With This Tandem, Murray Isn’t Missed

With Eddie Murray gone, Baltimore is platooning Jim Traber and Randy Milligan at first base.

Says Mike Littwin of the Baltimore Sun, calling the entry Trilligan: “They’ve outhit Murray, out-homered Murray, driven in as many runs as Murray, have a better slugging percentage, you name it.”

Says Milligan: “Isn’t that surprising? At the beginning of the season, we were the biggest question mark in the American League. Now, everybody wants me and Traber in their Rotisserie league. Some lucky guy is making a lot of money off us now.”

Concludes Littwin: “Did you ask where the defending world champion Dodgers, with their new first baseman, were in the standings? Naw, that would be too, too spiteful and too, too nasty.”

Add Murray: Wrote Richard Justice of the Washington Post: “Although their public statements say otherwise, the Dodgers are sick of Eddie Murray. Not only has his sullen attitude spread to other Dodgers, he appears completely unable to handle a high fastball anymore.”

Trivia time: At the U.S. Seniors Open, what did ABC announcers Dave Marr and Bob Rosburg have in common with Al Geiberger?

Wait a minute: Said NBC’s Bob Costas of pitchers John Smiley of Pittsburgh and Tim Leary of the Dodgers: “Both are notoriously weak hitters.”

Starting this season, Leary had a lifetime batting average of .279. Of the starting nine Dodgers Saturday, only Eddie Murray, at .295, had a higher lifetime average.

Add Smiley: ESPN’s Chris Berman calls him John (When Irish Eyes Are) Smiley. Another Berman special: Bruce (Two Minutes For) Ruffin.

Stop the presses: From United Press International: “EAU CLAIRE, Mich.--Rick (Pellet Gun) Krause spit a cherry pit 59 feet 6 inches into a wind to retain his title in the 16th annual Cherry Pit Spitting Championship at Tree-Mendous Farms.”

Ouch: From Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette: “Cincinnati is the only National League team to not win a division title in the 1980s. Things have a way of balancing out, however. Pete Rose is the only N.L. manager who has ever hit a Pick-Six.”

Add Rose: George Steinbrenner, who has been involved in racing, told the New York Times: “He has a real problem and he needs help with that problem. The way he gambles and the amounts he gambles, I happen to know. I’ve seen him at the dog track on numerous occasions. It’s a sickness and I want to see Pete healthy. He’s got to face up to it. I care for Pete Rose. I care what happens to him.”

More Rose: According to the New York Times, he told baseball investigator John Dowd that he once went to spring training with $100,000 in cash in a satchel. He said he had cashed $20,000 in personal checks in one night at the race track and said he would fly to baseball card shows on almost any day to make $8,000-$12,000 in cash, money he hardly ever deposited in a bank.

Trivia answer: All are former PGA champions.

Quotebook: Golfer Jose-Maria Olazabal of Spain, resisting suggestions he change putters during a slump on the greens: “It’s not the arrow, it’s the Indian.”