SPORTS FOLDEROL

  Let’s hear for the late  RAY HENDRICK , Richmond  stock car racing icon who on Tuesday was named to  NASCAR’s Hall of Fame Class of 2026. What took them  so long? … Joining Hendrick were drivers  KURT  BUSCH  and  HARRY GANT  as well as promoter   HUMPY WHEELER . They will be inducted January 23  at the hall’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C … “Mr.  Modified,” Hendrick won more than 700 races and  dominated Friday nights at Southside Speedway in the  60s, driving the familiar Flying No. 11 for    JACK TANT . (We will have more on Hendrick. Look for it soon.)  Now it’s  Journalism , winner of the May 17 Preakness  Stakes, that is playing hard to get. Trainer  MICHAEL  McCARTHY  said Tuesday that, while the 3 year old son  of the great  Curlin  was still under consideration for the  Belmont Stakes June 7, there was no guarantee he would  compete in t...

  On a day in which our attention to sports figured to center on Toronto, where the Maple Leafs had taken defending Stanley Cup-champion Florida to Game 7 … and there was plenty of other stuff … even a look-back at Journalism’s one-for-the-ages stretch run to win the Preakness … to keep us more than routinely occupied … who would have believed a couple of softball games (that barely drew a blip on the national media’s radar) could have been so compelling that we were hooked? LIBERTY UNIVERSITY’S FLAMES , from  Lynchburg, Va., were wasting Texas A&M early on in  yesterday’s NCAA softball regional, 6-1 … and all the  talk from ESPN was about the heavily-favored Aggies. It  was like they didn’t know (or care) about Liberty … So,  naturally, neither  KEVIN FITZGERALD  nor  NICOLE  MENDES  bothered to question what could have been  not-too-subtle gamesmanship by A&M (a cynic might  say), which delayed the bottom of the ...

Journalism , 7/2 favorite to win the May 3 Kentucky  Derby (and finished second by 1 ½ lengths to   Sovereignty ), is the 8/5 morning line choice to  claim the 150th Preakness Stakes (Gr. 1) tomorrow  … With Sovereignty by-passing the second leg of  the Triple Crown, the nine-horse field will have only  three that ran in the Derby including  Sandman   (second choice at 4/1) and  American Promise  (15/1), winner of the March 15 Virginia Derby at  Colonial Downs.  NIK JUAREZ  will remain jockey  for American Promise, trained by  D. WAYNE  LUCAS , 89 … despite finishing 16 th  among 19  starters in the Kentucky Derby … Among the other 3  year old Thoroughbreds is  BOB BAFFERT -trained,  unbeaten (2-0) Goal Oriented (6/1) … This will be  the last race held at ancient Pimlico Race Course in  Baltimore. Next year’s Preakness will be at near-by  Laurel while Pimlico undergoes...