A Hotshot in a Speeding Car Has a Hot Answer for Officer

Deion Sanders, the two-sport hotshot from Florida State, has five cars, and Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel recalled that one of them was pulled over last October by a Tallahassee patrolman who caught Sanders doing 45 m.p.h. in a 30-m.p.h. zone.

Schmitz said the officer wrote on the ticket: “Traveling in the south lane the driver had passed vehicles and was pulling away from them. Stated he was going to have Perry Mason come to court with him to fight the ticket.”

Oops Dept.: From Neil Hohlfeld of the Houston Chronicle: “This shouldn’t get in the way of enjoying ‘Field of Dreams,’ an excellent movie, but shouldn’t someone involved in the movie have noticed that Shoeless Joe Jackson was a left-handed hitter and right-handed thrower? In the movie, Shoeless Joe hits right and throws left.”

The Great One: How great is Jack Nicklaus? Lee Trevino says: “I can’t even beat him in my fantasies. He’s still my hero. If he played 15-16 tournaments a year, really worked on his game, he could still beat everybody out there.”

Add Trevino: Once asked where golfers would be without the money provided by sponsors, he said, “I’ll tell you: Julius Boros would be a bookkeeper in Connecticut; Arnold Palmer would still be in the Coast Guard, and I’d be back in Texas picking cotton.”

Trivia time: Who was the only player under John Wooden at UCLA to play basketball for the United States in the Olympic Games?

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: When Philadelphia pitcher Jim Bunning, father of seven, pitched a perfect game against the New York Mets 25 years ago on Fathers Day, he was invited to appear on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Before the show, he met another invitee, Ken Venturi, who won the U.S. Open that day, barely surviving a 36-hole test in sweltering weather at Washington, D.C.

Bunning told the Philadelphia Inquirer: “He shook my hand and said, ‘I finally do something to get my picture on the front page of sports sections everywhere, and you have to come along and knock me off.”

Incidentally, the starter that day for the Mets was Tracy Stallard, the star-crossed pitcher who, three years earlier with Boston, gave up home run No. 61 to Roger Maris.

50 years ago today: On June 28, 1939, Joe Louis retained his heavyweight title with a fourth-round knockout of Two-Ton Tony Galento at Yankee Stadium. Galento surprised by knocking Louis down with a left hook. But Louis came back to batter Galento. Afterward, Galento snarled through swollen lips, “I shoulda moidered da bum.”

Trivia answer: Walt Hazzard, in 1964. Wooden-coached Bruins who competed in the Olympics in other sports were George Stanich, high jump; Rafer Johnson, decathlon, and Keith Erickson, volleyball.

Quotebook: John Salley, Detroit Piston forward, dispensing some Motown philosophy: “This is America. You scratch my back, I’ll steal your wallet.”