It’s Not Like He Was Asking for a Private Jet

Dan LeBatard of the Miami Herald, commenting on the New York Yankees and Mets passing on signing free-agent slugger Barry Bonds: “They didn’t think Bonds was worth the risk at his age [37]? The Dodgers will give Kevin Brown $105 million until he’s 41. Bonds is more likely to be playing at 40 than Brown is.

“Someone as jagged as Bonds wouldn’t fit in the Yankees’ gentlemanly clubhouse? Please. You make room for 73 homers.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the NFL record for receptions in a game?

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Get him! Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post has some advice for Redskin owner Dan Snyder: Go after Steve Spurrier.

“He’s the most intriguing figure in college football. Year after year he orchestrates the most pyrotechnic offensive show in the land. Spurrier saying he wants to give the pros a try is like Mike Krzyzewski saying it. You only have to hear it once. Then you rush to the phone....

“He’ll run it [the score] up on anybody--and he’ll let you score so he can get the ball back and run it up some more.”

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More Spurrier: The quarterback of the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who went 0-14, celebrated when the 0-12 Lions finally won a game this season.

“Hey, if the ’72 Dolphins can toast their perfection, why can’t we toast our imperfection?” he said. “The Lions winning kept all my banquet jokes alive.”

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Class act: New England Patriot quarterback Drew Bledsoe lost his starting job to Tom Brady, but he’s not grumbling about it. In an interview with Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe, he said: “It’s real simple. It’s the way I was taught. It’s the way I was brought up. Handle yourself with dignity and self-respect regardless of what the situation is. That’s always the choice you have. You look at it and do the right thing.”

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Clip and save: Greg Hansen of the Arizona Daily Star, commenting on Oregon’s basketball team: “I’m telling you, Oregon will be the darling of the national media by February, breaking into the top 10 or 15 spots in the polls and going to Maples Pavilion [Stanford’s home court] in the most important game the Ducks have played since the Pac-10 expanded 24 years ago.”

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Whatever you say: Said Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves on the possibility of playing point guard because of a knee injury to starter Terrell Brandon: “It ain’t like I can’t.”

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Ouch! Peter Vecsey in the New York Post: “It’s official. The Knicks have blown more leads than the Boulder police.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1972, the Lakers defeated the Atlanta Hawks, 133-99, to increase their NBA-record winning streak to 33 games. Two days later it ended in Milwaukee as the Lakers lost to the Bucks, 120-104.

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Trivia answer: Terrell Owens of San Francisco, 20, against Chicago on Dec. 17, 2000.

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And finally: Cornelius “Dutch” Warmerdam, who died in November, was arguably history’s greatest pole vaulter. He was the first man to clear 15 feet, in 1940, and it was 11 years later that Bob Richards became the second. Richards once said of Warmerdam: “[He] was part sprinter, part shock absorber, part acrobat and part strongman. He wasn’t human.”