Gorman Thomas Puts on Hit Show

It was like that scene in “Damn Yankees” where everyone stops and watches as Joe Hardy pumps one ball after another over the fence in a tryout.

In was Gorman Thomas who made everything stop Saturday in the Seattle camp at Tempe, Ariz. The 34-year-old outfielder took 20 swings at pitches thrown by bullpen coach Phil Roof and deposited 12 of them over the left-field fence, 360 feet down the line. He crashed two others off the center-field fence.

“I thought it went pretty good,” said Thomas, the onetime American League home run king who hit only one last year because of a rotator cuff injury.

Said Mariner Manager Chuck Cottier: “He hit the hell out of the ball. You don’t want to get too excited too quick, though.”

Isn’t that what Joe Hardy’s manager said?

After West Virginia improved its record to 20-7 with a win over George Washington Saturday, Coach Gale Catlett said: “If we don’t have a lock on a NCAA berth, I know we can go to the NIT.”

How so?

“Because I’m on the NIT selection committee,” he said.

Who says Kurt Rambis can’t shoot? When Santa Clara’s Harold Keeling scored 18 points Saturday night, he moved within 47 points of the Bronco career scoring record.

The record-holder? Kurt Rambis, of course. He scored 1,735 points in 1977-80.

Chris Mullin played his last game for St. John’s in Alumni Hall Saturday, but assistant athletic director Larry Falabella, the keeper of the keys, knows that Mullin, the ultimate gym rat, will be back.

“He’s had me here on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve, every holiday,” Falabella told Joe Gergen of Newsday. “He’d go home, spend some time with his family in Brooklyn and then give me a call. It would be myself and Dom the maintenance man against Chris. He could never get enough of it.”

Said assistant coach Brian Mahoney: “He knows every door. He knows all the workers. And he knows the backboards, the rims, the floor.”

Gergen: “Just the other day, as St. John’s came out to practice, Mullin looked at the backboard at the west end and decided it was slightly tilted. Sure enough, when the maintenance workers checked, they found it out of line.”

Relief pitcher Neil Allen of the St. Louis Cardinals, on the responsibility he inherited when Bruce Sutter departed for Atlanta: “He couldn’t leave like a normal human being with 20 or 25 saves. He had to go and leave with 45.”

Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics, on Sunday’s 56-point performance: “Larry would get the rebounds and just give me the ball to lay it in. It was Larry Bird’s ability. I was just renting it a little while.”

Al McGuire, rating them in order, called Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell the three best centers ever. Georgetown Coach John Thompson, onetime Russell backup in Boston, would tell McGuire he’s got it backward.

Thompson told Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post: “Nobody is as good as Bill Russell. You count Russell, then you skip three or four places, then you talk about the rest of the people. Now, when Patrick Ewing comes away with 11 championship rings, I’ll re-evaluate that.”

Quotebook

Providence Coach Joe Mullaney, told that the Friars will meet St. John’s in the Big East tournament if they beat Seton Hall in the opener: “Better St. John’s than Georgetown. St. John’s lets you get the ball to midcourt.”