In Raljon, That’s the Way the Cooke Crumbles

So long, Raljon, we hardly knew you. And hardly cared, either.

The “town” of Raljon, Md., disappears this week, three years after Jack Kent Cooke bought 200 acres of Prince George’s County farmland, erected a $160-million, 81,000-seat stadium on it and named the land surrounding it for his sons Ralph and John.

Amazingly, the U.S. Postal Service even bowed to Cooke and gave Raljon a four-digit extension to the Landover ZIP code. But the people of Landover never bought into the deal.

“It was a slap in the face to Prince George’s citizens,” said Bonnie Beck, vice president of the county’s Chamber of Commerce. “He renamed something that already had a name. He was saying to us, ‘This is my own little fiefdom. Don’t cross over the moat.’ ”

Now, Jack Kent Cooke Stadium is no more. Daniel Snyder, new owner of the Washington Redskins, is renaming it Redskins Stadium and Raljon, too, has been consigned to the scrapheap of ego.

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Trivia time: What world-famous, former Olympic stadium will be torn down and replaced next year?

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Arm-twisting: The Miami Herald’s Dan LeBatard asked Montreal Manager Felipe Alou why he decided to stay with the Expos rather than join the Dodgers.

“I was going,” Alou replied. “I had plane tickets for me and my wife. It was done. Then the Expos came to my house and said they wouldn’t get a new stadium, that baseball would die there. I had an obligation. I had said I would stay until the end of this Montreal crisis. This mess is going to be taken care of after this year. The crisis will be over.

“And look at what has happened to the Dodgers. There are some things wrong there. I would have had to break some arms to fix them.”

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Sport of the ‘90s: If the television cameras pick up hundreds--and perhaps thousands--of fans wearing soccer jerseys at the Metrodome today, don’t be confused.

The Twins haven’t changed sports, they’re merely saluting one of the city’s own.

Minneapolis-born Briana Scurry, the world and Olympic champion goalkeeper on the U.S. women’s national soccer team, will be honored before and during today’s Twins’ game against the Boston Red Sox.

As part of the promotion, any fan wearing a soccer jersey can buy a lower-level general admission ticket at half-price.

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Just supposing: Things are getting a little tense up in Giant country.

When reporters asked San Francisco General Manager Brian Sabean why a recent pitching assignment was listed as “undecided,” Sabean erupted.

“It’s our business,” he snapped. “We have no obligation to you, the public or anybody, but to do our business. So undecided is undecided. I’m sure you guys have your own suppositions, so write your suppositions.”

OK. Suppose you’ll be back next season?

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Trivia answer: The Empire Stadium in London, better known to soccer fans as Wembley.

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And finally: Carol Sing, 57, a retired swimming coach from El Cajon, had only this to say after she suffered from cold, sea-sickness and jellyfish stings while swimming from England to France in 12 hours 32 minutes: “I’m never going to do that again.”