He Makes a Case for Baseball

Spring training is less than a month away, and Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post seized the opportunity to list 99 reasons why baseball is a better game than football. A few of them:

--”All XX Super Bowls haven’t produced as many classic games as either pennant playoff did this year.”

--”In baseball, when a player scores, you cheer. In football, when a player scores, you look for flags.”

--”The Redskins have 13 assistant coaches, 5 equipment managers, 3 trainers, 2 assistant GMs but, for 14 games, nobody who could kick an extra point.”

--”In football, nobody says, ‘Let’s play two.’ ”

--”Someday, just once, could we have a punt without a penalty?”

--”The best football announcer ever was Howard Cosell.”

--”The worst baseball announcer ever was Howard Cosell.”

--”Football coaches walk across the field after the game and pretend to congratulate the opposing coach. Baseball managers head right for the beer.”

New York Giants Coach Bill Parcells was asked what he remembered about the team’s 19-16 victory over the Denver Broncos in the regular season.

“I remember George Martin’s play,” he said, recalling the 78-yard interception return by the veteran defensive end. “It was one of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen in football. Also, I never realized how big John Elway is. He ran out of bounds on one play and I said to myself, ‘God, he’s big.’ ”

Elway is 6-3 and 212.

Caution: If you’re eating breakfast, read this later. If you’re John Elway, don’t read it at all.

Said Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor, when asked about sacks: “There’s a difference between a sack and a sack . A sack is when you come up from behind someone who doesn’t know you’re coming and put your helmet into his back and make him blow a snot bubble. The ball flies everywhere, and the coach comes out and asks the quarterback, ‘Are you all right?’ That’s a sack .”

Trivia Time: Chuck Howley of Dallas, the only linebacker to win the MVP award in a Super Bowl, had what other distinction? (Answer below.)

Wait a Minute: Said WTBS analyst Rick Barry when a player missed a shot: “He’s shooting only 47% from the floor.”

When Barry led the Golden State Warriors to the NBA title in 1974-75, he shot 46%.

When somebody told Washington Bullets Coach Kevin Loughery he was surprised by the politeness of John Williams, the former LSU and Crenshaw High star, Loughery said: “He’s for real. You see, he’s from L.A. and you make assumptions, but he’s a good, nice kid.

“Look at the other guys from that school--Darwin Cook, Marques Johnson and Darryl Strawberry with the Mets--they’re all class acts.”

Denver Coach Dan Reeves brings some of the same credentials to the Super Bowl as last year’s winning coach, Mike Ditka.

They were teammates on the Dallas Cowboys’ first two Super Bowl teams and they served together for eight years as assistant coaches on Tom Landry’s staff. Also, they are the only coaches in the NFL who have yet to earn their degrees.

Ditka went to Pittsburgh, Reeves to South Carolina.

Trivia Answer: He’s the only MVP to be chosen from a losing team. In the 1971 Super Bowl, Dallas lost to Baltimore, 16-13.

Quotebook

Angel Manager Gene Mauch, asked what he thinks of Don Drysdale as an announcer: “He talks very well for a guy who had two fingers in his mouth all his life.”