These Are the Lessons of the Goodwill Games

Have you been watching the Goodwill Games on TV? Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post has, and he’s wondering why.

“I have gotten two important things from these hours with the Goodwill Games,” he writes. “After 35,000 of their commercials, I now know how to apply Lee’s Press-On Nails should the need arise. And I have found the sport of the ‘90s: It’s motoball, soccer on motorcycles played with a huge ball, the perfect blending of technology and stupidity.”

Add Kornheiser: Of WTBS studio host Bob Neal, he said: “Neal is vaguely reminiscent of SCTV’s fictitious news co-anchor, Earl Camembert, the kind of guy who might get his head stuck in a pail.”

45 Years Ago Tonight: On July 17, 1941, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak came to an end at Cleveland. In front of 67,468 fans, DiMaggio went 0 for 3 against Al Smith and Jim Bagby as the New York Yankees beat the Indians, 4-3. Twice, Cleveland third baseman Ken Keltner made great plays on smashes by DiMaggio to deny him hits.

Note: After the streak ended, DiMaggio hit safely in the next 16 games.

Add DiMaggio: During the streak, he batted .408 with 15 home runs and 55 runs batted in. Ted Williams, in the same span, hit .412. He wound up hitting .406, the last man to hit .400 in the majors. The longest hitting streak in the American League since 1941 is 34 games, by Dominic DiMaggio, Joe’s brother, of Boston in 1949.

Trivia Time: Of the current Dodgers, who boasts the longest hitting streak in his career? (Answer below.)

Add Forgettable Quotes: Wrote John McGrath of the Denver Post after Oil Can Boyd blew his top over not being picked for the All-Star game: “If anybody had first dibs on fury, it should have been Indian second baseman Tony Bernazard, who is hitting 30 points higher than either Lou Whitaker or Frank White, both of whom made the trip to Houston.”

Said Whitaker after he and White produced the game’s only homers: “Hey, I’m a grown man; I hit 21 home runs last year. They say it’s hard to hit home runs in this park. Shoot, we had two second baseman do it in the same game.”

Said Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka after William Perry reported to camp weighing 325 pounds: “He worked out religiously until a week ago and then he went home to South Carolina. That’s usually a catastrophe. The chicken population of South Carolina goes down measurably.”

Stop the Presses: The Washington Redskins Wednesday announced the signing of 5-8 running back Wesley Williams.

Williams, playing for the Bologna Warriors, averaged 153 yards a game in the Italian Football League last spring. He was voted the Most Valuable Player in the league’s Super Bowl game.

They call him the Italian Stallion.

Trivia Answer: Ken Landreaux. He hit in 31 straight games for the Minnesota Twins in 1980.

Quotebook

U.S. volleyball star Karch Kiraly, formerly of UCLA, looking to a showdown with the Soviet Union in the Goodwill Games: “Playing the Russians is like playing USC.”