Age Doesn’t Matter With Raider Fans

Offensive tackle Blake Brockermeyer of the Chicago Bears, on Oakland Raider fans:

“Complete craziness. Little 6-year-old kids were cussing us out before the game. Parents in pregame warmups are yelling and cussing and throwing stuff. This place has some problems.”

Always has.

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Trivia time: Which was the last Pacific 10 Conference team to finish with a 6-2 record and still represent the conference in the Rose Bowl game?

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Rubbing it in: After San Jose State, a 19-point underdog, upset Stanford, 44-39, on Saturday, the Spartans and their fans marched past the Cardinal locker room hollering “Pac-10, Pac-What?” and “We’re Robin Hood, we’re Robin Hood, we steal from the rich.”

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Wishful thinking? Boston Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez, in an interview with Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, on his team’s chances of ending its 81-year championship drought:

“It’s gonna happen someday, and I think soon. I think one of these days the little ground ball that went [between] Bill Buckner’s feet will probably be caught.”

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Sign of the times: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “The raucous behavior of Ryder Cup galleries makes you wonder if ‘the gentleman’s game’ is headed the hoodlum way of other spectator sports wherein customers become part of hazards.

“Who’ll be the first to throw a beer can at Colin Montgomerie?”

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Fashion failures: Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News: “Don’t know what Captain Ben Crenshaw said to the troops, but I’d have said, ‘Boys, if you’re going to wear shirts that ugly, you better win.’ ”

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No big deal: Recalling Mickey Mantle’s reaction about 10 years ago to Jose Canseco’s feat of becoming the first player to have 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in the same season:

“If I had known it was going to be such a big deal, I would have done it four or five times.”

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No laughing matter: Atlanta Thrasher winger Vladimir Vujtek, recovering from a 100-stitch facial wound: “I’m fine now, but I’m trying not to watch any comedy movies.”

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Trivia answer: UCLA in 1993. Arizona and USC also finished with 6-2 records, but the Bruins earned the bid, having defeated the Wildcats and Trojans.

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And finally: Mr. Blackwell, the self-appointed fashion expert who is best known for his annual top 10 list of the worst-dressed women, was called upon Friday to critique the new Laker uniforms.

Calling the changes minuscule, the fashion maven noted:

“I might have well as gone and visited my psychiatrist instead. It’s a joke to travel 12 miles to see this. You owe me two gallons of gas.”