Agency Has Poor Track Record on This Advertising Campaign

A New York advertising agency ran into problems when it prepared a radio commercial to promote the 40th anniversary of Yonkers Raceway.

The commercial started: “The year is 1950 and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower is president. The Army-McCarthy hearings are going full blast.”

One problem. Actually, two. Harry Truman was president in 1950. The Army-McCarthy hearings started in 1954.

A corrected commercial was prepared. Eisenhower was replaced by Truman, and the McCarthy hearings were replaced by Bobby Thomson’s historic home run for the New York Giants.

Still one problem. Thomson hit his home run in 1951.

Richard Lipman, head of Lipman, Richmond and Greene, the agency that prepared the commercials, said, “So, we were off by a year or two here and there.”

A third commercial was prepared. The reference to Thomson was dropped and not replaced.

Lipman said, “We finally gave up on trying to be factual.”

Trivia time: What do Don Slaught of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Todd Zeile of the St. Louis Cardinals have in common?

Counter punch: Wallace Matthews of Newsday, in a story on the recovery of boxing publicist Irving Rudd from heart surgery, recalled Rudd’s classic line when somebody said, “Howard Cosell is his own worst enemy.”

Rudd said, “Not while I’m alive.”

Add Rudd: Of his relationship with fighter Thomas Hearns, he said: “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for me. And that’s how it’s been for 10 years--we’ve done nothing for each other.”

Who needs it: Walt Hriniak, batting coach of the Chicago White Sox, runs a hitting school in the off-season, and one of his pupils over the winter was Cory Snyder of the Cleveland Indians.

In a recent two-game series against the White Sox, Snyder went four for eight, with a homer.

White Sox Manager Jeff Torborg said, “I think from now on, Walt said he’s not going to do any more work with guys from other clubs.”

Sixty years ago today: On April 28, 1930, the first night game in organized baseball was played at Independence, Kan., in the Western Assn. Muskogee defeated Independence, 13-3.

Strong words: Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics told the Boston Globe he would vote for Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley as the league MVP.

Asked why, he said, “Because he’s a much better person than the rest of them, and that should count for something.”

Hmmm.

Shear madness: The Oakland Athletics’ Rickey Henderson might have lost his job as clubhouse barber after the hatchet job he did on pitcher Mike Norris. Said Norris after being left with nothing on the sides and a thatch on top, “I’m afraid to face my girlfriend when we get home.”

A’s announcer Lon Simmons told Norris, “It looks like you cut your hair in a pencil sharpener.”

Trivia answer: Both are catchers from UCLA.

Quotebook: St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog, after the Cardinals had played on a 32-degree night in Pittsburgh: “One thing about baseball--the dugout heaters only work when it’s hot.”