Maybe the Stable Influence Will Motivate Them

By MAL FLORENCE

Oct. 28, 1997 12 AM PT

San Jose Shark Coach Darryl Sutter ripped into his team Thursday, citing veteran players as largely responsible for the team’s 2-7 record at the time.

“They think they can change coaches and keep the same little attitudes--that won’t happen,” Sutter told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Some of the older guys have to understand that other teams don’t want them. What are they gonna do, clean stables in Kentucky?”

That was in reference to the Sharks’ American Hockey League affiliate in Lexington--not a barn.

Trivia time: Which schools were original members of the Pacific Coast Conference in 1916?

Stop it! Oakland Raider wide receiver Tim Brown was quoted in Sunday’s Game Day column as saying that Bo Jackson was once timed at 4.09 seconds in the 40-yard dash. “That’s unheard of,” he added.

It’s also absurd. Carl Lewis, Bob Hayes or even Ben Johnson on drugs never came close to running that fast, even in their dreams.

Ready, set, XXI! Freelance writer Norman Chad on 40-year-old Warren Moon, quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks: “When Moon calls an audible, he barks out Roman numerals.”

Ready, aim, . . . John Crumpacker in the San Francisco Examiner: “Jerry Jones says Barry Switzer performs best when his back is to the wall. Comment: Right, with a blindfold and a cigarette.”

Finally, recognition: The San Diego Union-Tribune included John Curtis, who pitched for five major league teams, as one of baseball’s most disappointing free agents of all time. Curtis sent the paper a letter:

“After this many years [almost 15], I thought everyone had forgotten me. Thanks for remembering. My wife is ordering a plaque with the inscription ‘Most Disappointing of All Time.’ ”

Who was measuring? The Associated Press reported that the Harlem Globetrotters’ Fred “Preacher” Smith went into the Guinness record book Saturday with the highest vertical dunk of 11 feet 11 inches.

Smith beat the old record by three inches at the National Exhibition Center near Birmingham, England, on the latest leg of the team’s Space Jam tour of Europe.

Coaching lifer: Matt Dobek, publicist for the Detroit Pistons, on former Coach Chuck Daly, now coach of the Orlando Magic:

“He’s the Dick Clark of coaching, 67 going on 27, and still worried about whether he can find work.”

Looking back: On this day in 1973, Gail Goodrich scored 49 points and Elmore Smith set an NBA record with 17 blocked shots as the Lakers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 111-98.

Trivia answer: Washington, Oregon, Oregon State and California.

And finally: Strike Ten Entertainment, the bowling industry’s marketing and management arm, has agreed to a deal with MasterCard and First USA to issue a bowling credit card this summer:

Said Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Sun-Times: “If you live in the gutter, it’s for you.”