They Don’t Swear by Her in Visalia

Helen Lutrell, a 77-year-old widow, has a disdain for cursing. So much so that Lutrell, a season-ticket holder with the Class-A California League’s Visalia Oaks since 1983, attends every game with a brush and squirt bottle, just in case.

“I hate swear words,” Luttrell told the New York Times. “I even told them before I got the box seat that I’d get on the boys. I show them the brush and tell them I’m going to wash their mouth out with soap, like their grandmas. They call me the No-Swear Lady.”

When Visalia was a Minnesota Twin affiliate, Lutrell met pitcher Mark Guthrie.

“He came out with a bad word from the mound,” Lutrell said. “I got on him really well after the game. I told him, ‘I can’t be proud of you when you talk like that.’

“He told me he was sorry, and I didn’t hear another bad word from him either.”

Wonder what she’d do after hearing a postgame Shaquille O’Neal interview.

*

Trivia time: Who were the first African American players on an NBA championship team?

*

Potentially great: If recruiting is the lifeblood of college basketball, then USC is in good health. According to hoopscooponline.com, the Trojans’ incoming class is ranked second in the nation -- tied with Texas and Louisville -- behind No. 1 Memphis.

Of course, the rankings are based on all of the recruits -- center Robert Swift, point guard Dwayne Shackleford, guard Gabe Pruitt, small forward Nick Young and power forward Emanuel Willis -- actually showing up. Which is no sure thing because Swift might enter the NBA draft and Young has yet to be admitted.

*

Not quite: While the powers that be at Nevada Las Vegas conducted a search for a new basketball coach that seemingly began and ended with Lon Kruger, former NBA coach George Karl threw his hat into the ring, to the delight of many Runnin’ Rebel fans.

The inevitable Kruger hiring might have dimmed Gucci Row’s enthusiasm, but offered the school a new marketing catchphrase. Wrote the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Joe Hawk: “It’s Not Karl, But, Hey, It Starts With ‘K!’ ”

*

No welcome mat: Arizona Diamondback Manager Bob Brenly is a former Chicago Cub broadcaster who knows well the love affair between the team and its long-suffering fans. That does not mean, however, that he likes the legions who come to town on trips.

“I try not to look in the stands ... it can be a little irritating,” Brenly told the Arizona Republic. “I understand the lifelong, blue blood Cubbie fans -- great-grandpa, grandpa, dad and the whole deal.... God bless them, but I wish they’d go to Wrigley and stay out of our ballpark.”

*

Trivia answer: Earl Lloyd and Jim Tucker, with the 1954-55 Syracuse Nationals.

*

And finally: The Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi has come up with “three reasons NASCAR fans hate Jeff Gordon so much: (1) He speaks in complete sentences. (2) He has all his teeth. (3) He actually drove his way to the top and became a champion without having a famous racing daddy open all the doors for him.”