It Wasn’t Easy to Get a Shot Past Johnny

Fox sportscaster Chris Myers, an avid Johnny Carson fan, said that when he was at ESPN doing the late-night editions of “SportsCenter” with Mike Tirico in the early 1990s, he would often say to Tirico, “I did not know that,” a line Carson often used on the “Tonight Show.” That evolved into a regular “Did You Know?” segment.

Myers said he met Carson at a tennis event at UCLA in 1997 and told him how the “Did You Know?” segment came about.

Said Carson: “I did not know that.”

Trivia time: How did Jim Courier pay tribute to Carson when he won the 1992 French Open two weeks after Carson’s last show?

Did you know? Carson was once drafted by a Los Angeles team. The L.A. Strings made him their 14th-round pick in the 1974 World Team Tennis draft.

Yes, it was a publicity stunt. Carson was a part-owner of the team. Jerry Fine was the majority owner, and he later sold the team to Jerry Buss.

Far-reaching effect: Chicago Cub fan Hillary Rodham Clinton, suffering from a stomach virus, fainted while delivering a speech in Buffalo, N.Y., on Monday.

“Holy cow,” wrote Mike Downey in the Chicago Tribune, “you trade Sammy Sosa and some Cub fans go all to pieces.”

An easier way: From Bay Area reader Janice Hough: “If God really wanted Terrell Owens to play in the Super Bowl, wouldn’t it have been simpler just to have made the 49ers a better team?”

Direct hit: Philadelphia Eagle receiver Freddie Mitchell told reporters in Jacksonville that he’d like to be an ESPN analyst someday.

Said ESPN’s Dan Patrick: “We’d probably hire him. We’ve hired other guys who didn’t have great NFL careers. We hired Sean Salisbury.”

A classy place: “Things are really hopping down in Jacksonville,” Channel 9’s Alan Massengale said. “I hear Hooters has hired a maitre d’ and is taking reservations.”

Sellers’ market: Anthony Rodio, vice president of marketing for StubHub.com, reports Super Bowl tickets are being resold for anywhere from $2,700 to almost $8,000, depending on the location. He said the only sporting event to attract a bigger markup was the 2003 Super Bowl in San Diego between Oakland and Tampa Bay, where scalpers were getting an average of about $200 more a ticket.

Airing it out: Regarding the Detroit Pistons’ Richard Hamilton looking “tired” in his new hairdo that resembles the tread of a Goodyear tire, reader Kit Foulds of San Dimas says, “He’s just a little flat.”

Trivia answer: Courier celebrated his victory by imitating the golf swing Carson used to close his monologues.

And finally: The Clippers have been a favorite target of Jay Leno, and Carson, as Carnac the Magnificent, once took this shot at the Dodgers:

“Catch 22” was Carnac’s answer to this question: “What would the Dodgers do if you hit them 100 fly balls?”

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Larry Stewart can be reached at [email protected].