Morgan Knew When It Was Time to Quit

Today’s ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., will be a reunion of sorts for inductees Jim Palmer and Joe Morgan.

Morgan hit a home run off Palmer in the 1977 All-Star game and faced him on other occasions. But he told Jerry Trecker of the Hartford Courant that their final confrontation, in a game between Baltimore and Oakland in 1984, might have been the most moving.

Before walking on a 3-and-1 count, he swung away when it was 3-and-0. He said he felt bad about it and apologized to Palmer the next day.

Said Morgan: “(Palmer) was struggling. . . . I thought maybe I could get a hit. I was struggling, too, but it was the kind of thing I never would have done five years before. You don’t kick a guy when he’s down. When I did that, I decided it was time for me to quit.”

Add Palmer: In 1967, Times staffer Dan Hafner, who was covering the Dodgers at the time, saw a young right-hander struggling to throw from a practice mound at Dodger Stadium.

Alongside the pitcher was Frank Jobe, the Dodger physician who was treating the young Baltimore pitcher. Hafner asked Jobe, “Who’s that?”

Said Jobe: “That’s Jim Palmer. His shoulder’s so bad, I don’t know whether he’ll ever be able to pitch again.”

Add Cooperstown: William Arlt, 45, lives near the Hall of Fame. In a stone dairy behind his farm house, he recreates the vintage flannel baseball caps of the 1919 Cleveland Blues, 1908 Boston Pilgrims, 1929 Homestead Grays, 1940 Boston Bees, 1947 New York Cubans and countless others.

“There isn’t anybody making what I’d call a baseball hat anymore,” Arlt told Mark Hyman of the Baltimore Sun. He won’t wear anything with polyester in it because “it causes cancer.”

Arlt also said he was hoping to get an order from a deposed Central American dictator, preferably Manuel Noriega.

“Everybody has forgotten our poor man Manuel but me,” Arlt said. “I’d like to make him a Panama Reds hat.”

Trivia time: How many members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame attended the University of San Francisco?

Soldier of fortune: Rob Gloster of Associated Press reported from London last week that Lyle Alzado’s comeback-a-thon hasn’t lost its stride.

Traveling with the Raiders while recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery, Alzado, 43, told British reporters of his time away from football since retiring in 1985: “I was a mercenary in a couple of countries. I fought some alligators and there was this grizzly bear. . . . “ Asked if he is too old to play football, he said: “Do I look old? I’ve got a modern haircut. I can dance, too.”

As for his position? “Quarterback.”

Short game: From Golf World: “According to a study delivered at the first World Scientific Congress of Golf, the average golfer shrinks one-hundredth of an inch during an 18-hole round, or 16-hundredths if he or she carries a full set of clubs.”

Melts in your mind: Noting that the NFL has licensed an official “team confection” called “TD’s”, the sports staff of the Atlanta Constitution suggested some new treats, among them:

“The Deion Sanders bar: A candy-covered hot dog, molded in the form of a stretch limo, wrapped in 14-carat gold paper, of course.

“The Buddy Ryan bar: A fat blob of semi-sweet chocolate, with Heimlich instructions printed on the back.”

Trivia answer: Four. Ollie Matson, Gino Marchetti, Bob St. Clair and Pete Rozelle.

Quotebook: Former grand champion Sumo wrestler Naruto-Oya-Kata, visiting a Seattle Seahawk practice, when asked how he would do in football: “I wouldn’t need pads.”