It Took Very Special Pitch to Get Baylor’s Attention

Milwaukee Brewer batting coach Don Baylor was hit by pitches 267 times in his playing career, a major league record. He told John Lowe of the Detroit Free Press that only once did he call time to ask the trainer to spray him with pain-killer.

The pitcher?

You got it, Nolan Ryan.

Dim view: Coach Jerry Glanville of the Atlanta Falcons, asked about Alabama linebacker Keith McCants, who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said he wasn’t impressed after watching films of the Penn State-Alabama game.

Glanville: “Penn State had that running back, Blair something (Thomas), and I didn’t see a takedown by McCants all day. He’s still trying to tackle him.”

Glanville said McCants spent much of the time complaining to the officials about holding.

“If he thinks he was held in college, well, wait until he gets into our league,” Glanville said.

Trivia time: Who was the last pitcher to throw a no-hitter against the Angels?

For the record: Joe Magdziak of Norwalk, correcting an item on Bob Feller, points out that the USS Alabama was a battleship, not an aircraft carrier.

Yankee doodle dandy: From New York Yankee announcer Phil Rizzuto: “I am No. 1 a Yankee rooter and No. 2 a broadcaster. When an opponent hits a homer, I am one-hundredth as excited as when a Yankee hits one. I don’t call myself a journalist. I just can’t do a game straight.”

Add Rizzuto: He once had this exchange with broadcast partner Frank Messer:

Rizzuto: “There’s a foul ball smashed into the Yankee dugout. Boy, I hope that’s not Guidry who got in the way.”

Messer: “Scooter, uh, Guidry is on the mound.”

Rizzuto: “You know, Frank, you’re right.”

Now-it-can-be-told Dept.: Gary McCord, the former USC golfer who never struck it rich on the PGA Tour, told USA Today he was flying to the 1985 Memorial tournament in Dublin, Ohio, when he spotted CBS-TV director Frank Chirkinian in first class.

“I wasn’t even playing in the tournament,” McCord said. “I was broke. I had nothing to do, so I pleaded with Frank to let me help out that weekend, be a gofer.”

Chirkinian did better than that. He assigned McCord to the 16th hole as an analyst. He’s been there ever since.

How-times-have-changed Dept.: Ireland’s Ron Delany recalls his reception after winning the Olympic 1,500-meter run at Melbourne in 1956: “They met me at Shannon Airport with an open car when I flew home. I remember that car. It was a Mercedes 300 sports car. Today, when you win a race, they give you the car. In 1956, they gave me a ride.”

Trivia answer: Joe Cowley of the Chicago White Sox in 1986. He beat the Angels, 7-1.

Quotebook: Tom Watson, on how he helped former President Gerald Ford with his golf game: “First, hitting the ball. Second, finding out where it went.”