Stop Was Money in the Bank for Sanders

Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post, writing on wheeler-dealer Deion Sanders:

“When Sanders came to town a year ago, he told everybody he was a businessman, not just an athlete. . . . The Redskins should have paid closer attention to his words. Because it sure looks as if he’s givin’ ‘em the business now.

“Sanders signed a six-year contract with the Redskins. [My how time flies.] The team’s primary inducement to Sanders was an $8-million signing bonus. Now he’s gone--to play center field for the Cincinnati Reds. And gone with him, apparently, is all that welcome-to-Washington money.”

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Trivia time: Which NBA team holds the record for turnovers in a playoff game?

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A real know-it-all: Oakland Athletic pitcher Mark Guthrie told Jerry Crasnick of Bloomberg News Service that, while playing with Minnesota in the early 1990s, he sat in the dugout with Kirby Puckett, who had a rare day off.

“It was like sitting with Nostradamus,” Guthrie said of Puckett, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer. “He predicted everything that would happen. At one point right before a pitch, he said, ‘We better look out.’ And the guy fouled the ball off the dugout wall above our head.”

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A better Vick? Charles Chandler of the Charlotte (N.C.) News writes that Atlanta Falcon rookie Michael Vick “has a chance to redefine the quarterback position and be to pro football what Michael Jordan was to pro basketball.

“However, Vick says he might not even be the best quarterback in the family. Vick has a younger brother, Marcus, who is rated by the Roanoke (Va.) Times as the top college prospect in Virginia for 2002.”

As a junior last season at Warwick High in Newport News, Va., Marcus had better statistics than Michael had as a Warwick senior in 1997.

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Select club: James Hylton, a 28-year-old construction worker from Salem, Ore., has been credited with bowling the fifth perfect 900 series in the 106-year history of the American Bowling Congress.

Hylton had rolled 300 more than 30 times, but his career best for a series had been 845.

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Film talk: So what did Gov. Jesse Ventura of Minnesota say in the presence of the Dalai Lama?

“I asked him the most important question that I think you could ask--if he had ever seen ‘Caddyshack,’ ” Ventura told Don Shelby on radio station WCCO. Alas, Ventura said, the Dalai Lama had never seen the movie and “knew nothing about it.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1970, Ernie Banks hit his 500th career home run off Atlanta’s Pat Jarvis in the Chicago Cubs’ 4-3 victory at Wrigley Field.

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Time is now: From the Caught on the Fly column in the Washington Post: “Fly got a load of the missive to Trojan fans Hancocked by SoCal head doofus Pete Carroll, in which Smilin’ Pete says, ‘I had the chance to take this job three years ago, but the timing just wasn’t right. I’m happy to say that the timing couldn’t be better now.’ Funny how ‘timing’ improves when yer unemployed and the three guys the school really wanted said ‘no,’ eh, Coach?

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More Fly: “Flippin’ through Mrs. Fly’s copy of People [shaddap!], looking at the 50 most beautiful, and there’s Raider head grump Jon Gruden. Don’t know who’s making the beauty judgments at that there mag, but they’ve obviously never seen Grudes scowl after a James Jett dropped pass.

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Trivia answer: Chicago Bulls, 36, against Portland on April 17, 1977.

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And finally: Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune, commenting on China’s 7-foot-5 center Yao Ming, who might someday play in the NBA: “Yao is beefier than Manute Bol, but so is asparagus.”