Forget the Tale of the Tape: George Hates Tale of the Scale

George Foreman’s weight was in the mid-220s when he was heavyweight champion in 1973-74. But when he decided to return to the ring in 1987, he weighed more than 300 pounds.

“I bought a state-of-the-art scale,” he recalled. “It talked to you. When I got on it, it said, ‘305.’

“I said, ‘Liar.’

“I took that scale back.”

Paper or plastic: Columnist Norman Chad of The National had this to say about the recent trend of sportswriters going on television, and of the newspaper where this is most prevalent, the Boston Globe:

“At any given time at the Globe, half the staff is on deadline and the other half is in makeup. In a bygone era, most sportswriters had editors; Globe scribes have agents. All across New England, responsible parents are calling in their children from various athletic pursuits on playgrounds and putting them behind typewriters so they can one day make it big on television.”

Trivia time: Who was the player who substituted for Cal Ripken Jr. at third base before the Baltimore Orioles’ star began his consecutive games streak?

To tell the truth: Near the end of the NBC telecast of the French Open final between Andres Gomez and Andre Agassi last Sunday, the cameras repeatedly focused on a woman whom broadcasters identified as Gomez’s wife, Anna Maria.

When Gomez won, commentator Bud Collins went into the stands to interview Mrs. Gomez. But as he stood on the steps next to the elated Ecuadoreans, a victorious Gomez bounded into the stands and kissed another woman--apparently the real Mrs. Gomez--who had been sitting a few rows behind the woman identified as Mrs. Gomez.

Collins seemed a little rattled at all the confusion, but managed to get the real Mrs. Gomez to stand up again for his interview. Dick Enberg, up in the NBC booth, admitted the error by saying that now we know “who the real Mrs. Gomez is.” The innocent imposter was never identified.

Add TV goof: After Collins finished his man-in-the-stands interviews and was off camera, viewers heard him say he was “going down now.” Collins thought he was off mike. Enberg told viewers: “It was nice of Bud to tell us he was going downstairs.”

Collins, incidentally, is one of those Boston Globe TV guys.

Tiger bait: Cal State Fullerton will open its football season on the road Sept. 8 against Auburn, which is picked by the Sporting News to win the national championship.

Trivia answer: Floyd Rayford in the second game of a doubleheader against Toronto on May 29, 1982. Ripken began his streak the next day and has since moved to shortstop.

Quotebook: Dr. Lewis Yocum on his patient, Nolan Ryan, after Ryan had pitched his sixth no-hitter Monday night: “I guess everybody needs a little back soreness.”