Sky Was Limit When She Had to Sign Checks

Dave Anderson of the New York Times writes that as “Don Klosterman remembers it, the Rams’ check to settle the team’s 1981 bills with Anaheim had to be at City Hall by 4 o’clock that afternoon.

“If not, then Klosterman, the Rams’ general manager, knew that the club would be obliged to pay a penalty of at least $10,000. But the Rams’ owner, Georgia Frontiere, was balking.

“ ‘We’re not signing any checks today,’ she said.

“ ‘Why not?” Klosterman asked. ‘What’s wrong?’

“ ‘Mercury is in retrograde,’ Frontiere said.”

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Add Anderson: “To the Rams’ owner, the alignment of the stars and planets has often been more important than the alignment of wide receivers and linebackers.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the Super Bowl record for the longest run from scrimmage?

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Charger basher: The San Diego Chargers wanted respect after beating the Pittsburgh Steelers to qualify for the Super Bowl. But they won’t get it from Bernie Lincicome of the Chicago Tribune.

“In fact, San Diego is the worst of the annual hairballs the AFC coughs up since New England. These are the Bengals halved,” he wrote.

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Goodby L.A.: The Los Angeles Open has been a fixture on the PGA Tour since 1926. Now it’s virtually anonymous.

The tournament will be played Feb. 23-26 at the Riviera Country Club. In recent years it had been identified as the Nissan Los Angeles Open. It is now called the Nissan Open.

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Cheer, cheer: Digger Phelps, former Notre Dame basketball coach, said he plans to run for president in nine years.

Not of the university. Of the United States.

“I’m angling for 2004. I’m going for it,” Phelps, 53, told the Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal.

We can hardly wait.

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Bon voyage: Nick Faldo was recently asked in Tucson how his departure from the PGA European Tour--and his decision to play full time in America on the PGA Tour--was received by his European peers.

“They all just waved,” he said, mimicking an exaggerated hand wave. “ ‘Bye, bye. Just Go,’ I think they said. ‘How long are you staying? Great!’ ”

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Bad investment? Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the willingness of sponsors to pay $1 million for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl telecast: “That’s fairly steep to be underwriting a caning.”

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Trivia answer: Marcus Allen of the Raiders, 74 yards for a touchdown against the Washington Redskins in 1984.

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Quotebook: Promoter Bob Arum on the upcoming Super Bowl: “If I ever made a match like that in boxing, I don’t think the commission would allow it.”