Morning briefing

Yankees aren’t so sweet

So it has come to this in New York: You can’t get a Baby Ruth in the clubhouse that was home to Babe Ruth.

New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi has banned candy and ice cream in an effort to create a more healthy diet.

Furthermore, the Journal News of Westchester County reported that the Yankees asked opposing teams to remove the offending items from the visitors’ clubhouse before the team arrives.

In Tampa Bay, the candy was replaced with nuts, dried fruit and granola, hardly an inspiring rhyme scheme for “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” ( . . . Buy me some peanuts, dried fruit and granola, I don’t care if I ever go hoo-ma?).

Yankees players, meanwhile, were seen smuggling banned items (candy bars, not steroids) into the clubhouse.

It all leads to one important question: If the Yankees announce the hiring of Craig, will it be Roger or Jenny?

Trivia time

Who is the “Baby Ruth” bar named after?

Green with envy?

Onetime Lakers forward Sam Perkins explained his interest in his former team on KNX 1070 this week, “Once a Laker, always a Laker.”

Hmmm, let’s see, Don Nelson was released by the Lakers in 1965, then won five NBA titles with the Boston Celtics. Think he’s sticking with the green and the bling, Sam.

Time bomb

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban put his brain to work this week, though not about his team being down 0-2 to the New Orleans Hornets. He was more fascinated by shot clock trivia.

“Is it possible for the shot clock to have more time on it than the game clock?” Cuban wrote on his blog.

Inquiring minds, he decide, wanted to know, as he forged ahead about an odd occurrence in the Phoenix Suns-San Antonio Spurs playoff game.

” . . . The time left on the shot clock was HIGHER than the time left in the game. The shot clock was showing 24 secs while the game clock was at 23.6 seconds and counting down. It’s because of the way the software for the shot clock is designed to work. When the shot clock starts counting down, it doesn’t start counting at 24.0 seconds. It actually starts counting at 24.9 seconds. So when the shot clock changes from 24 to 23, that means the shot clock has counted down from 24.9 and has changed to 23.9. . . . “

Get that man a pocket protector for his pens. Jerry Buss never looked better.

Showered with Love

UCLA’s Henry Hagenbuch put on a final burst, overhauling Oregon’s Chris Winter in the final 200 yards to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase at a dual meet in Eugene on Saturday. The performance was so impressive that Oregon fans gave Hagenbuch a rousing ovation as he took a victory lap.

It was another example of the classy, kind, gentle fans who go to Ducks’ athletic events. Just ask Kevin Love . . . oh, wait.

Ca-knuckleheads

Montreal Canadiens fans torched three police cars after their team eliminated the Boston Bruins in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Associated Press reported.

Shouldn’t a city that has won 24 Stanley Cup championships wait a round or two longer before trashing the town?

Trivia answer

Ruth Cleveland, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland, at least according to the official version by the Curtiss Candy Co. Cleveland left office in 1897 and the candy bar was renamed in 1921. So believe what you will.

The company later successfully fought to have a competitor take the “Babe Ruth Home Run Bar” off the market, even though Ruth endorsed it.

And finally

The Suns’ Raja Bell, on Spurs guard Tony Parker’s going inside and challenging Shaquille O’Neal during Tuesday’s NBA playoff game: “If he wants to go in and play among those big dudes, they’re going to put him on the ground.”

The Spurs lead the series 2-0, so Bell might want to consider who might get planted first.

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chris.foster@latimes.com