Andujar Has Cause to Cry in His Beer

Joaquin Andujar says he’s happy to be pitching in Oakland but nevertheless misses St. Louis and wishes he still played for Whitey Herzog.

“Whitey didn’t want to make the trade,” Andujar told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “It was the owners, the brewery. Budweiser traded me. They’re more worried about a beer can than Joaquin Andujar.”

He added: “I miss St. Louis, I miss Whitey Herzog. Oakland is great. I got great teammates. But I don’t forget St. Louis this soon. Whitey is my daddy. You tell my daddy that I said hello.”

From Atlanta Hawks Coach Mike Fratello, who served as an honorary batboy for the Dodgers in a game last season: “I spent a lot of time with Tom Lasorda last summer, just watching how he handled athletes. I came back this year and I really felt committed and confident on how to get things done.”

Did somebody say Lasorda should be spending some time with Fratello?

What-a-difference-a-week-makes dept.: In last week’s PGA money-winning standings, Dan Halldorson was 159th with $4,618. Jack Nicklaus was 160th with $4,404. Halldorson jumped 100 spots to 59th by winning the Deposit Guaranty tournament at Hattiesburg, Miss., and earning $36,000. Nicklaus jumped 150 spots to 10th by winning the Masters and earning $144,000.

Trivia Time: Who was the St. Louis southpaw who shut out the Dodgers five times in 1966? (Answer in column 2.)

It-had-to-happen dept.: The New York Mets designated their second home game of the season as Rodney Dangerfield Day because it doesn’t get the respect of opening day. It also didn’t get the respect of Mother Nature. It was rained out.

From Martina Navratilova, who used to work out with basketball star Nancy Lieberman: “Basketball players are the best athletes in the world. I’m in the best shape of my life when I play basketball.”

Mickey Mantle isn’t one of those who thinks the hitters had it tougher in his day.

“I can remember when I came up to the Yankees in 1951, if we knocked out Ned Garver, who was the ace of the St. Louis Browns, they didn’t have anybody to bring in from the bullpen,” he said. “Now, if you knock out the starting pitcher, they’ve got someone who comes out of the bullpen that’s 6-5 and can throw the ball 100 m.p.h.”

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: Pat Haden says, “I used to envy quarterbacks who had plays sent in from the sidelines with receivers or running backs. When the Rams sent a play in for me, they always did it with 280-pound tackles. Here I am, with 30 seconds to get a play called and the ball snapped, and this huge guy is chugging onto the field. Just getting all the way to the huddle was his two-minute drill.”

Trivia Answer: Larry Jaster. Note: Three years later, Jaster became the answer to another trivia question. On April 14, 1969, pitching against the Cardinals for the Montreal Expos, he became the first man to throw a pitch in Canada.

Quotebook

Bill Cosby, on the football team he played on at Temple: “We lost every week. We lost to schools I never heard of. I think guys used to get together and invent a name just so they could play us. One year we lost to a school called ‘We Want You.’ ”