Now, Call It Blue Monday

The Dodgers clinched the National League West title on Sept. 26, which turns out to be a rather interesting date in major league history. Here is a short list of baseball highlights on Sept. 26:

--In 1923, Yankee Lou Gehrig hit his first major league home run, off Bill Piercy of the Boston Red Sox.

--In 1930, Hack Wilson hit two home runs for the Chicago Cubs, giving him a National League-record 56 for the season.

--In 1935, the Cubs won their 21st consecutive game and clinched the National League pennant.

--In 1936, Walter Alston played in his only major league game as a late-inning substitute at first base for Johnny Mize of the St. Louis Cardinals. Alston made an error in 2 fielding chances and was struck out by Lon Warneke of the Cubs in his only at-bat.

--In 1938, Gehrig hit his 493rd and last home run, off Dutch Leonard of the Washington Senators.

--In 1973, the Angels beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4 in 11 innings, as Nolan Ryan struck out 16, giving him 383 for the season, a modern major league record.

Ouch. Know the new name for steroids?

Bennies.

Now that the Olympic Games have had their major drug controversy with Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, what’s next to be tarnished? The Heisman Trophy?

If so, precautions have already been taken.

The Downtown Athletic Club, which awards the trophy annually to the nation’s top collegiate football player, will repossess the trophy and declare the award vacant if a Heisman winner subsequently fails a drug test and is declared ineligible for a bowl game by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn.

If a Heisman candidate tests positive during regular-season NCAA testing, he is no longer eligible for the Heisman.

The worst-case scenario, however, is for a Heisman winner testing positive before a bowl game. Then the award would be rescinded and the trophy returned to the Downtown Athletic Club.

Unlike the Olympics, where Carl Lewis moved up to take Johnson’s vacated gold medal, the second-place finisher in the Heisman balloting would not move up to No. 1.

“The Heisman Trophy is not for second place,” said Jack O’Keefe, chairman of the trophy committee.

This may come in handy pretty soon. So just in case you’ve forgotten, here is the sequence of New York Yankees managers in the 1980s: Dick Howser, Gene Michael, Bob Lemon, Michael, Clyde King, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Martin, Lou Piniella, Martin, Piniella.

Owner George Steinbrenner, who reportedly already has decided to fire Piniella for the second time in a year and hire Dallas Green, had this to say: “Talk about changes now is premature.”

Is tomorrow all right, then?

As soon as he gets the chance, Boston Red Sox relief pitcher Bob Stanley is planning to visit his former teammate, Bob Ojeda, New York Mets pitcher who nearly severed the tip of the middle finger of his pitching hand while trimming a hedge at his home.

Stanley cut tendons on the palm of his pitching hand on broken glass when he fell while emptying the trash at home last January.

Please, don’t let either of them anywhere near the garbage disposal.

Idle thought: If recently signed Orlando Woolridge and Magic Johnson combine to lead the Lakers in a victory over the expansion team that begins play in 1989, the Orlando Magic, is this the headline?

Orlando, Magic Beat Orlando Magic.

Quotebook

From Dallas Green, the reported heir to Lou Piniella as Yankee manager, about owner George Steinbrenner: “He’s a tough man to live with and a tough man to work for. He speaks his mind, even if at times he’s not tactful--just like me. I guess we’d get along then, being similar types.”