Coaches' corner.

DAVE ANDERSON; sports columnist, after George Steinbrenner fired Billy Martin for the fifth time and Art Fowler, his pitching coach, for the fourth time: "Whatever you say about George, you have to admit he loves his fired employees."

BO SCHEMBECHLER, after retiring from football and marrying a gorgeous woman: "As you can see, I was always a great recruiter."

ANNE DONOVAN, Old Dominion all-time center, always felt embarrassed by her 6-foot 8-inch frame: "All through college, I always told the sportswriters that it was my skinny body that made me look so tall. I actually was only 4-feet 32-inches tall."

LARRY KING, TV reporter, on what he thought of the Mets' mountainous first baseman, Mo Vaughn: "Sure, he's a mountain, but what a fabulous hitting background he makes!"

ABE LEMONS, the well-traveled basketball coach, on how he learned he had been fired at Pan American: "A voice said you're fired and I looked around the room and the only person I saw was the athletic director."

BURLEIGH GRIMES, the ancient Hall of Fame pitcher who was fired or traded from nine major league teams: "My wife and I would sometimes forget our daughter's age, but we knew she had over 100,000 miles on her."

BOBBY VALENTINE, the Mets' former manager, on learning that the team heavyweight, Mo Vaughn, had asked to be traded: "He's a great guy and I'm going to see that he is traded to the team that has the best chef in the league."

DICK VERMIEL, on the veteran football coach Lou Saban, as he moved from one school to another for a dozen straight years: "Poor Lou, everywhere he went he had to substitute a surrender song for the school fight song."

PETE ROSE always admitted that he followed the horses: "That never bothered me. What did bother me was that my horses always followed other horses."

BILLY PACKER, when 7-6 Yao Ming showed up in America to play in the NBA: "He's got it made. Even if he doesn't make it as a player, think of what an ice breaker he will make at tea parties."

LOU HOLTZ, South Carolina philosopher: "Everyone says that a tie is like kissing your sister. Nobody ever says that a loss is like kissing your brother."

PETE CARROLL, former pro and current USC coach: "I can't figure what's worse -- after losing, gathering in little groups to whine about the officiating or, after winning, coming together and pouring cheap wins all over your heads."

LEE TREVINO, golf wit and wonder: "Winning isn't everything; it's the money you make doing it that's everything."

WAYNE CHREBET, the sure-handed Jet receiver who will never make a living as a sprinter: "I think of it as an advantage. Nobody is ever going to accuse me of losing speed as I grow older."

BUDDY HACKETT, comic and obsessed golfer: "Missing a par putt may be less fun than getting hit by a truck, but not by more than one inch."

LARRY MERCHANT, HBO boxing commentator, on the literacy of professional athletes: "It's fabulous. All of them are bilingual -- they speak English and profanity."

JIM OTTO, the NFL's all-time center: "Pro football was great. You sign a million-dollar contract, play two games, get hit by a mad whale, then sit home for four months and watch your bones mend."

JOE FALLS' description of an NHL tryout: "They throw all their rookies against a brick wall and those that get up, make the team."

JIMMY CANNON'S classic job description of a fight manager: "A guy with a license to steal while committing vagrancy."

TOM BROKAW: "Harry Truman must have been the Tampa Bay Buccaneers greatest rooter. He kept a framed motto on his desk -- 'The Buc stops here.'"