Baylor Left a Buddy Behind on Way to Series

Bobby Grich and Don Baylor grew up together in baseball, beginning with four minor league teams in the Baltimore Orioles organization. They then won major league division titles together with the Orioles and the Angels but fell short of the World Series each time.

So now that Baylor has made the Series with Boston, he couldn’t help thinking back to Grich, who retired last week after the Angels had lost Game 7 of the American League championship series to the Red Sox.

“Being here, I have mixed feelings because of Bobby,” Baylor told Claire Smith of the Hartford Courant. “It’s a tough thing. I know he was feeling the same thing about wanting to be here, too. You’d like to be joyful, but I know I’m here at his expense.”

Add friends: Baylor said Grich had told him during the playoffs that he couldn’t wait to retire. Baylor may have heard it but he didn’t believe it.

“I think Bobby jumped the gun,” he said. “To see Bobby get thrown out (at third base in Game 2 of the playoffs) and slam his helmet down, I know the fire is still there.”

On that note, Baylor said he will try to talk Grich out of retirement when they go on a fishing trip in Mexico after the World Series. If that doesn’t work, Baylor will try again this winter when they serve as co-hosts at a golf tournament to benefit cystic fibrosis research.

Trivia Time: Who holds the World Series record for most consecutive errorless games at third base? (Answer to follow).

Stuart Sims, a defensive back for Kent State, should have quit while he was ahead, even though that wasn’t much to start with. Instead, just hours after the Flashes had absorbed their worst defeat in 17 years, a 52-9 loss to Florida, he was sacked.

As Sims and the rest of the team settled aboard a charter flight in Gainesville, Fla., he was told by a flight attendant for the second time to stow a travel bag. At that point, according to the Akron Beacon Journal, Sims allegedly replied: “Why? What do you think I’ve got in here, a bomb?”

Wrong thing to say.

Airport authorities and Gainesville police hauled Sims to jail--but left the bag. Sims was interrogated and allowed to return home the next day.

The Dallas Mavericks were bused 70 miles from Winslow, Ariz. The Phoenix Suns came 97 miles from their training base at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. They met in the unlikely town of Kykotsmovi, Ariz., site of the 2,500-seat Civic Center on the Hopi Indian Reservation, for an NBA exhibition game earlier this month.

“I feel like I’m on another planet,” said Laker assistant Coach Randy Pfund, who was there to scout the Suns. “I didn’t think I’d ever get here. I kept stopping to make sure of directions. One wrong turn here and they’ll never see you again.”

Added Dallas guard Al Wood: “It’s just like a movie. I could picture the rocks falling on us as we went by.”

Semantics: Turns out that Roy White wasn’t dismissed by the New York Yankees as batting coach.

He was “advised to seek employment” with another club.

Trivia Answer: Ron Cey, with 22.

Quotebook

Wide receiver Steve Largent of the Seattle Seahawks, asked which of his many records he will cherish the most: “Probably the Beatles’ ‘White Album.’ ”