Country Boy Can’t Keep His Promise to Orioles

For more than 20 years, John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” has blared over the loudspeakers during the seventh-inning stretch at Baltimore Oriole games.

The tradition began in 1975, when team officials were searching for popular recordings to play instead of the organ version of the traditional “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

The lyrics begin: “Well, I got me a fife and I got my old fiddle. The sun’s coming up, I got cakes on the griddle. Life ain’t nothing but a funny, funny riddle. Thank God I’m a country boy.”

In 1983, when the Orioles beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, Denver played and sang the song from atop the Oriole dugout. On a return visit in 1991, he promised to perform the song again if the Orioles returned to the World Series.

If the Orioles can beat Cleveland today and Thursday, they’ll be back in the Series. But Denver, 53, was killed Sunday in a plane crash.

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Trivia time: When did USC last defeat Notre Dame at South Bend, Ind.?

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Higher goals: Scott Brooks rejected $400,000 to play basketball in Europe, accepting $300,000 to play for the New York Knicks, explaining, “ . . . when I was a kid, I didn’t think I’d want to win the Italian League championship when I grew up.”

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No pain, either: Jim Brown, the Hall of Fame running back, says golf has more fascinating elements than football.

“Having a wind factor, a rain factor, a green-speed factor, having sand, having water, having luck, having bad luck, making choices, that’s exciting.”

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Dempsey clone: Todd Sievers of Ankeny (Iowa) High kicked a 63-yard field goal Friday night, fourth best in high school football history, in his team’s 45-0 rout of Fort Dodge.

If 63 yards sounds familiar, that’s because the distance is the same as the longest field goal in NFL history. Tom Dempsey kicked a 63-yarder that won a game for the New Orleans Saints over Detroit in 1970.

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Wait a minute! Playing in Japan during the first weekend of the NHL season was a bit of culture shock for Vancouver’s Donald Brashear. For one thing, the Canuck left wing found a dramatic difference in the rice.

“It’s not like the Minute rice we have at home,” he said.

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Classy response: John Crumpacker in the San Francisco Examiner: “Showing the value of a good education [Phi Beta Kappa, Coe College; master’s degree in English history, Harvard], Buffalo Bill Coach Marv Levy blasted officials last week by using the word ‘unconscionable’ four times after a particularly objectionable penalty.”

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Trivia answer: The Trojans beat the Irish, 14-7, in 1981.

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Looking back: On this day in 1986, the Boston Red Sox, after trailing three games to one, defeated the Angels, 8-1, to win the American League championship.

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And finally: Jose Canseco of the Oakland Athletics has put his 20,000-square-foot, three-pool estate in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on the market for $6 million.

“This is truly a superstar’s home,” real estate agent Robyn Beck said.

Sorry, Robyn, Canseco no longer qualifies as a superstar.