Dean of These Quarterbacks Put the Journey in Journeyman

Babe Laufenberg has started a grand total of six games in the National Football League, but he is the most experienced of the new quarterbacks in the camp of the Dallas Cowboys.

He is not a stranger, either. Last year, in an exhibition game, he threw three touchdown passes in leading the San Diego Chargers to a 24-21 victory over the Cowboys.

Laufenberg, 29, has been cut eight times by four teams, and is not expected to beat out Cowboy rookies Troy Aikman and Steve Walsh. “I know anything can happen,” he says, “because everything’s happened to me.”

Four years ago, he was watching a Monday night game in a bar in a Mexican village when Washington Redskin quarterback Joe Theismann suffered that gruesome, career-ending broken leg. In no time, Laufenberg was on a plane to Washington, where he signed on as a reserve for the remainder of the season.

Laufenberg, formerly of Crespi High School and Indiana University, has always been a man on the move. He originally went to Stanford but had second thoughts after his first look at another Cardinal newcomer, John Elway.

“I saw him throw 50-yard out passes and started looking for the door,” he said.

Aiming to please: Chicago Cub reliever Mitch (Wild Thing) Williams, asked the craziest thing he has ever done, told the Chicago Sun-Times: “When I was little, my dad told me to get off the roof. So I dove off. He caught me.”

Add Williams: Asked if he had any distinguishing marks, he said: “I have a tattoo of Speedy Gonzalez on my right calf. My dad has one, and so do my brothers. Our family never has been accused of being all there.”

Trivia time: When Bob Horner of the Atlanta Braves equaled the major league record by hitting four home runs in a game, what was distinctive about his performance?

For what it’s worth: At the start of the week, Pete Rose Jr., 19-year-old third baseman for the Erie Orioles of the New York-Penn League, was hitting .300 and was leading his team in hits, doubles and runs batted in.

Legend grows: From Ed Hinton of the Atlanta Journal: “Hal Baird, the Auburn baseball coach, once was demonstrating a radar gun to kids at a Saturday open house. Bo Jackson, who loves children (and has now written and published a book for them) walked onto the diamond unannounced and unwarmed, and hurled three consecutive pitches clocked in excess of 90 m.p.h.”

Add Journal: Bud Shaw recalled a time the Cleveland Indians’ team bus was going to Anaheim Stadium where the marquee read “Tonight, Nolan Ryan vs. the Cleveland Indians.” According to Shaw, Oscar Gamble took one look and said, “A good night tonight is going 0 for 4 and not getting hit in the head.”

Add Ryan: From Oakland slugger Dave Parker: “When I was in Pittsburgh, Nolan was in Houston. I used a 37-inch, 37-ounce bat. The first time up, I tried to get his fastball and strained the ligaments in my left wrist on the first swing. On the second pitch, I checked my swing and strained ligaments in my right wrist. One at-bat against Nolan put me on the disabled list for 21 days.”

Trivia answer: Trivia answer: All four homers were hit with the bases empty, and Atlanta lost the game.

Quotebook: Golfer Lee Trevino, on winning: “I played the tour in 1967 and told jokes and nobody laughed. Then I won the U.S. Open the next year, told the same jokes and everybody laughed like hell.”