Yankees Not Spot for Junior Achievement?

Adrian Wojnarowski of the Bergen (N.J.) Record writes that Ken Griffey Jr. doesn’t fit in with the New York Yankees:

“The ultimate individual player meeting the ultimate team is a gamble these Yankees can do without. They don’t do home run derby, they do hit-and-run. . . .

“To imagine the success of the season undermined with Griffey swinging for 70 home runs goes against everything this team has come to represent.�

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Trivia time: Who holds the NCAA Division I-A record for touchdowns scored in a game?

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He needs a media guide: After opening the season with a 6-0 record, the St. Louis Rams are 6-2, and cornerback Todd Lyght told Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the “key thing for us is to be able to rebound.�

“Fortunately we play at home next week [Sunday]. I don’t know who we’re playing; I just know we’re playing at home.�

Psst, Todd. It’s Carolina.

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See you later: Chicago Blackhawk General Manager Bob Murray, after defenseman Boris Mironov compared the team’s business practices unfavorably to the Wild West commerce in Russia:

“We’ll send him two plane tickets wherever he wants and he can go get his money from the Red Army.�

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He is driven: NASCAR star Jeff Gordon, on the sport’s new $400-million-a-year television contract:

“This sport has taken gradual steps up and along the way there have been some big leaps and bounds. . . . But this is probably the biggest leap it’s ever taken. It’s neat to be part of it. I’m enjoying the ride.�

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Is it that bad? John Crumpacker of the San Francisco Examiner on the slumping 49ers:

“Pro football’s version of the Hindenburg is going down, in slow motion, for all to see. It’s a great big fragile craft, held aloft by hot air and hope, and it’s descending to earth nose-first, about to burst into flames.�

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Street scene: David Letterman offered his “Top Ten Thoughts of New York Marathoners.� A sampling:

* “Remember, slow and steady comes in 29,000th.

* “I won! I won! Oh, damn, that was just a crosswalk.�

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Win some, lose some: Bruce Keidan in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “My condolences to Pete Rose being voted to baseball’s team of the century. I heard he laid 6 to 5 against.�

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Trivia answer: Howard Griffith of Illinois, eight, all by rushing, against Southern Illinois on Sept. 22, 1990.

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And finally: Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune on the hapless NBA Bulls:

“The Bulls are obligated by schedule and duty to do whatever they were doing Tuesday night for another 78 games. Some may be tempted to call it basketball, there being a vague resemblance to the game that used to take Chicago’s breath away.

“Still does, I suppose, like a landfill or unreliable plumbing.�