Youth Baseball Produces Yet Another Cup Gem

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Dan Crotty was walking past the bench of his 9-year-old’s Little League team as the coach was dispensing water from a cooler and telling each player to take care of his own water cup.

“Does everyone know where his cup is?” the coach asked.

One player replied: “We’re wearing ‘em, Coach!”

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for steals in an NBA finals game?

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Quote machine: Brian Williams, the former Clipper now with the Chicago Bulls, is filling up reporters’ notebooks during the NBA final series.

“People seem to be short of adjectives when they try to describe me,” he said. “They think being free-spirited is one step away from being incarcerated. Or being in an asylum. I try to live life, to suck the marrow out of life.”

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Whom did he find? While the Chicago Bulls were in Utah playing the Jazz, Dennis Rodman said he was going to get on his bike and go into the hills “to try to find God, or try to find Dennis Rodman.”

Comment from Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune: “There is no indication that Rodman is aware of the difference.”

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Next question: Utah’s Karl Malone, the NBA’s most valuable player, reportedly heard so many people ask, “Is it him?” when he pulled up to Salt Lake City intersections on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle that he got vanity plates for the bike that say

“IT IS.”

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Knick influence: Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post on golfer Greg Norman reportedly making an obscene gesture to a fan last weekend: “Who’s he practicing with lately, John Starks?”

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Getting along: Colorado Rocky outfielder Dante Bichette discussing the media in the Denver Post: “Players and writers are together a whole season. Sometimes I get angry at them, but I don’t hold grudges. I don’t think there is a writer in the world who would feel uncomfortable asking me questions.”

Might depend on the questions, Dante.

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Looking back: On this day in 1953, Ben Hogan won the U.S. Open golf tournament for the fourth time with a six-stroke victory over Sam Snead in Oakmont, Pa.

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Trivia answer: Robert Horry, when he was with the Houston Rockets, with seven against the Orlando Magic on June 9, 1995.

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And finally: Chicago Bull General Manager Jerry Krause had an odd answer for why it’s tougher to play the Utah Jazz than other teams.

“You can get mad at Alonzo Mourning and [Pat] Riley and that whole Miami organization,” Krause said. “You can find reasons not to like any other team. But you can’t get mad at [Jazz President] Frank Layden. You can’t get mad at Karl Malone or John Stockton.

“You’re in a country where you just don’t get mad. You only get mad here when you don’t catch a trout.”