Herschel’s Agent Is Charitable

Peter Johnson, agent for Herschel Walker, said he won’t be making any extravagant demands for his client when he begins talks with the Dallas Cowboys.

“Herschel isn’t playing football for the money,” Johnson told Jim Dent of the Dallas Times Herald. “He’s playing football because he likes it.”

Walker wasn’t as charitable.

“I’m a Georgia boy,” he told Dent, “but I’m not going to play for peanuts.”

Trivia Time: If Herschel Walker signs with Dallas, joining Tony Dorsett in the backfield, the Cowboys will become the fourth team in history to have two Heisman Trophy running backs on the same team. Name the other three. (Answer below.)

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said George Foster after signing with the New York Mets in 1982: “The planes at LaGuardia better not fly too low when I’m at bat.”

Add Foster: When Pete Rose, a former teammate at Cincinnati, heard that the Mets would pay Foster $2 million a year, he said: “I dirty three uniforms a day. He dirties three in a month.”

Said then San Francisco outfielder Jack Clark when somebody criticized his fielding: “I know there are a lot of worse ones. I look at a guy like George Foster and I think, if I’m a bad fielder, where does that place him?”

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: After his British Open victory, Greg Norman capped the day with a champagne celebration.

Wrote Dave Anderson of the New York Times: “Around midnight, after dinner with his wife, Laura, their daughter, Morgan Leigh, and a few friends at the Turnberry Hotel, the new champion walked down to the 18th green. On the leader board there, a star next to his name indicated that he had won.

“ ‘I’d sure like to have that star,’ ” he said.

“Quickly, one of Norman’s friends appropriated the star. They toasted it with champagne, then left the empty bottle upside down in the cup on the 18th green as if it were in a wine bucket--a moment that the legendary Walter Hagen would have appreciated. Hagen, incidentally, is the only golfer to have won both the British Open and the PGA in the same year, 1924.”

Now-you-know Dept.: The average score of every major league baseball game ever played is 5-3.

Is Dwight Gooden’s decline in 1986 the result of overwork in 1985? That’s one of the theories, but you can’t prove it by Bob Feller.

Last year, at age 20, Gooden was 24-4 while pitching 277 innings. Feller, at the same age, was 24-9 in 297 innings.

The following year, at 21, Feller pitched 320 innings and had a 27-11 record.

Said Phil Niekro, 47, when asked what else he wanted to accomplish, having already won 300 games: “Pitch in a World Series.”

After a pause, he added: “And steal second base.”

Trivia Answer: Earl Campbell and George Rogers (New Orleans Saints); Mike Rozier and Archie Griffin (Jacksonville Bulls); Tom Harmon and Les Horvath (Rams); Les Horvath and Bruce Smith (Rams).

Quotebook

Paul Hornung, on Jim Brown: “I think he would gain 1,000 yards if he played today at age 50. And now I can say I’d bet on it.”