Putting Dollars Before Sense
Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban didn’t mince his words after Karl Malone was suspended one game for backhanding Christian Laettner.
“An act of thuggery. What he did was criminal,” Cuban said. “If Malone used such tactics in hockey, criminal charges would have been filed.”
To which Dwight Manley, Malone’s agent, said of Cuban: “This is a situation that happens … when you have an individual with more dollars than brain cells.”
When men were men
When players from the defunct Negro baseball leagues held a reunion recently in Kansas City, Mo., the oldest man there was Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe, 98, who got his nickname from pitching one game of a doubleheader and then catching the other.
“Today, a young player will get a sore finger and he’ll sit out for two weeks,” said Wilmer Harris, a pitcher for the Philadelphia Stars. “In our day, if you had a sore finger, you’d tie two fingers together and go out and play. You never wanted to come out of the game.”
The name game
NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, known as the “Intimidator” in Winston Cup circles, has become part owner of the Piedmont Boll Weevils baseball team of the Class A South Atlantic League.
The team’s new name: Kannapolis Intimidators.
Sounds like Jack “The Assassin” Tatum’s WHL hockey franchise - the Calgary Hitmen.
Matter of perspective
Dallas Morning News columnist Blackie Sherrod recalls the long ago day when a Fort Worth relief pitcher named Gene Costello was being booed unmercifully. Manager Bobby Bragan went to the mound and said, “Don’t pay any attention to these boos. They don’t understand the game. You just had some tough luck.”
Costello, from Sprague, Wash., replied: “Aw, they’re not booing me, Bobby. They’re booing you for putting me out here in the first place.”
Another matter of perspective Sacramento Bee columnist Mark Kreidler, writing on the East Coast euphoria surrounding the Subway Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, quoted a local fan: “The glow of victory lasts only for so long. Then you realize it’s November and you’re living in New Jersey.”
The last word …
“I used to play with a guy who cheated so badly that he once had a hole in one and wrote down zero on his scorecard.”
- Senior PGA pro Bob Bruce, speaking about gambling in golf.