COMMENTARY : They Figure to Have the Write Stuff

A story or two figures to come out of the Winter Haven franchise in the senior baseball league starting up in Florida this fall. Listen to the names of some of the pitchers: Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, Bill “Spaceman” Lee and “El Tiante” Luis Tiant.

An experiment called the Minor League Football System is under way, and it entails a dozen franchises from Florida to Washington state. The players are not receiving salaries, but they are eligible for a degree-completion program. About 80 percent of the players with the Charlotte franchise have some college but no degrees, and they’re enrolled in colleges in the area.

The odd thing about collegiate hockey Player of the Year Lane MacDonald of Harvard opting for Switzerland instead of the Hartford Whalers is he’s the son of three-time NHL All-Star Lowell MacDonald. On second thought, maybe that’s why the 1988 Olympian is headed for Lugano.

Time was when there was no worthy challenger around for the heavyweight champion: He’d either fight a non-title bout or some exhibitions until someone showed up. Jack Dempsey, for instance, had just five title bouts between 1919 and 1926, when he lost to Gene Tunney. Nowadays, every time Mike Tyson biffs some stiff (except Mitch Green on a Harlem street at 4:30 a.m.), it adds to his “glorious” record as champ. The point is, Tyson’s next foe, Buster Douglas, deserves no more than exhibition status.

Holy Name Society Night at the ballpark saw one streak end but another continue. The Orioles’ one-sided loss to California, 13-5, last month broke a string of a half-dozen victories, but, since its inception in 1954, an Orioles game has never been rained out with the Holy Namers in attendance.

The newspaper headline sports fans and taxpayers everywhere abhor seeing: “Sixers need new arena to compete.”

Years ago, while covering the Celtics, I invariably would end up in the seat next to K.C. Jones on planes and we’d talk for hours. In all that time, Hall of Famer “Case” never once mentioned that despite not having played football in college (San Francisco) and after spending two years in the Army, he came out and made the Los Angeles Rams as a defensive back. He decided to play in the NBA when Red Auerbach assured him he was holding a roster spot for him. Humble guy, Mr. Jones.

Gene Banks, the former Duke star who always gave the impression that the pro game was beneath him, is trying to catch on with an NBA team after playing in Italy and missing a season because of a ruptured Achilles’ tendon. He says, “I have a rare type of game. I handle the ball very well. I can score. I can rebound. I can pass. I’m in the game mentally. There’s a lot of qualities there. I don’t know what more they can ask. I’m able to be anything you ask.” Not so humble, Mr. Banks.

That’s a lousy reason they gave for calling off the first Pan American Winter Games in Argentina next month: no snow. It snowed no more than five minutes over 16 days at the Olympics in Calgary, Alberta, last year and I came back with a better tan than I was able to accomplish in Ocean City last week.

Football coaches spend half their time complaining about how the media has a tendency to blow things out of proportion. Then along comes Washington Redskins Coach Joe Gibbs announcing he’s going to start Stan Humphries (over Mark Rypien) at quarterback for the Redskins against Minnesota this weekend. Just do it, Joe, and don’t act as if you’re the president nominating Robert Bork for the Supreme Court.

After a brilliant stretch as a relief pitcher out on 33rd Street, new Orioles Hall of Famer Stu Miller fell on tough times in his last season. An out-of-town writer, working on a feature, approached the flutterballer in the Birds’ clubhouse one day and inquired, “Are you Stu Miller?”

“Used to be,” he answered.

If you’re looking for a reason to take a side in the Pernell Whitaker-Jose Luis Ramirez fight on TV this Sunday, here’s a nominee. The manager-trainer of the veteran Ramirez died of a heart attack last week, and the fighter has spent a week plowing through red tape and getting him transferred from Europe to his final resting place in Mexico. This and several other things have gone against Ramirez lately, and now he’s waltzing into Whitaker’s hometown of Norfolk, Va., in an attempt to wrest the vacant WBC lightweight crown. Come on, Jose!