Sometimes When You Fish, You Get Caught

Did you know that Doug Rader, when he was playing third base for the Houston Astros, once was thrown in jail for slugging a game warden?

Johnny Edwards, the catcher on the team, tells about it in a Sporting News story written by former pitcher Jim Bouton.

Edwards: “Rader was fishing in the middle of some river without a license, and they came after him in one of those airboats. So Rader throws his fishing stuff in the bushes and dives under the water. He was breathing through a reed.

“He might have made it, but he kept hearing the boat getting closer and closer and he didn’t want to be pulverized by the propeller.”

So he surfaced. Then came the encounter with the game warden, and it was off to jail.

Edwards: “He came right to training camp from jail. No shoes. Hadn’t changed his clothes in three days.”

Add Edwards: Claiming Rader is still crazy, he said: “When he managed the Texas Rangers, he invited about 12 sportswriters into the locker room, took off his shirt and challenged them all to a fight. They all backed off.”

Add Astros: “And then there was Julio Gotay, the Astros’ best Dominican utility player,” Bouton writes. “Gotay provided the service of carrying a dead fish on plane trips to ward off evil spirits. Don’t laugh; we never crashed. Gotay was also famous for having a cheese sandwich fall out of his back pocket--while he was sliding into second base.”

Trivia time: What do Catfish Hunter, Don Larsen and Tom Lasorda have in common?

For what it’s worth: Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Bill Landrum is a son of former Dodger pitcher Joe Landrum, whose career was cut short by injuries suffered in the Korean War. Joe was an All-American at Clemson and pitched against George Bush when the Tigers faced Yale in the 1947 National Collegiate Athletic Assn. playoffs. Bush went one for four, and Yale won, 7-3.

No deal: Said Philadelphia Eagles Coach Buddy Ryan, when asked about rumors that defensive end Reggie White would be traded to the Detroit Lions for unsigned running back Barry Sanders, the Heisman Trophy winner: “A running back comes out every year. I’ve only seen one guy who is 6-5, 295 pounds and runs the 40 in 4.6, and I’m not going to trade him.”

No picnic: How tough will it be for George Seifert to replace Bill Walsh as coach of the San Francisco 49ers? Linebacker Mike Walter put it this way: “I think Coach Walsh would even have a hard time filling his own shoes.”

Add 49ers: Seifert allowed running back Roger Craig to miss a meeting so he could go to Reno to watch his brother-in-law, Michael Nunn, defend his International Boxing Federation middleweight title against Iran Barkley.

“Such a thing would not have happened in a Walsh camp,” wrote William D. Murray of United Press International.

Trivia answer: All three pitched for the Kansas City A’s.

Quotebook: Babe Laufenberg, journeyman quarterback, on his battle to hang on with the Dallas Cowboys: “I’ll do anything Jimmy Johnson wants me to do. If he wants me to run 26 miles through the hills, I’ll do it. If he wants me to carry the water bottles, I’ll do it. If he wants me to go to his barber and get my hair cut like his--well, you have to draw the line somewhere.”