Notes on a Scorecard - June 14, 1995

I approve of nearly anything that will speed up major league baseball games except enlarging the strike zone or raising the mound. . . .

The reason there was so much excitement last season until the strike was that hitting records, such as Roger Maris’ 61 home runs, and plateaus, such as a .400 average, were being threatened. . . .

Most people I know prefer high-scoring games to low-scoring. . . .

What they find boring are batters stepping out of the box, pitchers loitering between deliveries, and too much time between innings. . . .

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If Wimbledon suddenly decides to change its surface to clay, look for Thomas Muster to enter the tournament. . . .

I don’t care if it is a made-for-TV exhibition or if John McEnroe compares it to wrestling, the return of Monica Seles to tennis against Martina Navratilova next month will be terrific for the sport. . . .

Anyone upset in the early rounds at Wimbledon will blame it on the new balls that slow down the action. . . .

Ever notice how short the players’ shorts are in those historical “great moments in the NBA” segments? . . .

The logo and team colors are the only things the Houston Rockets should change next season. . . .

What kind of game will it be tonight in Houston when the Rockets try to sweep the Orlando Magic? The Lakers lost by eight points in Game 4 when, without Magic Johnson, they were swept by Detroit in 1989 and by seven when they were swept by Philadelphia in 1983. . . .

NBA telecasts focus on players, not coaches. I wish college basketball telecasts would too. . . .

Listed among the 119 best prospects by the NBA for the draft on June 28 in Toronto are UCLA’s Ed O’Bannon, Tyus Edney and George Zidek; USC’s Lorenzo Orr, and Long Beach State’s Joe McNaull. . . .

An important question at the national track and field meet this week in Sacramento is whether Carl Lewis has enough left to make the U.S. team for the World Championships in the long jump, the 100 meters or both. . . .

Fred Couples and Corey Pavin are the only Americans ranked in the top 13 of the world golf rankings. . . .

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Yory Boy Campas, who has been a big draw at the Grand Olympic, returns there Monday night to fight Heath Todd. . . .

The boxing mystery of the decade remains how the Tommy Morrison-George Foreman bout ever went the distance. . . .

Remember when it used to be mandatory for rival fighters to wear different color trunks? . . .

Weights are probably the most overrated handicapping factor, but it is worth noting that the 127 pounds assigned Soviet Problem for Saturday’s $100,000 Valkyr Handicap at Hollywood Park are the most given any horse at Hollywood Park since Erins Isle’s 128 in the 1983 Gold Cup. . . .

The first winner of the Gold Cup, Seabiscuit, carried 133 pounds in 1938. . . .

Sunday Silence might become as successful a sire in Japan as he was a racehorse in this country. Colts from his first crop finished first and second in the Japanese Derby and a daughter won the Japanese Oaks. . . .

Racing needs more distance events on the turf and fewer sprints on the dirt. . . .

The Say No Classic women’s basketball summer league will begin its fourth season Saturday at 10 a.m. in the North and South Gyms at USC. One division will be for current and former college players, the other for high school players. . . .

It will take some kind of high school baseball phenom to keep Cal State Fullerton’s Mark Kotsay from being the top draft choice next June. . . .

Several members of the 1948 USC national championship baseball team had a reunion last week at Oakmont Country Club in Glendale. . . .

The Trojans won the NCAA title that year over Yale, whose first baseman was former president George Bush. . . .

“He wasn’t much of a threat with the bat,” George Hefner said of Bush. . . . Unable to attend the reunion because of duties with the Detroit Tigers was Sparky Anderson, who served as the Trojans’ batboy. . . .

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The first Bob Chandler Memorial Golf Tournament will be played Monday at the San Gabriel Country Club. Proceeds from the event, named in memory of the former USC and NFL football star, will benefit cancer research and families of cancer victims, and support an annual scholarship to a USC student-athlete. . . .

The new nickname under consideration for the NHL team that is moving from Quebec City to Denver apparently means that certain forwards will be known as Extreme right-wingers and others will be Extreme left-wingers.