How Gardner Beat the Odds

After Minnesota lost its ninth straight game earlier in the season at Oakland, Manager Billy Gardner went back to his hotel room and placed a call to Las Vegas.

“I called to find out the odds on who would be the first to get fired, Yogi or me,” Gardner told Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post. “It was 8-5 that I was gone first.”

Las Vegas, of course, underestimated George Steinbrenner. Berra went, and Gardner stayed, and Minnesota took off on a 10-game winning streak.

The Twins only have two regulars over the age of 30, and when Gardner was asked if maybe he was rushing the youngsters, he said: “Hell, you go to war when you’re 18.”

Billy Martin, asked about the spareness of his office at Yankee Stadium, where only a lone picture of Mickey Mantle decorates the walls, told Dave Anderson of the New York Times: “I think I’ll leave it like this. Every time I get it lookin’ pretty, I ain’t here no more.”

Cleveland Manager Pat Corrales, on shortstop Julio Franco who led the league with 38 errors last year and booted one Sunday that helped Texas beat the Indians, 7-2: “Julio is just trying to be too fancy. He has to one-hand everything. It seems to be that every infielder out of the Dominican Republic tries to be flashy.”

Note: Franco is from San Pedro de Macoris, the same city that produced Pedro Guerrero and Mariano Duncan of the Dodgers. Others from the city include Joaquin Andujar of St. Louis, Juan Samuel of Philadelphia, George Bell of Toronto and Rafael Ramirez of Atlanta.

The toughest record in baseball to break? Judging from Dale Murphy’s figures, it could be Babe Ruth’s record of 177 runs scored, set in 1921.

Projecting Murphy’s numbers after 20 games he would wind up the season with 81 homers and 249 RBIs, both far surpassing the records, but only 163 runs, 14 short of Ruth’s mark.

Following Ruth on the all-time list are Lou Gehrig 167, Chuck Klein 158, Rogers Hornsby 156, Kiki Cuyler 155, Lefty O’Doul, Al Simmons and Woody English 152, Jimmie Foxx and Joe DiMaggio 151, and Ted Williams 150.

Hard-to-believe statistic: Steve Garvey, who five times has recorded 100 or more RBIs, has never scored 100 runs.

Quotebook

Dennis Diaz, owner of Kentucky Derby winner Spend A Buck, on why he went into horse racing after retiring at the age of 38: “I got bored. I felt like I’d paid my dues to Johnny Walker, and it was time to get busy.”