A Different Kind of Skins Game

The Great Potato Saga Continues: Dave Bresnahan, released earlier in the week as a catcher in the Cleveland Indians organization for trying to trick a base-runner by throwing a potato while holding onto the baseball, is mashing every last bit of fun out of his stunt.

He showed up to watch his former team, the Williamsport (Pa.) Bills of the Double-A Eastern League, Wednesday and was besieged by autograph-seekers. Bresnahan signed his name and wrote, “This spud’s for you.”

The Bills got into the act themselves, cashing in on a gimmick that got the originator fired. On impulse during a radio interview, General Manager Bill Terlecky offered to let fans into the game for $1 and a potato, instead of the usual $2.75 general admission price. More than 100 of the 1,518 fans in attendance showed up with a tuber.

Through all the commotion, no one is quite sure what happened to the peeled potato that Bresnahan used in his attempt to pick a runner off third base in the first game of a doubleheader Monday against Reading, Pa.

“They picked it up in the outfield,” he said. “I remember Joe Lefebvre (Reading’s third base coach) had it. After that, I don’t know what happened to it. I sure hope I get it back. I’ll give whoever has it two autographed potatoes.”

Add Bresnahan: Next stop . . . politics?

“I could run for governor of Idaho,” he said, referring to America’s top potato-producing state.

Cecil Andrus, the former interior secretary who was elected to a third term as Idaho’s governor last November, thinks Bresnahan’s stunt was just chipper.

“The skin of a potato is better than a baseball,” Andrus said. “You don’t need a resin bag or anything. You can make those little hummers curve on a moment’s notice.

“I’ve pitched some spuds. When I was young, we pitched potatoes like we were major leaguers, throwing them to one another. But you have to be able to toss a potato better than I do. Once a bat meets a potato with a solid thud, that’s it, the game’s over.”

Trivia Time: Who holds the record for consecutive hitless innings pitched? (Answer below).

It’s the Thought That Counts: The Dallas Cowboys and the Houston Oilers play an exhibition game each season known as the Governor’s Cup, although the award itself has been missing for 15 years.

Until recently, that is. The cup was found in an office storeroom across the street from the Houston practice facility.

Apparently, they were looking real hard for it.

From Wallace Matthews of Newsday, on a sidelight to the Oct. 16 heavyweight boxing match between Tyrell Biggs and Mike Tyson:

“There’s a disaster waiting to happen on the undercard of the Tyson-Biggs fight, and his name is Jack Callahan. Callahan, the hand-picked opponent for IBF junior-middleweight champion Matthew Hilton in his first title defense, is so obscure some serious boxing people actually doubted whether there was such a fighter, or if he was just an actor hired by promoter Don King to make Hilton look good.”

Trivia Answer: Cy Young, who worked 24 straight hitless innings for the Boston Red Sox in 1904.

Quotebook

San Diego relief pitcher Rich (Goose) Gossage, on people getting excited about the Padres’ second-half revival: “We’re not only still in last place, we’re in last place in a very weak division. That’s all I need to see. People around here keep blowing horns about how great we’re doing. Come on. Anybody who is satisfied around here should open their eyes.”