STARTING FIVE

The King

1. Dave

Rupert Gee…”Just Lamps”….Larry “Bud” Melman…Andy Kaufman…”They pelted us with rocks and garbage”… “Top Ten Anatomical Parts or Van Pattens”… “They’re not booing, they’re just saying ‘Dave'”…. Crispin Glover…Viewer Mail…Will It Float?…Dave’s Mom

Mid-Eighties. Leave the Hesburgh Library at 11:10 p.m., which gives me enough time to make it back to Dillon Hall, find some snackage, and be in my room in time for the start of Letterman. Simply the most influential entertainer of my life. Glad we’ll get a year or more to salute him.

You have to remember, before Dave there were hints of subversiveness in television — SNL, SCTV, Fernwood 2Night –but the quirky Hoosier took it to another degree. Instead of phony schmaltz or circle-jerk interviews, Dave took us behind the curtain and showed us that entertainment was not glamorous –no camera ever ventured behind the curtain at Johnny Carson’s show. He was skeptical of people who were full of themselves (once asking Rush Limbaugh, “Do you ever feel like you’re just full of hot gas?”) but always amused by candor and self-effacing humor. Watch the way he laughed just a few nights ago when Amy Schumer says, “Black people” in response to his question about what would be new about her show this season.

It’s why Howard Stern, dating all the way back to the mid-Eighties, has always been one of Dave’s most confounding guests: He loves Howard’s raw honesty and self-effacement at times, but Howard’s naked narcissism and his penchant for speaking rudely about others, or crassly, always sort of offended Dave’s Midwest values.

2. Thunder End Spurs 19-Game Win Streak

While Kevin Durant ups his streak of 25-point games to 39. The last person to reach 40 games? Michael Jordan in 1986-87. But the team everyone best look out for is the Clippers. L.A. has looked scary good and that has been minus Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick and Danny Granger. If all three of them are healthy come late April, I’m pegging the Clips as the team to beat.

3. Tyler Summitt, 23, Named Women’s Basketball Coach at La. Tech

Slightly more experienced than King Joffrey.

This is no way to win friends among peers in your profession, but it’s an excellent way to chase down Geno for usurping mom atop the all-time wins and championships list. Perhaps Summitt will turn out to be a terrific coach. What I do know is that Kim Mulkey starred for four years at La. Tech, was an assistant there for 15 years, and then when they finally offered her the gig they only made it a four-year gig so that she wasn’t guaranteed to reach 20 and therefore entitled to a state pension.

So Kim told La. Tech to go bleep themselves…and how has that worked out for Kim, and for La. Tech?

4. Minnesota Wins NIT

Speaking of nepotism, Rick Pitino’s son coaches the Golden Gophers to an NIT championship in his first season as coach, which is laudable. He’s a little bit older than 23, though.

Does a tournament really take place if Nate Silver doesn’t provide projections on who will win?

4. Paulina Gretzky Makes May Cover of Golf Digest

“Schwinnnnng!”

The Hall

Charter Inductees: Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner 1937:  Tris Speaker, CF; Cy Young, P ; 1938: Grover Cleveland Alexander, P; Eddie Collins, 2B 1939:Nap Lajoie, 2B; Joe Jackson, LF; 1940: Billy Hamilton, OF; Cap Anson, 1B; 1941: Wee Willie Keeler, RF; George Sisler, 1B; 1942: Rogers Hornsby, 2B; Pie Traynor, 3B; 1943: Mickey Cochrane, C; Frankie Frisch, 2B 1944: Ed Walsh, P; Old Hoss Radbourn, P 1945: Lou Gehrig, 1B; Kid Nichols, P 1946: Ed Delahanty, LF; Lefty O’Doul 1947: Pud Galvin, P; John McGraw, INF 1948: Carl Hubbell, P; Addie Joss, P 1949: Harry Heilman, OF/1B; Monte Ward, P/SS 1950: Cool Papa Bell, CF; Jimmie Foxx, 1B 1951: Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, P; Josh Gibson, C 1952: Paul Waner, RF; Charlie Gehringer, 2B 1953: Mel Ott, RF; Hank Greenberg, 1B 1954: Eddie Plank, P; Dan Brouthers, 1B 1955: “Wahoo” Sam Crawford, OF; John Clarkson, P 1956: Chief Bender, P; Bill Dickey, C 1957: Sam Rice, RF; Joe DiMaggio, CF 1958: Bill Terry, 1B; Heinie Manush, LF 1959: Dizzy Dean, P; Tim Keefe, P 

Ducky Medwick

Earl Averill, CF; 1929-1941, Cleveland Indians

Billy Williams, LF; 1959-1976, Chicago Cubs

The 1961 NL Rookie of the Year was a six-time All-Star and teammate of fellow Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Ron Santo and Ferguson Jenkins, none of whom ever appeared in a World Series. The 1972 NL batting champ (.333), Williams retired with a .290 average and 2,711 hits.

Remote Patrol

Silicon Valley

Sunday, HBO 10 p.m.

I already know that you’ll be tuning in to “Game of Thrones (9 p.m.), but stick around for the series premiere that every reviewer is enchanted with. It’s Entourage-meets-The Big Bang Theory, that’s easy enough, but it’s written by Mike Judge, the genius behind Office Space, Idiocracy and Beavis and Butthead. And I don’t know who the first to use the term was, but I love James Poniewozik’s Time review for no other reason that it introduced me to “brogrammers.”