Have You Heard the Latest Gossip?

Cindy Adams, noted New York Post gossip columnist, wrote Wednesday about being out to dinner with Yankee President Randy Levine and the team’s public relations director, Howard Rubenstein, when the Randy Johnson signing was completed. Levine and Rubenstein told her that if she would keep it off the record for the time being, she would get the scoop.

Adams ended up reading about it, just like everyone else.

“I kept it off the record, as promised, because I am a semi-honorable person,” Adams wrote. “All I got out of being smack in the middle of this whole thing was a sirloin medium rare.”

And you wonder why the media and sports executives butt heads.

Trivia time: Erik Morales, who will take on Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on March 19, has a record of 47-2 with 34 knockouts. To whom did he lose?

Translate this: Morales and Pacquiao were at a news conference at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Wednesday to promote their HBO pay-per-view fight.

Although he struggled, Pacquiao, who is from the Philippines, spoke in English. Morales, who is from Tijuana, spoke in Spanish, with his manager, Fernando Beltran, translating his comments into English.

Morales at one point talked nonstop for a minute or two -- until Beltran whistled at him to cease talking.

“I need to get caught up,” Beltran told the gathering.

Then, after repeating Morales’ comments in English, he said, “I think that’s where he is right now.”

Experienced apologist: David Letterman, who had Randy Johnson on as a guest Tuesday night, didn’t see any reason for the Yankees’ new pitcher to apologize for his confrontation with a television cameraman Monday. Letterman believed the cameraman should have left Johnson alone.

Said Letterman to his audience before Johnson came on: “The poor man, he hasn’t been in town for more than a day and he’s got to apologize. I’d been in town for a couple of months before I had to apologize.”

Another perk: Letterman on Carlos Beltran’s $119-million contract with the New York Mets: “Plus, with the Mets, he gets October off.”

Looking back: On this day in 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 73 points to lead the Philadelphia Warriors to a 135-117 victory over the Chicago Packers. The Packers played one season in Chicago. The Bulls were founded in 1966.

Trivia answer: Both losses were controversial split decisions to Marco Antonio Barrera, on June 22, 2002, and last Nov. 27. On Feb. 19, 2000, Morales scored a controversial split-decision victory over Barrera.

And finally: Tom Paegal, former night city editor for The Times, believes he might have a solution to the controversy over the Angels’ new name.

Because of owner Arte Moreno’s Latino roots, Paegal recommends calling them “Los Angeles de Anaheim,” which translates to “The Angels of Anaheim.”

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