Rodman Talked Way Into Job as Pistons’ Designated Shooter

If you watched Dennis Rodman put up an air ball from the free-throw line Tuesday night, you wouldn’t believe that Detroit sent him to the line to shoot a technical against San Antonio in a game this season.

Chuck Daly, the Pistons’ coach, couldn’t believe it, either. In fact, he was livid.

Asked to explain how Rodman, a 55% free-throw shooter, was sent to the line, Daly said, “He said he asked someone if he could shoot it.”

Said Rodman: “I asked myself. I just wanted to try it. I’m probably the only guy on the team who hasn’t shot one.”

Oh, yes, he missed it.

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: San Francisco Giants slugger Kevin Mitchell, who claims he never lost a fight as a teen-age gang member in San Diego, told the Sporting News: “I didn’t think much of jocks. I used to date Marcus Allen’s sister when he was a big high school star, but I didn’t like him. He was a bully. But we’re friends now.”

Trivia time: Who holds the club record for most games won as a manager of the St. Louis Cardinals?

Sorry, no cigar: Did the Dodgers set a record by playing 53 innings of baseball in three days at Houston and Atlanta? Nope, not even a franchise record.

On May 1, 1920, at Boston, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves played to a 1-1 tie in 26 innings, still the longest game in major league history. Starting pitchers Leon Cadore of Brooklyn and Joe Oeschger of Boston each went the distance.

The Dodgers returned home to play Philadelphia the next day. The Phillies, led by the hitting and fielding of ex-Dodger Casey Stengel, won the game, 2-1, in 13 innings.

The Dodgers then returned to Boston, where they played another marathon with the Braves, losing, 2-1, in 19 innings.

That’s 58 innings in three days. And all the Dodgers had to show for it was a tie and two losses.

The Dodgers went on to win the National League pennant that year, then lost to Cleveland in the World Series.

Pete’s repeat? After Cincinnati’s Eric Davis had hit for the cycle last week, Red Manager Pete Rose was asked where he was when Frank Robinson hit for the cycle for the Reds in 1959.

“I was in high school,” Rose told USA Today. “I was. I’m serious. Was that my second year of the 10th grade or my first?”

High and mighty: Said Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Neal Heaton, when asked by Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press what he would do if he were made baseball commissioner for a day: “I’d make it a rule that every mound in the National League had to be like the mound at Dodger Stadium.”

Wrote Hertzel: “Rules say the mound must be 10 inches high. The mound in Dodger Stadium, say some players, is at least double that. They should call it Mt. Lasorda.”

Admiring Adrian: Adrian Dantley, traded by Detroit to Dallas for Mark Aguirre during the season, had this to say about the Pistons before the playoffs: “You don’t realize how good they are until you play against them for the first time. They should win the championship.”

Trivia answer: Red Schoendienst.

Quotebook: Bo Schembechler, on the pressure of coaching football at the University of Michigan: “My first job is to fill the stadium, and the legendary Fielding Yost, in all his wisdom, built the damned place to hold 106,000 people.”