Gooden Knew It Was a Bad Idea for Dodgers to Pitch to Jack Clark

When the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals opened the 1985 season at Shea Stadium, Dwight Gooden was pitching for the Mets and Jack Clark was making his first start for the Cardinals. When they faced each other for the first time in the second inning, Clark hit a home run.

With that in mind, it was with some astonishment that Gooden watched Tom Niedenfuer try to sneak a fastball by Clark last month at Dodger Stadium.

Gooden, who watched the postseason games at his family’s home in Tampa, Fla., was in New York Friday for a charity affair, and the talk eventually got around to Tom Lasorda’s decision to pitch to Clark with first base open.

Gooden told Ira Berkow of the New York Times: “When Clark came up, I turned to my dad and said, ‘No way I give this guy anything to hit. I’d throw four balls to him.’ ”

Trivia Time: Name an NBA championship series in which the opposing coaches were former college teammates. (Answer below.)

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said Chris Mullin last Wednesday after ending his holdout with the Golden State Warriors: “I’m in great shape, but it’s going to take me a little time to get into the team system.”

Said Coach John Bach: “I’m sure he’ll make a cameo appearance tonight, but I hope the fans understand that to give him too much playing time would be throwing him into a meat grinder.”

A few hours later, Mullin scored 15 points, including the game-winning basket, as the Warriors, who had lost four of five games, defeated the Seattle SuperSonics, 105-101.

It’s been a difficult year for the Washington Redskins, but safety Curtis Jordan said: “It could be worse. I could still be at Tampa Bay.”

Jordan was a member of the 0-14 Buccaneers in 1976, and when asked what he learned, he said: “As a rookie, the greatest thing I learned was not to stand next to John McKay. Coming out of the tunnel, McKay always got shelled with bottles and beer.”

Dal Maxvill, general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, said he won’t trade Joaquin Andujar and added that there hasn’t been a lot of negative reaction to the pitcher’s outbursts in the World Series.

“I’ve only received a few letters,” he said. “Two of them were critical and three of them were sympathetic of his actions. And one guy sent in a $10 check, made out to Joaquin, to help him pay his fine.”

For What It’s Worth: Moses Malone was the NBA rebounding champion last season, but on a rebounds-per-minute basis, the leader was Bill Walton. He was followed by Bill Laimbeer, Larry Smith, LaSalle Thompson and Malone.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? He was 67th.

The New York Knicks admittedly need help at guard, but Coach Hubie Brown, when asked about Norm Nixon, told Gary Binford of Newsday: “Nixon is a quality player, but you’ve got to wonder why an All-Star who made $413,000 last year wasn’t even offered that by his club, but was offered less.”

Trivia Answer: Alex Hannum and Bill Sharman, teammates at USC in 1946-47, were the opposing coaches in the 1966-67 NBA final. Hannum’s Philadelphia 76ers beat Sharman’s San Francisco Warriors in six games.

Quotebook

Terry Forster, 250-pound Atlanta Braves reliever, on being fat: “A waist is a terrible thing to mind.”