Notes on a Scorecard - June 19, 1995

Maybe Southern California is making a comeback as a sports power in 1995. . . .

UCLA won the NCAA basketball championship. . . .

Oscar De La Hoya of East L.A. lit up boxing’s lightweight division. . . .

Cal State Fullerton won the NCAA baseball championship over USC. . . .

Trainer Wayne Lukas of Arcadia swept the Triple Crown races. . . .

And Sunday, Corey Pavin, the former UCLA Bruin and Oxnard High Yellowjacket, won the U.S. Open. . . .

Pavin, 35, has lived in Florida the past few years, but we won’t count that against him. . . .

He is the first Southern Californian to win a major golf tournament since Scott Simpson of USC took the 1987 U.S. Open. . . .

Pavin won 11 tournaments during his collegiate career at UCLA, was the 1977 World Junior champion and, at 17, became the youngest player to win the L.A. City men’s championship. . . .

At 5 feet 9, he towered over playing partner Ian Woosnam, 5-4, at the U.S. Open. . . .

“I’d say the reason Corey succeeds is because he’s long on head and heart,” Eddie Merrins, his UCLA coach who is now the pro at Bel-Air Country Club, once said. “He gets the most out of what he’s got.” . . .

Pavin’s wife, Shannon, is the niece of the late sportscaster Jim Healy. . . .

*

Dodger pitcher Ismael Valdes, 21, and Angel designated hitter Chili Davis, 35, continue to improve. . . .

The way Dodger second baseman Chad Fonville ran the bases Sunday at Wrigley Field in Chicago, he looked as though he belonged in Sacramento at the track meet. . . .

It’s a good thing the Angels ended the Mitch (Wild Thing) Williams experiment before it cost them some important games in a division race. . . .

Barry Bonds’ next stolen base will give him and dad Bobby the undisputed all-time father-son record of 783. . . .

They share the record with Maury and Bump Wills. . . .

Bobby Bonds had 461 stolen bases and Barry has 321. Maury Wills had 586 and Bump had 196. . . .

Joe Torre is a good manager. The St. Louis Cardinals’ problem was pitching, not managing. . . .

Superstars win NBA titles, not super coaches. That’s why the champions during Pat Riley’s tenure with the New York Knicks were the Chicago Bulls and the Houston Rockets. . . .

How’s this field for the third annual Anaheim Hilton & Towers Classic at Cal State Fullerton next Feb. 23-25: The NCAA champion Titans plus three other teams that made it to the College World Series: runner-up USC, Florida State and Oklahoma. . . .

News item: Miami trades Harold Miner and 39th choice in NBA draft to Cleveland for 46th choice and future considerations. Reaction: Are the future considerations going to be decent or did the Heat just want to get rid of Miner? . . .

Now that Riddick Bowe seems to have regained his enthusiasm for boxing, I don’t see a heavyweight who can beat him. . . .

That includes the Mike Tyson of today or the future. . . .

“Bowe’s fighting like he’s the heavyweight champion,” heavyweight champion and commentator George Foreman said during the HBO telecast of Bowe’s six-round destruction of Jorge Luis Gonzalez on Saturday night. . . .

Granted, Gonzalez is amateurish, but Bowe put it all together for the first time since he won the title from Evander Holyfield. . . .

Foreman’s answer when asked by Jim Lampley if he wanted to fight Bowe: “No.” . . .

The New Jersey Devils remind me of some of Scotty Bowman’s St. Louis Blues teams in the early years of NHL expansion. . . .

New Jersey won Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals over Bowman’s Detroit Red Wings with tight checking, goaltending and conservative strategy. . . .

Bowman has to devise a way to overcome a defensive tactic that not even his Blues ever used--the trap. . . .

In his U.S. Open announcing debut, Dick Enberg was highly professional and unobtrusive. . . .

Not even Bob Trumpy raises his voice on a golf course. . . .

*

Most impressive performance on the tube over the weekend was Michael Johnson’s victory in the 400 meters in the national track and field meet, where he blew away a strong field down the stretch and might have set a world record if he hadn’t slowed and clowned near the finish line. . . .

Most courageous performance was Jackie Joyner Kersee’s in the heptathlon, where she had to wear an allergy bag to finish the last event, the 800 meters. . . .

Vin Scully on Chicago Cub outfielder Sammy Sosa: “The White Sox thought he was so-so, but he’s Sosa.”