His Triple Went to His Head

The subject was hitting, or lack of it, and the conversation got around to Hank Aguirre, a former pitcher who was a notoriously bad hitter.

Frank Luksa of the Dallas Times Herald recalled a game in which Aguirre, a career .085 hitter, managed to hit a triple. In a fit of optimism, he then threatened to steal home.

Said the third base coach: “Hank, it took you 13 years to get here, so don’t fool around.”

The subject was weight, or loss of it, and New York Giant General Manager George Young told Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel how Hall of Fame guard Jim Parker used to take off the pounds with the Baltimore Colts.

Young said Parker would don a rubber sweat suit, slip into his big, white Cadillac, turn up the heater all the way and drive around for a half hour.

“It was no wonder,” said Young, “that nobody wanted to ride with Jim anywhere.”

51 Years Ago Today: On May 24, 1936, Tony Lazzeri, batting eighth for the New York Yankees, set an American League record with 11 RBIs in a 25-2 rout of the Philadelphia A’s. Lazzeri had three home runs, two of them grand slams, and a triple.

Trivia Time: Who holds the major league record for RBIs in a game? (Answer below.)

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.”

Would-you-believe-it dept.: 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.”

Said Don Mattingly after the New York Yankees knocked out Mike Witt of the Angels Friday night: “He’s an outstanding pitcher, but I don’t think he’s throwing as hard as he used to. You have to get to him early because he’s a finisher.”

From Buddy Martin of the Denver Post: “Bob Horner hasn’t hit a homer in 13 days after drilling six in his first 10 at-bats in Japan, but he’s striking it big in the currency exchange because he took his $1.2 million in yen, not dollars.

“Horner is so beloved by the Japanese that he can retire on endorsements alone.”

Words of wisdom from Washington Redskin quarterback Doug Williams: Asked about the rebuilding of his old team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, under Ray Perkins, he said: “The problem with rebuilding is that everybody else is rebuilding, too--and starting from a higher level.”

Said A.J. Foyt when asked if he ever got scared on the race track: “Scared? All the time. I’m not one of these guys who’s a hero race driver. The guy who tells you that is fooling himself. There’s not a man alive who wants to go out and break his arms or legs or back, and I’ve had all that happen to me. They can try to play the macho thing like a football player or a baseball player, but when you get right down to it, every individual body has a little fear in it--unless he’s a complete idiot, and they don’t last very long.”

Trivia Answer: Jim Bottomley of St. Louis Cardinals with 12 in 1924.

Quotebook

Jerry Willard of the Oakland A’s, told by the trainer he should gargle with lukewarm water: “Where do you buy that stuff?”