His Fears Were Far From Trivial

Joe Magrane, a left-handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, was experiencing a different type of pressure than was the New York Mets’ Anthony Young in Sunday’s game.

Young suffered his 24th consecutive defeat, a major league record.

“I’ve never been more nervous before a start,” Magrane told USA Today. “I didn’t want to be the answer to a trivia question: Who lost to Anthony Young? I would have rather been facing Dwight Gooden, or Bret Saberhagen.”

Trivia time: How many USC basketball players have been first draft choices of the Lakers?

Rare breed: Roger Reid, who coached 7-foot-6 Shawn Bradley at Brigham Young, told Jere Longman of the Philadelphia Inquirer that Bradley is destined to become a dominant player in the NBA.

“I think he might do better than people think this year because he loves to play the game” Reid said. “He’s not a tall guy who was pushed into basketball.

“He’s a 7-6 guy in a 6-4 body. And 7-6 is something you can’t coach.”

Waste of time: From the book “Mulligan’s Laws” on golf:

“If you seem to be hitting your shots straight on the driving range, it’s probably because you’re not aiming at anything.

“The only thing of real value that you can take from the driving range to the first tee is a pocketful of range balls.”

Bombs away: The Calgary Cannons were aptly named Sunday night when they defeated the Las Vegas Stars with a 35-hit attack in the Pacific Coast League, 23-12. Calgary’s Lee Tinsley went seven for eight with two home runs and five runs batted in.

Calgary fell two short of the league record for most hits in a game and the combined 51 hits missed the league mark of 54.

The Yogi file: From Sports Shorts by Glenn Liebman: Yogi Berra, after he received a check that said “payable to bearer”: “Gee, you’ve known me all these years and you still don’t know how to spell my name.”

Golf espionage: During the first round of the recent U.S. Open at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., USGA officials were startled by some intrusive chatter over their walkie-talkies, Golf World reported.

Overheard on one frequency used by officials were conversations among ticket scalpers working off the property. A sweep of the neighborhood turned up the offenders.

Court demons: Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic told Curry Kirkpatrick in Tennis magazine why he is so inconsistent.

“Every match, I play against five opponents: umpire, crowd, ball boys, court and myself,” Ivanisevic said. “It’s no wonder my mind sometimes goes to the beach.”

Occupational hazard: From Jay Leno: “Some bad news for Red Sox fans. Roger Clemens is on the disabled list with a groin pull. If you ever watch baseball players, I’m sure you realize this is probably a self-inflicted injury.”

Trivia answer: One, Bill Hewitt in 1968.

Quotebook: Blackie Sherrod in the Dallas Morning News: “Fresco Thompson once described Willie Mays’ glove as ‘where triples go to die.’ ”