One of His Stops: Dead Goat Saloon

Dan Briggs is only 32, but he’s been around. The utilityman for the New York Yankees has played with five major league teams, 11 minor league teams, one Japanese team and winter league teams in Mexico, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

He told Tom Verducci of Newsday he has played in 150 cities, lived in 36 apartments and remembers telephone numbers by corresponding them to his past uniform numbers. Some of his remembrances:

Stockton (1972): “Pink pumpkin pinstripe uniforms. The other thing I remember is there’d be eight people on the pass list and nine people in the stands. There was a softball field next door and they’d get 5,000 people.”

El Paso (1973-74): “Taco Night. They gave out free tacos. It’s the best hitter’s ballpark in organized baseball.” (Briggs hit .313 and .352 with El Paso.)

Salt Lake City (1974-77): “The Dead Goat Saloon. Some friends and I bought the place. The Mormons have this thing about not drinking above ground level. So this and the other places were underground. It’s a natural shelter system in case of nuclear attack.”

Cleveland (1978): “The catch I made on Thurman Munson in the last game of the season when we beat the Yankees, 9-2. They had to play the one-game playoff against Boston after that. I was in right field and made the greatest catch of my life on a Texas looper. Munson was hitting .299. He started yelling and swearing at me. ‘How could you bleeping do that, you bleep?’ It kind of rattled me. I said, ‘Shoot, I’m just trying to make the team.’ ”

North Carolina State Coach Jim Valvano told ESPN he liked it when his bench was on the defensive end of the court in the second half.

“That way I can yell out changes in the defense according to what the other team is doing,” he said. “If I have to yell to the other end of the court, they can’t hear me. Of course, they can’t hear me when they’re right in front of me, but it makes me feel better.”

His team was beaten by 25 points, so why was Lehigh center Don Henderson smiling after the Georgetown game?

Henderson, an accounting major, told Alan Greenberg of the Hartford Courant: “Ten years down the road, I’ll be sitting in my accounting office, making $30,000 a year, and I’ll turn on the TV, and I’ll be looking at Patrick Ewing. He’ll be making three or four million dollars. And I’ll be able to sit back and say, ‘I played against him, and he’s one of the greatest players of all-time.’ This game was great. It was probably the most thrilling game I’ve ever played in in my life.”

For What It’s Worth: Auburn running back Bo Jackson is leading the Southeastern Conference in batting with a .512 average. In a 14-11 win over Alabama Birmingham, he went 5 for 6 and hit the game-winning homer. In high school, he was drafted in the second round by the New York Yankees in 1982.

Will the Cleveland Browns make a deal with the Houston Oilers to land University of Miami quarterback Bernie Kosar?

“Well, we made a first-class proposal,” Browns owner Art Modell said. “But somebody else’s might be first-class with two tourist seats thrown in.”

Are there any untouchables on the Browns?

“When you’ve just finished a 5-11 season, no one is untouchable,” Modell said.

Quotebook

Auburn basketball Coach Sonny Smith, disputing reports that Kansas is slow: “They look as fast as hiccups to me.”