Coming Through in the Heat of the Moment

Headline writers had a hot hand after the Miami Heat won its first NBA championship.

A sampling:

“Heat Rises to the Top” -- Atlanta Journal Constitution.

“Hot Stuff” -- Boston Globe.

“Too Hot to Handle” -- Chicago Tribune.

“Heat Wave” -- Orlando Sentinel.

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Trivia time: Who is the only player from a losing team to be chosen MVP of the NBA Finals?

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World Cup woes: Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times found an item at anaova.com about two frustrated English soccer fans who attended a World Cup game in Cologne, Germany.

To easily find their rental car, they copied down “Einbahn Strasse” from a street sign near where they parked it.

However, “Einbahn Strasse” in German means “one-way street” -- and every other street in inner-city Cologne has such a sign.

The fans, with the help of police, finally found their car a few hours later.

Wrote Perry: “Autobahn? Try auto gone.”

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Soccer supporter: In his closing commentary on the latest edition of HBO’s “Real Sports,” Bryant Gumbel said that more people in this country should give soccer a chance.

“Please spare me the stifled yawns and typical American gripes about how boring the sport can be,” he said. “For God’s sake, we’re a nation that venerates 1-0 baseball games, watches cars make endless left-hand turns and televises people playing poker and dominoes.”

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The next TV craze: “I finally got accustomed to watching folks playing cards on television,” Channel 9’s Alan Massengale says. “Then I look up and they’re televising the dominoes championship. What next? Rock paper scissors?”

Actually, there is a championship competition for that.

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Mistaken identity: Before his U.S. Open victory, Geoff Ogilvy told Golf Digest that he was often mistaken for fellow pro golfer Joe Ogilvie.

“Joe came in second two years ago in New Orleans, and the next week I must have been congratulated on every tee box for coming in second,” he said. “We have the law firm of Ogilvy and Ogilvie.”

No question who would be the senior partner now.

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Looking back: On this day in 1994, the Houston Rockets won the first of their back-to-back championships when they defeated the New York Knicks, 90-84, in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Hakeem Olajuwon led the Rockets with 25 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks.

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Trivia answer: Jerry West in 1969, the first year the award was given. Although the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics, West averaged 37.9 points in the series and had a triple double in Game 7, which the Lakers lost, 108-106, at the Forum.

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And finally: The new au pair who works for Britney Spears is Perry Taylor, 28, a former lacrosse player at the U.S. Naval Academy, where the team mascot is a goat. Of Taylor, reader Bill Littlejohn asks, “Would that make him a nanny goat?”

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