They All Remember Sutton Back Home . . . Well, Almost

In little Molina, Fla., where Don Sutton led Tate High School to a state championship in 1962, Sutton is remembered.

As a flirt, by his classmates.

As a hater of blue feedsack shirts, by a girlfriend. “I think it was his 15th birthday, he wore his feedsack shirt to school,” Judy Barnitt Roland, 41, said. “I gave him a store-bought shirt for a present. Well, he took off his feedsack shirt and put on his new one right away.”

As a future preacher, by his parents, Howard and Lillian Sutton.

As a clod, by his brother, whom Don promptly hit in the head when he got his first bat at age 5 or 6. “It took about five stitches to stitch him up,” said his father.

Some just don’t remember him. One is Zachary Reigel, 7, who figures Sutton must have been “somebody that died a long time ago.”

Trivia Time: Pete Rose has 741 doubles, second only to Tris Speaker’s 793. Behind Rose, what three active major leaguers have the most career two-base hits? (Answer below.)

Said Andrea Guidry, a juror in the John (Hot Rod) Williams trial, who didn’t trust the prosecution’s witnesses: “These people were liars, cheaters and dopers.”

Williams was acquitted of point-shaving charges.

Soccer-crazed Brazil took a half-day holiday each time its team played a World Cup game. In lost working hours, that’s $356 million per game for a total of $1.8 billion.

Add World Cup: After Italy lost, 2-0, to the French, thus eliminating the defending champions, Italian sports paper La Gazzeta De Dello Sport wrote in a front-page editorial: “Finished, everything is finished . . . What sense did it have now to hold in our hands that trophy we won so gloriously, if it was only to take it around the world to show how absurd it was for us to have it. We have not been worthy of it.

“No honor of arms for the Azzurri (Italian team). Only whistles and boos.”

And the Lakers thought they fell hard.

The Twins are 28-40 and under attack. After a recent 8-2 road loss to Kansas City, Steve Lombardozzi told Patrick Reusse of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch: “(There) were moths--big, angry moths. They were everywhere. I was taking a throw and, when the ball was 10 feet away from me, one of the bugs hit me right between the eyes.”

From Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times, admiring Larry Bird’s deceiving physique: “He looks like the Pillsbury doughboy. His body wasn’t chiseled. It was kneaded. It’s a body by Nerf.”

If sports as big business is still in doubt, consider this: Ferris State College (Mich.) now offers business programs in both professional tennis and golf management.

Said Loyola Marymount guard Keith Smith, Milwaukee’s second choice in the NBA draft, behind Scott Skiles of Michigan State: “If I’m healthy and me and Scott Skiles have to go head-to-head for a job--it’s mine.”

Trivia Answer: Tony Perez (494), Hal McRae (477) and Ted Simmons (467).

Quotebook

Jack Lambert, former Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker, advising young athletes how to handle drug pushers: “Punch ‘em right in the mouth.”