One Runs Fast; One Talks Fast

Sparky Anderson, never one to shy away from hyperbole, is effusive in his praise of Bo Jackson, who has played in 39 major league games.

“He’s the most exciting single athlete I’ve ever been on the field with in my life,” Anderson said. “He’s got a better build than other guys who have been lifting weights 10 years.

“He steals bases and doesn’t even know what he’s doing. We’re talking about a guy with world-class speed.

“Fast? You think Willie Wilson is fast? He runs maybe a 9.6 or 9.7 100. Jackson runs a 9.2. If he ran against Kirk Gibson, he’d be standing, waiting and waving at him the last 10 yards.”

Wrote Richard L. Shook of UPI: “Anderson goes overboard in his praise of young players so easily he should wear a life jacket.”

Trivia Time: Who shares, with Ron Guidry, the American League record of nine shutouts by a left-hander in a single season? (Answer below).

For what it’s worth: Only Magic Johnson of the 11 Johnsons in the NBA finished among the top 30 in scoring this season, while all three Malones--Moses, Karl and Jeff--finished among the top 20.

Would-you-believe-it Dept.: Rob Deer did not hit any home runs in 48 games in his first professional season at Great Falls, Mont., but his first major league hit was a home run for the San Francisco Giants in 1984, his first American League at-bat produced a home run, he hit 33 home runs for the Brewers last season and he leads the majors this season with seven home runs.

But can he trot 360 feet? Mike Schmidt, who hit his 500th career home run last week, told Esquire magazine: “Very few baseball players are in really good physical condition. The game doesn’t require it. I’m in much better shape at the beginning of spring training than I am at the end of the season. I’m so limber in the spring that I can do splits. My body fat might be as low as 10% in February and as high as 14% in October. By August, I can’t even run a mile without getting winded.”

Add Schmidt, who has won 10 Gold Gloves: “Fielding has always come easy to me. The problem has been with my own expectations. Two years ago, before they moved me over to first for a while, I had my worst season ever at third. Then it came back. I’m still the best there is.”

And it may be worse in the beer lines: Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr., a psychiatrist who has worked with the New England Patriots for five years, wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine that the combat-like intensity of professional football can cause an emotional disorder among players similar to the post-traumatic stress that affects some Vietnam veterans.

Signs of the disorder, including angry outbursts, irritability, dreams of violence and a sense of a shortened future, have been observed in football players, Nicholi wrote.

“During my time with the Patriots,” he wrote, “several players have consulted me to express alarm over dreams about death, plane crashes and bloody massacres.”

Trivia Answer: Babe Ruth.

Quotebook

Gail Meyer, owner of a George Webb restaurant franchise in Cedarburg, Wis., which served 100 hamburgers in five minutes while delivering on a promise to serve free hamburgers if the Milwaukee Brewers won 12 straight games: “I felt like the National Guard calling in the troops.”