New Coach Pulls the Strings in Washington

The Washington Redskins have a new leader, and it’s all anybody seems to want to talk about in the nation’s capital.

“There hasn’t been this kind of buzz in town since Joe Gibbs left 10 years ago,” writes Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post. “Everywhere I go, everybody asks the same question: ‘How do you think he’ll do?’ And nobody has to ask who he is.

“There are about 70 players in training camp, a bunch of them with Pro Bowl experience, and right now none of them matter. It’s like they’re all made out of wood, and Steve Spurrier is Gepetto With a Visor.

“It’s all about him.”

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Trivia time: Who besides Mark Hendrickson, a 6-foot-9 pitcher who played for the Philadelphia 76ers, Sacramento Kings and New Jersey Nets before making his major league debut last week with the Toronto Blue Jays, are the only athletes to play in both major league baseball and the NBA?

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Limping along: Barry Bonds hit homer No. 600, but he hasn’t been himself in the outfield because of an injured hamstring. Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle writes: “God help him out there, you think, if he has to chase anything down. Or bend over to pick up a base hit, or a hot-dog wrapper.”

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Cheap shot: Defensive end Jason Taylor of the Miami Dolphins, whose exhibition Thursday night against the New Orleans Saints will be their second in four days: “I feel like a baseball team. Unfortunately we can’t stand out in the outfield and rest.”

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High-five for Herman: Coach Herman Edwards of the New York Jets, chiding his players for excess celebrating: “When you catch a ball for a first down, when you make a great tackle, that’s your job. It’s not to entertain everyone after you make the play.”

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End of story: This might be sacrilege to Johnny Most fans, but Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe says of Chick Hearn: “He was the greatest basketball radio play-by-play man who ever lived. That’s nonnegotiable. He called the game faster, crisper and sharper than anyone.”

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Hazeltine hater: Said Dave Hill, the runner-up in the 1970 U.S. Open at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., site of this week’s PGA Championship: “They ruined a good farm when they built this course.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1978, the Baltimore Orioles won a game via the rain-out rule. The Orioles were leading New York, 3-0, after six innings but the Yankees scored five runs in the top half of the seventh. Heavy rains ended the game in the bottom of the inning and the score reverted to the end of the last completed frame giving the Orioles the win. The rule was changed in 1980.

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Trivia answer: Danny Ainge, Gene Conley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Frank Baumholtz, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Chuck Connors and Steve Hamilton.

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And finally: Says Deborah Kellom of Perpetua, a Tucson company that builds personalized funeral “sets,” among them one offering a fishing scene with a rod cast into a pond stocked with goldfish and another featuring a recliner in front of a television set showing sports highlights:

“People didn’t know they could do this, but now they’ve embraced it. There’s still grieving, but there’s more laughter now.”