Pete Rose Has Steve Sax in Stitches

On Channel 56’s “Playball” show, taped Friday for showing today at 10 a.m. and again at 8 p.m., Pete Rose talks about how tough it is to hit at Dodger Stadium because of the lighting.

“I can’t see the stitches on the ball,” Rose says.

Steve Sax, co-hosting the show with Bob Elder: “You can see the stitches?”

Rose: “Yeah, but I can’t count ‘em.”

Add “Playball”: Viewer Glen Wong of Los Angeles wrote in to ask how many times Rose, as a player-manager, is allowed to go to the mound before he has to remove a pitcher.

“I can go to the dirt two times, just like any other manager,” Rose says. “Sure, I can go over halfway (from first base) and say something, but I generally stay away. When I go in there, it’s usually to take the pitcher out.”

Add Rose: Sax, off the air, was bemoaning the fact that he was booed Thursday night after his error in the eighth inning. Sax tried to make a bare-handed tag on Dave Concepcion’s double-play ball, and the ball was knocked out of his hands and into left field, enabling Cincinnati to score two runs.

“I still feel bad about it today,” Sax said.

Rose, whose two-out bunt in the 13th inning gave the Reds a 6-5 victory, said: “Hey, I was cheering for you.”

Last add Rose: After Thursday night, he had played in 1,927 winning games. “There are 45 guys in the Hall of Fame who never played in that many games total, win or lose,” Rose said.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram invited readers to write letters about what’s wrong with the Texas Rangers, the last-place team in the American League West.

The paper said the writer of the best letter would get two free tickets to a Ranger game. The runner-up would get four free tickets.

The winner was, collectively, a first-grade class. Samplings:

“Don’t pay them until they start winning.”

“Practice batting on a tee, like in tee ball.”

“Don’t let them smoke or chew bubblegum.”

“Don’t let them go to parties late at night.”

“Make them go to bed at 8 o’clock.”

“Use bigger baseballs and bigger bats.”

Making The Times’ all-time Ram team were defensive ends Deacon Jones, Jack Youngblood and Fred Dryer. Another pretty fair Ram defensive end was Andy Robustelli.

Robustelli was drafted in the 19th round by the Rams in 1951 as an offensive end, the position he played at Arnold College in Milford, Conn.

The Rams already had Tom Fears and Elroy Hirsch, so, according to Herman Helms of The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., Robustelli didn’t even bother to unpack his bags during the first two weeks of training camp.

But one day during a scrimmage, some bodies were needed on defense, so Coach Joe Stydahar, studying the 6-foot, 230-pound Robustelli, decided to try him. Robustelli ended up playing defensive end on the 1951 Ram championship team, then was traded to the New York Giants, where he was an All-Pro seven times during 13 seasons and ended up in the Hall of Fame.

Quotebook

Philadelphia outfielder Jeff Stone, when offered a shrimp cocktail: “No thanks, I don’t drink.”