A Head-Over-Heels Mistake

As soon as he did it, Keith Moreland regretted it, but he couldn’t help himself.

The San Diego first baseman celebrated a home run against San Francisco Monday by doing a cartwheel.

It wasn’t a classic cartwheel. “About a 1 out of a possible 10,” said teammate Tony Gwynn.

Said Moreland: “I’m embarrassed. It just happened. It was insanity. I wasn’t trying to show anybody up. I had taken enough abuse about going 300 at-bats without a home run.

“I’ve never done anything like that in 10 years in the big leagues, and I don’t plan on doing anything like that again. I also don’t plan on going 300 at-bats without hitting the ball out of the ballpark.”

What did San Francisco Manager Roger Craig think of it?

“I’ve got a lot more to worry about than Moreland’s cartwheel,” he said. “If we win a game, I might go out and do a cartwheel on the mound.”

Would-you-believe-it department: Doug Williams of the Washington Redskins has not won a regular-season NFL game as a starting quarterback since 1982, when he was at Tampa Bay.

Add Williams: Said Gary Reasons of the New York Giants after teammate Jim Burt had recovered Williams’ fumble and waddled 39 yards to a touchdown Monday night: “I was lying there watching him and I was afraid he might trip over a yard line.”

Trivia Time: What quarterback was a loser for two different franchises as a starter in the Super Bowl? (Answer below.)

Hungry Fighter: From an Associated Press story on Olympic boxing: “When France’s Roger Brousse was disqualified in the 1924 Games at Paris for biting Britain’s Harry Mallin, one writer described it this way: ‘Having got his teeth into a piece of Argentine meat during one of his earlier contests, M. Brousse decided to vary the menu by sampling some of the unroasted human beef of Old England.’ ”

Lester Hayes told the Baltimore Sun that the San Diego Chargers were interested in him, but the club denied it.

“I can help those guys,” Hayes said. “They have Toast Patterson and he couldn’t cover you in a phone booth.”

That’s Elvis Patterson. He was nicknamed Toast by Bill Parcells after getting burned as a rookie with the New York Giants.

Add Forgettable Quotes: Said Detroit pitcher Jack Morris on Aug. 11, when the Tigers led the American League East by 4 1/2 games: “This team has unbelievable pitching. Thank God.”

Don Riley of the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, on Wayne Gretzky: “Be prepared for the fast decline and rapid fall of a great athlete. Playing hockey in L.A. is the same as finding fans in Flin Flon. No future.

“A Kings’ player once told me, ‘Do you know how hard it is to lie on Malibu Beach near all those Californian beauties for three hours in the afternoon and then ride to the ice arena, pull on the tools of the trade and try to think hockey? Maybe we’d be better off if we played on the road all the time.’ ”

Trivia Answer: Craig Morton. He lost with Dallas in 1971 and Denver in 1978.

Quotebook

Offensive tackle Jim Lachey, on going from the San Diego Chargers to the Raiders to the Washington Redskins in a period of five weeks: “I’m just a rent-a-tackle. I go wherever there’s a need.”