Please Don’t Squeeze the Barkley

Charles Barkley is promoting his new book, “Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?�

As part of his promotional tour, he planned to appear on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno� when he was in Los Angeles during the NBA playoffs. But that plan had to be scrapped, and he appeared on Leno’s show this week.

“Thanks for squeezing me in,� Barkley told Leno.

Said Leno: “And you’re not an easy man to squeeze in.�

Trivia time: How many games in a row did the Brooklyn Dodgers win at the start of their 1955 championship season?

It hurts to laugh: Shaquille O’Neal is expected to play for the Miami Heat tonight at Philadelphia after sitting out three games because of a stomach problem.

Leno may have hit on what the problem was. “I think it’s from being doubled up so much laughing at the Lakers,� he said.

A man named Shirley: ESPN this week profiled the late Shirley Povich, a Washington Post sportswriter for nearly 75 years.

Povich once had the distinction of being listed in “Who’s Who of American Women.� In the ESPN documentary, Povich’s son, Maury, explains that in his father’s hometown of Bar Harbor, Maine, Shirley was a common name for a boy.

The elder Povich claimed an interviewer at the time of the listing asked him whether his sex had been a hindrance in his career, and he answered, “None whatsoever.� He also said he told the interviewer, “I’m just one of the boys.�

Walter Cronkite sent Povich a telegram asking, “Will you marry me?�

Poker fanatics: Treasure Island has converted a hangar at Santa Monica Airport into a casino for the Lakers’ “Las Vegas Night� charity event tonight. It’s appropriate, because Laker owner Jerry Buss and business partner Frank Mariani love to play poker.

“They’ll do anything to get into a game,� Jeanie Buss said.

No deal: This is the second year in a row the Lakers have had a “Las Vegas Night� charity fundraiser. They held a similar one in the early 1980s, and at that event Laker players served as dealers. The way things have been going for the current players, if they served as dealers they’d lose all the house’s money.

Looking back: On this day in 1962, the Lakers’ Elgin Baylor scored 61 points in a 126-121 victory over the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. The 61 points is still the record for a Finals game and the second-highest point total for a playoff game. The playoff record is 63 by Michael Jordan in a double-overtime game against Boston in 1986.

Trivia answer: 10. The Dodgers then lost two of three before winning 11 in a row to improve to 22-2. By then, the Dodgers had a 9 1/2 -game lead over the second-place Milwaukee Braves.

And finally: “After watching the Masters on the heels of the Final Four,� wrote Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times, “we just had to ask: What golf tournament did Illinois Coach Bruce Weber have to win to get that orange jacket?�

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Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].