New York Top of the Heap? Not These Days

Los Angeles sports fans can be thankful for the Lakers, Pete Carroll and the proposed sale of the Dodgers. They should also be grateful they aren’t New York sports fans.

The Jets and Giants are 4-7, the Knicks are awful, the Rangers aren’t much better, the Mets finished 66-95 and the Yankees lost another World Series.

Under the headline, “City’s Tale: Worst of Times,” the New York Post recently noted that “not since 1966 has New York City suffered through such a miserable sports season.”

Wrote Post columnist Mike Vaccaro: “You deserve so much better than this. You are a New York sports fan. You give your heart to the Knicks, your soul to the Giants, your blood to the Rangers. You live with the Mets. You die with the Jets. You don’t ask much in return (unless you are a Yankees fan, that is).”

Trivia time: What were the names of the two brothers Sugar Ray Leonard knocked out in 1978 bouts?

Age-old problem: Paul Newman, a guest on “Late Show With David Letterman” this week, said he is still driving in endurance races.

“How much longer are you going to do this?” asked Letterman.

Newman, 78, said, “I’m not worried about the racing, I’m worried about getting in and out of the cars.”

Appropriate gift: One win away, jockey Jerry Bailey could break Mike Smith’s record of 68 stakes victories when riding against Smith in the three-day Turf Festival at Hollywood Park beginning today. After Bailey fell one victory shy last year, Smith sent condolences -- a package of Omaha Steaks.

Still underpaid: Reader David Dawson, figuring in inflation, e-mailed to say, “In today’s dollars, Warren Spahn’s $87,500 in 1965 would be only $488,400, not even a tenth of what Kelvim Escobar will get from the Angels.”

Almost perfect: It was almost a great two-day run for the Hasselbecks.

Tim, a backup quarterback for the Washington Redskins, got to play Sunday night against the Miami Dolphins when starter Patrick Ramsey was shaken up in the first quarter. Hasselbeck played well, but the Redskins lost, 24-23.

The next day, Hasselbeck’s 26-year-old wife, Elisabeth, was named the new co-host of the daytime ABC show, “The View.”

Generous loser: The Las Vegas Sun recently ran a report by Ron Saccavino in the industry sheet Dealer’s News that Charles Barkley won $800,000 on the felt tables at Mandalay Bay -- and lost it all the next evening. Still, he tipped a couple of dealers about $350.

Trivia answer: On March 19, Leonard knocked out Javier Muniz in the first round, then, on Dec. 9, stopped older brother Armando in the sixth round.

And finally: In an HBO “Real Sports” segment on the ESPN dramatic series, “Playmakers,” ESPN executive Ron Semiao says, “ ‘Playmakers’ is no more about life in the NFL than ‘Gomer Pyle’ was about life in the Marines.”

Well, gawwww-ly!

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Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.