Ex-Fan’s Imitations Aren’t So Flattering

Donnie Hill, new second baseman for the Chicago White Sox, is a switch-hitter who throws right. If called upon, he can also throw left. He also does imitations.

“I grew up outside Los Angeles, idolizing the Dodgers,” he told Bob Verdi of the Chicago Tribune. “Don Sutton, Davey Lopes, Ron Cey, all of them. So I started imitating them, and every so often I’ll do that in the clubhouse to keep things loose. One spring, when I was with Oakland, Lopes came to play with the Dodgers in Arizona and struck out four times. When he joined the A’s a couple of years later, I did him striking out four times. He broke up.”

His best imitation?

“Tommy John,” he said. “When I was playing Little League in Pomona, I dislocated my right elbow and was told I would never play again. So, I started throwing left-handed. I had a splint on my right arm and was Tommy Johning the ball up to the plate left-handed.”

Is Hill a little different?

“Of course not, absolutely nothing different about him,” said White Sox Manager Jim Fregosi, rolling his eyes. “Why, he’s goofier than a bedbug. I know he’s from a planet, but I’m not sure it’s ours. Maybe our solar system. But definitely not our planet.”

Wait a Minute: Fernando Valenzuela has been relieved after seven innings in his first two starts, and Vin Scully theorized that the 270 innings he pitched two years ago and the 270 innings he pitched last year, along with his league-leading 20 complete games last year, were taking their toll.

In 1933-36, Carl Hubbell, the first great screwballer, pitched more than 300 innings four straight years. He averaged 23 complete games. His average record was 23-10. Hubbell pitched until he was 40.

Possibly his finest performance was on May 19, 1933 when he pitched the New York Giants to a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in 18 innings. He pitched all 18 innings.

Trivia Time: What do pitchers Bruce Ruffin of Atlanta, Greg Swindell of Cleveland and Roger Clemens and Calvin Schiraldi of Boston have in common? (Answer below.)

Ex-NFL defensive back Beasley Reece, who played for Ray Perkins with the New York Giants and wound up his career with Tampa Bay, told the Orlando Sentinel: “When I first met him I thought he was the meanest, most complex person I had ever met. He scared me to death. He hired coaches who were crazy. He ran us to death. We knew the country club atmosphere was over.”

Reece then told of a time he awoke Perkins at 5:30 in the morning during training camp to say his son was about to be born.

“He paid for the flight home and gave me two days off,” Reece said. “That touched me, and I’ve been a Ray Perkins fan ever since. He could tell me to jump off the George Washington Bridge, and all I’d ask is, ‘What time?’ ”

How fast is Bo Jackson? Kansas City center fielder Willie Wilson, explaining how he just missed catching the first hit off Bret Saberhagen Friday night, said: “I just wish I could run like Bo, maybe I would have got it.”

Wilson is second only to Rickey Henderson in career stolen bases in the American League. At one time, some were calling him the fastest man in baseball.

It’s a tournament he would just as soon forget, but Kenny Knox never will have trouble remembering his score in the 1987 Masters.

He shot 75-75-75-75--300.

Trivia Answer: All four went to the University of Texas.

Quotebook

Rocky Bridges, on his career with the Dodgers: “The more I played with them the more I found that no one there could take a joke--my batting average.”