Word Is Out on Dodgers, and It’s Not Very Good

ESPN the Magazine, with the help of a Connecticut research and consulting firm, polled 1,529 American sports fans. They were asked, among other things, to rank U.S. and Canadian professional teams based on fan relationship, ownership, affordability, stadium experience, players, coach, winning and bang for your buck.

The San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons finished 1-2, and the Angels ranked fifth, the highest of any baseball team. The Angels also ranked fifth in a similar poll last year.

The Dodgers ranked 82nd out of 91 teams, down from 52nd last year. They scored particularly low in fan relationship, ownership and coaching.

It would figure they would score poorly in coaching, because they didn’t have a manager at the time the poll was conducted.

Trivia time: In what city did the San Francisco Giant franchise originate?

Shaq now a reserve: Shaquille O’Neal was sworn in as a Miami Beach reserve police officer last week.

O’Neal can carry a gun, wear a badge and make arrests. And he gets paid too -- $1 a year.

A real coverup: John Dwyer, a Nashville sportscaster who does a weekly television show with Tennessee Titan Coach Jeff Fisher, is sporting a black eye these days, the Tennessean reported.

No, Dwyer didn’t get popped by Fisher for asking a tough question. “I wish that was it,” Dwyer said.

He said he got the black eye when he reached for a bottle of water in a hotel room in the middle of the night and his right eye socket slammed into the corner of a nightstand.

But, he says, most viewers haven’t really noticed.

“I’ve been wearing more makeup than Tammy Faye Baker,” he said.

No flies on the wall: Manny Ramirez of the Red Sox has put his 4,500-square-foot, four-bedroom, six-bathroom Boston penthouse on the market for $6.9 million.

“Unconfirmed reports leave little doubt that it is Manny’s place,” wrote Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times. “There’s not much in the attic, and the oven mitts look barely used.”

Another house joke: When Terrell Owens put his Philadelphia pad on the market, NBC’s Jay Leno said, “If those walls could talk, they would probably bad-mouth Donovan McNabb.”

Looking back: On this day in 1965, Gale Sayers of the Chicago Bears scored six touchdowns and had 336 combined yards in a 61-20 rout of the San Francisco 49ers.

Trivia answer: Troy, N.Y. The Troy Haymakers, who sometimes were referred to as Trojans, played there four years, from 1879 to ’82. They became the New York Gothams in 1883, the New York Giants in 1885 and moved to San Francisco in 1958.

And finally: “The Dodgers have truly adhered to Frank McCourt’s edict to minimally spend,” says reader Bob Kadden of Chatsworth. “Therefore, it should come as no surprise they receive Little in return.”

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