You’d Think They Were the Bronx Bombs

Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune disputes the notion that the 1998 New York Yankees are the greatest Yankee team of all time.

“This is a calm, self-possessed group whose single, identifiable piece of greatness is the ability to foul off pitches until they get one they want.

“They are string savers is what they are, a bunch of monotonous nit-pickers. . . . Great? The ’27 Yankees would beat this team in batting practice. The ’61 Yankees would whip these guys five days a week. The ’78 Yankees would take their lunch money.”

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More Yankees: Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post also disputes that the World Series winners are baseball’s all-time best team:

“Truly dominating clubs from the Big Red Machine to the Gashouse Gang will be blasphemed in the name of those Yanks. But only fools believe a four-game sweep of gritty, flawed San Diego certifies this New York edition as baseball’s team of the century.

“Paul O’Neill couldn’t carry the Babe’s hot dog and beer.”

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Trivia time: Who were the first two football players from what is now the Pacific 10 to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season?

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Curse of the Tuna: Dan Shaughnessy in the Boston Globe, after the New York Jets’ 24-14 victory over New England last Monday night:

“We might as well admit it. He is never going away. Bill Parcells might coach in New York, New Orleans, or New Delhi, but he will never be far from the New England mind.

“He is like nasty traffic on the Expressway, northeasters in February, and green flies at Crane Beach. He is like . . . the New York Yankees--guaranteed to torture New England sports fans for eternity.”

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Team of kids: Former major league manager Al Lopez, at 90 the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, on Babe Ruth:

“You could be on the club 10 years and he’d call you Kid. He couldn’t remember anybody’s name, so he called everybody Kid.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1965, Fran Tarkenton of the Minnesota Vikings passed for 407 yards and three touchdowns in a 42-41 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

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Trivia answer: Morley Drury of USC, 1,163 yards in 1927, and Jackie Jensen of California, 1,010 yards in 1948.

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And finally: Midfielder Dino Baggio of Italy’s Parma soccer club said he was hit in the head by a knife thrown by a fan in Krakow, Poland, during a recent UEFA Cup game against Wisla. The cut on his head required five stitches.

“I saw a knife on the field. I could not believe it,” Baggio said on Italian television.

He finished the game after receiving treatment from team doctors on the sideline.

The Wisla team disputed Baggio’s story, saying he could have been hit on the head by a rock.

Oh. Guess that makes it OK.