This Restaurant Is Guaranteed to Be a Big Hit

Sammy Sosa is about to become the next Chicago sports personality to open his own restaurant.

The Cubs’ slugger is working with the operators of Michael Jordan’s restaurant to start up a Sosa eatery. He expects to begin welcoming diners in September or October.

Sosa is following the lead of other local sports icons-turned-restaurateurs-- including Jordan, former Bear coach Mike Ditka and the late Cub announcer Harry Caray.

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Trivia time: Which team holds the record for points scored in overtime in an NBA playoff game?

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Wrong goat: In a joke interview for David Letterman’s TV show, Carlton Fisk was asked by Dan Patrick to name his worst moment with the Boston Red Sox. Fisk said it was in the 1986 World Series, when a grounder went through his legs.

Patrick: “Uh, Pudge . . . that was Bill Buckner.”

Fisk: “It was? Thank God!”

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Zzzzz: Woody Paige in the Denver Post: “I’m pulling for the Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs to play for the [NBA] championship.

“NBC deserves that matchup. Can there be minus TV ratings?”

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Discriminating dogs: Michael Ventre of MSNBC: “The Dodgers are being sued for $5 million because they made a disabled man buy two tickets for his guide dogs.

“The club is trying to reduce the amount of the suit by claiming the dogs left in the sixth inning along with everybody else.”

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Lunch break: Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle: “During the Colonial golf tournament last Friday, Peter Jacobsen’s approach on No. 9 landed in a hamburger carton in a woman’s lap.

“Ever the opportunist, Jacobsen took a bite of her hamburger and a swig of her drink, then took a drop and made bogey.

“And missed the cut by seven strokes. Maybe he wasn’t hungry enough.”

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Job fits him: Steve Rosenbloom in the Chicago Tribune: “Bring me the head of Dave Check-etts. He lied about approaching Phil Jackson on running the Knicks, lied about meeting with him, lied to his current coach [Jeff Van Gundy] and star center [Patrick Ewing], so you can see why he was the first choice to run the Salt Lake City Olympics.”

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No big deal: Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe was philosophical about Checketts’ lying: “It’s not like anyone in the media should be offended. Club officials and coaches lie or distort the truth or otherwise mislead us and, by extension, you all the time.

“It’s seldom personal. It comes with the territory.”

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Trivia answer: The Lakers, with 22 against New York on May 1, 1970, at the Forum.

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And finally: Jim Armstrong in the Denver Post: “Talk about your long, strange trips. Former Rocky Mountain News staffer Rick Morrissey, now with the Chicago Tribune, was sent to Las Vegas in search of Dennis Rodman.

“When he arrived, he found himself in the midst of a body-piercing convention. Trying to find Rodman at one of these things, writes Morrissey, is like ‘trying to find a piercing needle in a haystack.’ ”