As a Golf Coach, He Called His Shots

Now it can be told. Syracuse basketball Coach Jim Boeheim disclosed that he also coached the Orangemen golf team for five years before the sport was disbanded.

“It was the best job I ever had,” he said. “We had no team meetings, and I only reported the scores to the papers when we won, never when we lost. People always thought we were undefeated.”

Cincinnati Manager Pete Rose, calling Eric Davis the greatest prospect he’s ever seen, said: “I’d like to see him race Carl Lewis. I imagine Lewis would beat him, but not by much. And while we’re at it, I’d like to see Tim Raines and Vince Coleman in there with him.”

Forget it, Pete. In the Superstars, shown on TV Sunday, Coleman finished fourth in the 100-yard dash behind pro football players Willie Gault, Herschel Walker and Gary Anderson.

Gault and Walker both were timed in 9.44, Coleman in 10.20.

Trivia Time: Who has pitched more innings without allowing a grand slam than any active pitcher but has hit one himself? (Answer in column two.)

Actor-boxer Randall (Tex) Cobb has quietly returned to the ring, scoring three straight knockouts since March 12.

His manager, Joe Derick, told the New York Times: “He was putting on weight--got as high as 320 pounds. He doesn’t like weightlifting or things like that, so I wanted him to fight his way back in shape.”

Cobb’s next film will be a comedy, “Collision Course,” starring Jay Leno and Pat Morita.

“I play a renegade psycho,” Cobb said. “It’s typecasting.”

Cincinnati broadcaster Joe Nuxhall, on Pete Rose: “In high school his history teacher asked the class to write down the nine greatest Americans, but Rose could only think of eight. When asked why just eight, Rose replied: ‘I can’t think of a third baseman.’ ”

For What It’s Worth: Bo Jackson on Saturday became the 25th player to strike out five times in a game, joining such names as Dick Allen, Larry Doby, Frank Howard, Dave Kingman, Rick Monday, Reggie Jackson and--would you believe it--Bill Russell.

Allen did it twice. He holds the record for striking out four-or-more times in a game at 15.

How good is Michael Cage? According to the last Schick Pivotal Player ratings, he was more valuable to the Clippers than Magic Johnson was to the Lakers.

Schick utilizes a computerized evaluation of key offensive and defensive statistics to determine the player who contributes the most to his team’s overall success. Magic won the first award in 1984, followed by Michael Jordan in 1985 and Charles Barkley in 1986.

The 1987 leaders going into the final week were Barkley, Buck Williams, Cage, Johnson, Jordan, Eric Floyd, Fat Lever, Akeem Olajuwon, Larry Bird and Moses Malone.

Trivia Answer: Joaquin Andujar of Oakland. He hit the grand slam while playing for St. Louis.

Quotebook

NBC announcer Tony Kubek, on the special shoes worn by Boston’s Bill Buckner: “They do not refer to those shoes as Air Jordans.”