McEnroe Looking for a Born Identity

Maybe U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe was vying for husband and/or father of the year last weekend when he missed his team’s 3-2 victory over Chile on the tennis courts at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

McEnroe stayed home awaiting the birth of his daughter.

Then again, some might claim that McEnroe didn’t have a very good excuse. By Friday, the baby had yet to be born.

Bob Kramer, the son of the legendary Jack Kramer, recalled that his older brother David, now 59, was born Dec. 3, 1946, while his father was in Australia helping the U.S. win a Davis Cup match.

Trivia time: The New York Yankees have retired every numbered jersey from 1 to 10 except for two active numbers. What numbers are still active?

Language no barrier: A benefit dinner for Pete Duranko, an All-American defensive lineman on Notre Dame’s 1966 football team, will be held in Chicago next weekend. Duranko is suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“Duranko was famous for his sense of humor,” wrote Ron Rapoport of the Chicago Sun-Times, “particularly his rendition of the Notre Dame Victory March in Polish.

“What made this particularly interesting was the fact he doesn’t know Polish.”

Road woes: Dewon Brazelton, the losing pitcher when the Florida Marlins beat the San Diego Padres, 9-2, at Miami on Thursday, is now 0-16 on the road in his career, prompting Greg Cote of the Miami Herald to refer to Dewon as “De-lost.”

An expensive ingredient: Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg, on the Kentucky Derby’s new $1,000 mint julep: “It sounds expensive, but apparently it’s made out of gasoline.”

Tight squeeze: NASCAR, trying to cater to its female fans, announced that it plans to market its own line of women’s apparel, including bikinis.

According to Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times, “Producing the bikinis was easy ... once they figured out how to install the mandatory restrictor plates -- not to mention squeezing all those sponsors’ names onto just one square foot of material.”

Looking back: On this day in 1991, Magic Johnson set an NBA record for career assists during a 112-106 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Johnson, who needed nine assists to break Oscar Robertson’s record of 9,887, got 19. Johnson finished his career with 10,141 assists. The NBA record is 15,806, held by John Stockton.

Trivia answer: 2, worn by Derek Jeter, and 6, worn by Joe Torre. The retired numbers up to 10 are: 1, Billy Martin; 3, Babe Ruth 4, Lou Gehrig; 5, Joe DiMaggio; 7, Mickey Mantle; 8, Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey; 9, Roger Maris, and 10, Phil Rizzuto.

And finally: A recent Morning Briefing trivia question about the origin of the name of the Las Vegas 51s prompted this from reader Bernie Diamond: “I was under the impression they were called that name because they weren’t playing with a full deck.”

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