The Show Must Go On, but Who’s Showing Up?

With Mike Tyson being the subject of a grand jury investigating a rape allegation, his peers are rising as one to volunteer to take his place and fight Evander Holyfield for the heavyweight title.

Riddick Bowe’s manager says Riddick is free that day.

George Foreman pulled out of a September fight, claiming a knee injury that observers deem suspicious.

Newsday’s Wallace Matthews writes that Tyson, promoter Don King and criminal attorney Vincent Fuller called Holyfield’s manager, Dan Duva, reminding him they have a $15-million contract, insisting Tyson would fight Nov. 8 even if the grand jury does indict him.

“The fight’s on,” Duva said. “We’re in the position where we have to go through with the fight. We have no choice.”

Image problem: After hiring 10 agents, forcing the Rams to trade him and then blasting his new Indianapolis teammates, Eric Dickerson thinks he’s found the problem.

He has begun making his own tape recordings of interviews.

“A lot of these articles, it’s like my word against theirs,” he told the New York Times’ Tim Smith, producing a recorder. “They take what I say and they write what they want to write.

“This should cut down on that.”

Hint for Eric: No it won’t.

Trivia time: Of NBA players with 20,000 points, who had the lowest shooting percentages?

Prodigy: Eric Green, Pittsburgh’s second-year tight end, is 6-feet-5 and 265 pounds, down from last season’s 286, and according to the Steelers, headed for stardom.

They still talk about his block last season, launching Patriot nose guard Tim Goad into Steelers Carlton Haselrig and Tunch Ilkin. Both Haselrig and Ilkin were injured.

“He knocked that guy (Goad) head over heels,” Steeler offensive coordinator Joe Walton said. “ . . . All the way down our line it looked like bowling pins going down.”

Admiring Green, fullback Merril Hoge asked strength coach Jon Kolb, “Jon, if I started doing squats right now, how long would it take me to get thighs like that?”

Said Kolb: “We could squat from now until the day we died and never have thighs like that.”

Add Green: Despite holding out for the first three games of his rookie season, he caught 34 passes, seven for touchdowns.

During his holdout, Coach Chuck Noll said Green would have to be a genius to contribute.

“When Green scored five times in his second and third games,” wrote the Pittsburgh Press’ Steve Hubbard, “Noll anointed him a genius.”

Old news: USA Today’s Steve Hershey notes that a year after the Shoal Creek controversy, nine clubs have given up PGA Tour events rather than admit black members.

Several clubs, including Shoal Creek, Augusta National and Crooked Stick, admitted just one black member.

Said 1985 PGA champion Hubert Green, a member of Shoal Creek: “I haven’t heard anybody talking about it. Why bring it up?”

In hiding: Manager Bud Harrelson, favored to take the fall if the Mets collapse, admits that he won’t go out to the mound for fear of being booed.

Before a recent showdown with the Pirates, he stayed in his office with the door shut, sending out word that he was unavailable.

Said General Manager Frank Cashen: “I thought he was trying to change his luck.”

Harrelson did nothing when Vince Coleman screamed at coach Mike Cubbage in public. He wanted Kevin McReynolds and Hubie Brooks to switch positions but backed down when the players didn’t want to.

Even Harrelson’s most innocuous comments evoke reactions.

Recently, he attributed Howard Johnson’s problems to trying too hard.

“What’s a player supposed to do?” Johnson asked. “Try less?”

Trivia answer: Elgin Baylor 43.1%, Bob Petit 43.6%, John Havlicek 43.9%.

Quotebook: Bo Jackson, asked when he might be ready to play baseball: “Bo don’t know everything.”