She’s Allowed to ‘Hog the Ball With the Guys

Colette Cunningham of the Washington Warthogs became the first woman to score a point in the Continental Indoor Soccer League when she assisted on a goal against San Jose. The former North Carolina State player said she has had no problems being accepted by her male teammates.

“The only time we’re apart is when we’re changing into our uniforms,” she told Darren Sabedra of the San Jose Mercury-News. While the men are dressing, Cunningham waits outside the locker room door before entering for pregame meetings.

“Yell when they’re ready,” she told a locker room attendant at a recent game.

“They’re ready,” came the reply and Cunningham walked in and joined her teammates.

“The guys on my team are unbelievable, they’re so supportive,” she said.

But how do you suppose she feels being called a Warthog?

Trivia time: Who did Pete Sampras defeat in the U.S. Open tennis final last year?

Woman’s prerogative: JoAnne Carner, golf’s Big Momma, loves crowds, even loves to go among them during tournaments. She explained why to Joe Falls of the Detroit News.

“I spray the ball off the tee a lot and I usually wind up with them behind the ropes,” she said. “It gives us a chance to visit. I tell ‘em what I’m going to do with the ball, and if I miss, I turn around and tell them I changed my mind.”

What price, memorabilia: An autographed white Bell helmet once worn by Carroll Shelby brought $10,000 at a recent Newport Beach auction; one of Shelby’s black cowboy hats sold for $5,000, and his trophy from the 1960 Examiner-Herald Express Grand Prix at Riverside brought $4,000 for the Shelby Heart Fund.

Say it isn’t so: Cricket in jolly old England has been getting unexpected attention because its No. 1 player, Mike Atherton, has been accused of doctoring the ball before bowling it.

“Cricket is an institution and only a game incidentally,” wrote the late Neville Cardus, a celebrated reporter of the game.

When he asked someone whether W.G. Grace, the Victorian father of the game, ever cheated, Cardus said he was told: “Nay, never! The ‘Old Man’ cheat?--’e were too clever for that.”

Checkered flag: When NASCAR fans in Phoenix heard that KTVK-TV did not plan to carry ABC-TV’s coverage of next Saturday’s Brickyard 400 Winston Cup race at Indianapolis, they deluged the station with telephone calls.

Monday evening, the station led off its local newscast with the waving of two checkered flags and an announcement that it would indeed carry the race telecast.

Trivia answer: Cedric Pioline.

Quotebook: Jack Morris, Cleveland Indian pitcher, on the American League Central race: “I’d tell you that it is going to go down to the wire, except that I don’t know where the wire is.”