A PRAYER FOR LARRY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THIS STAR SPORTS TRIO & MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL …

Please say a prayer today for my friend, and one of my heroes, Larry Merchant, a giant of our business, hospitalized in Los Angeles at the age of 92.

l Three icons of American sports — Sandy Koufax, Tiger Woods, LeBron James — were all born on the same date, Dec. 30.

Koufax will turn 88 next

Saturday.

Tiger will turn 48. LeBron will turn 39. There isn’t a date like that to circle — twice — in sports history.

Here is how great Koufax, out of Lafayette High in Brooklyn, was for what were truly the five years of his prime before his arm gave out:

He pitched every season the way Dwight Gooden pitched in 1985.

Tiger?

His prime basically came along as Michael Jordan was leaving the stage, and he became the biggest star we had in sports, and he had a decade of excellence the likes of which golf had never seen.

It was Dan Jenkins who prophetically said, “The only things that can stop [Tiger] are injury and a bad marriage,” and we didn’t know how right Dan would be.

But even now, after everything, he is still the golfer that fans most want to watch.

Finally there is LeBron, who has been famous as long as Tiger has been famous, still going strong, still chasing one more title, still the player fans most want to watch in his sport.

Still the player doing more things to help his team win the game than any player in history.

Dec. 30.

Same birthday for all of them.

And ain’t it something? l How many rules violations are there going to be for Jim Harbaugh before the University of Michigan tells him to hit the road?

Seriously, isn’t Harbaugh over the cap by now?

l Forget about all the other coaches in the AFC East and just focus on Mike McDaniels.

Is there a Jets fan anywhere who honestly believes the Jets would have the record they have if McDaniels was their coach?

l We’re just a few weeks away from calling it a wrap on the cutlet stories, right?

But while we’re on the subject: Whose idea is it to keep giving Tommy DeVito’s agent field passes?

l Sometimes you wonder if Yankee fans, at least ones of a certain age, realize how good they had it with Joe Torre?

It all goes back to something the great Pete Hamill once said about Torre when he was still managing in the Bronx, something that hasn’t changed since Mr. Torre stopped managing in the Bronx:

“When he leaves, it will be like a hundred guys left the room,” Pete said.

He was right, again. l Finally today:

Merry Christmas to my readers and to all the other readers of the New York Daily News.

Merry Christmas to Andrew, Kyle and Andy and Back Page Guy, and all the people who continue to put out this newspaper.

I give them all possible respect, still proud to be working with them.

We’re outnumbered here. But we still remember who we are.