Late Pitcher Had The Write Stuff

Willard Nixon, who died earlier this month at 72, pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1950-58. The club kept him around not so much for his pitching - he ended with a 69-72 record - but for his ability to forge autographs.

Does that mean some of Ted Williams’ autographs may not be genuine?

“They’d bring boxes of balls and stuff like that over to Ted, and he’d say, `Give it to Willard,”’ Don Fitzpatrick, the Red Sox clubhouse man in the 1950s, told the New York Times. “He signed hundreds of balls for Williams.

“That’s why we thought he’d never be traded or released.”

Just another alias

The Triple-A baseball team in Las Vegas was formerly the Stars and a farm team of the San Diego Padres. It’s now affiliated with the Dodgers, and last week Spokane’s transplanted PCL franchise changed its name to the Las Vegas 51s.

The San Francisco 49ers took their name from the Gold Rush of 1849, but why 51s?

Dave Tuley, in a story for the Daily Racing Form, writes, “It’s a reference to nearby Area 51, the top-secret military base just north of Las Vegas that has spawned rumors that UFOs and aliens are studied there.”

The team’s logo is an alien’s head.

Adds Tuley: “I wouldn’t be surprised if headline writers and the general public commonly refer to the team as the Aliens, in much the same way as the Dolphins are also called the Fish, the Chargers the Bolts, and the Canadiens the Habs.”

Whatever. But some of us still call them turncoats.

The important journalism job

Rick Morrissey, writing in the Chicago Tribune:

“While preparing his holiday cards a few years ago, a sportswriter friend of mine decided to send one to the president of his local NBA team, a man he had met only recently at a party. He dutifully scrawled his signature, added the name of his newspaper and dropped the card in the mail.

Several days later, the club official innocently sent back $10 and a note thanking my friend for hitting the porch consistently with the paper.”

May I speak plainly?

In a recent column about the Chicago Bears coach by Skip Bayless in the Chicago Tribune, the lead is: “Fire Dick Jauron.”

Adds Bayless: “In nearly two seasons this guy has provided little evidence he will ever be able to do much more than write a coaching memoir titled, `Without a Clue.”’

Hiding behind the majority

University of Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel, who allowed his players to visit the Playboy Mansion on Thursday afternoon, realizes some people might view it as inappropriate.

“It’s a tourist attraction, and the players voted that they wanted to see it,” Neuheisel said.

“There’s always going to be criticism. Vegetarians could criticize us for going to Lawry’s Prime Rib.”

The last word …

“I hope Roger Clemens finishes what he started last year.”

- Fan writing to Alex Rodriguez’s Web site after the Seattle shortstop signed as a free agent with the Texas Rangers.