Let’s Hear It for the SLBAWO

At first it was known as the San Diego Open. In 1968, however, singer Andy Williams came aboard and it became the Andy Williams San Diego Open.

Then, various sponsors came and went. For a while, it was the Wickes-Andy Williams San Diego Open. Then Wickes dropped out and was replaced by Izusu, which recently pulled out.

Tournament officials announced this week that next year’s tournament will be sponsored by Shearson Lehman Brothers. The tournament will be known as the Shearson Lehman Brothers-Andy Williams Open.

Notice that there’s no San Diego in the title.

Explained an official: “The PGA recently made a request that tournaments avoid lengthy titles. So the San Diego was dropped.”

Beautiful.

Trivia Time: The decline of Dizzy Dean’s career started in the 1937 All-Star game when he was hit by a line drive that broke a toe on his left foot. Who hit the ball? (Answer below.)

51 Years Ago Today: On July 10, 1934, Carl Hubbell struck out Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession, but the American League came back to win the All-Star game, 9-7, at New York’s Polo Grounds as Cleveland’s Mel Harder gave up only one hit in the last five innings.

Said Coach Walt Michaels of the New Jersey Generals, when Doug Flutie was knocked out for the season with a broken collarbone: “As long as we have Herschel Walker, we’ll always have play-action. I don’t look for it to be a catastrophe. Union Carbide had a disaster, but did they go under?”

No, but the Generals did. They lost three of their last four, bowing out of the playoffs in the first round.

Said former light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore, after taking over as the trainer of 7-foot 2-inch Thomas Payne, former University of Kentucky basketball player who served 11 years on a rape conviction: “He’s big, but he’s also very fast and very agile for a man his size. When he learns to throw short punches, he’ll be devastating. Already, he has skills unseen in a fighter with so little experience.”

In his next fight, Payne was knocked out in the first round.

From Bob Hope: “If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play a game, it’s recreation. If you work at a game, it’s golf.”

Said former U.S. and British Open champion Tommy Armour: “Golf is an awkward set of bodily contortions designed to produce a graceful result.”

How about fishing?

Says Russell Baker of the New York Times: “Modern fishing is as complicated as flying a B-58 to Tacoma. Several years of preliminary library and desk work are essential just to be able to buy equipment without humiliation.”

Cincinnati Reds’ owner Marge Schott, announcing that General Manager Bill Bergesch also will assume the title of executive vice president, said he will continue to make the decisions on player personnel.

“So if it goes wrong, he will be the one to blame,” she said. “He promised me a World Series ring, and you know how women are when they don’t get what they want.”

Trivia Answer: Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians.

Quotebook

John Brodie, now eligible for the seniors’ tour at age 50, recalling his one-year fling on the PGA circuit: “I was the leading money-spender on the tour.”