It’s Really the Talk of Baseball

Baseball season has ended but the quotes linger on. The following are from a list compiled by Dave van Dyck and Joe Goddard of the Chicago Sun-Times:

--San Francisco’s Roger Mason, on giving up three straight homers to San Diego hitters to start a game: “I’m glad I don’t have a fourth pitch.”

--St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog, on the early problems of reliever Todd Worrell: “His location has been bad--in the seats.”

--Minnesota’s Bert Blyleven, on leading the major leagues in home runs allowed: “It’s pretty bad when your family asks for passes to the game and wants to sit in the left-field bleachers.”

--Bob Boone of the Angels, on breaking Al Lopez’s record for games caught: “It means I’ve taken more aspirin than any other player in history.”

--St. Louis trainer Gene Geiselmann, on a game with the Chicago Cubs that lasted 3 hours 50 minutes: “It lasted so long I had to trim my fingernails twice.”

--Toronto’s Rick Leach, on a game the Blue Jays lost to the New York Yankees, 15-14: “Maybe this means we will get an Arena Football team.”

Add Herzog: If he never sees the Metrodome again, it will be too soon, but he said he wouldn’t have minded playing there.

“I don’t say this to demean anybody,” he said, “but even as lousy a player as I was, I think I might have hit 25 homers a season if I had played in the dome.”

Herzog, a lifetime .257 hitter, had a high of eight homers with the Kansas City A’s in 1960. He started his career with the Washington Senators, which later became the Minnesota Twins.

Trivia Time: The Minnesota Twins, who won the World Series in 1924 as the Washington Senators, have joined what three other baseball franchises to win world championships in two different cities? (Answer in column two.)

From Utah Jazz forward Karl Malone, who has added 16 pounds of muscle to his 6-foot 9-inch frame through a weight program and now weighs 262: “I’d like to play 10 more years with the Utah Jazz and help them win a championship. Then I’d like to be Mr. Olympia. I have great respect for those guys.”

Jacksonville State promotions director Rudy Abbott, after 13,000 turned out for the homecoming game with Valdosta State Oct. 3: “I kept telling our president that one day we would outdraw the NFL, and darned if we didn’t.”

Who do you like between Oklahoma and Nebraska? Said Kansas State quarterback Gray Swim, whose team has lost to the Sooners, 59-10, and the Huskers, 56-3: “I would give Nebraska the edge because of their characteristics and their respect toward us.

“Nebraska had good sportsmanship, where Oklahoma had no respect for us. All they could do was talk. I would hope Nebraska would win it.”

Notre Dame flanker Tim Brown has been unable to pile up big statistics as teams double cover him and kick away from him, but Irish running back Ricky Watters says, “He throws block after block. He’s setting an example for me--that being an All-American doesn’t mean you’re pretty and can stand back and do what you want. You have to play.”

Trivia Answer: Brooklyn-Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston-Milwaukee Braves and Philadelphia-Oakland A’s.

Quotebook

Nebraska Omaha football Coach Sandy Buda, on a rash of injuries that have hit the team: “We have so many guys in the whirlpool that the only way to get them out to practice is to play the theme song from ‘Jaws.’ ”