Best of Plans Made for Night to Remember

Maybe Kellie Van Kirk would have said yes to Kansas City right fielder Danny Tartabull without the limousine, roses, four-course dinner and fireworks.

But we’ll probably never know.

The Royals were off last Monday, but Tartabull was a very busy guy.

First, he sent a white limousine to pick up Van Kirk, sending along roses and a note asking her to go with the driver to Wyandotte County Lake on the outskirts of Kansas City.

Tartabull was waiting in a tuxedo with caterers and a harpist. A four-course meal was served.

Afterward, Tartabull took Van Kirk up a hill to a fireworks display.

“Kellie, Will You Marry Me?” read the display.

“Yes,” she said, and the fireworks were set off.

“I’ll get married, I’ll have kids, and I’ll have a lot of things happen in my life, but that was a night I’ll treasure for as long as I live,” Tartabull said.

Mr. Excitement: Joe Robbie, owner of the Miami Dolphins, usually stays out of football matters. But last Sunday, when Miami, picking ninth, selected running back Sammie Smith and later picked safety Louis Oliver in the first round of the National Football League draft, Robbie got involved, sort of.

When the trade with Chicago was completed that allowed the Dolphins to take Oliver with the 25th pick, Robbie got so excited that he gave his coach, Don Shula, a high-five.

“I’ve never seen emotions like that in a draft room,” Robbie said. “In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen emotions in a draft room.”

Trivia time: While playing football for Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower broke his leg trying to tackle which famous player?

Setting the record straight: Houston’s Glenn Davis, whose home run streak reached four consecutive games Wednesday night, giving him seven homers, tops in the National League, said it when asked to explain his power outburst: “Most home run hitters will admit it. I don’t know what it is, but when you get in a groove, maybe muscle memory takes over. You get a pitch you can hit and just react.”

Got that?

Unhappy anniversary: Last April 28, the winless Baltimore Orioles set an American League record by losing their 21st straight game, falling to the Minnesota Twins, 4-2.

What They’re Doing Now Dept.: Andy Benes of Evansville, who was the first player picked in last summer’s major league draft by San Diego, is mowing ‘em down at Wichita, the Padres’ affiliate in the double-A Texas League. The hard-throwing right-hander is 3-0 with a 0.56 earned-run average. In 32 innings, he has 44 strikeouts and has yielded just 18 hits and five walks.

Trivia answer: Jim Thorpe.

Quotebook: “We practiced in the Swale Stakes, the Gotham and the Wood Memorial,” Easy Goer’s trainer Shug McGaughey said upon arriving at Churchill Downs in preparation for next Saturday’s Kentucky Derby. “Now we’re fixin’ to play.”