Absurdities Are Cosell’s Trademark

Don Meredith, whose place in the booth will be taken by Joe Namath, said it was never the same on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” after Howard Cosell left.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been an analyst. Matter of fact, I don’t know what I did,” Meredith told Frank Luksa of the Dallas Times Herald. “Howard being gone made my job harder. I definitely missed him, missed the familiarity of doing games a certain way. No question, the show was dominated by Howard’s personality. Sometimes that was good, sometimes it was bad.

“The pattern was dictated by some of the absurdities he’d come up with. If you sat tight and held your ground, he’d say something absolutely outlandish.”

How did he and Cosell get along?

“We had a very good working relationship,” Meredith said. “We had mutual respect. Respect, I think, created from merit. Howard is a different personality. There’s not a better Howard Cosell around. He’s the best I’ve ever seen.”

And Frank Gifford?

“I don’t have a better friend,” Meredith said.

Trivia Time: Three times, Reggie Jackson has tied for the American League home run title, and each time, he tied with a Milwaukee player. Their names? (Answer below.)

Let’s see, Dave Kingman of the Oakland A’s has 21 home runs, tying him for the major league lead. Darrell Evans of the Detroit Tigers and Jack Clark of the St. Louis Cardinals have 17 each. Then there’s George Foster of the New York Mets with 14. Even Dusty Baker, in a limited role at Oakland, has 11.

All five, of course, once played for the San Francisco Giants. The current leading home run hitter for the Giants?

Bob Brenly with 11.

Shortstop Julio Franco of the Cleveland Indians is ahead of his pace of 1984, when he led the American League in errors. Said a headline in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “To Err Is Human, but Franco’s Overdoing It.”

Jerome Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune hadn’t seen Johnny Sain, 67-year-old pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves, since 1975, when Sain was getting a hair transplant.

“He was wearing a silk stocking on his head to protect and cover the dozens of little plugs spiked into his otherwise bald skull,” said Holtzman. “So far as is known, he was the first baseball man to get a transplant.

“Now, some 10 years later, Sain continues to break new ground. He had a face-lift last January, believed to be another first in baseball.”

Said Sain: “Ted Turner (Atlanta Braves owner) tried to talk me out of it. He said I looked fine, but I told him I wanted to look as young as I felt. The good Lord didn’t give me much to start with, you know.”

Said Mrs. Sain: “Isn’t he beautiful? He says it’s brought us closer together.”

Bobby Riggs, who will team with Vitas Gerulaitis in a doubles match against Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver Aug. 23 at Atlantic City, was trying to do a psych job at a press conference, and Shriver played right along.

“Right now, we’re relaxed,” said Shriver to the 67-year-old Riggs, “but I know as the match approaches, we’re going to have many sleepless nights worrying about your lob.”

Trivia Answer: Jackson, with Oakland in 1975, New York in 1980 and the Angels in 1982, tied with, respectively, George Scott (36), Ben Oglivie (41) and Gorman Thomas (39). Jackson was the outright champion at Oakland in 1973 with 32.

Quotebook

Georgia Southern football Coach Erk Russell, a former assistant at the University of Georgia, on rumors that he will succeed Vince Dooley if the Georgia coach quits to enter politics: “I don’t know, but it’s fun to talk about. Things get dull for football fans in July. This gives them something to talk about.”