Mike Davis Says Lasorda Invented New Position for Him on Dodgers

Mike Davis told the Sporting News that Manager Tom Lasorda had him playing tailback for the Dodgers last season.

Tailback?

“Whenever I tried to run onto the field,” said Davis, “he said, ‘Get your tail back on the bench.’ ”

Philadelphia Coach Buddy Ryan was asked by the New York Times how the weather will affect today’s Eagle-Bear game in Chicago.

“The worse the weather, the better it is for us, because I got a quarterback who can operate under any conditions,” Ryan said of Randall Cunningham.

“He’s like Joe Namath and O.J. Simpson, all the great ones. Joe Namath could throw in the wind at Shea Stadium, O.J. could run in snow and ice.

“And my quarterback’s got a coach who lets him be himself.”

Add Ryan: He and Chicago Coach Mike Ditka appear to genuinely dislike each other, but Vito Stellino of the Baltimore Sun wrote: “Louise Johnson, the Bears’ switchboard operator, said that Ryan called several times when Ditka suffered a heart attack in November. ‘He wanted to know how Mike was, and he hoped everything was all right. He was very sincere,’ she said.”

Add Weather: Buffalo Coach Marv Levy predicts these conditions for Houston’s invasion Sunday: “It will be cold, windy, snowy, icy and we might even have a little sleet. It will probably be 20 degrees with a sharp north wind. And that’s indoors .”

Trivia Time: Jeane Dixon, the psychic who predicts the future in the tabloids, is the sister of what player of the game in a past Rose Bowl? (Answer below.)

Oops Dept.: Michigan Coach Bo Schembechler was quoted as saying, “I’ve never lost on Jan. 2.” Writes Tom McKenna of El Toro, “Perhaps Bo hasn’t, but his team has. When Washington beat Michigan, 27-20, in the 1978 Rose Bowl, the game was played on Jan. 2.”

Would-you-believe-it Dept.: Wrote Phil Berger of the New York Times, recounting the travails of Mike Tyson: “On Friday, July 8, when a reporter got wind that Donald Trump was on the verge of becoming a Tyson adviser, Trump tried to negotiate for the story’s appearance on the front page of the high-circulation Sunday issue of the reporter’s newspaper. The story ended up in the sports section on Saturday.

“Trump was miffed and, insisting he had an understanding the story would be published on Sunday, said he would get even in the sequel to his best-selling autobiography, ‘The Art of the Deal.’ ”

From Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz, denying he’s a great motivator: “I just get rid of the guys who can’t motivate themselves.”

Add Holtz: A reporter asked him if he would get a bronze statue, like the ones made of former coaches Knute Rockne, Frank Leahy and Ara Parseghian, if Notre Dame were to win the Fiesta Bowl.

According to Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun, Holtz replied coldly, “You sound like a comedian out of work.”

Trivia Answer: Erny Pinckert of USC in 1932. Primarily a blocking back, he surprised Tulane as a ball-carrier on the Pinckert Reverse as the Trojans beat the Green Wave, 21-12.

Quotebook

Notre Dame defensive end Frank Stams, a redshirt senior, on how he benefited from a fifth year: “I finally found out where the library was. Also, the ratio of girls to boys went up.”