Here’s a Situation in Which Having Less Is an Advantage

Pete Rose has eight letters in his two names. Harmon Killebrew has 15. All else being equal, doesn’t Rose have almost twice the earning power of Killebrew when they sign autographs at the these baseball card shows?

Doesn’t seem fair, does it?

Hall of Fame slugger Mel Ott once said, “Every time I sign a ball, and there must have been thousands, I thank my luck I wasn’t born Coveleskie or Wambsganss or Peckinpaugh.”

The trick, of course, is to change your name. Think of poor Connie Mack if he had had to sign his real name. He came into the world as Cornelius McGillicuddy.

Going to the extreme, what if you had to sign your full name? Former pitcher Cal McLish, who is part Indian, was Christened Calvin Coolidge Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish.

His friends call him Buster.

Add autographs: The St. Petersburg Times did a poll in which readers were asked whose autograph they coveted most among sports legends.

Jack Nicklaus was first, closely followed by Don Shula. Then came Red Grange, Muhammad Ali and Chris Evert. Tied for sixth were Rose and Wayne Gretzky.

Of the first five, all live in Florida except Ali.

More autographs: Said Casey Stengel: “About this autograph business. Once, someone in Washington sent a picture up to me and I wrote, ‘Do good in school.’ I look up, this guy is 78 years old.”

Trivia time: Who won the men’s singles gold medal in tennis in the Seoul Olympics?

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: After the Golden State Warriors signed 6-5 guard Sharunas Marchulenis, high scorer on the Soviet Union’s championship team in the Olympics, Coach Don Nelson said: “When negotiations first started, I began to learn Russian. Then I learned he doesn’t speak Russian, he speaks Lithuanian.”

Add Marchulenis: Scout Scotty Stirling of the Sacramento Kings, who once worked for the Warriors, told the San Francisco Chronicle: “The people are going to go absolutely crazy for him. He’s big, for one thing. And he’s obviously looked at a lot of NBA basketball.

“These Soviet players aren’t like they used to be--mechanical, do it by the numbers. He’s a creative son of a gun. And he’ll score.”

Notable: Author Peter Gent, former basketball and football player, on athletes: “Baseball players are the weirdest of all. I think it’s all that organ music.”

They duck: We know that pitchers have thrown as fast as 100 m.p.h., but how fast does a batted ball travel?

Pittsburgh pitching coach Ray Miller, who once worked for Baltimore, said: “I remember one time in Anaheim, we clocked a home run off Eddie Murray’s bat at 122 m.p.h. on a Nolan Ryan fastball. When you talk about speeds like that, you wonder how it is that no pitcher gets killed.”

Some choice: From Marty Noble of Newsday: “Of all the baseball players in the world, why would anyone choose to hold up Kirk Gibson? He might bite the gun.”

Trivia answer: Miloslav Mecir of Czechoslovakia. He beat Tim Mayotte of the United States in the final.

Quotebook: San Diego Padre pitcher Bruce Hurst, who doesn’t use profanity, responding to a particularly abusive fan: “Oh, go wash your car.”