Lasorda Knows Economics, and You Can Bank on It

Peter O’Malley may be more concerned about the Dodgers’ escalating payroll than is Tom Lasorda, but the manager says he knows all about economics, too.

And he tells this story to prove it:

“A guy went into Chase Manhattan Bank to borrow $1,500, and left his car as collateral. In a week, he came back, paid off the loan, plus $17.50 in interest.

“The bank’s loan officers, who in the meantime had discovered the man was worth millions, asked him why he took out a $1,500 loan.

“The guy said, ‘Where else can a man park his car in New York for a week for $17.50.’

“Now that’s what I call economics.”

Trivia time: When the late Casey Stengel said, “He’s 19 now and in 10 years he’s got a chance to be 29,” who was the player he was talking about?

Par for the course: The New York Mets started the season by losing seven of their first 10 games, and Manager Davey Johnson, figuring he had to do something, told his players there would be no golf during days off on the road and no card playing in the locker room.

That edict seemed rather severe, but you know what? It apparently worked.

The Mets went on to win seven of their next eight games, and last week the Mets’ skipper decided to lift the ban.

Said Johnson: “I just thought that too many guys were getting more concerned about their golf handicap than their batting average.”

Limited options: The Texas Rangers have been struggling lately, after a fast start. Maybe Manager Bobby Valentine should try a ploy he used before.

He once told his players: “There’ll be a workout tomorrow (a day off). It’s optional, but whoever doesn’t come gets optioned.”

Dissecting the language: Joe Garagiola tells this one on Harry Coyle, longtime NBC baseball director. After reading a newspaper column about himself, Coyle said: “This is a good story. Usually they just take your biology and rewrite it.”

The good ol’ days: When Jose Canseco injured his left wrist, he was sent to Huntsville, Ala., for what was supposed to be a 20-day rehabilitation assignment with the Huntsville Stars, the Oakland Athletics’ double-A farm team.

Canseco didn’t see that as all bad. “I had a lot of fun here in 1985,” he said. “There was no negative media then, nothing but good stuff.”

Trivia answer: Stengel was referring to former Met catcher Greg Goossen. These days, Goossen and his seven brothers and two sisters run Ten Goose Boxing in Van Nuys, which handles unbeaten middleweight champion Michael Nunn.

For the record: In a recent Morning Briefing, Jim Hardy and Pete Beathard were listed as the only two USC quarterbacks ever picked in the first round of the National Football League draft. Reader Douglas Hays of Glendale says not so.

Hays wrote: “How could you have missed the immortal Leo Riggs, who was drafted in the first round by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1946 draft?”

Hays also noted that Riggs was a teammate of City Councilman John Ferraro at Bell High School.

Quotebook: Casey Stengel, doing a little philosophizing, once said: “There comes a time in every man’s life, and I’ve had plenty of them.”