THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 6, 1995 TAG: 9510060636
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Weekly Briefing
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Dreamland drama: The Yankees' 7-5, 15-inning playoff victory over the Mariners ends at 1:21 a.m. in the East and some people still have to wonder what's wrong with baseball?
Prime Time: You know where baseball rates when the cover of Sports Illustrated the week the playoffs start features Deion Sanders dressed in his new Dallas Cowboys uniform.
Different kind of fall guy: With one victory in nine postseason starts, Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens will not soon answer to Mr. October.
Futurewatch: For Gus Frerotte, completing passes with Charles Haley in your face may not be as difficult as playing well with a healthy Heath Shuler looking over your shoulder.
For what it's worth: Calling the Redskins the second-best team in the NFC East is damning with faint praise.
Weight and see: If Darryl Dawkins really wants to be signed by an NBA team, he'd better not ask to be paid by the pound.
A different drummer: No-nonsense, old-school, granite-jawed Mike Ditka, on how to cut down on the preening and prancing by NFL players: ``They should put in a rule that when a receiver drops the ball, he has to do the same gyrations as when he caught it.''
Kissing up: Just once, wouldn't you love to hear Larry King challenge a guest with a tough question? It'll never happen.
Moving along: How much longer can the University of Virginia football team hide the fact that it isn't as good as its 5-1 record or No. 9 ranking?
Hobbled: Still recovering from back surgery performed last season, former North Carolina big man Brad Daugherty is not expected back into the Cleveland Cavaliers' lineup until halfway through the season, leading some to speculate that his career is finished.
October dilemma: Life is full of tradeoffs. Even as you root for Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, a good guy enjoying his first postseason, you gag on the notion of a puffed-up George Steinbrenner hogging the spotlight again.
Holy (cash) cow: Sidewalk salesmen and souvenir hawkers are expecting even brisker business for Pope John Paul II's visit to Baltimore's Camden Yards than they enjoyed during the final two days of Cal Ripken's run at Lou Gehrig's streak. Now, if only the pope will be like Cal and take a victory lap around the field.
Idle thought: Sparky Anderson can always find work as a Santa's elf.
Heading south: The Canadian Football League still seems to be doing well in Baltimore, but elsewhere - Memphis, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., and Shreveport, La. - the franchises are struggling at the gate. A recent game in Memphis was watched by an intimate gathering of 4,371.
Local angle: Here's a reality check for any business/political group interested in expanding the CFL to, say, Norfolk: Birmingham Barracudas owner Art Williams announced that he expects his team to lose $6 million in its initial year of operation.
Public outcry: When thousands of people report that they are angry and disgusted with the inability of '96 Atlanta Games organizers to meet their ticket requests, it is business as usual for the Olympics.
Memorable feets: Sheryl Swoopes-Jackson's ``Air Swoopes,'' expected to hit stores next week, is the first sports shoe named for a female athlete. At $85 a pair, they can do for young women what high-priced sneakers have done for young men: rip them off. by CNB