John Makes Prediction--to the Last Detail

Anybody can predict a winner, but Tommy John gives you a scenario. The Yankee left-hander says Detroit and Toronto will meet in a one-game playoff for the American League East title after winding up the regular season tied.

“It’ll be Doyle Alexander against Jimmy Key,” he says. “Doyle will win. The Tigers will win, 7-5.

“Tom Henke will give up the deciding runs on a single by Alan Trammell. Trammell will have 110 RBIs. But George Bell will hit two home runs and drive in all five. So he’ll finish with 50 home runs and 147 RBIs. And he’ll be the (American League) MVP.”

Add Alexander: Says Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe: “He’s one of the top big-game pitchers in baseball. Alexander is 21-4 in September-October games the past five years. He’s won three pennant clinchers--with Baltimore in 1973, with the Yanks in ’76 and with the Blue Jays in ’85. He says he’d like nothing better than to beat Toronto to clinch the AL East for his new employers.”

Trivia Time: “But he’s an old 30” was said by whom about whom after a controversial baseball trade? (Answer below.)

The Atlanta Falcons’ media guide, explaining why Coach Marion Campbell is called Swamp Fox, says his full name is Francis Marion Campbell Jr. and that he’s named for Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, who was famous for fighting in the swamps of Campbell’s native South Carolina.

Good story, but it’s not the one Campbell told the St. Petersburg Times.

He said: “When I was playing at the University of Georgia, the publicist asked me if I was named after Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox. I said no, and he said, ‘When you look in the paper tomorrow, you will be.’ ”

From Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post: “It was three weeks ago, the day of the Denver Broncos’ final roster cutdown. And defensive end Ray Woodard was cut and down.

“Were you offered a yellow-dog contract to play in the event of a players’ strike?” he was asked.

“ ‘No,’ Woodard said. ‘They knew I wouldn’t sign it, anyway. I’m a veteran. I’d never do that.’

“Wednesday, Woodard did it.”

Mark Gastineau, explaining why he crossed the New York Jets’ picket line, said he had a number of obligations, mainly those to his estranged wife and daughter.

According to Greg Logan of Newsday, Mrs. Gastineau said in a television interview: “His concern for my alimony payment is sudden because we’ve gone months without any.”

Linebacker Billy Ray Smith of the San Diego Chargers, after looking at some of the strikebreakers, said he wasn’t worried about losing his job.

“Put it this way,” he said. “If Richard Burton got sick the night before playing MacBeth in New York, he wouldn’t be worried if Pee Wee Herman replaced him for a day.”

Trivia Answer: Bill DeWitt, then general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, said it about Frank Robinson after trading him to Baltimore for pitcher Milt Pappas following the 1965 season. In 1966, Robinson won the triple crown in the American League. The Orioles won the pennant and beat the Dodgers in four games in the World Series.

Quotebook

Trainer Angelo Dundee, asked if it bothered him when Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali: “No. . . . My real name’s not Dundee.”