If Season’s Over, Someone Should Tell the Pacers

Bernie Lincicome in the Chicago Tribune on the Lakers defeating Portland in Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference finals Sunday:

“This is where the NBA season should end, right now, with the Lakers anointed champions, the Trail Blazers given the silver medal and Larry Bird a soft chair and a rear-projection TV.

“How does it get any better? It does not. How do the Pacers make anyone keep from offering them a last meal and a blindfold? They do not.

“Indiana is an intruder on a party already over.”

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Trivia time: The College World Series has been held in Omaha since 1950. Where was it played previously?

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Striking out: The Greeks have a lot to learn about baseball before the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. How much? Well, an Olympic reporter from Athens recently asked Games organizers where they were building the “baseball courts.”

Homer, of epic fame, they know. But homers?

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Bewildered: Colorado Rockies pitcher Masato Yoshii homered in a 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh. “He hit it, but he didn’t know what he did,” Colorado third-base coach Rich Donnelly told ESPN.com.

“He ran to second. Then he ran halfway to the mound, because he thought he was out. Then they told him, no, the ball was out. So he went back to second and finished his trot.

“It was the worst home-run trot in the history of baseball.”

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Yuk! From comedy writer Jerry Perisho: “Minnesota’s governor, former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura, will make a guest appearance on a daytime TV soap opera: As The Stomach Turns, or The Bald and the Beautiful.”

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Is that all? Ron Rapoport in the Chicago Sun-Times: “The Wall Street Journal says the Lakers have 17 film credits, 50 television appearances and four CDs among them.”

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Gouging: Washington Redskin owner Daniel Snyder plans to charge $10 admission and $10 parking for practice sessions at training camp.

Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post says the Redskins’ pay-per-view camp “really isn’t such a bad deal. Any fan who shows up will receive a free instructional video on how to get a life.”

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Real pressure: Golfer Harrison Frazar, on playing with Tiger Woods: “He makes you feel like a chicken for laying up.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1941, Whirlaway, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, became the fifth horse to win the Triple Crown by winning the Belmont Stakes by 2 1/2 lengths over Robert Morris.

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Trivia answer: Kalamazoo, Mich., in 1947 and 1948, and Wichita, Kan., in 1949.

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And finally: Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle: “As a Colombian national TV audience watched, Javier Zapata recently cycled up 943 stairs to the top of Bogota’s tallest building.

“It apparently was a world record for step-climbing on a bike without touching the floor. For those who just have to know this, his time was 43 minutes and 26 seconds.

“Hats off to Javier for [you guessed it] reaching the next level.”