You Have to Stretch Your Imagination

Can you picture Tom Lasorda as a National Basketball Assn. referee? Earl Strom says it could have happened.

“I’ve known Tommy for a long time,” Strom told Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe. “He’s from Norristown, Pa., and I’m from Pottstown. Years ago, when Tommy was through pitching and was just a scout, he decided he wanted to be an NBA referee. I recommended him to Sid Borgia. Sid knew who Tommy was because he had umpired in the International League and Tommy would yell things at him and then go run and hide.

“Things were a lot more informal in those days. We used to ride the buses during the exhibition season with the players, drink with them and everything. Sid paired Tommy up with Jim Duffy and sent them on an exhibition tour with Cincinnati and Detroit.

“The Cincinnati coach at the time was Charley Wolf. He was a very strait-laced guy. Well, after Tommy and Duffy had worked the first two games, Charley calls up Borgia and says, ‘Sid, you got to send us two more referees. I can’t take anymore of those two foul-mouthed guys.’

“Tommy may have worked one more game, and that was the end of his officiating career.”

Trivia Time: Name two UCLA quarterbacks who have played for national championship teams? (Answer below.)

Add Forgettable Quotes: When a merger between the National Football League and American Football League was being discussed in the 1960s, one of the most vocal opponents was Cleveland Browns owner Art Modell who said, “Can you imagine the Denver Broncos playing in our stadium?”

Last Sunday, Denver beat Cleveland for the 10th straight time.

Add Aikman: Like USC’s Rodney Peete, he’s an accomplished baseball player and was coveted by the New York Mets when he was a high school shortstop in Henryetta, Okla.

“They finally called me the night before the draft and said they had to know what it would take before they could draft me,” Aikman told the New York Times. “My parents had always stressed education and I wanted to go to college. So I told them some extraordinary figure it would take for me to sign. So I didn’t get drafted.”

Trivia Answer: Troy Aikman and Terry Debay. Aikman was the Oklahoma quarterback in 1985 before breaking his leg in the fourth game. Debay was the quarterback at UCLA in 1954. As such, he was primarily a blocking back in Red Sanders’ single-wing. The tailback was Paul Cameron.

Quotebook

Dallas Green, new manager of the New York Yankees, on training with bikes and weights: “You can’t ride a bike between second and third base, and you can’t lift your batting average with a set of weights.”