Soccer Star Best Beats Them All as Baddest Boy

Who is the sports world’s all-time bad boy?

According to an Internet poll conducted in Britain, that honor, or dishonor, belongs to former English soccer star George Best, who got 24% of the vote to beat out O.J. Simpson (21%), former Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona (17%) and boxer Mike Tyson (16%).

“Their role is almost part and parcel of celebrity culture,� sports sociologist Tim Crabbe told the Express in London. “It is as if it is required for them to stand out from the crowd.�

Best, a former Los Angeles Aztec player who at one time owned a bar in Hermosa Beach, underwent a life-saving liver transplant in 2002 after years of heavy drinking but has continued to battle alcoholism.

*

Trivia time: Name the only golfer who lost three U.S. Open playoffs.

Plenty of seats: Hall of Fame baseball player Harmon Killebrew recalled the Washington Senators didn’t exactly play before capacity home crowds when he was with the team, telling the Denver Post: “Fans would [call] the old Griffith Stadium and ask the ticket people, ‘What time’s the ballgame tonight?’

“And the person on the other end would answer, ‘What time can you get here?’ �

*

Identity theft: Mike Ditka worries his role as a spokesman for a treatment of male sexual dysfunction is eclipsing his legacy as a successful NFL player and coach, saying on HBO’s “Real Sports�:

“I believe that there’s a whole generation of people that don’t remember that I did play football, that I was a pretty good player,� Ditka says. “Don’t remember that I coached the [Chicago] Bears. They have no idea.

“They wouldn’t know if I was a tight end or a back or a rear end.�

Ditka was a tight end.

Aging fast: Rick Telander of the Chicago Sun-Times, to Fox Sports Net, explaining away his prediction that the Lakers would win the NBA Finals: “I didn’t think they’d turn 9,000 years old in one week.�

*

Good point: Responding to Larry Bird’s observation the NBA needed more white stars, Bud Geracie of the San Jose Mercury News wrote: “If having white superstars can boost a sport’s fan base, NHL ratings ought to be through the roof.�

*

Behind in the count: After the Stanley Cup celebration in Tampa, Fla., drew 20,000 people, Rich Hoffman of the Philadelphia Daily News pointed out that was far short of the 2 million who showed up when the Philadelphia Flyers won their first Cup in 1974: “Coming into this season, the Lightning’s record of achievement was the second-thinnest volume in the library, next to ‘Japan, an Appreciation,’ by Bill Parcells.�

*

It’s a Bear: Jack Nicklaus, commenting on his steadily declining golf game: “Everyone has always wanted to play like Nicklaus. Now they really can.�

Trivia answer: Arnold Palmer.

And finally: Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show� last week: “This is the best time ever to be a sports fan in Detroit. The Pistons are playing well, the Tigers are playing well, and the Lions aren’t playing at all.�