Flakiness: It’s All in the Genes

Andy MacPhail, general manager of the Minnesota Twins, is a son of former American League president Lee MacPhail and a grandson of former Brooklyn Dodger president Larry MacPhail.

Writes Steve Jacobson of Newsday: “It was Larry, the legendary Mr. Bluster, who introduced night baseball to the big leagues while with Cincinnati. Once in 1937, he got drunk and punched out Powell Crosley, who owned the Reds. So, he moved to Brooklyn and began the Dodgers’ climb from bankruptcy.”

Says Andy MacPhail: “My family said I was like my grandfather when I was a child. Sort of flaky. As I got older, I became more like my father.”

“Thank God,” says Lark MacPhail, his wife. “I hope it doesn’t turn up in the next generation.”

Add MacPhail: Jacobson tells this one: “In 1918, at the end of World War I, the Kaiser had found refuge in Holland from an impending Allied tribunal. Capt. Larry MacPhail and a half dozen men on six days’ leave set off by car, through France and Belgium, for the castle where the Kaiser was known to be, intending to spirit him back for trial.

“While they were explaining to the duke who owned the castle that they were journalists there to interview the Kaiser, Capt. MacPhail heard Dutch troops marching to the castle and directed a withdrawal.

“When they got back to their base, Gen. Pershing said, ‘It was a hair-brained scheme, but I’d have given a month’s pay to have been with them.’ ”

Now-it-can-be-told dept.: When the earthquake hit Los Angeles, Mike LaCoss of the San Francisco Giants, who were in town to face the Dodgers, called the club’s traveling secretary and said: “You’ve got to get me a new room. This one’s shaking.”

Trivia Time: Who holds the Pacific Coast League record for most home runs in a season? (Answer below.)

Bruce Lowitt of the St. Petersburg Times, on Dick Young, the brash New York columnist who died recently: “He had no tolerance for the electronic media, radio and TV types clutching their tapes and cameras and lights, trying to shoulder their way past the print reporters to the front of the press conferences.

“Once, when a commissioner was discoursing, a broadcaster cried out, ‘My batteries are dead. Can you hold it a minute?’

“To which Young shouted, ‘Keep talking. My pencil works just fine.’ ”

Would-you-believe-it dept.: From Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe: “How private is Tiger pitcher Doyle Alexander? He’s been known to ask writers for references before granting interviews.”

For What It’s Worth: Twin reliever Juan Berenguer, who shot down his former Detroit teammates in the American League playoffs, can try for an encore in the World Series if San Francisco makes it. He was with the Giants last year before they released him after the season.

Trivia Answer: Tony Lazzeri with 60. He did it with Salt Lake City in 1925, playing in 197 games. He had 222 runs batted in.

Quotebook

Long-hitting Jim Dent, on why he hasn’t won more on the PGA circuit: “I can airmail the ball, but sometimes I don’t put the right address on it.”