Next Thing You Know, He Will Want to Demolish Sears Tower

Jerry Reinsdorf, a co-owner of the Chicago White Sox and Bulls, is not a sentimentalist about old stadiums.

“I know all about nostalgia,� Reinsdorf told the Boston Globe. “But the fact is we didn’t need the old ballpark and the new Comiskey Park has improved the team’s image.

“Chicago Stadium probably will be torn down also. Does it make sense to keep it? If the preservationists want to keep it, let them buy it. I don’t have sympathy for those who want to keep old structures. We need to compete in the ‘90s and in the next century.�

Trivia time: Who won the Outland Trophy in 1959, an award honoring the best college interior lineman in the country?

Some like it hot: JoAnne Carner, 53, is trying to become the oldest person to win a non-senior golf tour event. Sam Snead set the record in 1965 when he won the Greater Greensboro Open at 52.

Carner says she will get the record if the weather cooperates.

“I play good when it’s hot and everything’s loose,� she said. “I’m going to get an 85-degree Sunday and then I’m going to get (the record).�

Price of fame: As the winner of the Masters and two other PGA Tour events this year, Fred Couples is besieged by golf fans.

“I stand around for 30 minutes signing autographs and then try to get through to the clubhouse, and somebody says, ‘I didn’t want your autograph anyhow.’ It seems like you can’t win.�

Bench-wise: Bob Thomas spent 10 years as a kicker for the Chicago Bears before becoming a judge in DuPage County Circuit Court in Illinois.

“I’ve been booed by 60,000 people,� Thomas said. “I’m not going to be too worried about what one attorney thinks.�

Chew on this: Organized baseball has banned chewing tobacco at the Class-A level and officials hope to have tobacco banned throughout the minors by the end of 1993.

“They should ban candy, too,� one minor league owner said. “More people die from heart attacks than cheek cancer. If you are going to ban tobacco, you should ban Butterfingers, too.�

Power play: It has been written that if the Bulls and Blackhawks both win their final series, it will be the first time that two Chicago pro teams have won championships in the same year.

Peter Wilt told the Boston Globe that isn’t so.

“The Bulls and the Power both won last year,� he said.

Wilt is general manager of the Chicago Power of the National Professional Soccer League.

Precedent: USC will send a five-man team to the NCAA track and field meet next week at Austin, Tex.

No chance of winning the team title? Not necessarily. A four-man USC team won it in 1943.

Trivia answer: Mike McGee of Duke. McGee is now USC’s athletic director.

Quotebook: Mark McGwire of the Oakland Athletics on the prospect of breaking Roger Maris’ single-season home run record of 61: “It makes me shiver to even talk about it.�