He passed on pitch from Cosell
Tommy Davis often talks about how a phone call in 1956 from Jackie Robinson convinced him to sign with the Dodgers rather than the New York Yankees.
He recounted the story Feb. 1 at Jackie Robinson Legacy Day at Dodger Stadium and repeated it Saturday night at the 83rd Assn. of Professional Ball Players of America banquet in Long Beach.
Former major leaguer Darrell Evans, who followed Davis to the podium at the baseball banquet, said, “Tommy, you got a call from Jackie Robinson. I got one from Howard Cosell.”
Evans said when he was a free agent after the 1983 season, he was considering signing with the Yankees or the Detroit Tigers.
“Cosell called to say he couldn’t believe that I would choose Detroit over New York,” Evans said.
He signed with Detroit.
Trivia time
What do Davis and Lenny Wilkens, one of three men in the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and a coach, also have in common?
Mama’s boy
Evans, who batted .248 in 21 major league seasons and hit 414 home runs, grew up in Pasadena. He said his father played professional baseball and his mother played professional softball.
“When I would come to bat against the Dodgers,” Evans said, “Vin Scully would say my mother taught me how to hit. My dad always hated that.”
They must like the big bucks
Tom Lasorda was scheduled to serve as the master of ceremonies at Saturday night’s baseball banquet but instead opted to attend a Professional Bull Riding competition in Anaheim.
“I’d been on the road a lot lately and wanted to spend time with my family,” Lasorda said, “and that’s where my family wanted to go.”
In other words, Lasorda watched bulls rather than talking bull.
Picture this
Although Lasorda says he is the baseball group’s biggest donor, he was still a target of some good-natured ribbing at the banquet.
Tony Muser, former Kansas City Royals manager who now works in the San Diego Padres’ organization, said he was in an Italian restaurant awhile back and noticed there were a lot of pictures of Lasorda on the walls.
“I always wondered if the rumor was true that Tommy never paid for a meal,” Muser said, “so I asked the owner if it was true and the owner said, ‘You see all those pictures. Each one is a meal Tommy didn’t pay for.’ ”
Taxi tale
Baseball historian Dick Beverage, filling in for Lasorda as emcee, said, “One time Tommy was headed for a speaking engagement in a taxi when the cab driver says, ‘I’ve heard your stories so many times I could deliver your speech.’ ”
Beverage said an offended Lasorda decided to let the cab driver deliver his speech, and the two swapped clothes.
“The cab driver did a vintage Lasorda, but then he got hit with a couple of difficult questions from the audience about the Dodgers,” Beverage said. “So the impostor pointed at Lasorda, who was in the back of the room wearing a cab driver’s cap and outfit, and said, ‘I’m going to let my cab driver answer those.’ ”
Trivia answer
Davis and Wilkens were basketball teammates at Boys High in Brooklyn.
And finally
HBO commentator Lennox Lewis, working Carlos Quintana’s upset victory over Paul Williams on Saturday night in Temecula, had this to say about why performance-enhancing drugs would have limited benefits in boxing: “There’s nothing you can take to toughen your chin.”
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