New Weaver, Umps Remember the Old One

Manager Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles says he’s mellowing because he’s afraid of having a heart attack.

“I can’t run as fast as I used to,” he said. “I can’t jump quite as high as I used to. I can’t stick the bill of the cap in the faces like I used to.”

The faces, of course, belonged to the umpires, who had this to say about Weaver in Kevin Nelson’s book, “Baseball’s Greatest Insults”:

Jim Evans: “He is the Son of Sam of baseball.”

Nick Bremigan: “He’s like a nightmare that keeps coming back. He is the ayatollah of the 80s.”

Marty Springstead: “The way to test a Timex watch would be to strap it to Weaver’s tongue.”

Larry Barnett: “I’ve never seen him do anything funny. No, I take it back. I once saw him slip and fall coming out of the dugout. That was funny.”

From the Denver Post: “Former Raider quarterback Ken Stabler has a tell-all book coming out in September in which he writes of his undying feud with Al Davis. ‘He wanted me to come up to Montgomery (for the Blue-Gray game) to meet with him and bury the hatchet. I’d like to bury the hatchet--right between Al Davis’ shoulder blades.’ ”

Trivia Time: Who is the only Olympic gold medalist in track and field who also played in a Rose Bowl game? (Answer below.)

Said tight end Gordon Hudson of the Seattle Seahawks, when asked by the Seattle Times to compare his quarterbacks at BYU, Jim McMahon and Steve Young: “McMahon’s just a mustang. He doesn’t want to be inhibited. I’ve never been around a more intense competitor. He’s a pure quarterback. Young is just a great athlete who happens to be a quarterback.”

Now that Bo Jackson has been drafted by the Kansas City Royals, here’s the question: Has an All-American running back ever made good in major league baseball?

The University of California turned out two of them, Sam Chapman in 1937 and Jackie Jensen in 1948. Chapman twice drove in more than 100 runs for the Philadelphia A’s, and Jensen was an American League MVP for the Boston Red Sox.

Jackie Robinson wasn’t an All-American at UCLA, but he averaged 12.2 yards a carry in 1939 and 21 yards a punt return in 1940 to set NCAA records.

When Minnesota’s Kent Hrbek hit a 477-foot home run off Detroit’s Chuck Cary at the Metrodome--the third longest in stadium history--Twins’ publicist Tom Mee said: “The pitch was clocked at 95 m.p.h.”

Said Cary: “But how fast was it clocked going out?”

Would-you-believe-it dept.: Boston Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens had a brilliant career at the University of Texas, pitching the Longhorns to the NCAA title in 1983, but when the Houston Chronicle picked an all-time All-Southwest Conference team, he wasn’t on the first or second team.

There were five Texas pitchers selected, among them Burt Hooton and two who were better known as quarterbacks, Bobby Layne and James Street.

Hooton had a college record of 35-3 with a 1.14 earned-run average. Two of the losses were by 1-0 scores. Layne had a record of 28-0 with two no-hitters.

Trivia Answer: Bob Mathias. He won the Olympic decathlon in 1948 and 1952. He played fullback for Stanford in the 1952 Rose Bowl. Illinois won the game, 40-7. Quotebook

Glenn Wilson of the Philadelphia Phillies, on hitting .181 the first two months of the season: “I want to be the player of the month in June because I was the worst player in April and May.”