Casper Heat Formula Carries Some Weight

Billy Casper, leader in the U.S. Senior Open, has a special formula to beat the heat.

Said USA Today: “He walks in the shade as often as possible, drinks at least one cup of water every hole and eats a banana after the ninth hole to give him energy.”

If you’ve seen Casper’s waistline, you’d have guessed it was the other way around--one cup of water and 18 bananas.

Add Seniors: It had to happen: Said ESPN analyst Dave Marr as Gary Player addressed a chip shot off the 16th green Thursday: “This is a shot he’s generally very good at.”

Fifteen feet short. Bogey.

Marr, on Gene Littler as he faced a shot out of the rough: “Gene’ll figure a way to get it up and down.”

He didn’t.

More Seniors: Walt Zembriski, the former construction worker who shared the first-round lead with Casper, had a brief fling on the PGA Tour two decades ago but said he had to give it up after a divorce.

Why?

“My sponsor was my father-in-law,” he said.

Trivia Time: Gertrude Ederle, who became the first woman to swim the English Channel on this date in 1926, had previously set a world record in what event? (Answer below.)

Kinerisms-of-the-Week: From New York Mets announcer Ralph Kiner during Wednesday’s game against the Chicago Cubs:

--”Rick Sutcliffe was the rookie of the year, in his first year.”

--”The Mets have the best record in baseball, in both leagues.”

Add Kiner: Former catcher Joe Garagiola recalls when Kiner and Hank Sauer, neither fleet of foot, flanked Frankie Baumholtz in the Chicago Cubs outfield: “I used to look out there and see Kiner practicing his batting stroke, Sauer chewing tobacco and Baumholtz taking oxygen.”

Add Cubs: No, that won’t be the first night event at Wrigley Field when the Cubs face the Philadelphia Phillies Monday night.

In September 1934, a crowd of 10,000 attended a night wrestling match between Jim Londos and Strangler Lewis. Temporary lights were put on the roof for the match.

Add lights: Other night events at Wrigley have included boxing matches, rodeos and a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game in 1954.

The topper, according to Bob Ibach, the Cubs’ director of publications, was a ski-jumping contest.

“The skiers took a lift to the upper deck behind home plate,” Ibach said. “They went down a makeshift slope which went to about the pitcher’s mound and jumped into center field.”

36 Years Ago Today: On Aug. 6, 1952, St. Louis Browns right-hander Satchel Paige, at age 46, became the oldest pitcher in major league history to pitch a complete game and a shutout when he beat Virgil Trucks and the Detroit Tigers, 1-0, in 12 innings.

Washington Bullets General Manager Bob Ferry had this to say about Ralph Sampson in 1983: “He plays more over the rim than any man I’ve ever seen. He’s just a super athlete. To me, he is the most athletic big man I’ve ever seen. He’ll do things that have never been seen before, now that he’s free to play one-on-one basketball.”

Time’s running out.

Trivia Answer: The world record of 1:12.8 in the women’s 100-meter freestyle.

Quotebook

Former umpire Ron Luciano, admitting he sometimes got confused behind the plate: “I called a lot of ‘baa-rikes’ and ‘stri-alls.’ ”