Slaney’s Subject Lesson

British discus thrower Richard Slaney, virtually unheard of before his marriage to the former Mary Decker, seems to be getting the hang of the publicity game.

The more outrageous the claim, the more likely the British tabloid press is to pick up on it.

Slaney’s latest effort, as published by London’s Mail on Sunday, is a winner.

“As I see it, being married to me makes Mary more British than Zola Budd,” Richard Slaney said, referring to the South African-born runner who obtained British citizenship in time for her to compete in last summer’s L.A. Olympics.

Slaney said he plans to include his wife’s name on his passport, thereby giving her dual nationality.

And the point in doing that? The answer was not long in coming.

As a British citizen, of sorts, Mary Slaney would qualify for a $70,000 prize being offered by a soft drink company to the first British athlete to break a world record on home soil.

The Mail on Sunday quoted Roger Ware, a spokesman for the soft drink company, as saying: “As I understand it, the 50,000 pounds can be won by anyone with a British passport.”

Department of Coincidences: Rod Carew, who got hit No. 3,000 Sunday at Anaheim Stadium, and Tom Seaver, who got victory No. 300 at Yankee Stadium, have shared the limelight before.

In 1967, Carew, then with the Minnesota Twins, was chosen the American League’s Rookie of the Year. Seaver, then with the New York Mets, won the honor in the National League that same season.

The Angel first baseman admitted that he found his attention divided on Sunday.

“Between at-bats, I was in the dugout looking at the scoreboard trying to see how Seaver was doing,” Carew said. “I know the White Sox are in our division, but I couldn’t help it, I was pulling for him.”

Trivia Time: What do Don Robinson, Bill Madlock and Rick Rhoden have in common? (Answer below.)

Add Seaver: The 300 victories speak for themselves, but Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post points out one other statistic that puts Seaver into better perspective.

If you subtract Seaver’s 300-189 record from the composite record of teams he played on (Mets 1967-1977, Reds 1977-1982, the Mets again in 1983, White Sox 1984-1985), those teams lost more often than they won, winning .478 of their games.

Seaver’s personal winning percentage of .613 is much, much higher than that of the teams he has played on.

Overall, he didn’t win because of his teams.

He won despite them.

His fondness for food has caused Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda to be the target of more than a few jokes and jibes, but Phil Elderkin of the Christian Science Monitor might have provided the, uh, icing on the cake with this description:

“Manager Tommy Lasorda, whose mouth opens and closes more times a day than all the refrigerator doors in L.A., . . .”

Trivia Answer: The recent six-player trade between Pittsburgh and the Angels made Robinson, Madlock and Rhoden the only three players left from the Pirates’ 1979 World Series championship team.

Quotebook

San Francisco Giant third base coach Rocky Bridges on rookie shortstop Jose Gonzalez, who during the season changed his last name to Uribe: “Jose was truly the player to be named later.”