Woman Keeps This Driver Under Her Spell

Former Daytona 500 winner Derrike Cope was named after his mother’s favorite movie star, John Derek, so why the different spelling?

“She wanted to call me Derek, but she also wanted the name to be different,” Cope says. “You’d be surprised how many times it’s been misspelled. I’ve had sportswriters see my name spelled wrong, think they’re correcting it, and still get it wrong.”

Note: Cope’s brother Darren was named for another of their mother’s favorites, James Darren, but this time she didn’t change the spelling.

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Trivia time: What is the greatest number of future Hall of Famers to play in one World Series?

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Look-alikes: Cuban refugees Jorge Toca of the New York Mets and Danys Baez of the Cleveland Indians recently were among 100 baseball rookies visiting the White House.

According to Peter Gammons of ESPN, Toca pointed to a picture of the bearded Ulysses S. Grant, and said, “Look, Fidel.”

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Happy birthday: Jack Nicklaus is 60 today.

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Name game: Arctic air has taken its toll on staff members at Newsday. To pass the time in winter weather, they came up with the following all-weather college basketball team:

Brett Blizzard, North Carolina Wilmington; Sam Winter, Harvard; John Shivers, South Carolina State; Tim Frost, Portland; Craig Snow, Evansville. Coach: Gale Catlett, West Virginia.

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Bench lessons: Florida football Coach Steve Spurrier won the Heisman Trophy in 1966 at Florida, but he says his experience as a backup quarterback from 1967 to ’75 with the San Francisco 49ers may have helped him become a successful coach.

“Some people have said that maybe because I watched the game from the sidelines a whole bunch that maybe it has helped me as far as calling the plays from the sidelines,” he told Knight-Ridder columnist Jonathan Okanes.

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It’s true: Tennessee defeated Jacksonville twice in NFL regular-season play. Now, with the two teams meeting Sunday for the AFC championship, much has been said about how difficult it is to beat the same team three times in one season.

Reader Dwain Esper says there is precedent for such thinking. In 1950, the Chicago Bears beat the Rams twice in Western Division play, while the New York Giants beat the Cleveland Browns twice in the Eastern Division.

In the playoffs, the Rams and Browns won. Then the Browns won the championship.

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Trivia answer: Thirteen, in 1932. Nine New York Yankees (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Joe Sewell, Earle Combs, Bill Dickey, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez and Herb Pennock) and four Chicago Cubs (Billy Herman, Kiki Cuyler, Gabby Hartnett and Burleigh Grimes).

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And finally: The Chicago Tribune was only about 25 miles off in a story advancing the U.S.-Iran soccer game Sunday in the Rose Bowl.

The dateline on the article was POMONA, Calif.