Orioles’ Tettleton Timed It Perfectly

Mickey Tettleton, the terror of American League pitchers, figures he broke in with the Baltimore Orioles at the perfect time--not this season, when they’re leading the East Division, but on May 9 last year when they were 4-26 and headed for their worst season ever.

Manager Cal Ripken had been fired, and the front office was more concerned about punching tickets out of town for Eddie Murray, Mike Boddicker and friends than worrying about who was already in town. Terry Kennedy was in a terrible slump, and the new manager, Frank Robinson, was ready to try a new catcher.

Tettleton hit .261 with a career-high 11 homers and 37 RBIs, and the Orioles couldn’t have cared less.

“I was getting to play, and I could go through a slump, get hot, whatever,” he told Richard Justice of the Washington Post. “No one gave me a second thought.”

Today, Tettleton shares the American League lead with 13 home runs.

“I don’t know if this is all a dream but whoever wakes me up is going to get punched,” he said.

Trivia time: Considering how long the Lakers have been sitting around waiting to see who they’ll play in the NBA Finals, should they have an advantage over a team coming off a tough series?

Down on the Farm: New York Mets fans and some players think Manager Dave Johnson should send rookie phenom-turned-flop Gregg Jefferies, 21, down to the minors for everybody’s good.

Mickey Mantle also said it might be a good idea. At 19, it happened to him.

“If I was Jefferies, I wouldn’t mind,” Mantle said. “Me and Casey (Stengel) both cried. Now that I look back, it was the best thing that could have happened. I was so scared. Can you imagine going from Joplin (Mo.) to New York City?”

When the Mets brought Jefferies up last September for a look, he was so good he was almost voted rookie of the year, hitting .321 for 29 games. Now he’s at .187.

Mantle relates.

“I could see I wasn’t doin’ as good as Casey said I would,” Mantle drawled. “He had me, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio rolled into one. I was striking out so much it was embarrassing.”

Even down at Kansas City, then a Yankee farm club, Mantle batted 21 times without a hit.

Concidentally, Willie Mays was hitless in his first 21 at-bats with the Giants and shrilled to Leo Durocher, the manager, “Send me down, Mr. Leo. I can’t hit up here.”

Mays stayed and Mantle returned. As it turned out, both did all right.

Trivia answer: History says . . . not necessarily. Five times the Lakers have gone 4-0 in the next-to-last round, and three times they have met teams coming off 4-3 series. In 1968, they lost to the Boston Celtics, 4-2, but in ‘82, they defeated the Philadelphia 76ers, 4-2, and in ‘87, they beat the Boston Celtics, 4-2. Last season, the Lakers came off consecutive seven-game series against the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks--and beat the Detroit Pistons in seven.

Quotebook: Coach Rick Pitino, who has taken over the scandal-ridden University of Kentucky basketball program: “We’re all a little embarrassed about being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. . . . You’ll see us on the cover once again, but it will be cutting down nets.”