The late Jean Shepherd, a WOR radio storyteller, would speak of a sign in a bar in his hometown of Hammond, Ind. It read: “In God we trust. All others pay cash.”

Even within a national epidemic of badly diminished standards, St. John’s, 8-10 in the Big East, didn’t have a particularly good season. Yet Sunday, it was the last pick for the NCAA Tournament play-in game, a Wednesday loss to Arizona State in Dayton.

And that carried the smell of sell, mistrust, the stench of selecting a team from the nation’s No. 1 TV market to play in prime time to meet the wants and approval of those whose tens of millions of dollars annually subsidize the Tournament, CBS and Turner TV.

Was a more deserving team sacrificed to this? I don’t know, but to think such a thought didn’t enter the minds of NCAA selectors would be to think big-time, full-scholarship student athletics have something to do with providing continuing education to those few who don’t yet know it’s all a con.

Before the dubious selection of St. John’s, Sunday carried mystery, curiosity and abandoned trust — the trust that a significant, live story would surpass all else.

Though we knew the winner of the Players Championship before it began — the moment Mike Francesa declared that Rory McIroy had no chance, he became a lock — many watched, anyway.

NBC had boasted that commercial interruptions would be limited — in line with its sell of the Players as a modern “major.”

And so, on the fourth hole in the final round, co-leader Jon Rahm flew the green, nailing a spectator in the chest on a fly. The victim clutched his chest, then spun backward in shock and agony, dropping to his knees on the other side of the cart path, farthest from the hole.

At that point, there were two things for NBC to immediately pursue: In order: 1) The condition of that spectator. 2) Where co-leader Rahm’s ball came to rest. David Feherty reasoned that had it not hit that man, the ball would have hit that cart path and been who-knows-where gone.

That’s the moment NBC bolted for full-screen commercials and promos, 2:40 worth. Upon finally returning to the course, NBC presented host Mike Tirico, also in full-screen, needlessly discussing and hyping the final round, which was being played somewhere over there, close by. NBC continues to sell Tirico as its new Alpha dog by jamming him down our senses.

Finally, NBC returned to Rahm, shown hitting — perhaps live — back to the green from a swale behind it. Only then did we see, on a recording, Rahm approach the fellow he nailed, shaking his hand to Gary Koch’s mawkish “Nice gesture,” as if Rahm or any other golfer might otherwise have ignored him.

But trust now lies in TV’s promise that we’re to be treated as grinning morons.

Moments before NBC butchered the Rahm scene, the new and predictable interview “approach” to Tiger Woods, as he now regularly finishes early, well out of it, is to delicately ask, “What do you take out of this week?” which is what Steve Sands asked. Woods gave his standard wishy-washy answer.

Why not ask if his confidence is down? Whether he leaves happy, miserable or in between? For crying out loud, ask something that might make for a good answer! Trust us — we can handle better.

Worst seat in the house: CBS/Turner assigned three men to call Wednesday’s Arizona State-St. John’s play-in — Spero Dedes, Steve Smith and Jim Jackson. Thus, what almost had to happen, happened:

Endless talk, much of it nonsense — “The Big Dance,” “Rebound the basketball” — plus a steady ambush of ridiculous, distracting stats.

And more to come, starting at noon on Thursday.

For 35 NCAA Tournaments, Dan Bonner had been a reliably strong college basketball analyst. He didn’t need any help.

But Thursday, CBS minimized his presence to make an audio mess — a three-man demolition derby, by seating Bonner between Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller during Louisville versus Minnesota.

CBS’s annually under-utilized Steve Lappas, throughout Auburn’s one-point win over New Mexico State on Thursday on TNT, was right-on-top-of-it superb. And he was unafraid, down the stretch, to be flabbergasted, with useful explanations, by both teams’ players’ and coaches’ rotten awareness of endgame circumstances.

Perhaps the biggest story from last year’s Tournament was UMBC — Maryland Baltimore County — becoming the first 16-seed to win, defeating Virginia, a 21-point favorite.

Tuesday, Mike “Front Row” Francesa authoritatively reminded listeners that no 16-seed “has ever won a [NCAA] Tournament game.”

Wanna buy an app, sap?

Stats: Five of the 10 starters in Arizona State-St. John’s are/were transfers. The tournament is loaded with them and recruits from faraway countries. Hey, whatever it takes.

Guess Samuel L. Jackson’s latest vulgar public temper tantrum wasn’t enough to have him pulled from those annually lame NCAA Capital One commercials. Would that go for everyone?

Who loves ya, baby? The next time Rob Manfred soulfully claims that MLB fans count first and foremost, consider:

MLB took an unknown pile of dough to begin another season in Japan, this time with Mariners-A’s. The game began Wednesday on ESPN at 5:30 a.m. here, and, for West Coast A’s and Mariners fans, at 2:30 a.m. — a bonus to A’s and Mariners fans on Yap, Guam and Mindanao.

Then there’s April 7’s ESPN Sunday night game, Dodgers at Rockies. Last April 7, the nighttime low in Denver was 22 degrees. And it snowed.

Yeah, fans, not money, come first!

Get ready, ’cause here it comes: By now we often wonder why pro athletes engage in or respond to social media when it has become antisocial media, a vandals’ playground.

And with everyone now encouraged to bet on everything, it will become more hate-filled and vicious.

PGA star Jason Day, by all accounts a sweet guy, was upset with the social media hammering he took when he withdrew from the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida two weeks ago with a chronically aching back. He’d played only the first six holes.

He then took his family to Disney World. And for that he was “socially” abused beyond his endurance and silence.

How many of those abusers had bet Day, either as the winner or part of a selected four-, six- or 10-player team? Who else, besides sociopaths, would be moved to send their hatred directly to Day?

David Feherty, Sunday, on bearded, long-haired Tommy Fleetwood: “He looks like a homeless guy who robbed a Nike store.”