Yes, but What Does He Really Think?

Defensive lineman Dave Pureifory, 34-year-old veteran of the Green Bay Packers, Cincinnati Bengals and Detroit Lions, performed this year for the Birmingham Stallions and found that life in the USFL is no different than in the NFL.

“It’s vicious and barbaric,” he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. “They try to make it safe, but they can’t. It’s like playing tag on a highway. You can try to make it safe, but sooner or later, it’s going to get you.

“They draft the biggest meanest, nastiest players they can find and line them up. Nice guys can’t play this game. There is no way a nice guy can make it. Smart guys can’t play this game. You have to be on a low mentality. It’s like butting your head into a brick wall. A smart guy is going to say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t make sense. Why am I doing this?’ ”

Pureifory earned a bachelor of science degree at Eastern Michigan, but says: “I’m no different. I’m just as bad as the rest. I’m on a different level during the season as opposed to the off-season. Football is not conducive to a good vocabulary or being articulate. I’m a degenerate, just like the rest.”

Trivia Time: Name the only player who has hit a home run for both the National League and American League in the All-Star game. (Answer in column 2.)

By-any-name dept.: In 1958, the U.S. Women’s Amateur golf tournament was won by Anne Quast of Seattle. In 1961, it was won by Anne Decker. In 1963, it was won by Anne Welts. Among the entries in the U.S. Women’s Open starting today at Baltusrol in Springfield, N.J., is Anne Sander.

Yes, they’re all the same lady. Mrs. Sander, still an amateur, is the oldest entry at 47. She’s countering by employing the youngest caddy. He is Ned Sander, her 12-year-old son.

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: Pete Rose, who figured he was headed for Triple-A in 1963, was about to leave the park in spring training when Cincinnati coach Mike Ryba told him to stick around and sit with him in the dugout for a game with the Chicago White Sox.

By the eighth inning, Cincinnati Manager Fred Hutchinson was running out of players, so he called on Rose to go in as a pinch-runner.

“Somebody got a hit, and I scored the tying run,” Rose told Phil Elderkin of the Christian Science Monitor. “Then the game goes into extra innings, and I get to swing the bat twice and get a hit each time, including the game-winning double in the 14th inning. Anyway, I ended up making the ball club and I’ve always figured that afternoon had a lot to do with it.”

Trivia Answer: Frank Robinson. He hit a home run for the National League in 1959 and one for the American League in 1971.

Quotebook

Pete Rose, asked if he will have the power of veto over a painting of him by Andy Warhol for the Cincinnati Art Museum: “No, I just put all my faith in War . . . Warhaw . . . Warhall? What is it? Oh, yeah, Warhol. I think he’s a well-respected artist. Somebody told me he did Muhammad Ali.”