Hard Hitter Simply Had No Touch

Former PGA champion Paul Runyan was reminiscing about the days when pro-am tournaments were a major source of income on the golf circuit.

“Back in the 1930s, the Seminole Pro-Am was a big winter event in Florida,” he told the Boston Globe. “It was a fancy affair with a lot of rich and fancy people playing with pros like me who were trying to make a living.

“I had one fascinating partner who drove 310 yards off the first tee and hit his approach shot about 18 inches from the flag. Now I’m thinking to myself, ‘We’ve got this thing all wrapped up. Nobody told me this guy could play like that.’

“Then he took his putter and knocked the ball 18 feet past the hole. I guess nobody ever taught Gene Tunney how to putt.”

Wait a Minute: Long jumper Larry Myricks, asked about the 29-foot, 1-inch jump by Robert Emmiyan of the Soviet Union, said: “I’ve talked to some people who’ve seen it on film, and they said it was the shortest 29 footer they’ve ever seen.”

Guess so. There has only been one other. That was the 29-2 1/2 by Bob Beamon.

Henry Aaron apparently has put on a pound or two. Wrote Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post after Monday night’s old-timers game at RFK Stadium: “Henry Aaron now fits both Babe Ruth’s shoes and his pants.”

Trivia Time: If Oakland A’s farmhand Joe Xavier, a nephew of Atlanta Brave General Manager Bobby Cox, should get called up from the Southern League where he is batting .312, he would become the answer to what trivia question? (Answer below.)

Trivia Trap: If someone wants to bet you that Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams wore the same number, don’t fall for it. When DiMaggio first came up to the New York Yankees, he wore No. 9 before switching to No. 5.

Said Texas A&M; football Coach Jackie Sherrill after University of California Chancellor Ira Michael Heyman proposed the abolition of bowl games and lamented the fact that coaches always are expected to win: “If he feels that way about it, why did he just relieve a coach?”

Football Coach Joe Kapp got the hook last year.

Ken Denlinger of the Washington Post, on the Arena Football League, in which players get $500 a game: “Its pay scale might be less than most teams in the Southwest Conference.”

Ron Hunt, whose hit-by-pitches record was broken by Don Baylor, told the Boston Globe that the year he remembers most was 1972, when he set a National League record by getting plunked 50 times.

“I had Chub Feeney’s name all over me,” he said.

Feeney was the National League president.

Said Georgetown Coach John Thompson after Tyrone Bogues was drafted by the Washington Bullets: “Tyrone Bogues has just assured himself a spot in the Hall of Fame. Being 5-feet-3 and being considered talented enough to be drafted in the first round, that’s just phenomenal. But I’m sorry he was drafted. I wanted him for Seoul.”

Thompson is the U.S. Olympic coach.

Trivia Answer: He would be the first major league player in history whose name started with the letter X.

Quotebook

National League catcher Joe Garagiola, asked what kind of pitches he was calling for in Monday night’s 24-11 loss to the American League in the old-timers game: “It didn’t matter. They never got to me.”