An Image, Once Acquired, Is Tough for Some to Shake

Former Dodger Steve Sax, now of the New York Yankees, told Alan Steinberg of Inside Sports: “I know the image of the Dodgers is associated with L.A. and Hollywood, but that’s not me at all. I’m not L.A., that’s not my style. Hugh Hefner invited me to the Playboy Mansion, and I was invited to Bob Hope’s house. I never went. I had a crossword puzzle to do that night.”

Former Yankee Willie Randolph, now with the Dodgers, told Steinberg: “When I first came up they had all of those veterans--(Thurman) Munson, (Reggie) Jackson, (Chris) Chambliss, (Roy) White--so I just sat back observing. But I was always pumped up and vocal in the dugout. The media just didn’t report it. With them, I was no-nonsense. I was preparing myself to play, so I only talked baseball. If you wanted to talk crap and jive, I didn’t respond. So right away, ‘Willie’s dull. Willie’s moody.’ Wrong, wrong, wrong.’ ”

Tunnel vision: Philadelphia Phillie pitcher Ken Howell knew he was in trouble when he left the locker room and entered the tunnel to the field at Veterans Stadium Sunday.

“I was coming down the tunnel and people were saying, ‘Hey, you’re supposed to be pitching,’ ” Howell said.

The Phillies were scheduled to play a single game at 1:05 p.m., but a rainout Saturday night prompted officials to schedule a doubleheader Sunday starting at 12:05.

“I should have called to make sure of the time,” Howell said. “It was a misunderstanding on my part.”

Don Carman pitched in Howell’s place and got no decision in a 9-5 Philadelphia victory. Howell pitched and lost the second game, and his record dropped to 11-12.

On this date: On Sept. 19, 1973, the Angels’ Frank Robinson hit his first home run in Arlington Stadium. It was the 32nd major league ballpark in which he had homered.

Trivia time: Greg Bell of the Rams was far and away the National Football Conference’s top non-kicking scorer, with 108 points to 72 for the Chicago Bears’ Neal Anderson. Who led the AFC?

The naked truth? Stan Hochman of the Philadelphia Daily News, comparing the Mike Tyson saga to the fable of the emperor’s new clothes: “His nakedness is in his atrocious manners, his excessive behavior, his flimsy conscience. Spare me the alibi that he is only 23, that he grew up in Brownsville’s numbing poverty, in a busted home, that he is unprepared for the piranha that is fame and the fishbowl in which it swims.

“Yes, a lot of the ruffians he prowled with are in jail or in cemeteries. Not all. Some others are in society’s mainstream, good and productive citizens. Tyson talks freely about the gun he carried, the feeble strangers he mugged and robbed.

“Is he confessing with pride? With shame? Or is he pandering to America’s bloodlust, selling tickets to a carnival sideshow featuring controlled savagery?”

Trivia answer: The Indianapolis Colts’ Eric Dickerson and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Ickey Woods each had 90.

Quotebook: Dorothy Donnelly, 68, executive director of the U.S. Masters Swimming Assn., on whether Mark Spitz is too old at 42 to make a comeback: “You should see the physiques on some of those men in their 70s.”