Second Chance No-Hitter

In 1951, Allie Reynolds pitched two no-hitters for the New York Yankees. The second one was particularly memorable because it came against the Boston Red Sox and the last batter was Ted Williams.

The game appeared to be over when Williams hit a pop foul, but Yogi Berra dropped the ball. Amazingly, Williams hit another foul to the same spot, and this time Berra made the catch.

Berra, now a coach for the Houston Astros, told Ira Berkow of the New York Times: “On the first foul, the wind kinda blew it and I dropped it. I was layin’ on the ground and Reynolds came over.”

Did they say anything to each other?

“He didn’t say anything, but I did,” Berra said. “I said, ‘You’re stepping on my hand.’ ”

Cincinnati Manager Pete Rose explains why he likes older players: “They’re a little more serious. They don’t want to go get a job.”

Steve Yeager, now with the Seattle Mariners, said two screws in his left knee have been removed. They were implanted after he injured the knee in a collision with Cincinnati’s Dave Concepcion in 1984.

“They’re in my trophy case,” Yeager said of the screws.

Has he noticed any change?

“Yes,” he said. “I don’t beep anymore when I go through airports.”

Trivia Time: The last time LSU went to the Final Four, in 1981, it lost to Indiana, which then beat North Carolina in the championship game that almost was postponed for what reason? (Answer below.)

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: Greg Dreiling of Kansas, explaining his slump in early tournament games, told Steve Schoenfeld of the Dallas Times Herald he wasn’t getting enough rest or eating enough.

“So Saturday I got plenty of rest and ate more than I ever had,” he said. “I finished a six-pack of protein shakes.”

He also wore new wristbands bought by his wife, Kelly.

“The old ones were getting grungy and smelly,” he said. “I would get sick from the smell when they got wet. Before the game, Kelly put the new ones on and said a prayer for me. Imagine that, a prayer for the wristbands. At that point, I was ready for anything to work.”

From rodeo star Charles Sampson, on how he became a bull rider: “If you’re too lazy to work and too chicken to steal, you become a bull rider.”

Eldon Miller, who took the Northern Iowa job after being fired at Ohio State, isn’t exactly going to a bed of roses.

Northern Iowa belongs to the Assn. of Mid-Continent Universities, which includes Cleveland State, a surprise in the NCAA tournament, and Southwest Missouri State, which knocked off Marquette in the NIT.

Jake LaMotta explained to the Chicago Tribune how he lost his middleweight title to Ray Robinson in 1951: “The referee stopped the fight with Robinson punishing me senseless against the ropes. If he would have waited another 30 seconds, I would have won. Robinson would have fallen over from exhaustion.”

Trivia Answer: President Reagan had been shot on the day of the game.

Quotebook

Denver center Danny Schayes, explaining how the Golden State Warriors outrebounded the Nuggets, 66-48, Sunday: “They got a lot of long rebounds. Well, actually, they got every rebound.”