Stengelese Is a Game in Itself

Lindsey Nelson, former New York Mets announcer who recently was inducted into the Hall of Fame, revealed that Manager Casey Stengel used to confuse him with pitcher Bob Miller.

“Casey called me Miller and called him Nelson,” Nelson said. “One day, the Mets got a new pitching coach, Joe Pignatano, who got a call in the bullpen. It was from Casey who said, ‘Send in Nelson.’

“Joe knew we didn’t have one, but did a smart thing. He put the ball on the rubber and yelled ‘Nelson!’ Sure enough, Miller got up and started warming up.”

Sam Huff detractors claimed he was a pile-on artist who didn’t deserve to make the Hall of Fame, but the former linebacker just laughs while telling stories to enhance the image.

He recalled a game between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Browns when Erich Barnes of the Giants tackled Jim Brown and wouldn’t let him up.

Said Huff: “Brown kept hollering at Barnes, ‘Get off me. Get off me.’ Barnes said, ‘I can’t get up until Huff gets here.’ ”

Former pitcher Bill (Spaceman) Lee, the presidential nominee of the Rhinoceros party, on his love life: “I remember the first time I touched my first girlfriend. She threw me through the back yard fence and dislocated my shoulder.”

Trivia Time: Name the baseball player who was with the A’s both in Philadelphia and Kansas City, the Dodgers both in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, and the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins, which the Senators became after moving from Washington. (Answer below.)

While the Chicago Bears were working out for their exhibition game against the Minnesota Vikings in Goteborg, Sweden, a Swedish model was posing for a magazine photographer behind the bench.

Said Fred Mitchell of the Chicago Tribune: “The model unabashedly removed her top to change into another outfit. For the few players and coaches who might have missed her first disrobing, she did it again, and again. Practically every 10 minutes.

“The liberated Swedish fans in the stands paid little attention to the momentarily topless lass.”

How about the Bears?

Said Coach Mike Ditka: “I almost choked on my whistle.”

Add Ditka: When he saw the stadium where the game was to be played, he noticed wire fencing around the stands to keep the fans from charging onto the field during soccer games.

“That’s good,” he said. “That will keep the fans where they belong. They should have had that in L.A. in 1964.”

That’s when a fan came out of the Coliseum stands during a Ram-Bear game. Ditka decked him.

Ouch: Football Coach John Gutekunst of the University of Minnesota on linebacker John Leverenz, a premed student: “One of my greatest fears is that he will be a doctor and I will be one of his patients.”

They have a new organist at Tiger Stadium and fans are noticing. When 41-year-old Darrell Evans drew a base on balls, the organist played Henry Mancini’s “Elephant Walk.”

Trivia Answer: Elmer Valo.

Quotebook

Jim Valvano, North Carolina State basketball coach, admitting he’s a cable TV sports junkie: “I don’t go to sleep until midget tag team wrestling comes on.”