Shooting at Will, He Opens Some Wounds

Donald Kagan, a classics professor at Yale, decided it was time to go upside George Will’s pointy head.

Kagan criticized Will’s book, “Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball,” in the current issue of the Public Interest, a quarterly that usually covers domestic policy issues.

Responding to Will’s statement that “games are won by a combination of informed aggression and prudence based on information,” Kagan wrote:

“This is the fantasy of a smart, skinny kid who desperately wants to believe that brains count more than the speed, power and reckless courage of the big guys who can play.”

Add Yale prof: Kagan wrote that Cincinnati’s World Series sweep against one of Will’s favorites, Oakland Manager Tony LaRussa, showed “how totally irrelevant all this masterminding is.”

Adding that baseball was “not meant to be a track meet,” Kagan said that the running game has become the “modern substitute for the most difficult part of the game and its lifeblood--hitting.”

Last add Yale prof: In a response to Kagan’s criticism, published in the same issue of the Public Interest, Will wrote that the running game is “a substitute for standing around and waiting for someone to hit the ball hard enough to wake up the Kagans who are dozing in the stands, uninterested in anything more subtle than a three-run home run.”

Trivia time: Who holds the NBA record for the most consecutive complete games in one season?

Pontiac Blues: A few days before the Detroit Lions came out of their stupor with a 40-27 Thanksgiving Day victory over Denver, the Detroit News set up a hot line and asked fans to submit new names for the Lions’ pass-oriented run-and-shoot offense.

Some of the suggestions:

“Shoot-and-Miss.”

“Sanders Limited,” a complaint that running back Barry Sanders wasn’t getting the ball enough.

“Jim Arnold’s Weekly Workout,” referring to the Lions’ punter.

And, calling attention to the Lions’ diminutive pass catchers, “Honey, I Shrunk the Receivers.”

A pretty sum: When center Doug Gilmour of the Calgary Flames plays the lead role in “The Peter Revson Story,” a film about the life of the playboy race car driver who died in a practice run in 1974, he will be protected against facial and physical injury--by a helmet, a mask, a seat belt and a $5-million insurance policy with Lloyd’s of London.

Just keep talking: Phoenix Cardinal defensive end Dexter Manley, who was reinstated last week by NFL Commisioner Paul Tagliabue after serving two years of a “lifetime” ban for drug use, recently recalled a moment from his rookie season with the Washington Redskins nine years ago.

While leaving RFK Stadium, he saw Redskin quarterback Joe Theismann stopped at a traffic light, surrounded by adoring fans.

Said Manley: “People were buzzing around him and I was just amazed,” Manley said. “I turned to my girlfriend and said, ‘I want to be like that one day.’ ”

Streak plus one: Miami senior tackle Mike Sullivan recently reflected on the fact that during his career, the Hurricanes never lost a regular-season game at the Orange Bowl.

Said Sullivan: “If possible, I’d love to get married there.”

Trivia answer: Wilt Chamberlain of Philadelphia, with 47 between Jan. 5 and Mar. 14, 1962.

Quotebook: Michigan junior offensive lineman Matt Elliott, after hearing that the school will remove its artificial playing surface after the 1990 season and replace it with natural grass: “My turf toe is already screaming hallelujah.”