Three-Piece Suits Serve a Purpose

The talk was about Lou Carnesecca’s lucky sweater, and Al McGuire ventured that the coach at St. John’s not only has a good thing going but now is more properly dressed for his work.

“I’ve often wondered why basketball coaches dress like business Al McGuire

executives rather than jocks,” McGuire told Owen Canfield of the Hartford Courant. “A coach is moving almost as much as his players. I’ll bet you the Nikes, Converses, Pumas and adidases of the world would love to see these coaches in a nice, classy warmup suit, with their marquee, huh? Some kind of leisurely jogging suit, maybe.

“The way it is now, they all look like they’re running for office. But I have yet to see a senator or congressman campaigning with a sport shirt on. The whole coach’s outfit runs counter to what he’s doing. He’s all dressed up and he’s going into dirty, old locker rooms, and gyms and arenas.

“What would be wrong with a nice jogging suit for coaches?”

Joe B. Hall in a jogging suit? Think about it.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler, at a promotional press conference, was saying how he was going to dispose of Thomas Hearns when Hearns turned toward him and said, “You better stop dreaming and come back to reality. Come April 15th, you might want to find a nice, soft pillow to rest your bald head because I’m going to be working on it all night.”

Countered Hagler: “You can’t hit what you can’t see. I’m going to hit your head, too, Tommy. But I’m not going to hurt anything because there’s nothing up there.”

Howard Cosell, citing the move of the Rams to Anaheim in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on a sports-franchise bill, referred to Anaheim as “the city built by a mouse.”

Cosell, during the session, was his usual bombastic self, but when he started instructing the Senate lawyers on some fine points of law, he got shot down.

Said Sen. Dennis DeConcinci (D-Ariz.), cutting off Cosell in midsentence: “It is not for you to come here and give us a law-school lecture.”

From Coach Bill Fitch of the Houston Rockets: “I’m not worried about the lapses. It’s the collapses that bother me.”

Wonder if Steve Carlton and Fernando Valenzuela sent wires of congratulations to Lee Lacy when the outfielder left the National League to sign with the Baltimore Orioles?

Lacy had a lifetime batting average of .403 against Carlton. Against Valenzuela, it was .389.

Doug Flutie, after his first workout with the New Jersey Generals, told George Usher of Newsday that he was nervous and was overthrowing.

Usher wrote: “Receivers had trouble holding on to some of his passes, and several defensive backs remarked about how hard he was throwing. Flutie moved to No. 2 quarterback behind Brian Sipe in the afternoon’s steady rain and appeared to have a better grasp of the plays, and he seemed to take a little off his throws.

“He had a little more zip on the ball than Sipe. On one play, a bootleg, he couldn’t find an open receiver and showed the foot speed that made him a running threat for Boston College. He gained about 15 yards on the run before slipping out of bounds untouched.”

Note: Sipe was traded to the Jacksonville Bulls later in the day.

Quotebook

Offensive guard Vince Stroth of the New Jersey Generals, saying he gets along fine with his new roommate, Doug Flutie: “He’s quiet and he doesn’t take up much room.”