Morning briefing

Melrose is funny? Funny how?

Yes, Newark, N.J., has its problems. Most cities of any size do.

And now, so does Barry Melrose.

The former Kings coach, now an ESPN hockey analyst, angered city officials and New Jersey Devils ownership with comments he made during a webcast last week.

Describing the area around the team’s new home, the $375-million Prudential Center, Melrose said, “It looks great on the inside but don’t go outside, especially if you got a wallet or anything else because the area around the building is awful.”

After being strongly rebuked by everyone from the mayor to the police director, Melrose offered an apology Tuesday, telling NJ.com, “I was trying to be funny. That’s how I talk and use my humor for entertainment. It obviously didn’t come across that way. I certainly don’t want to offend anyone.”

So, given that, hopefully Melrose wasn’t offended by this reaction: “I think it’s an incredibly uneducated statement for someone who hasn’t been here,” Devils owner Jeff Vanderbeek said. “It’s like me saying I know what it’s like to wear a mullet.”

Trivia time

What baseball Hall of Famer didn’t make it to the big leagues until he was 29, then homered in his first major league at-bat only to never hit another homer in his 21-year career?

‘Expert’ opinion

In its baseball preview issue in late March, USA Today Sports Weekly had a panel of 14 writers make predictions for 2007. The mostly low lights:

No one picked the Boston Red Sox to win the World Series. Five picked the Yankees, three picked the Mets and two picked the Tigers. The Cardinals, Astros, Dodgers and Rangers (!) each got one vote. Two writers picked the Red Sox to win the AL pennant, but all 14 picked the Yankees to win the AL East.

No one picked the Rockies to win the NL pennant, though two had Colorado winning the NL West (the Rockies were the wild card). No one had the Diamondbacks winning the NL West -- 11 writers picked the Dodgers -- or the Cubs winning the NL Central.

Worse, one writer, Hal Bodley, made Alex Rodriguez, who went on to finish with a .314 batting average, 54 home runs and 156 runs batted in, his choice as underachiever for the AL.

In The Times, reporter Bill Shaikin correctly picked four out of the six division winners.

Icy odyssey

Steve Williamson lives in what he calls the “hockey hotbed” of Orlando, Fla., and is about a third of the way through a dream month for a hockey fanatic . . . and perhaps cruel and unusual punishment for other sports fans.

Tuesday night, he was scheduled to watch the NHL game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Senators in Ottawa. That was Game 12 of an odyssey that will take him to 30 games in 30 nights, one game in each NHL arena.

After a game Monday in Florida, he nearly missed his connection in Newark on his way to Ottawa, blogging on his website 30gamesin30nights.com that he scrambled to the plane with two minutes to spare.

What could be more fun?

Wait. Don’t answer that.

Streak shooter

A Morning Briefing item Monday noted that Dave Podas, the head pro at Bel-Air Country Club, last week shot a seven-under-par 63 from the blue tees to tie the course record.

Others who have done it are PGA Tour players Steve Elkington, David Berganio and Charlie Wi.

But maybe the most impressive record at Bel-Air is the six-under 28 shot on the back nine in the mid-1980s -- by Jerry West.

He birdied the 10th, 11th, 12th, 16th, 17th and 18th holes.

Name game

Horse owner Jerry Jamgotchian may have gotten the last word in his long-running feud with the California Horse Racing Board.

Jamgotchian had the horse Wickednwackyingrid running recently during Santa Anita’s Oak Tree meeting -- the name inspired by Ingrid Fermin, executive director of the CHRB.

That prompted laughs from those in the know who heard track announcer Trevor Denman call the race.

As for Fermin, her resignation from the board was announced Tuesday.

Trivia answer

Hoyt Wilhelm. The knuckleball-throwing right-hander pitched in 1,070 games but didn’t get to Cooperstown because of his bat.

On April 23, 1952, he homered for the New York Giants -- and 431 at-bats later, he finished with a career batting average of .088 with one homer and 21 runs batted in.

And finally

Jay Leno, on speculation that Lance Armstrong is dating actress Ashley Olsen:

“First he was going out with Sheryl Crow, then there were rumors that he was dating Jennifer Aniston. Now he’s going out with Ashley Olsen?

“Imagine the babes this guy would get if he owned a car. That’s just with a bike!”

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mike.hiserman@latimes.com