He’s Barry Certain About Best Ballplayer

Ron Cook in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “It’s time to face the hard truth as much as it might pain you. Barry Bonds just might be the greatest baseball player of all time.

“It’s impossible to compare players of different eras, but Bonds could have played with Ruth, Aaron, Mays, Williams, DiMaggio ...

“Deal with it.”

OK, we will, and there’s no pain at all.

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for most passing yards in a career?

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The equalizer: George Young, the former New York Giant general manager who died recently at the age of 71, had been a junior-high school history and political science teacher.

He knew the intelligence tests that were administered each year at the NFL’s scouting combine were valuable up to a point.

He recalled a defensive lineman with a 90 IQ who was playing against an offensive lineman with a 115 IQ.

The defensive player said: “Don’t worry. After I hit you a few times, you’ll be just as dumb as I am.”

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More Young: Before the Super Bowl in 1990, agent Leigh Steinberg held a party for the media. Said Young: “When I heard he was taking all those writers out on a riverboat in New Orleans, I spent an hour trying to see if I could rent a submarine.”

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Cheer, cheer? Some views on Notre Dame hiring George O’Leary:

From John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times: “I believe [his] hiring says one of two things: Either the head coaching position doesn’t have the prestige it once had, or Athletic Director Kevin White made a hasty hire.”

* Chicago Bear wide receiver Dez White, a former Georgia Tech player: “He’s in a class of his own. I can’t compare him to anybody. He’s really not a people person. He can scare people to death and only be joking with them. His sense of humor isn’t that great.”

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Wonder woman: Eldora Krumrei of Merrill, Wis., averages 107 each time she bowls. That’s more than one pin for every year of her life. She’s 95.

Krumrei attributes her vigor to a little exercise and a “fancy drink” every evening.

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Sticky situation: Portland Trail Blazer guard Bonzi Wells, on a Rose Garden fan who complained after Wells pelted him with gum after being ejected from a recent game: “So I apologized and gave him one of my jerseys. I guess that’s the price you pay for being in the front row--you get close to the action, hear the sound bites and accidentally get hit with a piece of gum.”

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Coming and going: Peter Vescey of the New York Post on Chris Webber’s recent return from injury with the Sacramento Kings: “He can’t very well disappear in the playoffs until he appears in the regular season.”

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Trivia answer: Dan Marino of Miami, 61,361.

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And finally: Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News commenting on Denver Bronco quarterbacks Gus Frerotte and Brian Griese: “Considered generously, the Broncos might now have a quarterback controversy. I say generously because a controversy assumes they have a quarterback, when the truth is they have two halves of the same lemon.”