Bucs’ Wilder Just Another Pretty Face

James Wilder of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is one of the finest running backs in the NFL. Recently, however, he has taken up a secondary career, modeling.

“I’ve seen his work,” agency director Marsha Randolph told the St. Petersburg Times. “He’s unreal. Maybe he missed his calling.”

Although Wilder’s legs are his meal ticket in football, it’s another part of his anatomy that has Randolph enthralled.

“Great jaws,” Randolph said. “And those high cheekbones are heaven-sent. He’s tall, dark and handsome with great bone structure.”

When Angel left-hander Geoff Zahn steps on the mound today against the Mariners, he will be attempting to extend a remarkable streak. As Tad Ludes of the Gold Sheet points out, Zahn has not allowed a stolen base since August of 1983.

Since Omar Moreno of the Yankees managed a theft, 14 straight runners have been cut down. Major league baseball’s success ratio on steals is about 69%. Using that figure, Ludes figures the odds of stopping 14 straight runners in flight are 1,566,387 to 1.

Golfer Lee Trevino, 46, finds it hard to understand why so many of the game’s great young players have been skipping the British Open.

“Money comes and goes, but the value of winning a British Open lasts forever,” Trevino said. “I’d come over if it took a month and I had to swim. These younger guys, they’re hard to figure.”

Wrestler Bruce Baumgartner, the Olympic gold medal winner in the super-heavyweight division, has been approached by several pro promoters, who want him to test his skills against Hulk Hogan and Ivan Koloff and others. But Baumgartner said no way.

“I’ve watched wrestling on television and seen men get hit over their heads with chairs,” Baumgartner told the Dallas Morning News. “But I’ve also had a promoter tell me that it doesn’t hurt very much. And money isn’t the only thing in life. I’ve got to live with myself.”

In college, at Indiana State, Baumgartner, 6-2 and 286 pounds, beat Steve (Dr. Death) Williams of Oklahoma five times. Baumgartner believes that pro wrestlers are athletic, but he thinks the realism may be questionable.

“You have to be (a good athlete) to lift a 250-pound guy over your head and spin him around or do those flying scissors kicks,” Baumgartner said. “But ask yourself this, if I jumped off a table and put a knee into your chest, would you be able to get up?”

The football memories linger in Ohio, especially the defeats. One particularly memorable game was played in 1935, when Notre Dame upset an Ohio State team coached by the legendary Francis (Close the Gates of Mercy) Schmidt, 18-13. The Irish scored three touchdowns in the last three minutes.

During a recent 50-year reunion in Chicago, halfback Andy Pilney, who led the Irish back from a 13-0 halftime deficit, recalled a trip to Columbus in 1965. A hotel clerk recognized Pilney’s name on the registration card.

“You s.o.b.” the man screamed. “You cost me $250 in 1935.”

Father Edmund Joyce, executive vice president of Notre Dame, was the master of ceremonies at the reunion. He was a junior at Notre Dame in 1935.

“There were many people who believed that Notre Dame’s victory was a miracle,” Joyce said. “I’ve never been one who believes that the good Lord intervenes in this great game of football, but this might have been an exception.”

Add Pilney: The running back and future Tulane football coach suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter and was carried from the field.

“That knee’s been bothering me for 50 years,” Pilney said. “But it was definitely worth it.”

Marcel Dionne of the Kings has had numerous collisions during his illustrious NHL career. In addition to scoring more than 600 goals, Dionne has sustained five broken noses.

Said Dionne: “The highlight of my retirement will be plastic surgery.”

Quotebook

Texas football Coach Fred Akers on the unsolicited advice he gets from alumni: “In fact, that’s what coaching has in common with the world’s oldest profession. It’s not the long hours that get you, it’s the amateur competition.”