Watching Wayne at Third Gross

Wayne Gross apparently isn’t making anybody forget Brooks Robinson with his work at third base in Baltimore. In fact, Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post said: “Gross currently leads the American League in fielding balls with his face.”

Of a recent Gross misadventure, Boswell quoted Oriole owner Edward Bennett Williams as saying, “Can you really lose a ground ball in the lights? Actually, I’m not concerned about the balls he touches. It’s the ones he doesn’t touch that interest me.

“You know, the Washington Senators once had a first baseman named Zeke Bonura who led the league in fielding percentage despite the fact that everyone knew he was the worst fielder in the league. Soon, the Henry J. Bonura Principle infected the entire city of Washington. People realized that if you never touch the ball, you can’t make an error.

“And they’ve been doing it on Capitol Hill ever since.”

Trivia Time: Steve Garvey, with the Dodgers, was the MVP in the 1974 and 1978 All-Star games. What made his first award unusual? (Answer below.)

51 Years Ago Today: On July 13, 1934, Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hit his 700th home run in a 4-2 win over Tommy Bridges and the Tigers at Detroit. The shot cleared the right-field wall and rolled several hundred feet down a street leading to the stadium. This also was the game in which Lou Gehrig left in the first inning with a severe case of lumbago. In the most serious threat to his streak of 2,130 straight games, he returned for one at-bat the next day. He singled.

Note: On the same date in 1971, Reggie Jackson of Oakland hit a mammoth home run off the right-field light tower at Tiger Stadium as the American League beat the National League, 6-4, in the All-Star game.

Here’s a quote from Sparky Anderson to remember as you’re watching the All-Star game Tuesday night: “There isn’t any comparison between the two leagues right now. The best teams are definitely in the American League.”

From Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, saying he has no sympathy for the owners in their dispute with the players: “Any day a club owner doesn’t like the club or is losing money, all he has to do is look for someone else with a ton of money and a ton of ego, sell it to him for a big profit, take the capital gains and go live on a mountain.”

Pete Rose, on why he slides head first: “It’s the fastest way to get to the base, it is probably the safest and it usually gets my picture in the paper.”

Add Rose: He said he won’t be posing for the painting Andy Warhol will do for the Cincinnati Art Museum. Warhol will do it from photographs.

“I really have no idea what the picture will look like,” Rose said. “I do hope it shows me with a bat, though.”

Wait a Minute: Jan Stephenson, assessed a one-stroke penalty after her ball-marker stuck to her putter in the first round of the U.S. Women’s Open, told the New York Times: “This never happens to Nancy Lopez.”

It was only last month, of course, that Lopez was penalized two strokes for slow play in the LPGA Championship. She still won the tournament.

Trivia Answer: Garvey made the team as a write-in candidate.

Quotebook

University of Minnesota football Coach Lou Holtz, on a scheduled game against Ohio State on TV: “The networks may not show it. There’s already too much violence on TV.”