Coaches' Corner.

JIM ARMSTRONG, Denver Post, on an XFL rule change. "It's a 15-yard penalty for excessive sportsmanship."

JOE GARAGIOLA, on the smartest play he ever saw in baseball: "Willie Stargell lines a pitch off the right-field wall. Halfway to second he looks up and sees the second baseman waiting for him with the ball in his hand. He is a dead duck. Quick as a flash, he stops short, turns to the umpire and calls time out."

RALPH KINER, on the last time he spoke to Babe Ruth: "It was in 1942, when Babe was still alive."

FRAN TARKENTON, on whether it was true that he used to choke in the big games: "It's true. But I also won over 200 games. I guess they were the little games."

JOHN MADDEN, after citing the fumble rule all year ("The ground caused the ball to come loose, so it isn't a fumble."), seeing a helmet fly through the air after a hard tackle, "The ground cannot cause a helmet."

RICK REILLY, Sports Illustrated: "It's great for Major League Baseball to send all-star ballots to Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. So long as it doesn't send any to Florida."

BILL RIGNEY, Angels manager, watching a fire consuming the team hotel at 5 a.m., "My God, where's Bo Belinsky (the team playboy)? He must be inside!" Then, as a cab pulled up and Belinsky fell out after a night of partying, "Bo! Thank God! I should have trusted you not to show up until breakfast!"

BRYAN LEWIS, NHL referee, when Tiger Williams, hockey's tough guy, skated over to him and said, "Look at Walker and Schultz hammering each other. Add up their IQ's and it wouldn't come to 11."

Lewis: "Why don't you jump in and make it an even dozen?"

DAVID WELLS, White Sox, on why he has tattoos of his two children on his right arm: "So that when people ask me for a picture of my kids, I just have to roll up my sleeve."

BOBBY BOWDEN, on his great 1980 linebacker, Reggie Harding: "He never knew the meaning of the word fear. After checking his grades, I also leamed that he didn't know the meaning of a lot of other words as well."

SCOTT OSTLER, S.F. Chronicle, on why Texas Tech officials held up the news on the signing of its new basketball coach, Bob Knight: "They wanted to nail down the courtside chairs before making it official."

TIM TUCKER, Atlanta baseball reporter, on the size of Chipper Jones' new ranch: "42,000 acres, a 10,000 square-foot home, two guest houses, and a potty for the three umpires working the Braves' game that night."

CLASSIC YOGI BERRA-ISM, inventor unknown: "I wouldn't say Mike Piazza is the best catcher in major league baseball, but there are none better."

DALE BROWN, former LSU basketball coach: "How come the NCAA needs a 500-page manual when the Ten Commandments can fit on a 3 x 5 card?"

DAVE ANDERSON, N.Y. Times, on whether George Foreman, at 52, is too old to continue boxing: "Absolutely not -- so long as he fights people his age."

BOB COSTAS, on the paucity of scoring in the new women's pro soccer league: "It's like chess, where you have two guys play five times a week for nine months and then announce that Rankikosikov beat Tschkovski, 2 1/2 games to 2."