Florida Can’t Go Wrong in This Vote

Greg Cote in the Miami Herald: “Down here in this crazy peninsula, we can’t seem to get the voting down--either our chads are hanging, or we’re flummoxed by doggone machines--but one thing we can do is grow us some football players.

“We got a record 126 pipelines from state colleges onto active NFL rosters today, up from 119 a year ago. The Florida Gators (39), Florida State Seminoles (39) and the Miami Hurricanes (36) dominate as usual....

“Nationwide only Notre Dame (furnishing 39 players) and Michigan (38) match the pro profile of our Big Three schools.”

Trivia time: What is the largest crowd to attend a USC football game?

Classy New Yorkers: Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Another example of how knowledgeable the New York baseball fans are: The guy who sucker-punched David Wells escalated the beef by insulting Wells’ dead mother. Those fans know the players and their families!”

* “Sadly, now the world is making American basketball jokes. (re: World Championship). Like, ‘How many Americans does it take to screw in a light bulb?’ It doesn’t matter, Americans never shoot the lights out anymore.’ ”

* “If Chris Webber winds up on the witness stand, we’re going to see a whole new meaning of Webber grill.”

Rubbing it in: Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel, commenting on Florida State’s 37-10 victory over Maryland on Saturday: “OK, little turtles, crawl back in your shells, shut your mouths and maybe, just maybe, Florida State will let you come out again sometime next decade.”

Vicious! Bud Geracie in the San Jose Mercury News: “Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson had heart surgery Friday.

They installed one.”

* “Darrell ‘Beat the Rap’ Russell should throw a party. On second thought, that’s the last thing he should do.”

Ripping Madden: Steve Rosenbloom in the Chicago Tribune: “ ‘Monday Night Football’ did nothing with John Madden that they didn’t do with Dennis Miller. I don’t want to go on a rant, but Madden is overrated, overdone and overstaying his welcome. That’s my opinion. I could be wrong.”

You’re entitled to your opinion--and you’re wrong.

Looking back: On this day in 1924, New York Giant first baseman George Kelly set a major league record when he homered in his sixth consecutive game--an 8-7 victory over Pittsburgh.

Looking back again: On this day in 1988, Cincinnati’s Tom Browning retired 27 consecutive Dodgers in a 1-0 victory--baseball’s 12th perfect game.

Trivia answer: 112,912, versus Notre Dame at Soldier Field in Chicago in 1929. Paid attendance was 99,351. Notre Dame won, 13-12.

Note: Largest crowd to attend at USC-Notre Dame Game at the Coliseum, was a stadium record 104,953 in 1947. The Irish won, 38-7.

And finally: Randy Galloway of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, after the Cowboys lost to a Houston expansion team playing its first game: “Fire everybody. Everybody except the owner.

Deport him.”