Around the Dodgers’ Infield: It’s Madlock to Duncan to Sax to Tort

Should people be making jokes about the Dodgers in supposedly serious publications? The publishers of the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review seem to think it’s appropriate.

In volume 19 of the review is an article titled “Should Ballparks Be Strictly Liable to Baseball Fans Injured by Foul Balls?”

Quoted twice in the article is Dan S. Schecthter, associate professor of law at Loyola Law School.

First quote: “Given the L.A. Dodgers infield, are fans seated along the first-base line subjected to a higher risk of injury?”

Second quote: “To err is human, three err is Steve Sax.”

Brutal.

Trivia Time: What All-American halfback at the University of California went straight to major league baseball after playing in the Rose Bowl? (Answer below.)

Said Elston Turner of the Denver Nuggets, admitting he was apprehensive over facing 7-7 Manute Bol of the Washington Bullets Tuesday night: “I’ve only seen pictures of him in the newspaper. They never have any little shots of him. It takes half the page just to get all of him in there.”

Said Xavier McDaniel of the Seattle SuperSonics, explaining his fight with 7-footer Kevin Willis of the Atlanta Hawks Monday night: “I thought he was going to hit me first, so I hit him first. Then I started backing up because I saw all those red jerseys. I said to myself, ‘X, it’s time to bail out.’ ”

Patrick Ewing didn’t play in the NBA All-Star game because of a knee injury. According to David Kahn of the Portland Oregonian, when Ewing was asked if he had any comment, he said: “No, but thanks for asking.”

Tom Burleson, the 7-4 center from North Carolina State who played seven years in the NBA, now owns an electrical supply business in Newland, N.C. On the side, he grows Christmas trees and as a hobby he races hydroplanes as “The World’s Tallest Boat Racer.”

Of the Christmas trees, he says, “My height is a real advantage. With my 9-foot 6-inch reach plus the 18-inch chain saw, I can shear 11 to 11 1/2-foot trees.”

King of jeers dept.: Joaquin Andujar, traded from St. Louis to Oakland after last season, told Bill Brubaker of the Washington Post that Budweiser, not the Cardinals, was the reason he was traded. “I got traded because of Budweiser,” he said, referring to Anheuser-Busch, the brewing company that owns the Cardinals.

“The brewery traded me, not Whitey (Herzog), not the general manager. Why did they trade me? Because of what happened in the World Series. They worried so much because the sportswriters had gotten on me in St. Louis. And they worried about selling beer. They said, ‘Well, that’s no good for Budweiser.’ Because baseball for Budweiser is just a small part. It’s nothing. It’s just for taxes. They’ll trade anybody. They don’t give a hooey.”

(The Cardinals said they traded Andujar simply because they needed a catcher.)

Trivia Answer: Sam Chapman. He was an All-American at Cal in 1937 and helped the Bears beat Alabama, 13-0, in the 1938 Rose Bowl. That same year he joined the Philadelphia A’s as an outfielder, batting .259 in 114 games. He played 11 years, winding up with a career average of .266 and twice knocking in more than 100 runs.

Note: Jackie Jensen was an All-American at Cal in 1948 and played in the 1949 Rose Bowl but didn’t make it to the majors until 1950. In 1949, he played for Oakland in the Pacific Coast League. In 1950, he joined the New York Yankees.

Quotebook

John Wooden, asked Tuesday at the Wooden Award media luncheon his views of drug testing, replied: “It’s easy. If they don’t want to be tested, don’t let them play.”