Maybe He Needed the Batting Practice

Arizona Diamondback pitcher Curt Schilling can’t understand what the mystery might be.

During a loss to the San Diego Padres last week, Schilling destroyed a QuesTec camera. QuesTec is being used in the major leagues this season to show whether a pitch is a ball or strike.

Major League Baseball says it is investigating the incident, but in an appearance on the “Best Damn Sports Show Period� this week, the All-Star right-hander said no one from the league office had spoken with him.

Nor do they need to.

“They are going to come to the same conclusion, whether they ask me or not,� Schilling said. “I hit the camera with a bat. The investigation is over after that.�

Trivia time: Of the 15 hall-of-fame pitchers who are franchise leaders in victories, name the two who aren’t wearing those teams’ caps on their plaques.

True story: On this date in 1912, Joe Dawson won the second Indianapolis 500 in 6 hours 21 minutes 6 seconds.

Fellow racer Ralph Mulford, meanwhile, was told he must finish the race to collect 10th-place prize money.

So he did, in 8 hours 53 minutes -- after making several stops for fried chicken.

Yankee clippered: In an interview with Bob Costas on HBO tonight, “Seinfeld� co-creator Larry David recalls George Steinbrenner as a comedy actor, when the New York Yankee owner appeared on the final Seinfeld episode of the 1995-96 season:

� ... It was so obvious from the beginning when you saw him do it, it just wasn’t going to work. I had to call him on the phone and tell him the news.... I said, ‘Mr. Steinbrenner, I am just calling to tell you that unfortunately we’re going to have to ... ‘

“And he said, ‘Is it the acting? You didn’t care for the acting. Did you have a problem with the acting?’

“He took it like a man.�

Sure he did. That was back when his team could pitch, hit and field.

Popping off: Soccer star Fautino Asprilla drew the ire of police in Chile this week when he allegedly fired a gun at a team practice.

Asprilla told Associated Press that the gun was a toy and he’d used it as “a joke,� firing it in the air to urge his Universidad de Chile teammates to try harder during a training session.

Local radio reports suggested Asprilla was drunk at the time -- about 9 a.m. -- but he said neither he nor the gun was loaded.

Pardon him: Virginia recently won its third consecutive NCAA championship in lacrosse, but Tony Kornheiser, on ESPN’s “Pardon the Interruption,� just couldn’t get into it.

“I’m not a lacrosse guy,� he said. “If they held it in my frontyard, I’d move to my backyard.�

Trivia answer: That cap worn by Eddie Plank of the Philadelphia A’s has no logo, and Cy Young, who is tied with Roger Clemens as Boston’s leader, is wearing a Cleveland Naps cap.

And finally: The Sports Lawyers Assn. opened its 29th annual conference on Thursday and among the first panels were discussions on “Legal Considerations in Cross Jurisdictional Taxation of Lawyers, Athletes and Attorneys� and “Sports Lawyers’ Ethics in an Enron Age.�

Says it all.