Scholars Or Killers?

Academics are getting in the way of Notre Dame success on the football field, claims Paul Hornung, who won the Heisman Trophy there in 1956 while playing for a losing team.

“The standards have always been tough. But lately, it seems, that it’s been a little tougher,” he said. “It’s very tough to play a schedule like we play and hope that all these great kids are going to want to come to Notre Dame. You get good football players, but you don’t get the kid that can win a game by himself. We’ve lacked that. We haven’t had a killer.

“It’s tough to get these kids in school, and yet they want Notre Dame to win every game.”

Ya hafta draw the line

Rain, snow and power shortages have caused baseball games to be canceled, but a lack of gloves?

Because their gloves were delayed en route from Albuquerque to Des Moines, the Iowa Cubs of the Pacific Coast League postponed a game against Tacoma. Players were offered shoes and gloves from a local sporting goods store, but there was a problem.

“New shoes you can deal with,” second baseman Chad Meyers said. “New gloves you can’t.”

But can he do it again?

In Virginia, they’re still talking about the 57-year-old retired police officer who had two holes-in-one within a half-hour.

Freddie Crockett of Roanoke recorded the aces July 17 at Ashley Plantation Golf Club.

The first came on the 336-yard, par-4 2nd hole, where Crockett used a driver. He used a sand wedge for the second on the 104-yard 4th hole.

The aces were Crockett’s first in 26 years of golf.

“It’s simply unbelievable,” Crockett said later. “It’s just like you’re numb… . I had a couple of my buddies call me the next day and say, `You lying son-of-a-gun.’ I said, `Well, I’ve got two people whom I’ve never met before who saw it.”’

Crockett finished with a 3-under 69, his best score ever.

Meet Gord, the realist

Toronto Blue Jays general manager Gord Ash, in explaining the financial disparity between small-market teams and the New York Yankees:

“The Yankees operate in a stratosphere that we can’t pretend to be in. They dominate at every level, which is why the little Davids like us are just happy to be with the Goliath.”

Meet Jon, the martyr

After Chicago White Sox rookie Jon Garland got his first major league victory, his teammates showered the 20-year-old with beer.

“I didn’t drink any,” said Garland, not yet old enough to legally drink in Illinois.

The last word …

“Who died and left Bob Costas in charge?”

- Jack Arute of ESPN radio upon considering the NBC broadcaster’s new best-selling book of proposals on how to improve baseball.