Lonnie Smith Could Tell It Wasn’t a Rumor

During the drug trial in Pittsburgh, Lonnie Smith of the Kansas City Royals was being questioned at length as to whether the substance he purchased actually was cocaine.

“Who told you it was cocaine?” the attorney asked. “Was it hearsay?”

“No,” Smith said. “It was his say.”

Trivia Time: Ten years ago today, on the final day of the 1975 season, four Oakland pitchers combined on a no-hitter as the A’s beat the Angels, 5-0. Name the pitchers. (Answer below.)

Bud Greenspan, award-winning producer of sports documentary films, tells this story about playing golf with Charlie Boswell, who is blind:

“Charlie is about 10 yards off the green and he chips his shot up, it bounces twice and clanks off the pin, into the cup. He hears it go in, so he puts his hands up in celebration, then walks over to me and says, ‘Bud, I’m going to have to cancel out on our luncheon appointment tomorrow. I’ve gotta go see my ophthalmologist. I want him to make sure I can’t see.’ ”

NBC analyst Pete Axthelm has this lament: “I had Spinks over Holmes, but unfortunately I parlayed it to Martin over Whitson.”

Add Martin: When the New York Times asked him about his future with the Yankees, he said: “If I win the pennant, they’ll have to keep me, won’t they?”

Nope. Casey Stengel in 1960 and Yogi Berra in 1964 piloted Yankee teams to pennants, and Dick Howser in 1980 took the Yankees to a divisional crown. All three were fired.

44 Years Ago Today: On Sept. 28, 1941, Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, who went into the season-ending doubleheader batting .401, refused to sit out the games to keep his average over .400. He played against the Philadelphia A’s and went 6 for 8 to finish at .406. Nobody has batted over .400 since.

Gerry Cooney told Bob Waters of Newsday that he wants a shot at Michael Spinks.

“I should feel ashamed of what I would do to Michael Spinks,” Cooney said. “A couple of hooks to his ribs and he would be gone. Remember, I broke Ron Lyle’s ribs with one punch, and Lyle’s a much bigger man than Spinks.”

Of the Holmes-Spinks fight, he said: “It was was a disgrace. Holmes hurt Spinks with shots to the belly, and he didn’t even mean to do it. He never kept it up. He forgot.”

Cooney added: “I was foolish against Holmes. I never had my mind on him--all I thought about was going 15 rounds. Looking at the tapes, I could have knocked him out in the second round. If I regret anything in my life it’s that I didn’t have a return match with Holmes. It’s like a kid not having a Christmas.”

Would-you-believe-it dept.: In his last 11 at-bats, Dwight Gooden of the New York Mets has 6 hits and 7 RBIs.

“I just love to get a hit,” said Gooden, who has a bet with fellow pitcher Ron Darling on who gets the most hits this season.

Gooden has 21, Darling 12.

“It’ll probably cost me a dinner,” Darling said. “The other thing Dwight likes to do is eat.”

Trivia Answer: Vida Blue, Glenn Abbott, Paul Lindblad and Rollie Fingers. Blue pitched five innings, Abbott the sixth, Lindblad the seventh and Fingers the eighth and ninth.

Quotebook

Tennis star Jimmy Connors, on turning 33: “I have no complaints. If I hadn’t made it to 33, then I’d have a complaint.”