Stengel’s Slugger Was Pulling for Prize in the Corner

In a story on the 1962 New York Mets, the worst team in baseball history, Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Press recalled that Frank Thomas, the leading home run hitter, liked to pull the ball to left field at the Polo Grounds, where it was only 279 feet down the line.

Casey Stengel, the manager, thought Thomas tried to pull the ball too much. He suspected the slugger was aiming at a sign on the left-field corner, which offered a boat to the Met player who hit it most often.

“If you want a boat,” Stengel yelled at Thomas in the batter’s box, “join the Navy.”

Note: The boat was won by Marv Throneberry.

Add Throneberry: Wrote New York columnist Jack Lang after Marvelous Marv was called out for missing first base: “How could he be expected to remember where the bases were? He gets on so infrequently.”

Trivia Time: When Ron Guidry compiled a 25-3 record for the New York Yankees in 1978, what did the three pitchers who beat him have in common? (Answer below.)

Houston Rocket Coach Bill Fitch, who formerly coached the Boston Celtics, revealed that he still has his key to the locker room at Boston Garden.

“I’ve also got the key to my old office,” he said. “We might be able to pull a Watergate.”

From Pete Rose, denying he is upset by all the booing at Riverfront Stadium during Cincinnati’s long slump: “When you are 4-13 at home, what do you think they’re going to do, give you a standing ovation?”

From Hall of Fame basketball player Bill Russell: “When I was growing up, my mother wouldn’t allow me to go near a golf course. She didn’t think the people who played were very nice. Now I play every day, and you know what? She was right.”

Ron Luciano, in his book “The Fall Of the Roman Umpire,” explains why he liked to work with sluggers at the plate: “They don’t let too many pitches go. The reason for this is that most sluggers are guess hitters. They try to guess what pitch the pitcher is going to throw, and commit themselves to swing at that pitch even before it’s thrown. That was fine with me, a lot of players considered me a guess umpire.”

Add Luciano: When he was doing baseball commentary for NBC, he had this to say about the Kansas City manager: “If it’s true that we learn by our mistakes, then Jim Frey will be the best manager ever.”

Actor Tony Curtis explains why he gave up smoking: “I like to think of it in simple terms. Smoking shortens your life by eight years. I love watching pro football on television. If I smoke, I’ll miss 350 games.”

Trivia Answer: The same first name. They were Mike Caldwell of Milwaukee, Mike Flanagan of Baltimore and Mike Willis of Toronto. Note: With this in mind, the Boston Red Sox had high hopes when Mike Torrez faced Guidry in the one-game playoff for the American League East title, but Guidry prevailed, 5-4. Quotebook

Tennis pro Johan Kriek, on why he returned to play in the French Open after a seven-year absence: “My wife wanted to do some shopping in Paris.”