When Yankees Started Taking Their Cuts, It Was a Little Late

New York Yankees trainer Gene Monahan said at the All-Star break that he would shave his head if the Yankees ever won five straight games. They did, and after victory No. 5 against the Angels Monday, several Yankees shaved Monahan’s head.

Since then, rookie catcher Bob Geren got into the act. Geren said he’d do the same thing, for $2,000, so outfielder Jesse Barfield took up a collection among his teammates, and the players shaved Geren’s head on the flight from New York to Seattle Monday night.

“The haircut has been giving me some luck,” said Geren, who scored two runs and had three runs batted in during the ensuing two games.

But can the Yankees, winners of eight straight, shave away their American League East deficit? They may be just a hair late.

Trivia time: Which team in the National Football League has the best record on opening day? Absent-minded Muhammad: Boxing promoter Murad Muhammad says that Donovan (Razor) Ruddock will dethrone Mike Tyson as heavyweight champion when they fight in November.

Although Ruddock’s credentials have already been questioned--he isn’t given much of a chance--how about Murad’s?

Once, while negotiating for a fight with another promoter, Murad said he was going to Venezuela for the World Boxing Assn.’s convention.

“But it’s not in Venezuela, Murad,” protested the promoter. “It’s in Italy.”

“That’s right,” Murad answered. “Venezuela, Italy.”

He meant Venice.

While promoting a show in Newark, N.J., “he was a wreck,” publicist Tom Kenville told Wallace Matthews of Newsday. “He worried about the weather, about the attendance, the officials, about whether anybody would get paid. Well, everything went fine--except just before the first bout, when Murad suddenly realized he had forgotten the buckets and the stools.

“Luckily, Lou Duva drove up in a station wagon with two buckets and two stools and said, ‘I thought you might have forgotten these.’ ”

Add Muhammad(s): Murad’s Cornerstone Promotions was part of a Harold (Ross Fields) Smith promotion featuring eight title bouts, topped by Gerry Cooney-Ken Norton, at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

With Murad Muhammad were Bilal Muhammad, Bahar Muhammad and Akbar Muhammad. The secretary was Marion Muhammad. Two of the fighters on the card were Eddie Mustafa Muhammad and Matthew Saad Muhammad.

The show fell apart when Smith was indicted for embezzling $26 million from Wells Fargo Bank, and Tom Kenville, now a Garden publicist, was besieged with calls.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, “But every Tom, Dick and Muhammad has been through this office today.”

World of difference: Grambling Coach Eddie Robinson, to Neil H. Greenberger of the Washington Post, on why he chose to start 465-pound Raymond (World) Smith III--who because of his size was given a slim chance of making it in college football--when Grambling plays Howard University Saturday night: “He is a great pass blocker. And when he traps them, they stay trapped. When he leads a sweep, they get swept.”

Said David Westbrooks, Howard’s 6-foot-4, 253-pound right defensive end who will go at Smith most of the night: “One thing I know is that I will not try to bowl him over.”

Teed off: As if Syracuse freshman kicker Jim Biskup doesn’t have enough to worry about going into Saturday’s season opener against Temple, where he will try to keep the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. record for consecutive conversions alive, somebody had to go and change the rules.

Actually, it was the NCAA, deciding after last season to eliminate the use of the kicking tee on field-goal and extra-point attempts.

“I couldn’t believe it when I first heard it,” Biskup said. “It’s such an advantage (with the tee). I didn’t really think about the record, I was more worried about having to start over from scratch to learn how to kick without the tee.”

Syracuse kickers, who have made a record 260 consecutive extra-point kicks, last missed a regular-season extra point on Nov. 18, 1978, when Dave Jacobs flubbed one against Boston College.

Trivia answer: The Dallas Cowboys, at 22-6-1.

Quotebook: Notre Dame Coach Lou Holtz on learning that the defending national champion Irish had been installed as No. 1 in the weekly Associated Press poll: “Wasn’t it Shakespeare who said, ‘Heavy is the head who wears the crown?’ ”