He’s Catching Baseball on the NBA Rebound

Is it baseball season again so soon?

Seems as if they were playing and pitching and blasting balls all around the American and National leagues a long time ago. . . .

Back when Orel Hershiser was a young and strong 41, when Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. were set to dominate the National League Central (not ready to implode), when the New York Yankees were the class of baseball (not the Chicago White Sox), and when the Dodgers spent more time on the baseball field than they did in appeal hearings. . . .

But then the NBA playoffs hit hard, submerging us in Shaquille O’Neal power moves, Christina Rice monologues and, eventually, confetti. Look up now, the All-Star game is right around the corner, and there are so many issues to resolve:

* Is Sosa a good guy, a bad guy or the victim of the worst and fastest media/management souring in sports?

I guess he’s not the next Michael Jordan in Chicago, but judging by the speed and venom with which several key people have turned on Sosa, maybe they would’ve been calling for Jordan’s head too, if he hadn’t left when he did.

The Cubs have lost with Sosa, will lose when they trade him, and most of all, after two fantasy seasons, have forever lost touch with that wonderful meeting of time, place and power-hitting hero.

* Who are Magglio Ordonez, Ray Durham and Keith Foulke, what are they doing leading the White Sox to the best record in baseball, and were these the guys who played with Jordan on the 1994 Birmingham Bulls?

I promise to spend much of my vacation considering that brain-teaser, since many of us have spent our adult lives ignoring Jerry Reinsdorf’s other franchise.

* Will anybody be surprised if Mike Piazza drives in a run and Darin Erstad gets two hits in every game the rest of the season, if Gary Sheffield and Chad Kreuter appeal their suspensions to Regis Philbin, if Griffey Jr. demands his father be traded to Seattle, and if the Yankees pick up Rickey Henderson, Hershiser and Bill “Spaceman” Lee for the playoff drive?

THE BIG PICTURE

Some things about last week’s NBA draft were fun, some were ridiculous and some just need to be blown away:

* The Orlando Magic did the best dismantling job since, well, the Clippers, who do it every season.

The difference being that the Magic actually has a coach, and its breakup was on purpose, sending away all but the most vital pieces in order to horde salary-cap room for Tim Duncan and either Grant Hill or Tracy McGrady.

If it works right (as it did for Jerry West and the Lakers in 1996 when they landed O’Neal and Kobe Bryant), Orlando could field a starting lineup of Duncan, Michael Doleac, Hill or McGrady, Darrell Armstrong and Matt Harpring or Ron Mercer, with rookie Mike Miller and veterans Bo Outlaw, Ben Wallace and Pat Garrity off the bench.

* Darius Miles, Keyon Dooling, Quentin Richardson and Corey Maggette. . . . Gee, the last time the Clippers unveiled such an interesting bounty of new faces was after the 1995 draft, when they traded No. 2 overall pick Antonio McDyess to Denver for Brent Barry and Rodney Rogers.

Barry was the key and eventual downfall of that deal, and this one, assuming Miles will take time to develop, probably revolves around Dooling, who was very erratic at Missouri, and Maggette, who doesn’t yet have an NBA position.

* With Glen Rice all but unofficially erased from the Laker roster, Mark Madsen on board and the Lakers in pursuit of veteran big bodies, look for Robert Horry to be penciled in at small forward, where Phil Jackson has always believed he should play.

WEEKEND TALKING POINTS

1. Orel Hershiser: Too bad Dodgers released him when they did, on pace to break the record for consecutive scored-upon innings.

2. Mike Tyson: So this is how fairy-tale monsters are created--come straight home, kids, or “Iron Mike” will eat you!

3. Oscar De La Hoya, moment of truth: He has used up the easy paths. Now he can either rebuild his career with sweat and sacrifice, or slowly fade away.

4. Pete Sampras: Good thing for his injured ankle that Wimbledon recently switched away from that hard AstroTurf.

5. Damir Dokic: Jelena’s father ranted his way through the Wimbledon media room and smashed a reporter’s cell phone. That’s acceptable behavior only for Davis Cup captains.

6. Roy Williams: A sure sign of class--he’s choosing between Kansas and North Carolina when each has a chance to win an immediate national title. Williams vs. Krzyzewski for next 12 years?

7. France wins Euro 2000: A great tournament, I understand. But soccer on pay-per-view for the U.S. audience? Pay-per-goal would be a better idea.

8. Hale Irwin wins U.S. Senior Open: Pile ‘em up now, Hale, you only have a quarter century before Tiger Woods hits your tour.

9. NBC’s all-delayed Olympics: If it succeeds, they’ll package the 2000 presidential campaign into a heartwarming, two-hour broadcast in January.

10. Dennis Miller: TV gets what it deserves--he’s the guy those “SportsCenter” smirk-a-holics have been mimicking for years.

LEADING QUESTIONS

What exactly was accomplished by John Rocker’s strange trip to Queens, N.Y., this weekend, besides thunderous headlines, a lot of sound and not as much fury as anticipated?

He pitched one inning, he broke one callus, he made a reasonably sincere-sounding apology. . . .

He didn’t ride the No. 7 train, he didn’t get beat up, and he didn’t endorse either Rick Lazio or Hillary Clinton. . . .

Is it possible that, after the media’s huge and understandable splurge in coverage for that series, Rocker can be treated like just another, occasionally stupid baseball player again?

Until October, of course, when who knows what he’ll do and say on the mound at Shea or Yankee Stadium, and when the

No. 7 will be looking like a far safer place to be?