Indy Will Showcase a New Seniors Tour

They’re calling them the Sunshine Boys. Dick Simon, oldest driver ever at Indy, heads the list at 53. A.J. Foyt is next at 52. Then come Gordon Johncock at 50, Johnny Rutherford at 48 and Al Unser Sr. and Mario Andretti at 47.

How does Andretti like being called a Sunshine Boy?

“I’ve never heard that before now,” he said. “Then again, maybe my memory’s going. Maybe somebody asked me that yesterday.”

You-can’t-win dept.: Anthony Cotton of the Washington Post reports this exchange between Laker Coach Pat Riley and a woman fan in the Forum parking lot after a practice before Game 5 against Golden State:

Fan: “Are you going to win tonight, Pat?”

Riley: “We’re sure gonna try.”

Fan: “Try? You’re sure gonna try? You’d better win. By 30.”

Houston Rockets General Manager Ray Patterson can’t understand how Michael Cooper was named the NBA defensive player of the year over Akeem Olajuwon.

Olajuwon led the Rockets in blocked shots, steals and rebounds, the only player to do so since Dave Cowens in 1977-78.

Patterson told Jerry Sullivan of Newsday: “I don’t want to get in a quarrel with the media, but some know what they’re doing and some don’t. That’s democracy. A lot of times democracy picks the wrong president, so how can you expect it to choose the best defensive player?”

Trivia Time: Among the Dodger individual records for batting average, hits, runs, doubles, triples, home runs and RBIs in a season, what is the only one to be set since the club moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles? (Answer below.)

A list of malaprops in this space Wednesday inspired Roger Bennett of UPI to send along the following from a list he’s been keeping:

--Local radio: “Three games in the NBA tonight. All under the lights.”

--Larry Merchant, ESPN: “Here’s a right hand that Hagler landed on both sides of Duran’s head.”

--Local TV in Salt Lake City: “And here’s a late score from the Coast: Pittsburgh 6, Cincinnati 4.”

--ESPN: “That’ll be the 28th penalty of the game. It’s the 14th against Washington and either the 13th or 14th against New York. I don’t know which.”

Minor league fans have been almost 100% behind Dwight Gooden in his comeback, but the honeymoon may have ended Thursday night during his stint for the Tidewater Tides in Norfolk, Va.

As he struggled in the fifth inning against the Maine Guides, a fan yelled, “Bring in Orosco.”

Ouch: Walt Frazier, just named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, had this to say about his change of lifestyle after being traded from the New York Knicks to the Cleveland Cavaliers: “There is nothing worse than being all dressed up with no place to go.”

For What It’s Worth: From Wallace Matthews of Newsday: “If Mike Tyson continues to fight and win at a pace of five fights per year, as projected by co-manager Jim Jacobs, he would break Rocky Marciano’s heavyweight championship record of 49 straight wins by May 1991, at age 24--the same age Marciano turned professional.”

Trivia Answer: 153 RBIs, Tommy Davis, 1962. Note: Babe Herman, in 1930, set records for batting average (.393), hits (241) and runs (143). Other record holders are Duke Snider, 43 homers, 1956; Johnny Frederick, 52 doubles, 1929, and Harry (Hi) Myers, 22 triples, 1920.

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Quotebook

Max Muehlman, a leader in the drive to bring an NBA franchise to Charlotte, N.C., on the news the city had succeeded: “This could only be more perfect if we had won the Civil War.”