Golfers Not the Ones Who Have Bad Lies

Checked your resume lately?

Greg Cote of the Miami Herald suggests doing so to avoid the kind embarrassing misrepresentations that cost Sandra Baldwin her job as first female president of the U.S. Olympic Committee and George O’Leary his job as Notre Dame football coach:

“Fibbing on resumes has become America’s fastest-growing sport. It is now officially more popular than bowling.

“O’Leary and Baldwin are the president and first lady of background fabrication in sports--George is The Lyin’ King--but not the only practitioners. You’ve got to figure a million little untruths are yet undetected as anxious administrators and coaches scramble to ‘revise’ their resumes in the name of honesty or fear.

“Better to own up to something you can couch as a regrettable mistake blamed on a hallucinogen-spiked ‘60s drink than to be outed as a liar.”

More Cote: “This might be the proper time to volunteer the need for slight corrections in my own resume submitted to the Herald way back when.

“Dear boss, remember the line, ‘Master’s degree in literature from Harvard?’ Certain words were omitted because of a typesetting error.

“The line should have read, ‘Planned to obtain master’s degree in literature from Harvard had I been accepted for enrollment.’”

Trivia time: What is the only NBA expansion team to reach the playoffs in its first season?

Down and out: Shaun Powell of Newsday doesn’t hold out much hope for the New Jersey Nets after their fourth-quarter collapse Saturday against the Boston Celtics:

“Can the Nets win a series after [Saturday] night? Oh sure, after a fourth quarter in which they were outscored, 41-16, they said all the right things, that it was only one game, that it wouldn’t linger into [today’s] Game 4 ... blah, blah.

“Sorry. A collapse--excuse me, a choke--like this tends to stick to you like gum on a shoe.”

Brewin’ up homers: There’s no telling what the Dodgers’ Shawn Green, who tied a major league record with four home runs Thursday against Milwaukee, could accomplish if he faced the Brewers more often, says Dale Hoffman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“Last season he had the good fortune to bat 21 times against Milwaukee pitching, and the result was five home runs. Let’s do the math here.

“That comes to about a dinger every five times up. If Green could have maintained that pace in his 619 total at-bats, he would have had 124 home runs last season, and Barry Bonds would still be just another sullen outfielder.”

Fight on: France’s defending World Cup champion soccer team arrived in South Korea on Saturday amid tight airport security and cries of “French team, fighting!” from dozens of mostly teenage fans.

No, the fans weren’t voicing fears of hooliganism. Koreans often shout “fighting!” in English when they cheer sports teams.

Trivia answer: The Chicago Bulls in 1967.

And finally: Dan Cook of the San Antonio Express-News says he keeps hearing the same joke since the Spurs were eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Lakers:

“What’s the difference between the Spurs and a dollar bill?

“Well, for a dollar you get four quarters.”