Always a Chance for Recall

Umpire Bruce Froemming is angry with New York Mets announcer Ralph Kiner, claiming he’s the worst of the second-guessers, but longtime Kiner listeners would tell the umpire to relax--that Ralph doesn’t always call ‘em as he sees ‘em. Examples:

--”There’s a base hit into center field as Santana can’t get to it. But he gets over there and makes the catch.”

--”And the first pitch to Mitchell, lined into right field, deep right field. It’s out of here! Off the wall.”

--”There’s a curveball. McGraw seldom throws the curve. He probably throws it more now than he ever has.”

--”It’s looped into left-center field. Here comes Heep. He can’t get to it. He did get to it. Danny Heep with a shoestring catch.”

--”It’s going, it’s going, it’s going--to be caught.”

Craig (Ironhead) Heyward clocked a slowish 4.83 in the 40, but Ram Coach John Robinson says: “He can catch the ball as well as any back coming into the draft. He may not have the greatest time, but when you watch him on film, he can run over guys. He can dominate. And he’s the kind of player who wants the ball.”

From Marc Vancil of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune after the Cleveland Indians’ Julio Franco literally knocked the cover off a ball: “Said Indian Manager Doc Edwards: ‘If that would have happened in the World Series, it would have been a story forever.’ ”

Said Vancil: “The bigger story would be the Indians reaching the World Series.”

Trivia Time: Who is the shortest player to win the National Basketball Assn. scoring title? (Answer below.)

From Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe: “Bet you don’t know who wrote ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’ It was created in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Al Von Tilzer, two guys who’d never been to a professional ballpark. Norworth wrote the lyrics while riding a New York subway. Later in his career, he wrote, ‘Shine On, Harvest Moon.’ ”

Add Globe: If you thought Mike Tyson would be mellowed by marriage, the champion said of the Michael Spinks fight:

“I’ll break Spinks. None of them have a chance. I’ll break them all. When I fight someone, I want to break his will. I want to take his manhood. I want to rip out his heart and show it to him. People say that’s primitive, that I’m an animal. But then they pay $500 to see it. There’s so much hypocrisy in the world. The world is so . . . up.

“I’m not an athlete. I’m a warrior, a missionary. I never liked sports. Sports are only social events. What I do is an obsession. If I wasn’t in boxing, I’d be breaking the law. That’s my nature.”

Trivia Answer: Nate (Tiny) Archibald, 6-foot 1-inch guard of the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, in 1972-73. He also led the league in assists, the only player to lead in both the same season.

Quotebook

Paul Westphal, coach of National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics basketball champion Grand Canyon College, on letting his players play their game: “I don’t know what coaches are doing, going around yelling all the time anyway. Nobody can hear them.”