Cricket Not Rich Enough for Sosa’s Blood

Sammy Sosa, who was in London recently to promote baseball by taking batting practice at the Surrey Oval cricket ground, says he could have been a star in that sport.

“When I was 8 or 9 back home in the Dominican Republic, I played cricket. . . . I would have made it as a professional,” he said.

Sosa made a better career choice. The world’s best cricket players earn about $140,000 for a six-month season. Sosa is negotiating a new contract with the Chicago Cubs reported to call for

$100 million over six years.

*

Trivia time: Who holds the Notre Dame opponent record for career touchdowns scored against the Irish?

*

Nostalgia: John McClain in the Houston Chronicle: “If Ram quarterbacks Kurt Warner and Trent Green finish first and second in the NFL passer rating, they will be the first duo to accomplish that feat since Bob Waterfield and Norm Van Brocklin did it for the 1951 Rams.

“That Rams team won the championship. [The Rams] didn’t win another until last season.”

*

Mr. Nice Guy needs help: Mike Lupica in the New York Daily News: “Jim Fassel is the Giants’ coach, for four years now. In that time he has shown himself to be one of the best people to ever coach the Giants, a gent of his sport.

“His owners like him, his general manager likes him, so do his players.

“Those players better show up for the last five games of the regular season, then do a lot more than show up in the playoffs. If they don’t, Fassel goes.”

*

Dollar sign of the times: Fred Couples won $635,000 in one round of the Skins Game last year. That’s more money than Curtis Strange won as the leading money winner on the PGA Tour in 1985.

Couples will defend his title Saturday and Sunday at the Landmark Golf Club in Indio.

*

Recount fever: Dave Kindred in the Sporting News:

“Just think. With enough lawyers, we’d get a recount on the Long Count fight, Jack Dempsey vs. Gene Tunney in 1927.

“We’d be convinced that everyone else ran the wrong way in the 1929 Rose Bowl, and Roy Riegels ran the right way.

“We’d understand exactly why it is that Alex Rodriguez can’t play at a $20-million level unless his billboards are really, really big.”

*

Out of sight: Bill Conlin of the Philadelphia Daily News, commenting on agent Scott Boras’ high-priced demands for his client, star shortstop Rodriguez: “This guy could turn Gotham against Batman.”

*

Trivia answer: USC’s Anthony Davis, 11, from 1972-74.

*

And finally: Charles Oakley, 36, of the Toronto Raptors recently got his first triple-double since 1987 against the Chicago Bulls. Asked if he had another triple-double left in him, he said: “Hey, anything is possible. It’s the year 2000 and we ain’t got no president.”