Pirates Forced to Tell This Fan to Buzz Off

A woman who dressed as a bee to support the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Killer B’s won’t be buzzing around Three Rivers Stadium anymore.

Donna McConaughy, 31, must shed her costume because she looks too much like a professional mascot in the eyes of team officials.

McConaughy said she sports the bee look, complete with bobbing antennae, especially to support shortstop Jay Bell. Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla are the Pirates’ best-known Killer B’s.

Professional mascots such as the Pirate Parrot are trained to deal with children and are insured against accidents, a Pittsburgh spokesman said, adding that the Pirates could be sued if someone were hurt (or stung).

Trivia time: Who made the decisive basket for the Boston Celtics to beat the Lakers in the seventh game of the 1969 NBA championship series?

Hitting the green: Arizona State’s Phil Mickelson, the defending NCAA and U.S. Amateur golf champion, did not successfully defend his Pacific 10 title last weekend at the Stanford Golf Course.

Nonetheless, he attracted the largest galleries. After he finished in a fourth-place tie with USC’s Bryan Pemberton, a man approached him and said: “I just wanted to watch you play before you became a millionaire.”

Tip money? Laker owner Jerry Buss finished third in the seven-card stud event of the ongoing World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe Club in Las Vegas.

Buss won $33,250, an amount that would come close to paying Magic Johnson’s salary for one game: $37,804.88.

The windmill: Mark Lawrence, 17, a high school baseball player from Milford, Ohio, plays the outfield left-handed, plays shortstop right-handed and pitches both ways on alternate days.

“Dad kept telling me that I could be different and unique,” Lawrence told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “One day he noticed I was ambidextrous, and he encouraged me to practice with both arms.”

While pitching in summer leagues, Lawrence switches arms batter to batter, but his high school coach won’t let him do it because he says it would be too tough on him.

Besides, what glove would he wear?

A lot of miles left: Houston Chronicle columnist Fran Blinbury, reflecting on Magic Johnson’s 12 years in the NBA before the first playoff game against the Rockets:

“If Johnson were an automobile, he’d had have dents in his fenders, spidery cracks in his windshield and a tailpipe held in place by a coat hanger.”

The “used car” is still running. The Rockets broke down.

Red menace: Carl Lewis has a new look--mustache, goatee and red hair. He plans to compete in three events in the 1992 Olympics, 100 meters, long jump and 400-meter relay.

“Why not?” Lewis said. “If I can dye my hair red, I can win three events.”

So that’s how you do it.

Tough finish: After Ray Valosik, a Westmoreland County employee in Latrobe, Pa., called in sick twice last month, his boss became suspicious. Turns out Betsy Griffin, the county director of human resources, had seen Valosik’s name on a list of tee times the second day at Latrobe Country Club.

So she went to the 18th hole that day to confront him. Valosik was suspended for 10 days without pay.

Big deal: San Diego Padre relief pitcher Larry Andersen is not impressed that Oakland’s Rickey Henderson broke Lou Brock’s major league stolen base record.

“If they called strikes in that league (American) like they do here (National), he’s not even close. You throw the ball four inches from the plate and he (Henderson) jumps back and they call it a ball. Umpires won’t call an inside strike in that league.”

Trivia answer: Don Nelson, now the coach of the Golden State Warriors.

Quotebook: Archie Moore, advising heavyweight James (Quick) Tillis, who was fighting hard-hitting Earnie Shavers: “If he gets you into trouble, and you see three bald heads, aim at the middle one.”