The Problem With These Guys Was That They Got Publicity

Earl Weaver, former manager of the Baltimore Orioles, and his Hall of Fame pitcher, Jim Palmer, often were at odds during their years together.

Said Weaver: “We had arguments. I mean some pips. But the fact is we stayed together 16 years. Anybody with any sense would know that you had to get along. We’d go four, five, six days without talking to one another every now and then.

“But the problems I had with Palmer, I had with anybody. It’s in any employer-employee relationship. The difference is, when a stenographer gets mad at her boss and says a few words in the office, they don’t get printed in the newspaper.”

Add baseball: Mike LaValliere, catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, now lives in Bradenton, Fla., the club’s spring training site.

He was quoted by Bob Smizik of the Pittsburgh Press on the possibility of a strike or lockout in February: “All that we have been told is to be ready for spring training, to treat everything like we will have spring training. But be prepared that there won’t be spring training. That’s what I’m doing.”

Trivia time: On Jan. 21, 1969, what two former National League stars were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Welcome back: Many NFL observers attribute the resurgence of the Denver Broncos this season to the return of Mike Shanahan as quarterback coach after he was fired as coach of the Raiders.

Bronco quarterback John Elway said: “Mike has been great. I think you can look at the stats before Mike got here and after he got here. He and I are on the same page on a lot of things. It helps.”

Inferiority complex: Some Bronco fans said before the AFC championship game that it would be better for the Broncos to lose to the Cleveland Browns rather than risk a fourth Super Bowl humiliation. The Broncos won, and now are solid underdogs to the San Francisco 49ers.

Denver psychologist Mark Bailow said of such an attitude: “It’s natural for fans to say they’re disappointed, they’re sad that their team lost. But people who don’t even want them to play in the Super Bowl probably have less self-esteem than somebody who would say, ‘Go for it.’ ”

Signing off: University of Arizona public-address announcer Roger Sedlmayr, 58, has a reputation in the Pacific 10 Conference for his enthusiasm at the microphone.

School officials recently suspended Sedlmayr, a Tucson city councilman, for two games because of his unabashed homerism during a game against Cal. When an Arizona shot missed, Sedlmayr, unaware the mike was open, shouted painfully, “Oh, Gaaaawwwwdd!”

Trivia answer: The Dodgers’ Roy Campanella and Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Quotebook: Dick Motta, coach of the Sacramento Kings, on being a TV analyst for the Detroit Pistons: “I could yell at officials and they couldn’t do anything about it.”