Kiper Had Tremendous Upside for Television

Mel Kiper Jr. used to have competition for being the king of the draftniks, says Bob Sansevere of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Then TV put Kiper clearly in the forefront.

“Mel Kiper won’t remind anyone of Mel Gibson,” said Sansevere, “but the other draftnik extraordinaire, Joel Buchsbaum, looks like he stepped off the set of ‘Revenge of the Nerds.’ While Kiper got to stay in front of the camera, Buchsbaum was asked to never leave his mother’s basement again.”

Trivia time: Who holds the Laker record for playoff field-goal percentage?

Hick image: Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette acknowledged that “Pittsburghers love to make fun of West Virginia.”

For example, he says that Don Ireland, who worked as the public-address announcer at Pitt football games, became famous with this little joke: “At a Pitt-West Virginia game, Ireland informed the crowd that a tractor with West Virginia plates had its lights on. The license plate, Ireland said, was E-I-E-I-O.”

Now you know: Mary Newton Bruder writes a column called “The Grammar Lady” for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A reader wanted to know the origin of the word “bunt” in baseball. Her reply: “The word, meaning to push or shove, comes from the British dialect of 1760-70 as a variant of butt--the action of a goat pushing its head against something.”

Weighty matter: Maryland football Coach Ralph Friedgen, who weighs about 350 pounds, has asked boosters to donate $1,000 a pound if he can lose 50 pounds. Ultimately he’d like to shed 100.

Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Dispatch wonders: “Does this mean that Maryland will schedule fewer cupcakes on its nonconference schedule?”

Oakspeak: Charles Oakley of the Toronto Raptors, commenting on the Celtics in the playoffs: “Boston had its ups and downs. Now they’re back. They got the transmission fixed and they’re back on the road.

“I think the high-dollar teams are flipping around now. They’re still high-dollar, but they’re flipping.”

They keep on going: If experience is the determining factor, don’t be surprised if the Utah Jazz upsets the Sacramento Kings in their NBA playoff series. John Stockton played in his 175th playoff game and Karl Malone in his 165th Tuesday.

Scandalous: An item in Newswire on Thursday said that U.S. table tennis player Barney Reed Jr. was suspended for two years for a doping violation.

Who’s next? A marbles champion?

Really? Ed Sherman in the Chicago Tribune: “You have to feel sorry for the people trying to write promos for Bulls’ games. A late-season WGN-Channel 9 ad for a recent Bulls-Toronto game actually said, ‘Both teams want to win, but only one can.’”

Trivia answer: Kurt Rambis, 59.2%.

And finally: Jerry Greene in the Orlando Sentinel: “We recently discussed the possibility Rick Reilly may become the first millionaire sportswriter if he accepts an offer from ESPN the Magazine after his current $500,000-or-thereabouts contract with Sports Illustrated expires in November.”

Reilly is a former Times sportswriter.