Watch Out! This Ump Looks Like a Wrestle Maniac

When Kansas City Manager John Wathan was ejected for the first time in his managerial career, the umpire who did the honors was Ken Kaiser.

Kaiser, in fact, was so incensed that he had to be restrained by fellow umpire Jim McKean.

Said Wathan: “I don’t like an umpire charging me like that.”

You can’t blame him. Kaiser is 6-2 1/2 and 288. His hobby is weightlifting. His former occupation is pro wrestler.

Billy Martin told Steve Buckley of the Sporting News: “I feel sorry for Tommy Lasorda. He keeps talking about the Lord and Dodger Blue, but one of these days Tommy’s going to meet the Lord and Tommy’s mouth will drop open, because the Lord will be wearing pinstripes.”

Add Martin: Darryl Strawberry of the New York Mets has been taking shots at him in the New York press, but what seemed to bother Martin most was Strawberry calling Whitey Herzog the best manager in baseball in his book.

Martin: “Doesn’t he know that they fired Herzog in Texas so they could hire me?”

Maybe nobody told him. Darryl was 11 at the time.

Trivia Time: Why won’t Willie Wilson of Kansas City or Willie McGee of St. Louis ever do what Detroit’s Willie Hernandez did, ask that he be called by his given first name, which is Guillermo? (Answer below.)

Have you heard about those fantasy tapes Chick Hearn does, where he makes you the hero of a simulated broadcast?

They do them in Boston, too, and the Boston Globe says, “Have Celtic fanatics reduced the NBA to a two-team league? For every 100 fantasy tapes done each week by Johnny Most and Glenn Ordway, 99 feature the Lakers as opponents.”

The Bottom Line: Oakland’s Dave Parker was taking some practice swings before Saturday’s game at Cleveland when a fan yelled, “Hey, Parker, you’re just a DH now! Do you know what that means?”

Replied Parker: “It means money, sucker. Money.”

Ouch: After New York Yankee reliever Dave Righetti, who is nicknamed Rags, failed in a third straight save opportunity, a New York paper headlined: “Rags Gags Again.”

Would-you-believe-it dept.: Peter King of Newsday, on quarterback Steve Beuerlein: “The Raiders probably will change his number from his double-digit 14 to a single-digit number. They think a single digit makes him look taller. I’m serious.”

Pittsburgh pitcher Doug Drabek, on the leaping ability of second baseman Jose Lind, who stands 6-0: “One day in the batting cages we put a $5 bill on the top of the netting. Everyone was jumping for it, even running jumps and nobody came close. Jose, he just stood there under it, jumped up, took it and walked out smiling.”

65 Years Ago Today: On May 2, 1923, Walter Johnson, 35-year-old Washington right-hander, recorded his first shutout of the season and the 100th of his career as the Senators defeated the New York Yankees, 3-0. He wound up with 113 shutouts, the major league record.

Trivia Answer: The given first name of each is Willie.

Quotebook

Greg Gross of the Philadelphia Phillies, asked if he thought the team had the right chemistry: “All I know about chemistry is that I couldn’t pass it in high school.”