Fairly Hit His Stride Early in ’61

When Tom Lasorda said that Ron Fairly went one entire spring without getting a hit and then batted .330 during the season, you didn’t believe him, did you?

Of course not. When there’s a point to be made, the Dodger manager doesn’t let facts get in the way.

He wasn’t that far off, though. The highest Fairly ever batted was .322. That was in 1961, after he had hit only .125 in spring training.

In the 1961 opener at the Coliseum, it was Fairly who made the biggest hit as the Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-2.

The Dodgers were leading, 3-2, and had runners on second and third in the seventh inning when Walter Alston called on Fairly to bat for Don Drysdale.

Although first base was open, Robin Roberts pitched to Fairly, who delivered a double to give the Dodgers a 5-2 lead.

The Philadelphia manager was Gene Mauch.

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said Patrick Ewing a week ago: “It’s harder to get into the Final Four than it is to win it.”

Ewing and Georgetown made it to the Final Four three times and came out with one title.

Note: Georgetown is now a three-time loser in finals. It lost to Wyoming, 46-34, in 1942-43. North Carolina holds the record for title-game losses at four.

Add Georgetown: No, the Hoyas weren’t surprised that Villanova senior Ed Pinckney had a big game Monday night. As a sophomore, he scored 27 points and grabbed 22 rebounds against the Hoyas.

From new Kentucky Coach Eddie Sutton, saying he’s looking for good, quick athletes: “There’s no substitute for quickness. You can run away from mistakes with quickness.”

Marv Harshman, the retiring coach at Washington, looked at it another way. He wanted big guys.

“Quick guys get tired,” he said. “Big guys don’t shrink.”

How is it that Moses Malone hasn’t fouled out of a game since 1980, while Darryl Dawkins is lucky to get through a quarter without being sent to the showers?

“Players get typecast,” retired center Bob Lanier told Phil Jasner of the Knight-Ridder News Service. “Referees grow up with certain players. That’s why Earl Monroe could carry the ball and never get called for it.

“Everybody in the league fouls. Dawkins, maybe because of his size, gets away with less. If a guy is prone to the whistle, you tend to ‘Hollywood’ him more. You might take a flop after contact with Dawkins, but not against Moses. They’ll call it on Dawkins, not the other guy.”

From a question-and-answer column by Mike Downey in the Detroit Free Press:

Q: If the Dodgers start an infield of Guerrero, Anderson, Sax and Brock, with Oliver in left field and Marshall in right, what advice do you have for their opponents?

A: Hit it fair.

Wait a Minute: From Cincinnati outfielder Dave Parker, saying he can’t understand all the hostility he encountered in Pittsburgh: “After Roberto Clemente died, I put Pittsburgh back on the map in baseball.”

Clemente died after the 1972 season. While Parker was breaking in as a part-timer the next two seasons, Willie Stargell led the league in homers and RBIs in 1973 and led the Pirates to the division championship in 1974.

When the Pirates finally made it back to the World Series in 1979, it was Stargell who supplied the thunder, hitting three home runs and knocking in seven runs as the Pirates knocked off the Baltimore Orioles in seven games.

Quotebook

Kentucky basketball Coach Eddie Sutton, promising he won’t try to steal away the players he had been recruiting at Arkansas: “I spent Arkansas money--they should go to Arkansas.”