Just Call Us When You Hit No. 714

When Barry Bonds hit his 500th home run, it was regarded as significant with proper attention paid by the media. Not so in Babe Ruth’s day.

Jerome Holtzman, baseball’s official historian, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Whe he [Ruth] hit 500 and 600, it was hardly news. I remember a writer telling me that when Babe hit his 500th, he was the only one who knew about it.

“Only one writer traveling with the club knew it was his 500th home run. They didn’t keep track the way they do now.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the major league record for striking out in a season?

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No anger, no game: Peter Vecsey in the New York Post: “By the way, nice to see Rasheed [4-19 FG in the finale against the Lakers] Wallace stoop for the occasion. Great. He plays 46 minutes in one game he should have gone out of his way to get tossed from early . . .

“Nice to see, at least, Blazer security is still capable of playing tight defense on long-term season-ticket holders. A woman [and her 8-year-old stepson] was ejected from the Morose Garden Sunday for briefly flashing a ‘Trade Whitsitt’ sign.”

“If only Trader Bob could get rid of the dead wood on the payroll that easily.”

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Wacky hoops world: Turner Sports’ John Thompson, the former Georgetown coach, on the trend of college underclassmen and high schoolers jumping to the NBA:

“For the sake of everybody involved, the NBA, the players’ association and the NCAA have to get together, because this is insane.”

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Average Joe: At a Baltimore Raven mini-camp, defensive lineman Tony Siragusa said: “Heck, I’m not a flashy guy. Very low-key.” He said that moments after arriving at the practice field in a helicopter, then striking a pose and pointing to his formidable biceps.

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Spelling it out: Comparing Raptor Vince Carter of the NBA and Mats Sundin of the NHL’s Maple Leafs, the tabloid Toronto Sun ran a front-page headline reading: “Mats is Hot! Vince is Not!”

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We can believe it: “Washington Redskin owner Daniel Snyder had successful surgery to remove a cancerous thyroid and is doing fine,” says Michael Ventre of MSNBC.com, “despite the fact that he tried to have the doctor fired halfway through the operation.”

Looking back: On this day in 1986, 54-year-old Bill Shoemaker won his fourth Kentucky Derby, riding longshot Ferdinand to a last-to-first dash for a 2 1/4-length victory over Bold Arrangement.

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Trivia answer: Bobby Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, 189, in 1970.

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And finally: Even though Boston is battling Toronto for first place in the American League East, Red Sox Manager Jimy Williams is still under fire from fans. That doesn’t surprise Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe:

“This is the way it goes when you manage the Red Sox. It is what makes Boston baseball the best, and worst, head coaching job in professional sports. No other sports major domo works for a constituency with more citizens who are certain they know his job better than he does.”