Coryell Gets Hot Response

Don Coryell, a native Californian, always was looking for new ways to psych up his players for cold-weather games when he was coaching the St. Louis Cardinals.

Joe Gibbs, a former Coryell aide, told Vito Stellino of the Baltimore Sun that Coryell finally came up with a story on Eskimos. He told the players that when they built the Alaskan pipeline, the Caucasian men could spend only about an hour in the cold driving tractors before they had to take shelter but that the Eskimos could work an eight-hour shift with no problem.

He added that tests showed there was no difference between Caucasians and Eskimos, proving it was simply a case of mind over matter.

Cardinal lineman Dan Dierdorf then raised his hand and said: “Don, what happens if I look across the line and there’s an Eskimo?”

So-you-want-to-be-coach dept.: In the first half of the Western Washington-Lewis & Clark game, kicker Peter LaBarge of Western Washington, over the protests of Lewis & Clark Coach Don McCarty, brought his own ball with him into the game and booted field goals of 30 and 21 yards.

At halftime, the officials admitted they had made a mistake and told McCarty it wouldn’t happen in the second half.

In the second half, with the official ball, LaBarge kicked field goals of 42 and 52 yards. Western Washington won, 19-7.

Trivia Time: In the 1960 World Series between the New York Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates, a Series that Bill Mazeroski won for the Pirates with a ninth-inning homer in the seventh game, the Pittsburgh groundskeeper received a vote in the balloting for MVP. Why? (Answer below.)

How good is heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson? On “Nightlife,” former middleweight champion Jake LaMotta said: “This kid is going to be the next heavyweight champion of the world. He fights like Rocky Marciano, except he’s bigger, stronger and faster.”

Wait a Minute: Darryl Strawberry of the New York Mets is quoted in the Baltimore Sun as saying he turned down a scholarship to Oklahoma, where he would have played basketball with Wayman Tisdale.

“I can play,” he said. “If I had played basketball, I would have been on my way to the NBA. I guarantee you I can play with them. I look at some of the guys who play for the Knicks. They don’t want no part of me on the court.”

Strawberry did play for a City championship team at Crenshaw, and he did sign a letter of intent with Oklahoma State, but nobody ever confused him with Marques Johnson.

C’mon.

Trivia Time: An infield pebble was blamed for a bad-bounce grounder that hit shortstop Tony Kubek in the throat, denying the Yankees a double play in a five-run eighth inning by the Pirates.

Quotebook

Clark Gillies of the Buffalo Sabres, a native of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, asked where Moose Jaw is: “Six feet from the moose’s behind.”