Bob Daly Really Should Hire This Guy Now

Mike Phillips, writing in the Miami Herald, says a Dodger Stadium World Series is only natural:

“Dodger Stadium does that to me.

“I love the place. To cover a World Series here, in Chavez Ravine--Blue Heaven--the house where Koufax pitched.

“I get a little confused in my judgment when I come to Dodger Stadium.

“Great ballparks do that to me. And this is a wonderful ballpark. I like it better than any of the new retro parks. You can build a beautiful park, but you can’t buy that view at sunset--you can’t buy the history of this place--all that rich October magic that has taken place in my lifetime.

“And whether anyone wants to believe it or not, a Dodger-Yankee World Series would be the best thing that could happen to baseball.”

*

Trivia time: The San Antonio Spurs were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. Which was the last NBA champion that failed to repeat?

*

Not ready for prime time: New York Daily News writer Bob Raissman, writing about the NBA and NBC teaming up to try to make Toronto’s Vince Carter a superstar:

“Simply put, Carter has not been able to retrieve the NBA’s TV ratings from the toilet. The league and the networks tried to manufacture a star and have done it prematurely.”

*

Foul ball: Harvey Pollack, the Philadelphia 76ers’ statistician who worked the 1962 game at Hershey, Pa., when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points, says the anonymous collector who paid $551,844 for the “game ball” at auction recently was ripped off.

“He may think he has the ball,” Pollack told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Frank Fitzpatrick, “but myself and a lot of other people are challenging the authenticity of that ball.”

Pollack said the real game ball was taken out of play with a minute left, immediately after Chamberlain had scored his 100th point. The replacement ball, he said, is the one that went to auction.

*

Tee-tale: Former Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin, now a rookie with the Steelers, told Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette how he came to be “Tee.”

His real name, he explained, is Tamaurice, but it’s all a mistake. It was supposed to be Tomaurice.

“My mom wanted me to be a gift to my dad, Maurice. Like, To Maurice.

“But whoever did the birth certificate put in an ‘a’ instead of ‘o.’ ”

*

Trivia answer: The Boston Celtics, who won in 1986 and lost in the 1987 finals to the Lakers.

*

And finally: Richard Wilner in the New York Post, writing about prospects for wrestling czar Vince McMahon’s XFL pro football league:

“Each XFL team will probably employ a dance instructor because each team will have a unique end zone dance.

“What does this have to do with football? Nothing. But then, what does the WWF have to do with wrestling?”