Favorite Quarterbacks in Book of Bradshaw

Terry Bradshaw has more Super Bowl rings than any other quarterback, but he doesn’t claim to be the best. Here’s what he says about some other quarterbacks, as excerpted by the Pittsburgh Press from his soon-to-be-released book “Looking Deep”:

Joe Montana: “His ability to run the two-minute offense and throw touch passes were two qualities I wish I had.”

Dan Marino: “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a quarterback like Marino. He has a quicker release than I did and could read defenses better. I don’t kid myself, I could never match his statistics, even in Miami’s system.”

Joe Namath: “I loved Namath for his style, because he had a walk about him and was admired by everybody from the ladies to the media.”

Ken Stabler: “Absolutely my favorite of all time. I was jealous of him because he could do things I couldn’t do. And he did them gracefully. Our defense would get in his face and he still piled up the yardage, still threw down the middle, still threw outside.”

Add Bradshaw: Of Mark Malone, his understudy with the Steelers, he said: “I initially liked Malone, but then I realized he was a phony. People said he looked like Tom Selleck, so he grew a mustache like Selleck, combed his hair like Selleck and even wore flowered shirts like Selleck.

“He was always saying the ‘right’ things to the press. After eight years of that stuff, they finally traded him to San Diego. He was just too hip and players didn’t appreciate him pointing the finger at somebody else.”

Trivia time: What Dodger pitchers finished 1-2-4 in the voting for the Cy Young Award in 1974? You guessed it: It was just the other day that Detroit Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson figured out how he wouldn’t have to explain the 1989 season in years to come. He would claim he got hit in the head by a ball in spring training and suffered amnesia.

So what happened Wednesday night? Anderson was hit in the head by a ball off the bat of Gary Ward in batting practice. Sparky was knocked to the turf for several minutes, but he got up and walked away under his own power.

How-times-have-changed Dept.: When Red Barber announced the first televised baseball game 50 years ago, the sponsors were Mobil, Ivory Soap and Wheaties, and Barber did commercials for all three without benefit of script or rehearsal.

He told Norman Chad of the Washington Post: “First, I held up a bar of Ivory and said something about it being great and 99% pure, and then I held up a can of motor oil and ad-libbed a few words about the excellent quality of this Mobil motor oil. When it came time for Wheaties, I poured a box of Wheaties into a bowl, sliced a banana real quick, put in some sugar and milk and said, ‘This is the breakfast of champions.’ ”

Trivia answer: Mike Marshall, Andy Messersmith and Don Sutton.

Quotebook: Pittsburgh Pirate bullpen coach Rich Donnelly, hearing that a new national sports newspaper is in the works: “There’s so many papers now that it’s going to cost you $12 a day to eat breakfast.”