How to Be Five Under and Teed Off

Before Ray Knight and wife Nancy Lopez left for Albany, Ga., where they planned to play a little golf, Ira Berkow of the New York Times asked how two such competitive people managed to get along on the course.

Knight said it was no problem, although he did recall a round a couple of years ago when things got out of control.

“We were at the 15th hole and Nancy’s five or six under par, and I’m about four or five over,” Knight said. “Both of us are lying 2 at the edge of the green, a par-5 hole, and we both have short chip shots.”

Knight’s ball was on the other side of the green, and as he was walking around to the ball, Lopez addressed her chip and proceeded to stub it. According to Knight, she accused him of deliberately distracting her. He denied it, but one word led to another, and pretty soon they were so mad they weren’t talking to each other.

On the 16th hole, she stormed off the course and went to the car, intending to drive home. Alas, Knight had the keys, so she had to wait until he finished. By that time, both had cooled off and they eventually made up.

Knight: “But what I’ll never understand is how anyone can walk off the course when they’re five under par. If I was five under par, an army couldn’t get me off.”

Add Knight: Of his World Series MVP award, he said, “I’m going to have a hard time finding room for it in our trophy case. Nancy’s are all over the place. I’ve got four or five, I think.”

Trivia Time: Before Ray Knight, who was the last third baseman to be chosen MVP in the World Series? (Answer below.)

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: According to The Sporting News, Chicago Bears Coach Mike Ditka was so disgusted by the team’s performance in the 20-7 win over the Houston Oilers at the Astrodome, he said in his postgame speech: “Let’s say the Lord’s Prayer and get the hell out of here.”

Add Bears-Oilers: When play stopped during the game because the Bears couldn’t hear the signals, the referee asked Houston Coach Jerry Glanville to help quiet the fans.

Glanville: “I told him that the only guy in the stadium the crowd hated more than him was me. I was the wrong guy to ask for help.”

Said Moses Malone of the Washington Bullets, when asked if he was tired of the preseason: “I was tired of the preseason 13 years ago.”

The opposing coaches at Tucson tonight go back a long way. USC’s Ted Tollner was a quarterback at Cal Poly SLO, and Arizona’s Larry Smith was a defensive end at Bowling Green when the teams played in 1960.

Bowling Green won, 50-6, and then tragedy struck when the Cal Poly team plane crashed on takeoff. Tollner was one of 26 survivors. Twenty-two people died.

Trivia Answer: Ron Cey in 1981. He shared the award with Steve Yeager and Pedro Guerrero after the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in six games.

Quotebook

Philadelphia Eagles Coach Buddy Ryan, asked if he was worried by the blocking of running back Keith Byars: “I think Ron Jaworski is more worried about it.”