Seaver Thinks He Will Still Find Work

Tom Seaver’s pitching career appears to be over at age 42, but apparently he still has something on the ball. He told Dave Anderson of the New York Times of making an instructional video with Mickey Mantle, Gary Carter and others in Florida recently.

“I only pitched to Mickey once before, in the 1968 All-Star Game in Houston,” he said. “Struck him out. But even doing that video, I was like an old racehorse out on the track again. I was trying to make the ball move. Mickey asked me if I had been throwing at home. I told him, no, and he said, ‘Steinbrenner could use you.’

“I also threw Carter a couple of changeups, the same pitch I struck out Dave Winfield with when I won my 300th game.”

Seaver, still hoping for a phone call, said: “I’ve learned that every team thinks it has enough pitching on Feb. 20, but every team starts hunting for pitching on March 20.”

Add Seaver: He was unable to pitch for Boston in the World Series because of an injury but says the Red Sox still should have won.

“Two outs, two strikes, nobody on, it showed a lack of killer instinct,” he said of Game 6. “When you’re within one pitch of winning, you have to win. If you don’t, you don’t deserve to win.”

The subject was hitting, and Ted Williams told Jerome Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune: “A sculptor was doing a statue of me for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. He said, ‘I’ve studied a lot of pictures of you and you’re choked up on the bat.’ I did. If you took an inch off everyone’s bat, you’d improve every hitter. You don’t want too long a swing.”

Trivia Time: If Magic Johnson wins the MVP in the NBA this season, he will be only the third guard to win the award. Name the other two. (Answer below.)

If you didn’t think much of the officiating Sunday in Philadelphia, you’re not alone.

Said Chick Hearn near the end of regulation: “If the Lakers get out of here with a ‘W,’ they’ve defeated a lot of people. If that carries a message, I’m sorry.”

From Alan Greenberg of the Hartford Courant: “In two weeks, Jerome Lane of Pitt will become the shortest man--he says that he’s 6-foot-6, but that must be in high heels--to win the NCAA rebounding title since Elgin Baylor did it 30 years ago. And the 6-5 Baylor played when college frontcourts were still studded with 6-3 shrimps. Jerome Lane plays in the land of the giants.”

Don Mattingly was up against some show-business heavyweights, but his No. 23 New York Yankee jersey drew the highest bid of all at a Special Olympics auction in Tarryton, N.Y. It went for $1,800. Others included:

Cybill Shepherd (monogrammed jacket), $700; David Letterman (size 10 1/2 sneakers), $500; Bruce Willis (autographed sunglasses), $400; Don Johnson (autographed jacket), $375.

Trivia Answer: Bob Cousy (Boston), 1956-57; Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati), 1963-64.

Quotebook

Utah Jazz Coach Frank Layden, on Magic Johnson: “They say Magic has been playing like he’s on a mission, and that’s not a Mormon mission.”