reluctantly discovered the American Negro.”

And while feuding with owner George Preston Marshall of the Washington Redskins over the team’s all-white roster, Povich wrote, “Jim Brown, born ineligible to play for the Redskins, integrated their end zone three times yesterday.”

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Trivia time: When Tony Gwynn was drafted in the third round by the San Diego Padres in 1981, he was the third player selected from San Diego State that year. Who were the first two?

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How embarrassing: Morris Bradshaw, director of marketing for the Oakland Raiders: “I get really sick of turning on ‘America’s Most Wanted’ or ‘Cops’ and seeing someone wearing our stuff being busted.”

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Diamond philosophy: Gib Bodet has been a Dodger scout for more than 20 years. He is often the man who takes the final look at a prospect discovered by someone else. Bodet’s philosophy for making the right choice:

“When you look at the nature of the game, it’s built on failure--who fails the least. You don’t scout performance, you scout tools.”

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New game: Philadelphia Phillie pitcher Curt Schilling named his now-3-year-old son Gehrig in honor of the former Yankee slugger, but when he wanted to name his daughter Ruth, after the Babe, his wife put her foot down.

Gabriella Patricia Schilling is now a year old.

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Track travesty: The 1996 Atlanta Olympics never sat well for Primo Nebiolo, the international track and field czar, but he’s even more upset that the Olympic stadium was turned into a baseball park for the Braves.

“They have destroyed the [old Atlanta-Fulton County] stadium and built a new stadium in the name of Ted Turner,” Nebiolo told John Powers of the Boston Globe. “It is shameful.”

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Reason enough: Bob Hartley, the new coach of the Colorado Avalanche, was working in a paper mill in Hawkesbury, Canada, when he began coaching. When the mill closed, he took a job at a plant that made windshields. That’s the main reason he is a hockey coach.

“Working 40 hours a week and going back to your house with a lunch box was not something I wanted to do,” Hartley said.

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Trivia answer: Shortstop Bobby Meacham, first-round pick of the St. Louis Cardinals, and catcher Al Romero, second-round selection of the Angels. Meacham played six years in the majors, Romero not a day.

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And finally: Fans watching Cincinnati’s Dmitri Young argue a called strike with umpire Jerry Layne couldn’t understand why Young wasn’t ejected.

“I tried to get a cuss word out,” he said, “but nothing would come out. Next time I’m going to get in the umpire’s face and have bad breath.”