If Anything, He’s a Good Traveling Man

Skip Bayless of the Chicago Tribune ridiculing the 1-6 Chicago Bears: “You’re half expecting this to happen, maybe after another loss [today] in Philadelphia.

“Coach Dick Jauron stands on a platform fielding reporters’ questions. You can’t tell if he has just coached a Chicago Bears game or helped his daughters with their homework.

” . . . He confuses game situations and lapses into double talk that would be laughable if it weren’t coming from a Yale man. Finally one reporter says, ‘Coach, forgive me for asking, but are you sure you know what you’re doing?’

“ ‘No,’ Jauron says, ‘but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.’ ”

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Trivia time: Other than the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees, what teams from the same city have played each other in the World Series?

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Do you have a clue? Jim Armstrong in the Denver Post: “Multiple choice: The Presidents Cup is a) a soccer tournament nobody cares about; b) a golf tournament nobody cares about, or c) what Bill Clinton wears when he catches for the White House softball team.”

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Will they strike? Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Let’s face it, baseball players are a little spoiled. Both the Mets and Yankees are already complaining about not getting enough travel money.”

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Series stuff: David Letterman had his “Top Ten Cool Things About Having the World Series in New York.” A sampling:

* “We’re going to add a Mike Piazza-style mustache to the Statue of Liberty.

* “Just think what this is doing to John Rocker.”

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Let’s wait a bit: Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe on Bobby Valentine: “Whether the anti-Valentines noticed it or not, things were different this year. . . . At no point in the Mets’ fine season was it ever about Valentine.

“It was refreshingly about the team and its outstanding play. Valentine kept himself out of the headlines. . . . At age 50, he actually seems to have grown up.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1972, the Oakland Athletics defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 3-2, and won the World Series in seven games.

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Trivia answer: The Chicago Cubs and White Sox in 1906, and the St. Louis Cardinals and Browns in 1944. In a Bay Area Series, Oakland beat San Francisco in 1989.

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And finally: Bernie Lincicome in the Rocky Mountain News: “New York, New York. I just want to get the rules straight. Do I have to write everything twice, such as Yanks win! Yanks win!, which they will in five.

” . . . Someone tells me that at least it is not a Series between the Braves and Indians, teams that give offense to Native Americans. And I say, this Series gives offense to all Americans.”