Fans With North Stars, Win or Tie

Oh, sure, now every red-blooded hockey fan in Minne-sooota is going crazy about the North Stars and their improbable--some say, impossible--run at the Stanley Cup. So loud were the fans at the sold-out Met Center during the early rounds of the playoffs that team officials arranged for the Fan-o-Meter to be brought over from the Humphrey Dome.

But the North Stars’ Brian Bellows remembers what it was like earlier in the season, when nobody would come near the 15,593-seat Met Center.

“First game of the season, (St. Louis) Blues here, you know . . . Brett Hull, Scott Stevens . . . and we get 4,000 people here,” Bellows told Boston Globe columnist Michael Madden. “They announce something like 6,700 people here, but that’s the number of tickets they sold. There weren’t 6,700 people here. I know that for a fact. Four thousand real live bodies. Tops. I was counting ‘em.

“I kept telling the guys that you have to stick it out, you have to stick it out, that things had to get better. For the first time, I had doubts myself when Edmonton came down and we got . . . what? . . . 5,000 people? Edmonton. The Stanley Cup champions.”

Add North Stars: “It is said,” Madden wrote, “that if you can foul hockey in Minnesota, then you and only you can sour the water at Lourdes. The Gund Brothers (former owners of the North Stars) did the first, and now they have moved on to San Jose, where their new hockey team is so aptly named. Named after the Gund Brothers. Named after themselves. The Sharks.”

Yikes.

Trivia time: In the early days of auto racing, it wasn’t unusual for two people to ride in the car during races, including the Indianapolis 500. Who were the two people?

Splish, splash: Recent rainstorms drenched the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, including Arlington Stadium, home of the Texas Rangers. How wet was it?

Well, during the third inning of Sunday’s game, Ranger Mike Stanley hit a line drive to right field, where Tom Brunansky of the Boston Red Sox slipped and fell, allowing the ball to roll past him for a triple. After the game, a 12-4 Ranger victory, Brunansky told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe: “My shoes were so wet, I had to throw them away. I threw away a pair the night before, too. It was awful out there.”

It wasn’t much better at the plate for Brunansky. He went hitless in four at-bats.

Say-Hey it ain’t so, Willie: According to a recent story in the Sporting News, Mickey Mantle, not Willie Mays, is the hands-down winner of the card-show circuit. Said one promoter: “Mantle is always pretty nice. He smiles and talks to the people. With Mays, it’s usually quite the opposite. Sometimes he’ll just grunt. Other times, if he’s signing a ball, he might just sign it and flip it right back to you without ever looking up.”

Mays, of course, was the same guy who, when asked to name the greatest player he ever saw, said, “Me.”

Trivia answer: The driver and the mechanic. It also wasn’t unusual for a crew to have a relief driver.

Quotebook: European Ryder Cup captain Tony Jacklin, in a Golf Digest interview, on the sorry state of the PGA Tour: “I read an article last year by Ben Wright, that ‘great’ English commentator in the States. He was comparing Mark Calcavecchia’s charisma to Arnold Palmer’s. Well, he’s not fit to shine Palmer’s shoes! But such is the U.S. tour’s lack of stars and personalities. I mean, Calcavecchia and Arnold Palmer--do me a favor!”