Mauch Used Smoke Screen to Fend Off Sportswriters

Gene Mauch, while being interviewed for a story on the collapse of the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, pointed to a cigarette he had just lighted and made a confession.

“I used to use ‘em years ago with you guys if you were coming at me from all angles,” Mauch told Stan Hochman of the Philadelphia Daily News.

“Sometimes it took me 10 seconds to light a cigarette. That gave me time to think how or if I wanted to answer.

“And then I learned to give an answer. Not necessarily the answer.”

Add Mauch: Of cigarettes, he said, “I gave ‘em up for a good spell. But, now, if I want a cigarette, damn it, I’m gonna have one.”

But nothing like 25 years ago.

“Lots of days I’d get into my fourth pack,” he said. “I can remember one day in Philly, I put a cigarette to my lips.

“I lit the cigarette, looked in my left hand, and there was a cigarette. I looked in the ashtray, and there was another one, burning in the ashtray.”

Trivia time: What St. Louis pitcher in 1966 was even more dominant against the Dodgers than Atlanta’s Tom Glavine, who is 4-0 this year?

Non-believer: Wrote Ed Hinton of the Atlanta Journal after Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson had expressed confidence that rookies Troy Aikman and Steve Walsh could make his offense go this year:

“Lil’ Jimmy should remember that under his Miami offensive system, Vinny Testaverde got intercepted five times by Penn State, using a pro-style, rotating-defense plan, in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl for the national championship. So just wait’ll the squatty genius and his kiddie corps get a load of NFL coverages.”

Add Cowboys: From Dallas scout John Wooten: “Watch out for Herschel Walker this year. He’s got some moves you haven’t seen before. He’s got some wiggle in his run. He won’t be just running over people.”

Trivia answer: Larry Jaster. He pitched five shutouts against the Dodgers.

Add Jaster: He was Glavine’s first pitching coach at Bradenton, Fla., in 1984. He now coaches for the Durham Bulls in the Carolina League and says he’s going to tell his pitchers, “Now, maybe you’ll listen to me. Glavine listened to me a few years ago.”

Of his success against the Dodgers, Jaster said: “They were a weak-hitting team that year and the ballpark was bigger. It just so happened that I pitched good against the Dodgers and West Coast teams in general.”

The Dodgers still made it to the World Series that year.

Quotebook: Russ Francis, New England Patriot tight end, on defensive linemen: “If their IQs were five points lower, they would be geraniums.”