In the End, All He Got Was a Snub Sandwich

Arnold who? Arnold Palmer is one of golf’s greatest players, but that status wasn’t good enough to get him a table at the venerable Tadich Grill in downtown San Francisco before the U.S. Open began.

Palmer was with four friends Tuesday night when he decided to have a drink at the Gold Coast Restaurant next door while waiting to be seated at the famous seafood restaurant.

He waited and waited and waited--two hours in all. Then he got fed up.

“He didn’t have any pull next door,” said Jim Brandt, owner of the Gold Coast Restaurant. “I don’t know whether they didn’t recognize him or whether they just like to snub celebrities.

“He was steaming. He said, ‘I hope you can put those guys out of business next door.’ ”

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Trivia time: Who was the first male athlete to win the 100 and 200 meters and the long jump in the USA Track and Field Championships?

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Clarification: Chicago Bull guard Steve Kerr, when asked if he will refuse to play for any team unless Phil Jackson is the coach:

“No. What I said was, I refuse to play for any team that doesn’t offer me a contract.”

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Bored Americans: From comedy writer Alex Kaseberg: “I can’t believe all of the fights at the World Cup. The only time a fight breaks out in the U.S. over a soccer game is if someone at a bar tries to turn it on.”

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Agony outing: Houston’s Pete Schourek joined Jim Abbott last Tuesday as the only pitchers in the 1990s to throw 100 pitches in three innings: His unmemorable stint: three innings pitched, five hits, six runs (all earned), seven walks, two strikeouts, one home run and 100 pitches--of which 47 were balls.

Said Schourek unnecessarily: “It’s hard to win like that.”

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Flawed strategy: Michael Ventre of MSNBC can’t understand why Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan didn’t call for a double-team on Michael Jordan in the closing seconds of Game 6 of the NBA finals.

“If Sloan was managing a game against Mark McGwire, his strategy would probably be to let McGwire have his five or six homers and concentrate on shutting down everybody else.”

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FYI: Only four players have won the U.S. men’s golf championship four times: Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Jack Nicklaus. Hale Irwin is a three-time winner of the event.

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Looking back: On this day in 1947, Cincinnati’s Ewell Blackwell fell two outs short of matching Johnny Vander Meer’s feat of back-to-back no-hitters when Brooklyn’s Eddie Stanky got a ninth-inning single.

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Trivia answer: Malcolm Ford of the New York Athletic Club in 1885. Note: Carl Lewis accomplished the triple in 1983, setting an American record of 19.75 seconds in the 200 meters.

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And finally: New York Yankee pitcher Hideki Irabu broke into laughter when a teammate’s joke was translated for him.

Said shortstop Derek Jeter: “That’s the difference between this year and last year. This year, he has a funny interpreter.”