DATE: Friday, October 31, 1997              TAG: 9710310925

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Bob Molinaro 

                                            LENGTH:   59 lines

BOY-OH-BOY, DALLAS FANS SOON MAY BE BAGGING IT

A lot alike: Lowly New Orleans has scored only three fewer touchdowns than the Dallas Cowboys. Which goes to show you that in the NFL, there's not much difference between Saints and sinners.

Money matters: Orioles manager Davey Johnson gives new meaning to the saying, ``Charity begins at home.''

Stat stuff: Redskins quarterback Gus Frerotte ranks third in the NFC in completion of third-down passes, while the 4-4 Redskins are the league's third-most-effective team at converting third downs. Just goes to prove the worthlessness of some statistics.

Riding the Gus Bus: Replacing Frerotte with Jeff Hostetler might win the Redskins a game or two, but at the risk of derailing the development of their $4 million quarterback.

Dept. of Sarcasm: The NBA's 82-game preseason schedule begins tonight.

Kindred spirits: There's no truth to the rumor that Dennis Rodman has offered the NBA's two female officials tips on how to wear mascara.

Nobody home: One of the Tennessee Oilers' recent home games in Memphis was outdrawn by an NBA exhibition between the Knicks and Nets in town the same week.

Hanging on: Former Old Dominion star and NBA survivor Mark West, who turns 37 on Nov. 5, knows what to do with his money. He's a stockbroker in the offseason.

Interpreter on call: Mike Jarvis of George Washington has assembled a basketball team on which 10 of the 14 players are non-Americans from places like Israel, Belarus, the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Africa. Forget the NCAA tournament. This team should apply for membership to the U.N.

Perspective: New Tar Heels basketball coach Bill Guthridge says he isn't worried about the pressure of being ranked No. 1 by some preseason publications. North Carolina's spoiled fans, he says, ``will probably settle for a trip to the Final Four.''

Double driveler: More nonsense from Charles Barkley. His logic for opposing women refs in the NBA? ``I wouldn't want a man doing a WNBA game,'' he says. Just so happens that 11 of 24 WNBA refs are men.

Pretzel logic: Houston's Craig Biggio, who committed 18 errors and ranked sixth in the National League in fielding percentage for second basemen, just won a Gold Glove. He beat out, among others, Cincinnati's Bret Boone, whose

Blast from the past: Oscar Wilde, dead 97 years now, anticipated the advent of TV talk shows when he said, ``The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything except what is worth knowing.''

Quietly in charge: A Mickey Mouse schedule has helped, but 49ers quarterback Steve Young has not let the absence of Jerry Rice prevent him from enjoying a fine season so far.

In passing: As we await the New York Giants' return to reality, it's not so far-fetched to imagine the once-proud NFC East being won by a team with an 8-8 record.

Coming on: According to a study done by something called Roper Reports Worldwide, 11 percent of the globe plays organized basketball, compared to 13 percent for soccer, making hoops the second-most-popular team sport on the planet. No word on where tag-team wrassling rates.

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