This Plan Is Bound to Lose Something in the Translation

Billy Martin told Richard Justice of the Washington Post that he spent a lot of time this winter thinking about how Casey Stengel used to manage the New York Yankees.

“We’re going to be like the Yankees I was on,” he said. “Once you have that basic foundation, everything else takes care of itself.”

The only difference, of course, is that Martin won’t be doing it in Stengelese.

In Stengel’s first year, he called together the rookies and said: “Now all you fellers line up alphabetically by height.”

He told them: “Now, there’s three things you can do in a baseball game. You can win, or you can lose or it can rain.”

Add Stengel: He once said of Martin: “Now you take Ernie Lombardi, who’s a big man and has a big nose, and you take Billy Martin, who’s a little man and has a bigger nose. How do you figger it?”

When Mickey Mantle was a rookie, he seemed unimpressed with Stengel’s knowledge of the game.

Said Stengel: “He thinks that I was born at the age of 62 and started managing immediately.”

Add Martin: While Yankee pitchers were taking batting practice the other day, he said: “We’re going to have them hitting almost every day during the season. Why? They have to hit in the World Series, and we’re not here thinking we’re not going there.”

Trivia Time: Larry Seiple, hired this week as an assistant coach by the Miami Dolphins, made what key play in the 1972 playoffs when the Dolphins were driving to a 17-0 record? (Answer below.)

For What It’s Worth: When Kirk Gibson switched from the Detroit Tigers to the Dodgers, Las Vegas oddsmaker Jack Franzi changed the Tigers from 4-1 to 5-1 and the Dodgers from 18-1 to 15-1.

When Oregon State Coach Ralph Miller went all the way with his five starters in beating Stanford Saturday, it wasn’t a first in college basketball. Nor was it a first in Oregon State athletics.

In the 1962-63 NCAA final, George Ireland never made a substitution as Loyola (Chicago) beat two-time and defending champion Cincinnati, 60-58, in overtime.

In football, Oregon State scored a stunning upset in 1933 when Lon Stiner’s Iron Men went the full 60 minutes in tying USC, 0-0. It ended USC’s 25-game winning streak, still the longest in school history.

Cleveland catcher Andy Allanson, on the loss of Brett Butler to San Francisco: “I’m glad he’s gone. The chemistry of the club will be better without him. His skills will be missed, but he was concerned more with his own stats than the team.”

Did the Boston Red Sox receive damaged goods when they got Lee Smith from the Chicago Cubs for Calvin Schiraldi and Al Nipper?

Wrote Steve Fainaru of the Hartford Courant: “Smith has participated in running drills, but he walks laboriously to and from the field. Michael Silva, the club’s director of community relations, said that when he and Smith went looking for a house, Smith wanted to find a place where he would not have to walk much or put much strain on his knees.”

Trivia Answer: In the 1972 American Football Conference championship game, Miami was trailing Pittsburgh, 7-0, in the second quarter when Seiple, back to punt, ran instead and gained 37 yards to the Pittsburgh 12, setting up a touchdown to tie the score, 7-7. Miami went on to win, 21-17.

Quotebook

Stan Isaacs of Newsday, charging ABC with trying to put a pretty face on everything at Calgary, Canada: “The bubble-headed evening wrap-up shows with Frank and Kathie Lee Gifford, seemed more like a pajama party hosted by Mr. Gush and Mrs. Goo.”